I want to be a vegan

The thing is I like meat a lot....it would really hard for me to give it up.....how can i be a sucssful vegetarian?

 

First thing you should know: Vegan and vegetarian are two entirely different things. Compare:

Pescotarian - Not a real vegetarian, eats fish
Lacto-ovo-vegetarian - Eats no meat, consumes milk and eggs
Lacto-vegetarian - Eats no meat or eggs, consumes milk
Ovo-vegetarian - Consumes no meat or milk, eats eggs
Vegetarian - Consumes no meat, milk, or eggs. (I think this is correct? If not, correct me)
Vegan - Consumes no animal products whatsoever, including meat, eggs, milk, gelatin, etc. Also typically tends not to buy leather or otherwise animal-derived products.

I'm a vegan myself, and there is a big difference; learn what kind of veg-n you want to be, then take steps to become one. =)

 

shit..i don't i shouldn't be here

 

try new food, theres a ton of good veggie and vegan food out there that you might not have discovered had you not made this choice...

learn about what you eat, where it comes from, whats in it, how it was made etc... you should do this anyway, a lot of what we eat is nutrient dead and basically mush after being processed and cooked so much, and then preservatives and colors and what not, its just garbage...

try meatless meats, they should be at just about any grocery store, and they are good and very similar tasting, and healthier and cruelty free if not though, a health food store will def. carry them and a ton of other really good veggie food. and try vanilla soymilk, its wayy better than regular milk imo, and healthier as well. cow milk is very unatural and the way we go about it is totally wrong imo... just go grocery shopping once and look around, youll see tons of great tasting and healthier veg alternatives,
its no where near as hard as it is to turn veg as your thinking it is.

 

Thats interesting I did not now that...I gest I would pick a lacto-ovo-vegetarian

 

Lacto-ovo is goo to start with.

I agree with the previous posters: Find out about new food and be aware how what you eat is produced. It might also be a good idea to tell somebody you want to go vegetarian, because like that you aren't as likely to "slip".

Just a note concerning the differences between the types of vegetarianism/veganism: When people say vegetarian, they usually mean ovo-lacto, ovo or lacto, because the full term is usually too long.

 

Thank you everyone!

 

i learned it more like this:
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Vegetarian: One that doesn't eat anything which requires an animal to get killed, including things like Gelatin, or animal extracts. Eventhough some ignore this...they can't call themselves vegetarian than though, IMO.

Ovo-Lacto (or Lacto-Ovo, whichever makes your day) Vegetarian: Sub-'species' of vegetarian, allows milk and eggs (or eggs and milk..), most commonly known under the term 'vegetarian.

Ovo-vegetarian: Vegetarian that allows eggs but no milk. 'sub-species'

Lacto-Vegetarian: Vegetarian that allows milk, but no eggs. 'sub species'

Pollo-vegetarian (pollatarian): One that thinks Birds aren't animals, not a true vegetarian,IMO

Pesca-vegetarian(or pescetarian): One that thinks fish aren't animals, therefore can be eaten. Also not true for me...

Vegan: One that consumes absolutely NO animal products...like Hikaru...
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I'm a ovo-lacto(or lacto-ovo! ) vegetarian, eventhough I try to minor these animal products. Main reason is Protein, and my favourite things happen to be dairy products. So hard to say no!


And Art, I think it'd be easier if you start being a vegetarian first, and then vegan!

 

I gess ethier Ovo-lacto(lacto-ovo) or Pesca would be good for me( if I was Pesca it would only be temporary)

 

Yeah, somewhere along the way, the definition of "vegetarian" was lost, and now we're trying to find it again, lol. Your definition makes more sense than mine, though.

Vegan doesn't necessarily mean no animal products whatsoever; I eat honey, for example, because bees aren't pumped with steroids, impregnated, and mistreated by any means. We just kind of, scrape the honey from their home, and that doesn't hurt them at all. Although, some people will disagree and say I'm not a true vegan because of that; it seems to me, though, that the original reason for becoming vegan (animal cruelty) defines that I'm still vegan. Whichever.

 

ummmm bees are killed for honey............the Queen bee is routinely killed. they kill her so the bees won't escape and make a new home for themselves. ....other bees can be hurt in the process of harvesting their honey, they get smoked and some die and some get legs ripped off etc. i dont see how anyone can say it is not horrible to bees.
I also wonder what happens to the bees- i mean we steal their hard earned food, what do they get?

To the first poster - If you are starting to be vegan/vegetarian then have a look at all the free vegetarian starter kits on the internet, i think if you google that you will get a lot of information....
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/ <- i like their 3 steps to being vege

http://www.peta.org.uk/feat/UKvegkit/health.asp

when you are starting, if you slip dont be hard on yourself, just keep trying, peoples taste buds change over time..and what you like a lot now, after a while starts being a gross out ....was for me anyhow.

 

Can you quote a source? Until now, I haven't ever heard of anything of the sort, and it doesn't make ANY sense to kill the Queen Bee "so the bees won't escape and make a new home for themselves." The Queen Bee is the reason the other bees live; killing her would probably upset the colony, and makes no sense. Also, I've never heard of a honeycomb being "smoked," and the bees always survive with the honey that they have just fine. Even if bees start out with no honey (which they do when a new nest is formed), they manage to survive simply by gathering more.

 

if they killed the queen, they would probably move out and look for a new home.

And in order to produce more honey they need many bees still alive. And using smoke only makes the bees less aggressive, it doesnt kill them.

 

Ok I found this, if you don’t believe it then there isn’t much I can do. Google it, theres lots on the net…. Ask a bee keeper, I've seen one on a forum- either here or another one i cant remeber say how they do kill the queen bee to stop them leaving.

http://www.parkc.org/honey.html

"Bees are not inconvenienced when honey is collected from their hives.
It is obvious that bees do object when they are disturbed, as can be seen when they protect the hive by stinging the beekeeper. Beekeepers must temporarily remove a number of the bees from their home to collect their honey. During the process, even the most careful and experienced beekeeper cannot avoid inadvertently injuring, squashing or killing some of the bees. Smoke may be puffed into the hives to calm the bees down and make them easier to handle. To remove the honey, air may be forced through the hives to blast the bees out, the hives may be shaken, or chemical repellents use."

"Honeybees are not captive; they are free to leave. They wouldn't stay on the bee farm if they didn't like it.
Lone bees will rarely make it on their own; they need the support of a colony. If a lone bee does leave, occasionally a new colony might accept them, but most will kill them.

Perhaps the most important reason why the bees can't just fly away is that the beekeepers won't let them. Beekeepers do their best to prevent swarming (when bees congregate and fly away en-masse), because not only would they lose half of their bees, but bees do not produce honey during the intense preparation that goes into swarming. Beekeepers often kill the old queen and replace her with a new one (older queens are much more likely to swarm than younger ones), and since swarming requires a queen, the queen's wings are often clipped."

there is more grosser sad stuff in the article

 

No bees=no honey. The incas even leave honey inside for the young bees to grow up and survive. If they were to take all the honey, they'd have no bees!
And it's pretty useless to rip a bees legs off...they wouldn't be able to work anymore then...
I don't think there's many advantage to those things ( besides the queen bee, that sounds logical.), so I don't see any cruelty involved...

 

eeek.
I always stay away from the honey debate with a 10 foot pole.

I will (occasionally) eat a product with honey as a ingrediant, but I really don't like the taste of it, so I never use it outright. I still call myself vegan.

The OP- it sounds like gradually cutting out meat might work for you. I would suggest that you do some more research about the cruelty involved in the meat industry.
After I watched some graphic vids and read some really disturbing reports, I no longer
thought of meat as 'food'. I started calling it animal flesh or animal corpse in my head (not out loud often, it usually causes a scene) and refering to all meat products as the animal they come from, it's not steak, it's hunk of cow, ham/bacon/pork- all pig, chicken is still chicken. But it's funny to start thinking cowbuger instead of hamburger.

And learn as much as you can about nutrition so you can awnser peoples questions like: Where do you get your protein? How about calcium, and B-12?

Good luck!

 

There was a guy I saw on tv today talking about what he wanted for dinner and he said "no I don't want a chicken sandwich...I'm craving cow today."
bleh.

 

please read this article
http://www.parkc.org/honey.html