How far Do You Go...?

summer_ina_bowl

I gave up meat/fish/poultry, because (A) I couldn't tolerate an animal dying for food, but because I hated the thought of drug/chemical residues in food :S
ans (B) although I understand and accept the concept that animals (including humans) kill and eat other animals, but I don't condone the living conditions of many typical "food" animals and so want no part in their deaths. I eat free range eggs, that I mooch off my parents pet chickens and I drink organic milk. I don't eat gelatine and only eat vegetarian cheese. I don't wear leather and try to avoid products that I know are not animal friendly. I tried giving up dairy and eggs, and failed, and thought to myself "I don't eat/use dead animals, I work hard to do my bit to help living animals, I'm not a bad person and I want milk and a cookie" - Not really ideal I know, I do get bouts of guilt, and often I feel selfish, but after a few days of no dairy, I'd sell my left arm for dose of milky goodness

sweet-rasmus

no unhappy faces you gave up meat, fish and poultry and that's brill you can't be too hard on yourself and you can't enjoy life if you keep feeling guilty. if you are determined to try giving up dairy or eggs you will get there eventually, but don't beat yourself up about it. you have to get on enjoying life in the meantime.

and lastly, welcome to the forum summer_ina_bowl. I haven't seen you in here before

summer_ina_bowl

Thanks sweet_rasmus lol, not sure if I'll ever get there on the vegan front though, it's been nearly 8 years since I went veggie! And I don't beat myself up about it too much tbh, it's usually when I'm stuck behind a herd of milking cows on the road, and the few at the back might be lagging behind because they're obviously lame or else struggling to keep up because they're heavily pregnant - then BAM, for the duration of the journey I'll feel terrible - oddly I usually appease myself with milky tea when I get home :S

sweet-rasmus

awwww

Thoushaltnot

Irish Guitarist wrote: »

I've been a vegetarian for a couple of years. I try to buy personal hygiene products that aren't tested on animals. I've even stopped using deodorant because I can't find any that isn't tested on animals. I don't wear leather or wool.

Right, I've been using a VegSoc approved product for the last few months that I picked up in the Dublin Food Co-op - the PitRok crystal. Works a treat. I'm not sure why they've left alcohol free out of the description but anyhow. "Bacteriastatic" - iirc, mine was approx. €8 and is nowhere near depleted. It is a rock of Ammonium Alum, ie aluminium crystal, though.

Mozzies - hate basil. I also remember reading a good while back that they tend to shun people with high concentrations of Vit E in their skin. Some folk start taking Vit E supplements before the onset of mozzie season. I found this article too.

I feel guilty because I still drink milk though. I know that's veganism rather than vegetarianism but I'd still like to stop. I've tried drinking soya and rice milk but both were disgusting. I also like Frijj milkshakes too much. I buy organic milk whenever I can, but I'm not sure if that actually makes a difference to how the cows are treated. If I buy eggs I make sure they're free range but I don't know whether the eggs in ready meals I buy are free range or not. I'd like to stop eating eggs altogether but that would rule out Quorn.

As Sweet-Rasmus said, going part of the way there is better than no effort at all in general. I love my dairy - only real milk in me tea works. however, I started a half and half of real milk and rice milk ad I suspect that the vanilla did the trick. I've since found a vegan milk that works - it's a bit pricey but nyom (Rice milk with nuts). Still half and halfing it but its org milk.

If I get an ache or pain I don't go to the doctor because he'll more than likely prescribe something that has been tested on animals. If my life was at risk I might consider using medicine, but I put up with things like a painful knee joint that I've had for about a year.

I have my dodgy joints too and I'm not the only person to get relief from the following;
First thing in the morning, take either cider vinegar in whatever solution works for you (me, it's Kombucha only but others use warm water or juice) or take a near pint of boiled cooled water, into which you've chucked in as much lemon juice as you can bear, at that time.
I think they're both alkalizing to the body, anti inflammatory and can boost energy levels.

Hope this helps.

JCC

Since becoming vegetarian I've put a stop on buying leather products, clothing thats not veggie friendly etc....I won't cook with meat (I did for a while out of necessity for a job for a few months when I first became veggie), or eat anything thats been stirred with the same untensil used in a meat dish for instance (OH, friends and family have become very understanding of this in fairness, although it leads to lots of washing up...).

I became veggie because I don't want to eat animals, but also for environmental reasons, so I try to be as environmentally friendly as I can with the food I buy as well. As much veg as possibly from local producers, all Irish etc, good to support local businesses too...

Hopefully I'll be going vegan before the year is out, checking packaging is becoming an obsession lately!!

lolli

I'm vegetarian 16 years now since i was 10 years old. When I was younger I wasnt aware that sweets and cheese contained gelatine and annato and the like. I am stricter now. I check packaging of things I eat. I will tell a restaurant I am vegetarian but I dont go out of my way to ask if things are definately vegetarian friendly.

I try to avoid soups out as i'm weary of them containing meat stock. I make my own yummy soup at home instead.

The older I get the more obsessed i'm getting with checking labels

hyenabutter

Vegan and trying to be as strict as possible to my knowledge, which goes from food to clothing (the obvious parts of clothing, I have a hard time checking the colours etc) and cosmetics (LUSH etc) but sadly mostly stops at medicine which I feel bad for and always will, but I see that there is no way around it. yet I only take medicine when I absolutely have to (e.g. last thing was antibiotics because things just wouldn't get better) and not painkillers for a headache or something.
Oh, and I'm aware of the alcohol thing. Although the occasional sip out of someone else's glass of non-obvious stuff that I don't know about (would be beer that is not Guiness or something like that) does happen...especially when it's not my first drink, but then on the other hand I mostly stick to my own stuff. Am also not sure about rolling paper and filter tbh.
And just read about ecover, ffs, will use up what I have of them and switch then.

Raminahobbin

I think I'm reasonably strict on myself with my vegetarianism.
I don't wear leather of fur. I don't eat meat, and very little dairy. I don't use medicines, and hopefully will never have to, and all my cosmetics are veggie friendly and not tested on animals.

I avoid egg, unless I know the chicken it has come from and am happy that they are very well looked after.
I use veggie cheese, but occasionally, if I'm eating out with people I don't know very well or in a restaurant that's not wonderfully veggie friendly, I am guilty of pushing it to the back of my mind that the cheese might contain rennett etc.
I went vegetarian at 14, and had lots of trouble with my tonsils and hayfever in my teens. I wanted to avoid medicine or operations if I could, so I became interested in acupuncture and herbal medicine and now that's all I use if I get sick.

I'm in China at the moment working in a hospital studying acupuncture, and had a MAJOR moral decision to make before I came here...Hepatitis B vaccine or not?
It was a very tough decision, and I still have mixed feelings about it, but I took the vaccine. I'm generally anti-vaccine, so I feel very disappointed in myself for getting it, but 10% of chinese people have Hep B and I'm working around needles and blood...

I'm trying to be strict on myself over here food wise, but it's tough going!!! I've had to relax a bit regarding sauces, cos EVERYTHING has sauce on it. If it tastes like it has meat or fish in it, I leave it, but if it tastes okish, I have to make do.

China doesn't even have a word for 'vegetarian'

edit: Oh and glue is another iffy one. It's feckin impossible to find shoes if you exclude the glue. Also, the odd time for arty creations I've had to use glue. Try to use a little as possible though...

entropi

Raminahobbin wrote: »

I'm in China at the moment working in a hospital studying acupuncture, and had a MAJOR moral decision to make before I came here...Hepatitis B vaccine or not?
It was a very tough decision, and I still have mixed feelings about it, but I took the vaccine. I'm generally anti-vaccine, so I feel very disappointed in myself for getting it, but 10% of chinese people have Hep B and I'm working around needles and blood...

I feel for you with that decision, recently had to pay a fee to college to get a Hep B shot as I am currently working with blood and lancets so sadly it's a necessity in a laboratory environment dealing with blood samples:(

Lia_lia

I've gotten quite strict with myself recently. Never touch fish. And don't intend to anymore. Even though I love the stuff. But oh well.

Stopped wearing leather.

I've stopped cooking meat. If my brother wants meat he can cook it for himself! He was vegetarian for the first 15 years of his life...so he can deal with it!

Mercy Seat

Hope it's okay to bump this thread, was looking to post a similar thread and came across this first.

I'm about 97% freegan. I refuse to spend money on the dairy or poultry industries, but coming across free food (which happens quite regularly ), is okay. I miss eggs and milk quite a lot. Not really things they're used in - cake, chocolate etc etc., but craving them less and less as time goes on.

Most of my friends are well aware of my views around this, so it's rare that it comes up as an issue, though it's not unknown for me to be left with cheesy pizza, or for the only munchies to be meat flavoured crisps, or milk chocolate or jellies, but for the most part they're grand (and for the most part I decline).

I refuse to use cosmetics or toiletries or cleaning products that have been tested on animals (and usually go for the more eco stuff too), but have yet to find a good sunscreen that hasn't been tested on animals.

Medicines, I hate, but can't get around having to take now and then.

Leather, I simply won't wear. Wool, I won't buy, but have been given to me as presents, and will buy from second hand shops (again, I just won't give money to the industry itself). Glue on shoes, etc, I haven't quite managed to avoid, but I'm sure I'll stumble across some eventually.

Most bugs will get out of my house alive. I've never been stung by a bee or wasp, and am usually entirely unphased by them. Spiders, I am very literally terrified of. If there is someone willing to take it out, I will gladly let them do so, but if not, the bastard must die, because I won't be able to rest, eat, sleep, take my eyes off it, or be in the same room as it until it's gone. Mice get trapped and released.

Having caught headlice more than once in my adult life (work in early childhood), I am more than happy to kill those bastards too, mind.

As well as that, I'll make a point of writing letters to the media now and then about certain animal rights issues (usually when somewhat relevant in the media), and attending various protests around similar issues.

Absurdum

Mercy Seat wrote: »

but have yet to find a good sunscreen that hasn't been tested on animals.

http://www.jason-natural.com/products/sunbrellas.php

Michellenman

Mercy Seat wrote: »

Spiders, I am very literally terrified of. If there is someone willing to take it out, I will gladly let them do so, but if not, the bastard must die, because I won't be able to rest, eat, sleep, take my eyes off it, or be in the same room as it until it's gone.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, these things are the business. Safely (from a distance ) remove the little buggers without harming them

I got for christmas a few years ago and I brought it with me and everything when I moved to france :P