Monday

Another Sweet New Site

Hey all.

I just ran across another cool new site that is working to set the record straight on how to cleanse your body. With all of the garbage info and dangerous products on the market it's really nice to see someone that actually cares enough to make an effort to actually help.

The site is still a work in progress, but it has the potential to help people out a lot. The people that turn to the vegan or raw diet for the sake of cleansing their bodies can glean a lot of info from helpful sites like this. There should be a lot of info later on about vegan cleansing and how to do it safely. With so many people out there to scam and take advantage of you in that market, I have no problem giving a little bit of free PR to someone doing it right.

Check it out!


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Wednesday

Being Vegan Away from the Table

Many people, particularly those who don't embrace veganism, tend to think of a vegan lifestyle as one in which people avoid animal-derived foods. Some vegans may even view it in this way. But a truly vegan lifestyle should extend to every part of life, not just the dinner table.

While you might have already purged your fridge and cabinets of every offending item, just a quick glance around can reveal many other products created with animal ingredients. Cleaning supplies, hand creams, pet food, makeup and hair products like shampoos and styling gels are often either derived from animal products or cruelly tested on animals. Even that hairbrush you may own with "natural bristles" is an animal product.

Organizations like PETA regularly list companies that produce cruelty-free products, and those are definitely a step in the right direction. But not all companies that avoid testing on animals actually produce things like vegan make up or vegan hair products. While not tested on animals, the products may contain animal ingredients. And in some cases, the animals may be killed to specifically extract those ingredients.

How do you know if your cruelty-free, never-tested-on-animals item contains animal products? You have to become a bit of a sleuth. There are certain ingredients that are popular in hair products, cosmetics and hygiene products that will give them away. Some ingredients are obvious, like hydrolyzed animal proteins or beeswax. Look for less obvious ingredients like:

  • Keratin: keratin is derived from things like animal hooves, teeth, hair and skin, found in beauty and hair care products
  • Casein: this is a milk-derived ingredient, common in hair products
  • Acetate: derived from eggs or fish oils, common in hair dyes
  • Lanolin: oil pulled from sheep's wool, common in beauty products
  • Polypeptides: derived from animal placentas, often found in shampoos
  • Guanine: derived from fish scales, it's found in shampoos and similar products

There are many more ingredients that appear in beauty and hair products, among other common household items, that are animal-based. You should look up any ingredients you're in doubt about to be sure they're not animal-derived. You can also find stores online that only sell cruelty-free vegan products, as well as lists of companies that only produce those kinds of products.

If you're horrified by some of the products currently in your home, just remember that none of these products are advertised as "tested on animals" or "made with animal products" so you, like most shoppers, just didn't know. Now that you do, you might have to switch brands on everything from your dishwashing liquid to your deodorant, but you don't have to do it all in one day. Replace the products as you go with animal-free and cruelty-free products and you'll achieve a truly vegan lifestyle.

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Thursday

Going Vegan

I've been putting a lot of thought recently about my reasons for going vegan. The key to staying vegan is knowing why you're doing it in the first place. I'm not doubting my reasons, or wavering in my veganism, but I think that the changing of the seasons again is making think about the future and reflect a bit on the past.

I'm vegan for the animals, plain and simple. I wouldn't eat my dogs or anything that breathes and sustains itself in a similar fashion. I know why I do this and it's very important that you do as well so that staying vegan is not challenging.

The benefits of going vegan are huge and there are millions of reasons for doing so. If you simply want to be healthier, that's a good reason for being vegan in my opinion and I respect you for that. Whatever reason you come up with you've gotta stick to your guns, or keeping it up is going to be tricky. It's especially important that the people around you also know your reasons or they may question your motives.

Those that have a hard time staying vegan are the ones that do it solely for someone else. Again, I'm not judging your motives, but don't expect too much out of it. If going and being vegan is important to you, you must do it for yourself. Even if you don't make it too long you've done more than most people will (and the animals appreciate your meat eating hiatus!).

I know that was a bit of a ramble, so in case you didn't follow - Know why you're vegan before making the decision on going vegan!!

Stay vegan my friends!

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Cool Find

Hey there,

I just found an acne blog that I thought was pretty cool. This guy is telling people to stop eating meat to clear up their acne. That's something that we've always known, but it's pretty rad to see someone else talking about it. The blog is called Best Acne Treatment Guide. Check it out if you want, or use it to give your friends another reason to be vegan!

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Monday

How Long Do People Stay Vegan? - Update #1

After three days the first round of results are in. I'm hoping to get to at least 100 votes for a fair sample of people.

So far-
How long have you been vegan?
0-6 months -11.84%
6 months-1 year -10.53%
1-3 years -32.89%
3-5 years -11.84%
5-10 years -14.47%
10+ years -18.42%

Have you stayed vegan the entire time?
Yes -89.13%
No -10.87%

Sorry for the crude tables, I'll put together a nice one for the final results.

The 0-6 months, 6 months - 1 year, and the 3-5 year categories are all very close. This give us a few clues. People may have a hard time making it past the one year mark, between year one and year three are common times to fall off the wagon, or this poll hasn't been distributed to enough people. I'll give it some more time to see any more changes before making any solid judgements.

The results so far from the second poll surprise me a little bit. I honestly didn't think that people would admit that they hadn't stayed vegan the entire time. Either I underestimated everyone or the anonymity of the poll encouraged honesty. Either way it's pretty rad.

There have been 75 votes already, as soon as it gets over 100 I'll put together the final report.

Thank you to everyone who has already voted, and if you haven't here are the polls again.

How Long Have You Been Vegan?

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

Have You Stayed Vegan The Entire Time?

View Results
Create a Blog Poll

Stay vegan!!


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Friday

How Long Do People Stay Vegan?

In the grand scheme of time, people who claim veganism as a way of life is fairly new.  In ancient times, they were either gatherers or bad hunters...  

I know that there are tons of studies coming out that back my own stance up that humans are designed to be herbivores, but we all know that meat eating has been the common practice.  I doubt that there are many people who have been vegan their entire life, so I want to conduct a crude study to figure out where everyone else is.

The Set Up

The goal of this (not-so) scientific experiment is to figure out what the average amount of time that people have been vegan, and what percentage of people have stayed vegan the entire time.  With this information, I focus this blog on the time frame that people usually "fall off the wagon." 

That, and I'm a curious guy to begin with and think this will give some interesting results.  If the majority of people fall off at the three-year mark, you may be able to prepare yourself to make it past that milestone.

Enough about me, what I need from you, is to vote in both polls and help me spread the word.  For consistency's sake in the first poll, consider your veganism beginning when stopped being vegetarian completely.  In the second poll, don't count any accidental animal eating.  Consider it a conscious decision to be vegetarian (or omni) again.

Also, please spread this around so we can get a large sample of people.  Link it, tweet it, FB it, throw up smoke signals, whatever.

The Stay Vegan Poll


How Long Have You Been Vegan?

View Results



Have You Stayed Vegan The Entire Time?

View Results

Thanks for voting, now go spread the word!

Stay vegan!

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Sunday

Vegan Without Sacrifice

Sunday night is pizza night here at the Stay Vegan compound.  After tonight's pizza, I had a bit of a revelation which ties into the previous post on How I Stay Vegan.  I realized that we can take any food from the restaurants that we loved so much before becoming vegan, and recreate them sans animal. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but when you really think about it, it's like skipping a big part of the original sacrifice that was made when becoming vegan (too bad it took me four years to figure this out).

I recommend finding the menu of your favorite pre-vegan pizza restaurant and doing your best to recreate it. Use soy cheese and mock meat if you want to make it a little more true to the original.  Or even better, recreate an entire meal that you shared with someone special.  It's really the ultimate comfort food.

This isn't turning into a food blog, I swear!

Stay Vegan!

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