My journey from veggie to vegan
I was a vegetarian from the age of 11, and I had no idea about veganism until I went to an event where Pramoda Chitrabhanu introduced a video about dairy production in India. I couldn't remain vegetarian after that. I had to shift to a vegan diet!
Here's why I follow a plant-based lifestyle.
When I made this shift, I wasn't close to anyone else who was vegan. None of my friends or family were vegan and many of them didn't really understand what being vegan meant. Some of them couldn't even understand or accept my motivations!
I did some research, went to a few vegan meet ups and joined a group called Jain Vegans. Slowly I felt more sure and settled. The process I used to decide what to do when I came across new information, involved the four steps shown below.
1. I embraced what I learned
2. I figured out what I connected with the most
3. I thought about whether I could imbibe what I connected with
4. If I could; I started to live it
Being open to change
I'm quite determined, strong minded and motivated. So, often, when I make my mind up about something; I've put a lot of thought into it and usually don't waver from it. However, I realised that as I found out new things about plant-based living, I would need to rethink what I knew before, and be open to the possibility of change. That realisation made things much easier.
What is plant-based living?
Plant-based living means I eat vegan. In addition to this, I wear vegan clothes and shoes, use vegan toiletries and make-up and I buy vegan jewellery.
I also look into how food and drink is processed, so that I'm not drinking something that's been sieved through an animal's intestine, for example. You get the gist.
It's a conscious decision to think, walk and possibly, talk a better lifestyle.
What are the reasons for plant-based living?
There isn't a single category that includes everyone. Here's some of the reasons that motivate people to live vegan:-
- minimising, preventing or nullifying harm to other living beings
- consuming healthier products and therefore feeling better
- healing the environment
I like to refer to them as, 'The three H's! - (Reduce) Harm, (Enhance) Health and (Assist) Healing.'
My reason for going vegan was driven by ethics - Reducing Harm.
What are the ethical reasons for following a plant-based diet?
How the environment reacts to what we eat, how we grow it and what we waste
An MP explains why we can't continue to sustain a Western style diet