I Wanted to Be Vegan

After leaving home, I began toying with the idea of becoming a vegan. But having lived alongside a carnivorous family, the industrial breeding and destruction of innocent animals just didn’t seem to register enough in my psyche to warrant a big effort. After all, who doesn’t love the smell of bacon.

Putting it like that makes me sound pretty repulsive, doesn’t it? But just like the rest of humanity, the external forces of the Zeitgeist control us all until we leave the parental nest. It’s only when we’re set free to think for ourselves that we truly begin to question things.

Then one day, a close friend of mine introduced me to a documentary called ‘Earthlings.’ It was all about the harsh realities of abattoirs, poultry farms and puppy farms, including the routine abuse of animals by certain workers. It was horrific to watch, but I’m so glad I did. It was the truth and I think we must all know the truth!

So from that moment on, I was done with meat forever!

It was easy at first. I did some research and asked my vegan friend what he ate too. I was eating more rice and veg etc. then started drinking soya milk and trying some of the different vegan proteins on the market like tofu. I wasn’t missing meat at all and even the smell of it started to seem repulsive. The documentary had obviously changed me.

One of the most unexpected challenges however, was trying to convince others I was vegan. I always find it strange how even close people can be so dismissive of your values. Some would even wave sausages in my face and make ‘yummy’ noises while chewing them in front of me. It was like being teased at school!

But eventually, after a few choice words and sticking up for my values, people soon got bored of teasing me with bacon earrings and left me in peace to eat my tofu. Then I started to have some unexpected health issues ...

I started getting pins and needles in my head and arms. It was a really strange sensation. I also started to feel unusually lethargic and without sounding disgusting, my bowel habits were all over the place (sorry!)

So after visiting the doctor for blood tests, it turned out that I was deficient in vitamin B12. I believe this is quite a common issue with veganism and I was given some tablets to boost it back up again. But I just couldn’t seem to get back to normal.

That’s when I made a really tough decision. I decided I was going to re-introduce fish into my diet to see if it would help. This will obviously make me sound like a complete hypocrite and I accept that. I even tried to convince myself that fish was the better choice morally as they likely don’t have the same level of consciousness as other animals. But I’m not a fish, so how would I know!

But within just a month I was feeling so much better. All the pins and needles had gone and I was much more active. It can only have been down to the fish as it was the only thing I had changed in my diet.

So sadly, this is still exactly where I am now. I would love to try veganism again, but I am 53 now and worry about the impact on my health. So it would seem that I will likely remain a rather guilty and self-immoral pescatarian for the rest of my life.

Thanks for reading.

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Originally published @ https://medium.com/never-stop-writing/i-wanted-to-be-vegan-6647b5cf7018