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Integral Veg*n

Where people can come together and talk about vegetarianism & veganism in an integral and comprehensive way, practically, personally and philosophically. What does it mean to eat, to cook, to consume? With what do we nourish ourselves and how do interact with the world and its creatures?

This pod is meant to be inclusive of vegans, vegetarians,...(more)
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Say hello and welcome other veggie people to our Group. Tell us a bit about you and your veggism.
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~KES Welcome new members... Introduce yourself and add something to each room so we can share ideas and healthy Veg'n!!! (9 months ago)
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  Jenny : Sparkle

Another veggie

Jenny said Jun 19, 10:24 PM:
 
Hi there,
I'm a vegetarian and have been for 17 years now (more than half of my life). I've grown up with vegetarian parents who experimented with various diets and bought organic food exclusively (they still do). Until I went to high school they cooked macrobiotic mostly (my dad did, he is the one cooking in my family). So as a kid, sea weed, tamari, sesame “salt”, miso etc were familiar cooking ingredients and seemed total “normal” to me. I guess my grand-mother provided some balance to that by cooking traditionally German (“rheinisch”) food for me and my sister. My parents have never forced us to be vegetarians so we were allowed to eat meat and there was even a time when my sister and I insisted they cook it for us and they did. I have never liked meat much though so giving it up at age 15 came only natural. Two years later, also at age 15, my sister followed as well. So the only ones in our house still eating exclusively non-vegetarian were our cats.

I had after several years of having been a lacto-ovo vegetarian gone back to including seafood in my diet (although I rarely ate it), so have my parents, by the way. But a few weeks ago I decided to ban sea food once again and let's see how it works. It was actually after preparing fresh shrimps here in Sri Lanka which tasted yummy but left me totally disgusted because preparing them made me realize more that these were actually living beings that I decided to go back to lacto-ovo (meaning dairy and eggs are included in the otherwise purely vegetarian diet). I felt that if I am disgusted preparing something, I should be disgusted eating it, too (I usually never prepared seafood myself but only had it when eating out).

I'm not a radical vegetarian but for me it's what works. :)
And I love cooking and eating so I'll be happy to join in the discussions around these topics!
  HummingBird : Joy

Re: Another veggie

HummingBird said Jun 20, 5:48 AM:
 

Welcome Jenny! And thank you for sharing your personal journey with us - its always interesting to hear how people became vegetarians

love
  dancingdeer : Light Dancer

Re: Another veggie

dancingdeer said Nov 23, 4:57 PM:
 

Dear Jenny,

I appreciated reading about your veggie journey! I'm always fascinated when people have grown up with veggie habits because I definitely was in a household where sodas, fast food, and little debbie cakes were the order of the day. Partly this was because of my parents knew from their lives, and also because of money. I feel very privileged now to buy organic food and wish more people had access to it on a regular basis.

How did you feel growing up? Healthy? Balanced physically? Looking back I had a lot of headaches and was very sensitive to the heat - I wonder how much an incredible intake of sugary, processed foods affected me. Now I do not have headaches on a regular basis and generally feel healthier. I began the veggie path about two and half years ago. It was surprisingly easy after growing up on a completely different regimen - no cravings except for sugar at times (and then satisfied with “medicinal” dark chocolate;). Veggie life works for me as well.

I would love to raise my children with a vegetarian diet. And your post confirms this calling!

Blessings,
Dancing Deer
  ~KES : Communicator

Re: Another veggie

~KES said Nov 29, 1:51 AM:
 

Thanks for continuing this thread! It helped move me to get into high gear once more. We have gone through periods of sugar too and its good to know that it may be one of those toxic substances the body may get headaches over as well as other things. It definitely gives unpredictable moods. I too have learned that veggies and fruits are much better…as I am eating a sliced orange just now… trying not to get anything on the keyboard :-) it really is a treat to share and gain the new disciplines.

One thing I do with fruit & veggies for kids is make happy faces on the plate and tell stories to give them a pleasure moment for the future and it seems to work.  If nothing else, it makes for good family time in developing new habits.