From hardcore meat-eater to vegan

I came to the conclusion that I needed to eat vegan as a suggestion by my naturopath. The pain from my gallstone attacks had become truly horrendous but I am reluctant to have my gallbladder removal – HOW SEXY! Oh God!

This hardcore meat-eater, who used to be sure it was better to be dead than living without meat, arrived to the conclusion that at almost 40 and having gained 108 pounds after quitting smokes. This not a joke. My doctor, insisted that I, for the first time after years of going there, jump on the scale. He told me "congratulations, you are not fat... you are now obese"... I will truly die and I won't be happy if I die with a steak in my mouth! What do I have to lose if I give it a shot one month?... I mean worst case scenario, I run and buy a steak in case of emergency...

After one full week of eating vegan, not vegetarian but VEGAN! I started feeling so energized, happier, lighter and my cheese and meat cravings totally disappeared. I lost 12 pounds this month, I was never hungry or unhappy, and as a gourmet, I treated myself to a few vegan restaurants and I invented amazing concoctions such as my own "Leon's Explosive Orgasm Kick-Ass Kale". By the way, I've never tried kale before and I found it truly delicious... I don't consider myself a vegan or vegetarian yet, but I will do my gallstone flush until the end which will take a year and from there, I will draw conclusions. I also have many thoughts about animal treatment conditions which finally I got to think about, as I always just thought about human suffering.

– Leon, age 30-44, Toronto
Winner of top story from those who signed up at the Food Fair. There were five finalists and we randomly selected his story from among them. Congratulations also go to: Leah, Rickesh, Maria and Brandy.

I signed up and became vegan for a week

I attended the Vegetarian Food Fair with a friend of mine and a fellow at the vegetarian booth ask us if we thought that we would be able to eat vegetarian. I answered yes, without any hesitation, but my friend did not know if she could do it. He told us about the Vegetarian Challenge and asked us if we would like to participate. I signed up and became a vegan for a week. I started immediately and have continued for the week. I still have not eaten any meat.

On Sunday, I went to the Downsview Market and bought a lot of fruit and vegetables. I made a big pot of vegetable soup with beans and ate some at several meals. I also made ratatouille, vegetarian chili and stir fry. I ate all my meals at home except for lunches at work. I made peanut butter and jam sandwiches and sandwiches with Yves products. I like their patties and ground round a lot. I also took leftovers for lunch, which I call "planned overs." When shopping I checked for the "parve" certificate on products, which ensures they contain no meat or dairy and read the labels carefully.

I looked forward to the Veggie Challenge e-mail messages every day and was especially interested in the recipes. I plan to try some of them.

I got positive comments from people who knew I was taking the Challenge, but most wanted to know why I was participating. I told them that I believe it is a healthy lifestyle and that because I love animals – eating anything with a face was becoming more difficult for me.

Thank you, Veggie Challenge, for giving me the incentive to try the vegan way of life.

– Sharon, age 45-64, Toronto

The Challenge has helped me a lot!

I feel that the Veggie Challenge has helped me a lot in my transition to become more conscious about my food choices and lifestyle choices. Receiving support and help everyday through email has proved to be very useful and effective in my quest for true vegetarianism. The Veggie Challenge has enabled me to make a start in my journey, and through their constant help I am able to easily make a change for good. The recipes (even those that tie in with Thanksgiving) were extremely helpful. The fact that those recipes are not only nutritious and vegetarian, but delicious as well, made all the difference. I am very impressed with all the nutrition info, as well as all the myth-busting about meat and vegetarianism. Everything I needed is all included in one email everyday, and I couldn't have asked for more. Thank you TVA!

– Yvonne, teen, Toronto

It's wonderful to be able to share the Challenge with family members

Three of my children became vegetarian a few years before I did, the oldest becoming vegan about a year ago. Two were older (17 and 23), and I let them fend for themselves. But when my 10-year-old decided to join his brother and sister "in their quest to save the earth," I only allowed him to cut out all meats except fish because I was concerned about him meeting his dietary requirements and my ability to provide for him on a busy schedule. I began cooking more and more meals to cater to him, and by Christmas I was cooking no meat at all (except fish).

This fall I took my step-daughter, my 16-yr-old son, and the now-11-year old to the Vegetarian Food Fair. It was a great day! Fabulous to be surrounded by so many vegetarians! So much information, celebration, and positivity. Three of the four of us took the Veggie Challenge, and at that point we cut out the fish. Not as hard as I thought it would be.

All the e-mails and links you sent us were incredibly helpful and supportive. In the time between the Food Fair and the Bake-Off, my 16-year-old wrote an editorial about vegetarianism for his English class, my 11-year-old wrote a paragraph about the rainforests, and my own tendencies, as we headed into the Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off, started leaning toward veganism.

I had seen the poster for the Bake-Off at the Food Fair. I knew I could do it! So I entered my lemon poppyseed cake in the bake-off with astounding results!*

It's all very new, really, but I can say it's wonderful to be able to share this with family members, and it really feels liberating.

Thank you for all you do!!

– Maria, age 45-64, Kettleby, ON

* Maria's lemon poppyseed cake won first prize in the cake category of the Vegan Bake-Off.  Congratulations! Her prize was a VegNews subscription, Front Door Organics food box, New Moon Cookies, Big Carrot cloth bag, and Sick on Sin pins. Below is a photo from the event.

Fall is the perfect time to start

I started in the fall. I wanted to be thinner by 10 lbs. I joined Bickram yoga and lost 2 lbs in as many days. I was feeling good and wanted to extend my experience. Your flyers were at the class and I decided to challenge myself further.

Fall is the perfect time to start with all the wonderful vegetables at the local produce market. I have no problem eating vegan and will continue. The only thing is I have always loved chicken soup and I will need an alternative for that.

My husband likes his meat and fish but eats less now that I don't want it. He is Spanish and so we eat a lot of beans, oatmeal, corn salsa and avocados anyway.

Thanks for the Challenge.

– Sandra, age 45-64, pickering, ON

My husband and boys got in on the act

I have no idea how I came across this Challenge but I'm glad I did! I was reading Alicia Silverstone's book ''The Kind Diet'' and then decided to look for recipes on the internet and fell upon this Challenge!

When I mentioned it to my husband he wasn't too thrilled (it had a little to do with his ''man cold http://frantichomecook.com/2008/03/man-cold/'' at the time!) The next day he was super supportive and ready to join in on the Challenge! We have two boys, 2 1/2 yrs old and 13 months old so it was a change for all four of us! The boys love tofu (I made it before the Challenge) and we got to change the weekly menu up and venture into new recipes which was a lot of fun!This is going to stick!!

Thanks for the Challenge and awareness!

– Marnie, age 30-44, Ste Marthe sur le Lac, QC
Sep/Oct 2009 story winner (random draw)

It was a very exciting and challenging week

Overall this vegetarian challenge was very helpful for me, I had always wanted to try to be vegan, however I had never had the motivation to do so. The information that I received was very helpful for me to continue my goal of going vegan and eating only from plant based food sources. At times this Challenge was difficult, for example my boyfriend loves when I cook for him and when I decided to go completely vegan he became frustrated and did not want me to force this upon him as well. Other then that, it was a very exciting and challenging week. While still very easy, it took me a few days to really get going but once I started I never looked back.

Update: Several weeks later

I personally loved phase 2 of the Veggie Challenge, I thought that it was exactly what I needed to stay motivated with my choice of eating vegan. I thought that the meal plans were a great help when it came to trying to find simple but tasty meals. The week to week meal plans helped me find inspiration and try my own recipes.

I got my family involved by making them an entire vegetarian meal one Sunday night. Overall they were really impressed with the way it tasted and how filling it was. This was a great opportunity to enhance my knowledge and stay on track!

– Stephanie, early 20's, Pickering, ON

Off and on vegetarian

I've been an off and on vegetarian for years. Went to meat after a bout of severe cancer when I couldn't gain weight and became faint and weak when I felt hungry even for a few minutes.

Now that I feel better, I want to go back to a vegan diet, but I find it challenging going to restaurants because there is always a lot of dairy or meat in every dish. There are only a couple of affordable restaurants that I can go to. I want to expand my vegan restaurant options.

Another big challenge is that I can't have garlic and onions and everyone puts that in every dish as though there are not 100 spices and other flavors available on earth. To top that off, I don't like spending time in the kitchen.

– Leslie, age 30-44, Toronto