Becoming a vegan was an unavoidable step in my life. My empathy and compassion regarding all forms of life on this planet made it inevitable. I am just very sorry that it took me so long to realise that even being a vegetarian was just not enough to end the suffering of so many beautiful beings.
As a young woman brought up in the sixties I have to admit that I was totally unaware of so many things regarding diet and its consequences. I did not, I am ashamed to say, think about the suffering of animals that brought my ‘meat’ to my table and enjoyed its taste.
The older you get the more you become aware of what is happening in the world, particularly when you have children of your own. You become more aware of the pain and suffering of other beings who are not given choices as to if and when they die in order to allow us humans to eat their bodies. I need to be honest here and accept that I was late in realising their fate and regret that I was totally unaware of such things as a young adult.
Strangely it was when I needed to change direction in order to be able to maintain a home and lifestyle for my children that things came to a head and I started on my journey towards veganism.
Living on income support with three young children was very hard, so many times I had to say no to them as there was not enough spare cash to afford anything but the basics. I then decided this had to end and my future needed to go somewhere. I had always loved art and was a member of the local art group where I lived and strangely it was a comment made by one of the other women that really got me thinking and changed the direction of my life. I had been talking about helping in the school as my son, the youngest, had just started school and she said why don’t you see if there is a course or degree that can let you do your art and perhaps go into teaching.
Not having any idea really I approached the local University and asked their advice. Amazingly they were very pleased to help, even bearing in mind I was in my late thirties by then. Two years later I entered the college to train as a teacher with my main subject being art.
This was when my awareness of what I was eating came to the fore. Speaking with such a variety of women with so many differing outlooks on life, I was appalled with myself that I had not seen beyond my little world and looked at the bigger picture with regard to where my food was coming from. Several months later I had changed my lifestyle in so many ways. Apart from the fact that I was trying to study with three young children and all their needs, I had changed our eating habits and become a vegetarian myself. The children needed a lot more convincing as they loved their sausages but as we had always had very little meat in our diet, due to financial restrictions, it was actually quite easy to replace the majority of the meat with soya and thankfully they all loved vegetables.
For just over twenty-five years I was vegetarian. By this time my children were all grown up and I was living in Mallorca. Not the easiest place for a vegetarian let alone a vegan but that is what I became. As I was deeply involved in animal rescue on the island I became more and more aware of the problems faced by baby animals in particular and not just those I was rescuing.
I had started a facebook page for the rescue centre where I was involved and several daunting posts were put up regarding the consequences of us receiving milk and eggs i.e. calves being thrown away in the trash shortly after birth if they were male and male chicks being crushed as if they were rubbish, while still alive. It made me feel sick. What gives us humans the right to take away the life of any other beings with such disregard for any pain, anguish, or desire to live, that they may have. The anguish of the mother cow losing her baby, the pain of being crushed alive by little chicks, the inhumanity of it all took my breath away it was so shocking it was life changing. After watching only part of these videos and reading what was said I changed immediately over to being a vegan. I could no longer be a part of what was happening and the only way I could think of doing that was to never eat anything that was taking something away from another being. I may be only one person but I could make a difference somewhere and perhaps influence others to do the same.
I have been a vegan since December 2014 and although it was initially difficult to wean myself off of things like cheese and yoghurt, my decision stayed firm and I found alternatives. Today it is easy, I love vegetables and am able, even here in Spain, to feed and nourish myself without any dead animals. My two dogs are also vegans and are really much healthier for it.
Amazingly enough the health benefits to being vegan have made all the difference to me as well as my dogs.
If you are not convinced then perhaps reading How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Gregermight be helpful. Very interesting, informative and in lots of ways mind blowing reading on the health benefits of a plant based diet.
I have also found, and bought, two amazing vegan recipe books - Vegan 100 and Plants-only Kitchen - both by Gaz Oakley, definitely worth checking out for some amazing recipes.
