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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Wednesday

How I Stay Vegan #6: Cooking

Secondary to animal rights, food is the other key pillar of veganism.  While it's certainly possible to thrive on PB&J and bean burritos from Taco Bell, to get the most out of the vegan lifestyle you have to cook.  Being able to prepare vegan food well allows you to enjoy what you're doing.  If you don't like what you're eating, staying vegan will be very difficult.

Disclosure:  I love to cook.  I love to eat.  I think I cook really well.

You don't have to be a trained chef or gourmand to eat well.  Learning the basic techniques and having the proper tools will ensure your success.  If you can dice and saute onion and garlic, you have the foundation for many great meals.  If you can light a BBQ, you're halfway to portabello burgers and grilled asparagus.

At the Stay Vegan compound, dinner is the climax of the day.  We usually start planning while we're eating dinner the night before.  I probably take longer to cook, shop and plan than most, but it doesn't have to be this way.  A simple raw salad or pizza with pre-made dough will only take a half-hour or so to make.  Cooking allows you to eat EXACTLY what you want, when you want, without worrying if the restaurant's cook properly cleaned the flat grill before your toast went on it.

Cooking also saves cash.  I'm sure you know that, but I felt it had to be stated.  

Cooking takes you from staying vegan, to loving veganism.

Stay vegan!

Some of my favorite vegan food blogs (not all have recipes, but are all full of inspiration)-

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Thursday

The Joy of Vegan Baking

I'm alive!!!

Well, I was never really dead.  Just caught up with some other things.  Don't worry I'm still vegan!  That would be a pretty ironic reason to ditch this blog, though...

I've been doing a ton of promo work for an Etsy site, that unfortunately sells some silk things, and writing in some other places.  Big time Stay Vegan updates are coming in the near future!!

Why is this blog titled The Joy of Vegan Baking?  1: It's my new favorite cookbook and 2: I just wrote a review of it.  Check it out!

Stay vegan my friends!  We'll chat soon.


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