Hi! I've been vegan for a little over a year. I struggle with getting enough protein and balanced nutrition on a daily basis. I am also looking to lose about 25 pounds. I am hoping by joining this group that i will get ideas from all of you and share some of mine. I am interested in easy, low fat, healthy recipes and tips.
I'm looking forward to learning more about you all and your vegan ideas!
Kelly

Hi, I'm Noel. I've been on and off the vegan wagon for a solid decade. The animals, the environment, the food, and the health benefits are always spot on. The social aspects have always been my downfall. I recently developed gout and switching to a vegan diet fixes the gout without medication (all high purine foods are animal-based other that beer/brewer's yeast). I'm also a crossfitter and pregnant, further twisting the plot. I could really use some support/friends and tips on how to be a joyful vegan as opposed to a bitter, miserable, eye-rolling vegan who wants to lite things on fire at the mention of bacon jokes or "you can just get a salad" social situations.

Hello! I'm a kind of new vegan. I was born vegetarian and since i was around 12 years old i wanted to be a vegan. So now, 3 years later I've decided to go full vegan no turning back. I wanted to go vegan mostly because i hate animal cruelty and the meat- and dairy industry. The second reason is to feel better. Since I've gone vegan, I feel so much better. When I eat dairy products I just feel so yucky in some way. So now I've been vegan for about 1 month and I'm never going back.
Go vegan! ✌🏻🌱

Hi everyone! I have been eating plant based for around 3 weeks now. My husband and one of my sons are joining me which is great, as I don't think I could do it without them. It definitely helps that my husband is keen to do the same ! We saw the Gamechangers film, then went on the watch Forks over knives, What the health, and others... My hubby and I have weight to lose too. We have both been feeling fantastic since we started eating plant based. As someone else has said, whilst we are trying to eat vegan, we can't yet call ourselves vegan because we have leather shoes and bags, woollen jumpers etc. I've joined this group to get some/give some support. A few years back I lost 50 lbs on MFP. Unfortunately, for health reasons and because of bad diet I have regained some of the weight back. On the way down again now though and feeling positive!!

Hi, everyone! I've been whole foods, plant-based for about six months now and I'm loving every single second of it! I was plagued by fatigue, IBS, chronic headaches, and excruciating menstrual cramps before, but all that has disappeared since I began eating so clean. Also, I was really tired of being a hypocrite--saying I was an animal lover while also still consuming them and contributing to their massive suffering. I'm so excited to be here!

Hello -- both my DH and I are calling ourselves "BABY vegetarians", he will eat fish/shellfish mostly wild caught and for me eating almost none due to allergies.

This WOE began with him having us watch a movie "Game Changers" and then I saw a couple more Netflix videos etc...also many years ago read about the way animals are treated, ate no animal products for about 2 weeks.

Like @jhardin62 above, am about 90% compliant & hoping to be kinder to our planet.....am totally willing to friend and get/give mutual support.

Hi! I’m Phyllis. I’m from New Jersey and have been vegan for almost 3 years.

Hi! I am a new vegan, it's been 3 months now. What triggered this? I had been thinking of going vegetarian for about a year, and kept talking myself out of it because I thought it would be too hard to make the transition. Yet I really didn't feel great about eating animals, could certainly never kill them myself and I never really liked meat anyway.
Then, this happened: I follow a kitten rescue on Instagram. Awhile ago they decided to foster a baby pig - and that little piglet was SO CUTE and he was just like a kitten. He was the size of a kitten, his best friend was a kitten, and he played and snuggled and everything like a kitten - he just looked a little different! That ruined pork for me right there. I started to see him like I saw my own cats, who are my fur children and I love so much.

Soon after this I started watching documentaries about the food industry. I was completely horrified to learn that the milk and egg industries were just as bad or WORSE than the meat industry! And they all end up the same way. It really took the blinders off me, as I had this idyllic idea in my head that chickens and cows were just happily living on a little farm and the eggs and milk were just a harmless, bonus byproduct of a peaceful life. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was devastated and traumatized by what I saw.

So, "cold turkey" I went vegan. It was a joyful choice for me and I feel total peace about it. I haven't even missed cheese and it was its own food group for me before - I thought I'd never be able to give it up. I guess because I felt so bad about the things I learned, the choice became easy.

A really nice side effect of me going vegan: I have high cholesterol, and at my last blood lipid panel my numbers were dramatically lowered for the better. My doctor was so happy!
I have a lot of weight to lose also. Hoping I will find a way to do this. It's good to be here!

Hi all! While I'm not technically vegan, I do have a number of allergies that force me to eat a primarily vegan diet - no red meats, dairy, or eggs. These allergies came on suddenly a couple of years ago and I'm still trying to figure out how to make yummy meals that won't bother those allergies while being a bit of a picky eater. I've been trying to branch out more, but it can still be a somewhat of a challenge. I'm hoping to find some great, new recipes to try out through this group!

Hello friends!

I'm Dee, and I've been vegan for just about 5 years now (I count my veganniversary as October 10, 2015). I had been considering going more plant-based for a couple years at that point and had started experimenting more with plant-based meals earlier in that year and then one day I saw an ad for a butterball turkey that was all "cooking a turkey is hard there has to be a better way" and was disappointed when it wasn't a tofurky ad or something instead, which was when I realised I'd started thinking like a vegetarian. So I basically gave up meat then and there, and within about a week, I'd done some more reading into the ethical side of plant-based eating (because that was part of why I'd been working to reduce my intake of animal products) and realised the dairy and egg industries were just as bad, so I stopped eggs as well (I never really liked them anyway, just ate them in baked goods) and slowly transitioned off dairy by only eating what dairy-containing foods I still had on hand but not buying any more.

This had an awkwardly inverse effect on my weight-loss journey because it coincided with a return to emotional/binge eating and I've realised I do best at achieving health goals when I have a group of people to talk to about it, who understand my goals and have similar ones. So my weight's been up and down for my whole time being vegan but I'm back on MFP and I'm looking forward to sharing recipes and tips for both vegan eating and products, and for healthy weight loss habits.