Background, or my journey to veganism.

Flashback almost five years. I was a lacto-ovo veg and enjoyed it. I live in WI how do you deal with out cheese, right? No problems with being a vegetarian, but people in Green Bay still thought it was weird. In retrospect, I probably was a pescotarian (I ate fish and seafood occasionally) but I didn't know any better.

For some odd reason, when we went on our honeymoon (Vegas Baby!) I decided that I needed to eat meat on vacation. I started with prime rib (bad idea) and continued on this rampage when I returned to Green Bay.

I have to admit, this made things much easier. People didn't say, "You don't eat meat?, well what else is there?" etc. I had no idea how much worse it would get ;)

Fast forward to April of 2006. I met some people from India, Bangalore to be exact. Many of them were vegetarian and I renewed my pledge. This time I didn't eat fish. Except that tuna, once. I was introduced to Indian food and I loved it. It was great. I had been a veg now since then. (I don't know if that was a sentence or not).

I should also point out that I own two dogs and foster dogs for a local rescue organization. Boxers and I love them. This also leads me into my veganism.

Through out the past year or so, I have been looking at PeTA and PeTA2s websites. I have been viewing the investigations. I also fell upon the Vegan Outreach http://www.veganoutreach.org/ and really understood what they were saying. Vegan Outreach is more about reducing suffering then listing a bunch of ingredients that I couldn't eat. I also viewed Compassion Over Killing's website, videos and photos (http://www.cok.net/). These videos are what really got me thinking about veganism.

I purchased Vegan Freak (By Bob and Jenna Torres) the beginning of February 2007. (http://www.veganfreak.com/) (IF YOU DON'T HAVE THIS BOOK, GET IT NOW) The authors recommended a plan for going vegan. Give yourself three weeks with no animal products. After the first week I was hooked. I related to the authors of this book and I wish I had them on speed dial or IM or something. This book literally made my transition to veganism as easy as it should be.

Bob's journey into veganism is very similar to mine in that we both looked at our dogs and said, "Wait, if a dog has these feelings, so does a pig, and a cow, and a chicken....how can we eat them?"

So here I am. A Green Bay vegan.

I have also began cooking, and I actually really like it. My favorite cookbook thus far is Vegan With a Vengeance, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. It rocks. She also hosts a public access show in New York called The Post Punk Kitchen. (http://www.theppk.com/). She rocks and I also wish I had her on speed dial. I have purchased a cast iron pan, and I made pancakes and Knish's from scratch. I also love scrambled tofu.

So there you have it. I am a vegan, in a pretty much non-vegan town. Maybe hilarity will insue!