Hello!

I'm still in the transitioning phases of becoming vegan but my resolution this year is to be a completely clean vegan by the end of 2014.

I am the absolute WORST when it comes to cravings and such (cheese is my favorite food). Also gelatin and egg avoidance are proving to be more difficult than I thought.

Any low cal suggestions are also appreciated. I am a ballet dancer and need to keep a super slim figure.

Just started my vegan journey about 2 weeks ago. It is one of the best decisions I have made in my life even if everyone I know doesn't completely understand. I have heard the most ridiculous comments and questions these past two weeks. The most shocking one was "When have you ever heard of a vegan living until they are 100? Get back to me in about a year when you are pale and sick from this lifestyle you are choosing." This was the most comical thing to me, I have researched for about two years before I made this decision.

I don't expect everyone to agree with me being vegan, but this is my choice and hoping to find others out there that are like me. The treatment of animals and my health are the number 1 reasons to why I chose this lifestyle. Just can't wait for that moment when I can tell people "told you so" when they realize that this lifestyle was the right one.

Hi everyone! I just joined the group and am relatively new to MFP as well. I've been vegan for a little over eight months now, I made the jump from pretty much full-on omnivore, I just cut things out one by one so as not to shock my system too much. Eight months later and I feel great and am loving the changes in my energy, my body, my mental state, and so many other things. I did drop about ten pounds after going vegan just from the diet changes, but I'm now finally taking control of my health and taking it to the next level with serious workouts and calorie counting to get to my goal weight.

I eat mostly clean, unprocessed whole foods, though by no means am I perfect in that regard. I do a lot of cooking at home and so always love to share great recipes! Isa Chandra is basically my goddess. Oh, and I moved to Seattle about four months ago and let me just say, it is vegan heaven here!

Hi!

I started out vegetarian... a few too many late night documentaries on the excesses of the food industry and animal treatment as well as all changes in how our food is made and I couldn't do it anymore. I was tired of meat. I was tired of preservatives and I was just plain tired. I became vegan when I started having issues with my stomach. Yay allergies.

I feel so much better now.

I lift heavy things for fun and my trainer said he didn't think I was getting all my calories in for the day. I thought he was wrong. So I joined on here and started tracking... he was right. I have been no where near enough calories even though I am full and I eat many meals during the day.

I'm excited for new recipes and ideas for nutrient and calorie dense foods.

Feel free to add me!

Hey everyone! My name is Jenna. I am a newbie to being vegan. I started about a month ago after a friend wanted me to join her in it. We read the The Kind Diet and it really opened my eyes to where my food was coming from. It was too easy to just go to the store and not think twice about what I was buying and the pain and suffering that it caused to bring meat to that point. I thought it was gonna be a tough transition to go vegan but so far a month into, it has been a lot less difficult than I thought. I wanted to broaden my vegan friend base to have people to talk to about it so here I am! Can't wait to get to know everyone!

Hi, all! I've been following a primarily vegan diet for about 14 months now. I started my veg journey primarily for health reasons after trying it for 8 month about 2 years ago. However, knowledge is power. The more I learn, the more I realize eating veg is more about compassion for myself, others (human and non-human) and the environment.

Hi I'm new here.
Been vegan for about 6 months. Would love some new supportive friends. Please add me.
My profile photo isn't me. Just would like to look like that one day

I became vegan for ethical/ moral reasons, then I personally, very soon after changing my eating and thoughts discovered the health benefits, I feel very good eating and living cruelty free, meat free, dairy free. (Earthlings, Vegucated, Gary Yourofsky, the china study, Speciesism, What came before, If Slaughterhouses had glass walls, Plant-based Dietitian, etc,)

The first 10 pounds came off effortlessly. All I did was cut out animal products. Still would like to lose a bit more weight. Maybe 20 pounds.

Cheers to veganism !

Hi, my DH and I have been going vegetarian on and off for about 4 years, DH brought home Forks Over Knife. We then watched Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead and then Food Inc. About two years ago, I found a naturopath that told me to watch Forks Over Knife, and Eat to Live. I bought the book Eat to Live and played with some of the recipes and did it for three weeks and lost a bit of weight. I just started Eat to Live again 23 days ago and started a blog journaling my progress. I lost 10 pounds in one month doing ETL 60-day aggressive which is primarily vegan. Although Dr. Fuhrman allows meat on his plan, I choose not to add it. I am looking for more recipes and more support. This place gets pretty crazy when vegans post on regular forums. Looking for like minded people who want to live a long healthy life!

Hey there, My name is Audrie and I'm a vegan.

I was a rebellious vegetarian for years, and then adapted to an over the road unhealthy lifestyle and diet... I was always interested in veganism, but never sure if I could give up cheese.. Well... Forks Over Knives, The China Study, Gary Yourofsky of adappt.org changed all of that. Plus, I discovered the Candle Cafe Vegan Mac n Cheese... and Daiya Cheese. OMG.. That inspired me to go all the way to NYC to visit the restaurant!

Basically, I want to feel good about every thing I put in my body and live a more conscious life.

With that said, I'm here on MFP because I've been up and down with weight most of my life, and as a 5"3 female, after being an over the road truck driver, I BALLOONED into something extremely unhealthy. I'm still working towards my heal goals.

Very happy to see some vegans on here, I'd love to have some new friends. Thanks!!

Hey there!
I'm looking for vegan support since I am officially becoming vegan... TODAY! I've thought about it for a long time for moral reasons, and have been a pescatarian most of my life. Giving up meat? Easy. Giving up cream, cheese, eggs, honey, and butter? Damn near impossible!

But I'm going to give it a shot. Any support I can get would be great. Thanks everyone.

Hi I'm Nat from Australia. I have recently become a nutritarian vegan and so far LOVE it!! The reasons I've decided to become a vegan are 1. compassion for animals, 2. it's better for the environment 3. It's sustainable 4. Better health & well being for myself 5. It's delicious!!!

I'm an avid logger on MFP (approaching 278 day streak) and like to blog my recipes, meals, and journey along the way as well. I'm keen for other vegan friends for mutual support . I also use Endomondo app for fitness & wear a Fitbit & undies too (phew) !! LOL ;-)

Cheers

Hi everyone, I'm new here and would love some vegan friends. I've been a vegan for 4 years and my goal is to lose 30 pounds. Please add me!

Hello. I'm Monica and I'm 29 from Newport Beach, CA. I have been a vegan for over a year now. I made the leap after watching what I thought was a movie about juicing, but really was about veganism (the movie was "Vegucated"). The movie changed my life and opened my eyes! I'm such a huge animal lover, always have been, and it just makes sense for me not to use animal products. Admittedly, in the past year I have gone back and forth between vegan and vegetarian (as in, I'll eat food that has eggs or milk in it), but I try to eat vegan 90% of the time. I'm happy to see that even in the past year that I've been a vegan, that it's becoming a lot more "acceptable in our society" and more and more people are making the switch. Heck, even my boyfriend the bacon lover loves to eat vegan meals on his own (he loves Native Foods Cafe).

Anyway, I love being a vegan and wish I had made the switch years ago, but you can't blame me for being uneducated. The only down-side to being a vegan is that I have gained a bit of weight because I tend to load up on carbs, but I'm working on that! I'd rather be a little chubby than go back to eating chicken and eggs all the time.

It's nice to meet y'all!

mfp said i took too long posting my info so I have to start over. once more with feeling.

My name is Stuart and I live in Austin Texas.

I became vegan in 1987 when I was 19. It happened as a result of a trip to San Francisco. I found all the meat and seafood I ate out there was either disgusting or overpriced. On the other hand I discovered vegetarian food in Chinatown that was delicious and cheap. At the same time I was heavily into punk rock and the anti-apartheid movement so those influenced me politically towards being vegetarian.

I moved into a co-op and had to declare my diet (for budget reasons i suppose) but given the experience in SF I decided to steer clear of the carnivore option. After that decision I stuck to it, even outside of my living arrangement. I quickly dropped any ingredients that were not vegan almost unconciously, so I decided to make it official and embraced veganism. (It helped that I was dating a vegan at that point.) Nowadays most of these dairy products I do not consider to be even vegetarian anymore, since the production of milk and cheese is typically apt to contain any of a number of meat by-products.

When I first became vegan the health food stores like whole foods and wheatsville seemed pretty hostile and often they seemed reluctant to even pronounce the word correctly... Alot of the health magazines they sold seemed to add to that feeling against veganism. But alot has changed since then. There are alot fewer seemingly non-dairy items that contain animal products, alot more newer vegan options are now available... and it seems like people are alot less embarrassed by the word vegan now. And now there are vegan bakeries, foodcarts, cafes everywhere.... and most restaurants (even bbq places) seem to have good vegan options.

My family lived in latin america when I was a kid and while we were not vegetarian there, there were an abundance of fruits and vegetables we were introduced to. My step mother is costa rican and never batted an eye over my diet because they grew up eating gallo pinto and fried platanos and so on....

I didnt join MFP to be vegan since Ive done that for years. But in spite of being vegan I had recently put on about 50 pounds that I could not shake. Recently a number of people in my dad's family have been having health issues tied to obesity and the focus on eating meat all the time is no doubt a part of the issue. My brother is a huge advocate of this website. He isnt vegetarian but he finds the diary and the app are good tools for watching your weight. After the Sochi Olympics I decided to get more exercise and got on here to keep track of what I was doing and what I was eating. I have found even though I do not have the smart phone app... my portions are more controlled and I am more concious of what foods I eat are higher in calories than others. knowledge is power they always say. Well so far its been a good thing... I am eating better, exercising more and the pounds are coming off. and though I attribute most of what Ive lost to exercise... Im surely more controlled about what I eat as well... and Im subsisting alot less on prepackaged junky stuff and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables.

I use y'all all the time, and I'm a native Californian. I think it's a very functional solution to the 2nd person plural. Much nicer sounder than 'youse', which I also use on occasion.