A two year journey to eating cruelty-free.

When I originally started writing this post, I was going to talk about the great array of vegan food that is on offer in Vancouver. There are cruelty-free restaurants all over the city, particularly along Commercial Drive which is only 2 minutes from where I live. But as I was writing, I realised I was talking about vegan restaurants and vegan food without ever actually addressing my own veganism. Some people back home in England may be thinking, when did Carrie suddenly become vegan? Or is she writing about these restaurants just to stay “on-trend”? Because it is something that I haven’t really spoken about on here at all. And the reason for this was, frankly, I didn’t want to. People always criticise vegans for being “preachy” or “judgemental” or enforcing their opinions on other people, and I didn’t want to fall under that criticism. Also, writing a blogpost about becoming vegan is a very public statement, and one that I wasn’t sure I was ready to make. I still feel nervous about writing it now. But as such an important outcome of my year abroad and how I now view myself, it seems wrong not to discuss it. So here we are; I am in my fourth month of veganism and I’ve never felt better.

But how did I get here?

I have been vegetarian for the last two years. It was something I had thought about quite a lot towards the end of school, and I even gave meat up for Lent once, but I didn’t make the full commitment until I reached university. I think a few different aspects played into this; I was cooking for myself for the first time, I learned to have greater awareness of the world and how my actions impact it, and I also met an incredibly self-less group of friends which directly encouraged me to be more self-less. Now when I think about it, I find it bizarre that I have only been vegetarian for two years. It is something that I consider to be such a vital part of my morals and personality that I feel a huge amount of self-disgust when I remember that I ate meat until I was 18. I guess that just shows how ignorant I was before university. I know for certain that I will never eat meat again, and if you know me in person you have probably experienced me try and persuade you to become vegetarian too (I unashamedly forced all of my housemates in Vancouver and my boyfriend to be vegetarian for January).

So I turned vegetarian in April 2016, exactly two years ago. And now, two years later, I have become vegan.

The whole time that I have been vegetarian I have been interested in veganism. I have always thought that it is the lifestyle to aim for – it is the best way to help our planet on an everyday basis. However, it took a long time for me to reach it. Veganism is hard, especially if you are still discovering vegetarianism. Last year, I did one month of veganism, and while I lasted the entire month without any mistakes, I definitely found it difficult. I missed cakes and eggs and, most painfully, cheese. All I wanted to eat when I was hungover was pizza and this wasn’t “allowed”. I also struggled to find variation in my meals and got frustrated by the (very minor) inconvenience of having to go to Tesco rather than Aldi to buy vegan butter.

Essentially, I just wasn’t ready to become vegan then. But one year later, I attempted to do another month of veganism, this time whilst on my year abroad. This was actually something I didn’t really want to do. My boyfriend had just arrived in Canada to visit me, and all I wanted to do was to eat crap and explore restaurants with him, something that I (ignorantly) thought would be difficult as a vegan. But my housemate Uschi pushed me to do it, and we both did Veganuary (vegan-January) together.

And it went incredibly well! Veganism is incredibly well catered for in Vancouver. Nearly every supermarket, even the small shop at the end of my road, sells vegan milk, butter and ice-cream. Also, all the meat substitute here is vegan too. The brand Quorn that is so popular in the UK isn’t available in Canada and so they have a similar product by Yves instead, which offers veggie mince, veggie sausages and veggie chicken amongst other things. However, Quorn often uses egg in its products as a binding agent, rendering them vegetarian but not vegan. Yves, on the other hand - completely vegan! This means that all of the meat alternatives here are cruelty-free and so I haven’t had to change my diet that extensively. If you just substitute milk and butter for soy milk and vegan butter and then cut out eggs, you are basically there.

So I suppose that is how I become vegan. There was no life changing moment, where I made a big decision and had a celebratory and commemoratory last day of eating dairy and eggs. Rather, I decided that I would try it for 4 weeks as a personal challenge, and then enjoyed it so much that I just haven’t stopped.

It is certainly true that the longer you do it, the easier it gets. It is rare that I crave cheese. I certainly don’t ever want eggs. When people offer me chocolate or cake, or even a coffee which has milk in it, I don’t find it hard to say no anymore. As time has gone on I have found it easier and easier and it is rare that I miss dairy products now.

And there have been some really great upsides. I definitely feel healthier in my body now that I am not binging on cheese or cake. Even more significantly, I have taken a much greater interest in cooking in the last few months. Under that stubborn notion that, “yes, my vegan food will be just as delicious as yours”, I have worked harder to cook better meals; curries, chillies and cottage pie amongst other things. Having people over to eat and then hearing them exclaim, “this is vegan?!” is so satisfying. It makes you feel smug.

But I think most of all, above everything else, I feel proud. I am proud of myself that I finally took the step and that I have stuck to it. It may seem big headed to say that, but it is true. This is a cause that I care so much about. In my eyes, eating meat is morally wrong. Humans do not have to eat meat or dairy in order to survive, so I see both of these industries as an unnecessary evil. It is not only resulting in the death of animals, but it is also contributing to the death of our planet. Even if you do not care about the murdering of animals, the detrimental environmental impact of the meat and dairy industry is surely something you have to feel alarmed by. I struggled with myself for so long, because I love animals and I always try to be environmentally aware, and yet I was still consuming dairy products and eggs myself. The hypocrisy of this was not lost on me. So now that I am finally here and I have finally cut those products from my life, I do feel proud of myself.

Of course, I still have a long way to go. I still own (and wear) a pair of Doc Martins that are made from leather, something that makes me feel a little bit sick when I think about it too much. I also buy the cheapest or best value cosmetic products without checking to see whether they are cruelty-free (and at that price, they most probably are not). Most problematic is that I currently work in a deli, which involves handling raw meat, carving up chickens and slicing ham. I can’t even begin to explain my moral dilemma over needing a job to help support myself during my year abroad but also becoming a direct part of the preparation and selling of meat. It is clear that there are many things that I still need to work on. But I really believe it is a process and it takes time to build up to these things. It took a few years for me to build up to vegetarianism, and then another two years to reach veganism. Maybe it will take another two years, or probably even longer, but I may be completely cruelty free one day.

So that is a little insight into my “journey” towards veganism. I haven’t really touched on the reasons why I have chosen this lifestyle, because that is a whole other kettle of fish. If you want to learn about vegetarian or vegan diets and why they are so beneficial to the world, you need to look no further than the documentaries Earthlings and Cowspiracy. And I also didn’t manage to talk about any of the fantastic vegan restaurants in Vancouver! This city caters to the vegan diet incredibly well, and I think that has played a big part in enabling me to take this step. Hopefully I will get round to writing that post eventually, but there is no guarantee – deadlines are looming.

Thank you for reading. Carrie x