Vegan roll call?

Just curious how many of us vegans are on the site.

Maybe just say if you are vegan, for how long, and why you made the choice?

I've been vegan for 5 years... made the choice for only ethical reasons (but now it's ethics and health).  I went cold turkey (no pun intended) from eating meat to being vegan....

I never really thought about the ethics or the actual lifestyle choice, just started to eat better when my cholesteral went through the roof. Animals are equal to cholesteral and I quit eating animals about 14 years ago. I never have a problem finding something to eat, not even in a restaurant. I let a server know what I would like from different choices on the menu and they make it up for me. I don't parade this choice as if I am superior to others, and I don't appreciate being the center of attention because of it.  I eat this way because I want to and respect other's choices.  If all of us were the same, how redundent.

Hiiiii! i just started using this site a few months ago and just figured out how to use the forums...

i've been vegan for 5 yrs now. i started out being vegetarian for self-discipline reasons. (i used to raid the fridge and eat excessively during high school because i was always hungry lol) Then i started being able to SMELL the egg and milk. X( ...so, i turned vegan. Then i turned extremely lactose-intolerant. ...so, now i'm stuck being vegan. :)

vegan here for about 2 years. love food, love to cook and bake - LOVE. Originally stopped eating meat for compassion/moral reasons only. Now i do it for both compassion/earth/ and health reaons.

ive also been diagnosed with CFS/fibro about 5 years ago. cardio is hard totally drain me but i love pilates and weight training

Hey i've been vegetarian for 5 years now and just turned vegan about a month ago! I love cooking and always finding new vegan recipes to make my meat eating boyfriend try! I really love the health aspect to it and for the animals sake as well! I'm the only vegan i know around my town so its hard to really get advice from anyone here! I'm from pennsylvania....anyone close to here?

Proud vegan since October!!!
I went because of the famously gruesome "meet your meat" video, and a bunch of others on goveg.com.  And I just decided that eating animal products wasn't normal, anyways.  And for health reasons, too.  :D

I've been vegetarian for a year and a half now and just decided at the end of December to be vegan. I'll be honest I orginally went veggie because I thought I'd lose weight. The more research I did I found out how poorly the animals are treated and it just turned my stomach. I can now safely say that I'm no longer in this for selfish reasons. So ethics is a HUGE part of this for me. Plus I love the way I feel now. :)

PS. The book Skinny Bitch really helped me put things in perspective!

My name is Kim

Vegan for a few years

I planned on becomeing vegan the second i became veg.  (I became veg. 'cold turkey' as well)

about a year of no meat, I went the rest of the way, no turnnig back.

I'm new to this site and thrilled there is a veggie forum!  I've been veg most of my life and now thinking about going vegan.  Surprising, but what really made me think about it was reading "Skinny Bitch".  I was surprised at how gruesome and cruel animal practices really are and how the food supply, which I knew was unsafe, is truly a hazzard.  

I did not think I could ever live without cheese, but I've really cut down and it is not that bad.   I think I could see my self being about 80% vegan with some room for a little real cheese or a pasta sauce with cream now and then, but it seems like it is a good choice for so many reason, and I've found food more interesting, actually.  It forces me to eat more fiber and greens and I'm happy with how much I'm liking that.  I plan to keep it up and I'm glad to know there are others out there! 

Vegan here as well, started for personal health reason and knew it was good for the planet. However, after reading Vegan for Dummies and other books, I was hooked for the moral reasons.

Me too. Vegetarian for about 23, 24 years then vegan last 2 years. 

hello! i am a vegan :) and looooove it!

ive been a vegan for about a year and a half now and couldnt be happier with my lifestyle! i dont even miss the meat or dairy at all!

being vegan has really opened my eyes to all the possibilities out there! having all your meals centered around meat really limits you! im impressed with all the different foods that i have found and how much i truly love veggies!

rock on vegans :)

hello! i am a vegan :) and looooove it!

ive been a vegan for about a year and a half now and couldnt be happier with my lifestyle! i dont even miss the meat or dairy at all!

being vegan has really opened my eyes to all the possibilities out there! having all your meals centered around meat really limits you! im impressed with all the different foods that i have found and how much i truly love veggies!

rock on vegans :)

Hi!! I've been vegan for 5 months now...was vegetarian before that for 5 years. I did it for health reasons at first but i do agree with  the ethical side as well.... I really love being vegan...especially with my roommate being vegan as well it makes life much easier!

Hi there, vegan for only about 2 months. But love it. I feel much better. Did it for a number of reasons. Sustainable living, helping the planet, animal cruelty and my own health. I feel it's the only ethical thing to do, and healthiest by far. And I'm a nurse! I actually went vegetarian for a couple of weeks before deciding if I was going to do this I was going to go "whole hog". And very glad I did!

Hello!  I've been vegan for almost a year now.  I decided to start because I didn't want to support cruelty to animals, but as I did more research I realized the the environmental benefits of it too.

Being vegan was exposed me to so many new foods that I would have never picked up!  I was such a picky eater and now I'll try anything!  It's great.

I've been vegan for three years. I went from meat-eating to vegetarian when I was 12 and then to vegan when I was 21.

I went vegetarian a little over a year ago for a lot of reasons. I wanted to lose weight, I felt hypocritical about saying I was an animal lover when I ate them, I found vegetarians cute, my aunt and role model is a vegetarian, I thought it was "cool" (not really important anymore. lol), I had played with baby cows on a dairy farm before, and I didn't want to contribute to needless suffering anymore.

I decided to switch to complete veganism (I had already stopped buying leather, drinking milk, and eating eggs that weren't in baked foods, and cooking with any animal ingredients) a few months ago and I'm just about finished with the transition. I have to say, I'm a lot happier than I used to be with myself. The change in diet played a part in curing my depression too. Caring about what goes on around you can have profound effects on ALL aspects of health, along with what goes into your body.

i am vegan, and due to an unfortunate love of fine cheeses, this has been an off-and-on affair for three years. lately, because i've decided to rectify the problem, i cut out all dairy products and have been purely vegan for almost a week. i have been vegetarian for my entire life, and decided to go vegan when i was twelve for ethical reasons. i feel a great improvement in my mental clarity and physical health when i go for extended periods without dairy/refined sugar. i'm a very happy vegan and plan to continue eating this way for as long as possible.

Hi everyone! I'm new to this site, and I am vegan, so I'm looking for other vegans on the site interested in supporting each other.

I've been vegan for about 2 years now after being vegetarian for about 15 years. I went vegan primarily for ethical reasons, but the health reasons and environmental reasons are certainly part of my vegan lifestyle.

I generally try to eat local, organic whole foods. I'm lucky enough to live in a very vegan-friendly area (California, Bay Area), but this also means that there are lots of vegan temptations available!

I currently have some more free time since I finished grad school and changed my job, so I'm also looking to add more activities/exercise into my days. I like walking, hiking, yoga. I've started kayaking recently. I'm planning to begin running and biking, too.

I'd love to find some vegan Calorie Count friends for support!

I'm vegan! I cut all animal products out of my diet in October of 2007. I'd been a regular omnivore my whole life before then and decided to cut out animal products all at once. I initially switched for health reasons and suspicion that dairy was sabotaging my health, but then it turned into a more ethical decision after gaining more knowledge about the industry.

I have to admit that I occasionally indulge in very minute amounts of egg and dairy, so I guess I'm not technically a full-fledged vegan. I'm still fairly new to it though, so I'm working on it.

I've worked out on and off throughout my life and started going back to the gym in the beginning of April. I'm trying to lose about 40 pounds. I think my biggest hurdle is my love of liquor.