I had been vegetarian for a year or so before deciding to become vegan.
As a vegetarian, i already chose to consume soy milk over dairy, would not wear leather, & ate only organic free range eggs & organic animal rennet-free cheeses, yoghurts etc. I would forgo cheese when i ate out unless i knew it was animal rennet-free. I also did not consume cochineal, gelatine, etc.
I decided to become vegan when i realised that anytime i bought a premade or packaged food item (biscuits etc), or bought a vegetarian meal at a cafe or restaurant, i was most likely supporting factory farms, as i could not guarantee the source of their animal ingredients.
So it just seemed easier to become vegan & avoid all animal products, rather than worry about which ones came from more humane sources & which ones came from factory farms.
As a vegetarian, i didn't consume eggs as "eggs" too often - it was usually only "in" stuff, & i always baked vegan at home - so eggs were pretty easy for me to "give up". I didn't drink a lot of milk, & when i did, i was already consuming soy anyway, so - easy again! Chocolate wasn't too hard to "give up" either, because i didn't eat a lot of it anyway, & at that time Green & Blacks had a few yummy organic dairy-free varieties which were pretty easy to get my hands on it i wanted them (not now since Cadbury took over though *rolls eyes*).
Really the only thing i was worried about was cheese. I LOVED cheese. I used to have it on pizza, kebabs, but i really loved eating the "gourmet" hard cheeses as part of a mezze plate (which i now serve vegan sans the cheese & it's just as good! Turns out the best parts were vegan anyway
). At this point in time, i was also in treatment for an eating disorder (AN/EDNOS), so i was worried about putting any further restrictions on myself. I decided (bearing in mind my love for cheese, & my worries about how it might hinder my ED recovery) to give myself a one month "trial" of veganism, & see how i went - no pressure. It was good because by giving myself a month, i was giving myself long enough to really evaluate the whole thing, & by having a set time frame, it also didn't seem as daunting thinking that this was a "forever" thing.
At the end of the month, i found that "giving up" cheese hadn't really bothered me - that veganism was actually way easier than i thought, even with my love of cheese! So i decided to continue eating a vegan diet - no pressure, no timelines, just a "see how it goes" type thing - & here i am almost two years later, & i can't imagine life any other way!
And i suppose i went about my decision in a kind of "backwards" way, in that i didn't really know anything about the continuous cycle of pregancies/births/deaths in the dairy industry, until well after i became vegan. Now, having learned that, if i ever had to choose, i would rather eat beef than consume dairy. Of course i would never wish to do either! But i now realise that dairy cattle face everything that beef cattle do (slaughter etc), but with a horrible life of abuse for themselves & their babies beforehand.
As i said, i can't imagine life any other way now - veganism has only enriched my life, as i feel like only now am i living in accordance with my true values. Only now can i truly feel good about what i am eating, knowing that i am not causing any harm (knowingly) to another living being - really, it is amazing how much "lighter" i feel! It's also helped me in my ED recovery too! And my dietitian is super supportive
I absolutely LOVE cooking now, which is something that i learnt through my veganism, & it has helped me to become much more knowledgable about food & what i put into my body - i am so much healthier now than i was as an omni (or vegie even!). And with food like this:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78650&id=714087209&l=e6cdc25a9e, & this:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176497&id=714087209&l=1ef6fa8677, i am hard pressed to find any negatives in my lifestyle choice!
