37 years vegan.

[Billy-Reno]

Wanted to go vegan at 13 when I read A Mother's Tale for summer reading. By 17 I was able to eat on my own which was mostly out of my organic garden. Have been plant-strong ever since. Very healthy guy. Can't believe the rash of celebrities who are my age who have passed on.

Recently thought I'd give the gym a try. I rated 85% in fitness. Good news is that was compared to other gym goers. Even better news, it was my first day in the gym! Another eval coming up and I expect to be in the top 10% with 3 months of gym going. I attribute that to eating consciously.

I eat mainly out of my organic gardens supplemented with the local organic CSA and markets selling local organic as much as possible. I do a handful of processed foods: McDougal's spilt pea soup three or four times a month. Alter-Eco fair trade/organic "Blackout" 85% dark chocolate and Navitas cacao raw nibs. I like Vega shakes with Garden of Life Perfect Food. Can't have too many greens. Daily whole grains and legumes cooked to perfection and the solar oven. Lots of nuts. Have to watch that for the fat.

Currently running RenoVegans.com.

[Konstantin]

Hi and welcome.

I don't think many people will be other that complete vegans here, although the poll function has some problems.

[Talyn]

Heya, welcome to the board. 37 years vegan is very impressive!

And yeah, I think you'll find most of us are vegan here! I can't speak for any vegan-curious lurkers, though.

[Billy-Reno]

Most of the vegans I know are not 100% vegan. Cheese seems to be the animal product that hooks most people to the end, and no wonder as it has a natural form of morphine in it. Glad to be around the like-minded. Not sure what's up with the poll. I used the phpBB embed tool so must be something on the backend.

I'm in excellent health and weight, but just starting on a road to become athletic. Even more athletic. Hope to get some good advice and "companionship" on these boards.

[xrodolfox]

I think that the love of cow cheese has to be cultural.

I'm from Latin America's southern cone, and I grew up eating tons and tons of fish and caviar and potatoes... not so much cow dairy. When I moved to the USA, I was shocked by the folks here "ruining perfectly good pasta by putting cheese all over it". That's what I said when I was 10yrs old watching a family each mac&cheese.

I never liked that stuff, and I still don't. The US love of cheese is the weirdest foreign fetish to me. Going vegan for me meant figuring out how to find things that had lots of nice umami and saltiness.

Welcome! 37 years is longer than I've been alive. Since I've been vegan since I was 17 as well, I'm often told folks that I've been vegan longer than they've been alive. I'm happy to see that reversed today.

Also... I don't know any vegans who "cheat". Most of those folks have the courage to call themselves vegetarians. I'm a vegan and I don't "cheat".

[JS]

Welcome!!!! 37 years as a vegan wow Excellent. I have a long way to go to get there 5 years for me.

Melting cheese was the hardest thing to give up when I turned from veggie to vegan.....I have to admit I don't know any vegans who do cheese occasionally...they are more likely to say the are veggie.......alcohol is the one thing I see folk say I don't know if it's vegan and I'll presume it is until I find out otherwise.....

[Talyn]

Aye, it must be a cultural thing. I don't know of any 'vegans' that eat cheese or would really want to do so.

I used to be a massive cheese consumer before I went vegan, but once I found out a bit about its production, it was the first thing that I dropped from my diet...

[Billy-Reno]

One of the first resources I put on our RenoVegans website was the vegan alcohol tracking website Barnivore. I don't consume alcohol so that's one I don't have to worry about. Surprising how much animal matter is involved in the making of booze and folks who drink should know.

Mac and Cheese. Something I've never consumed. I've let my body choose what it wants to eat since I was but a wee lad, which is why I rarely consumed soda as a child and haven't had any in 40 years. From the time I was maybe 6 if M&C was served I would just eat my salad instead. My family knew the drill so didn't bother to serve it to me. Growing up Catholic, macaroni & cheese was offered many a-Friday so perhaps that's where I started on my journey of salad as an entree. ;-}

Now to me vegetarian=vegan. lacto-vegetarian=plants + dairy. Ovo-vegetarian=plants + eggs. If you start including additions to plants then vegetarian simply means one who eats plants, which is all of us. A steak eater is a vegetarian when s/he's having their blue-cheese/ranch infested salad because they are eating plants. They are carni-vegitarian, plants + red meat. So the word is basically meaningless unless applied as someone who eats plants only.

I'm convinced it was the uber-rich dairy foundations that tried to convince the world that those who identified with being a vegetarian eater included dairy consumers. Just look at the propaganda and the absurd expense the CA Milk Processor Board went to here.

[Konstantin]

I read once that a report found 1% of cow milk to be blood and pus from udder infections, and doesn't most cheese have rennet in it anyway? Being a dairy eating veggie is something to move on from.

Well done on 37 years! I'm a mere baby at 21, I think you top the duration league here.

[loveliberate]

Hello & Welcome!

[erikiva]

Now to me vegetarian=vegan. lacto-vegetarian=plants + dairy. Ovo-vegetarian=plants + eggs. If you start including additions to plants then vegetarian simply means one who eats plants, which is all of us. A steak eater is a vegetarian when s/he's having their blue-cheese/ranch infested salad because they are eating plants. They are carni-vegitarian, plants + red meat. So the word is basically meaningless unless applied as someone who eats plants only.

I'm convinced it was the uber-rich dairy foundations that tried to convince the world that those who identified with being a vegetarian eater included dairy consumers. [url=http://www.gotmilk.com/#/health-benefits]
37 years is impressive, especially because I don't imagine it being an easy thing to do 37 years ago...

Just look at the propaganda and the absurd expense the CA Milk Processor Board went to here.[/url]

I've always found this interesting, vegetarian should be someone that doesn't include anything but plants in their diet, and vegans are supposed to go even further than that, clothes, any other product, and also probably some form or other of activism. But it has become the norm that ovo and/or lacto are what everybody knows as vegetarians and it is frustrating, a lot of people don't even know what a vegan is so if they ask what you eat and you explain that you are a "strict" vegetarian, (although I don't see why the strict should be needed), then you always end up with eggs or tuna on your plate...so when eating out of at a friends house it is always necessary to give lots of explanations to make sure you won't find anything awful in your plate.
Some people even think chicken is ok on a vegetarian diet and fish of course...since when do they grow on trees?

Also another frustrating thing is...if you become a vegetarian for ethical reasons...why are all vegetarian books/restaurants plagued with eggs and dairy? Sometimes it is harder to find a vegan dish on a vegetarian restaurant than in a normal one...