Back in the good days, aka the 2015 era, when veganism was thriving and blooming, we couldn’t see the eruption that would begin just a few years later.
It felt so sudden, all these vegan influencers and even advocates would start posting videos with (totally) non-clickbait titles like “Why I am no longer vegan” and “Telling the whole truth about why I’m not vegan”. You know, stuff that makes people who hate vegans click, salivate and cum at the same time.
There were months when I remember feeling like everyone was going back to animal exploitation. What the fuck was happening? What is in the water?
The more I looked into it, and the more commentary and response videos I watched by my fellow advocates, the more it started to hit me. It wasn’t just that they were in it for the money, and when the money dried up, they wanted to branch out, gathering and hunting new brands. Some of them actually did make mistakes, but the biggest one was blaming veganism for their own failure.
Not everyone was out there chasing more fame, more attention, more clicks; some did try, and I want to focus on them. Not because I don’t believe they were stupid and perhaps subconsciously waited for the perfect moment to quit, because I do believe they were stupid and subconsciously waited for the perfect moment to quit, but because someone reading this might struggle with the same shit and they might not be stupid.
This is for you.
I picked my favourite excuses and my favourite mistakes they made, and looked at my own path to see if I can relate and speak from personal experience. And if there was nothing to relate to, I used the wisdom from seeing people around me make it work after facing similar challenges.
Let’s dive in and look at what mistakes to avoid to stay vegan forever:
- Making veganism and animal rights the only things you care about.
The problem:
When you wake up with animal cruelty in your mind, and you go to sleep with all the animal abuse and exploitation on your brain, you’re not actually doing anything. You’re thinking about the worst kind of injustice in the world, and your mental health is suffering, but nothing is changing.
Or, all you talk about is veganism and how to be the veganest of all vegans. It is the only thing you talk about, the only thing you think about, the only thing you do and wish to do.
Both are unhealthy because they border on obsession, even addiction to the anger and depression that comes with it. It is a philosophy, a moral code, an ethical stance, but it’s not a religion, and you don’t have to study a holy book and attend church every week. You’re not asked or encouraged to change the entire life you’ve built and dedicate it to one cause.
The solution:
Build a holistic lifestyle where the vegan philosophy is just one part of what makes your life beautiful and fulfilling. Imagine living wholeheartedly, giving because you love to give, and advocating because you feel called to advocate.
When you approach activism or advocacy from a place of certainty, basically, knowing who you are, what you stand for and what you desire to see in the world, you will be successful. People can sense passion, and it’s different from obsession or addiction.
When you’re telling others about animal rights, and it is a part of your life, not your entire identity, you will actually be joyful. I remember watching an activist back in my early days, and she would often cry in her videos and beg people to stop killing other animals. Being an abolitionist myself, I completely relate, but she quit and took a break eventually, and I didn’t.
You don’t want to cry and be desperate with other people who think like you. You want to actually approach non-vegans. You want them to see you and be interested in what you have to say. Sobbing and begging are not going to do anything, because we are talking about animal rights here, and if this approach works about “saving the children”, this is different.
Live your life, enjoy your hobbies, and bring veganism into all of them in the healthiest way possible, because veganism should be seen as a way of life, not a religion, and many of you are doing exactly that.
- Taking your health too seriously and becoming orthorexic.
The problem:
I think most of us remember hearing about that one ex-vegan who drank his own piss, and then later forgot about it and claimed his health was worse due to not eating meat. It was a joke for such a long time, because he wasn’t the only one who tried “urine therapy”.
These health-focused vegans, who were plant-based and not even vegan, are despicable because they used the animal rights movement to promote their unhealthy ideas and lifestyles. Eating a whole food plant-based diet is one thing, but they would, as mentioned, drink their own piss, starve and detox their bodies, so, again, starve, only consume fruits or uncooked plants, or do all these crazy drug retreats. None of it was vegan, but they put a label on it, and we had to go with it.
No shit, people won’t want to learn about veganism when you’re out there posting about only eating apples for a week and replacing pasta with fucking zucchini. You can do that, but it’s a diet that has nothing to do with the V label, and it angers me how it used to represent any person who ate tofu now and then.
The solution:
You should take care of your health; this is not up for debate. Health is wealth, and I’m sure everyone knows this in their bones. If you’re stuck in a hospital, it doesn’t matter what’s happening in the world, because you can’t even go to the toilet by yourself.
Without health, you can be wealthy with the best partner and perfect kids, and you won’t be able to enjoy any of it. And even though your genes, luck, and the environment you’re in play a role, you can control a big part of it.
Doing the basics, like moving your body daily, not smoking and drinking (or doing any other drugs), keeping up with your vaccinations, eating plants, and going on regular checkups with your doctors, are all you need. You don’t have to starve, eat mushrooms with every meal, or drink bodily fluids. Those are just bad choices.
Just do what you already know you should be doing.
- Being vegan because it’s trendy, popular and a sudden interest.
The problem:
In this day and age, I’m honestly never sure who is doing anything for honest reasons or because they want the attention and to feel important. People are following propaganda and believing in conspiracy theories just because they want to feel like they know the truth. No one wants to be an outsider, seen as the odd one.
I remember this self-help/business guru (very popular!) who, many years ago, suddenly went vegan overnight. As a sharp marketer, she was on one of the biggest plant-based podcasts in her first months of being vegan! She would attend conferences and pose with famous doctors, and tell people how she cares about other animals so much. I knew right away she would fail, just like I knew Alex O’Connor would not stay long, but that is a topic for another post.
They wanted in on the trend, felt like they could use their talents and platforms to get more followers and opportunities, but soon realised it’s not just a sexy trend, but an actual moral duty, an ethical stance. Once it got hard, and they got what they wanted, they quietly dropped it and moved on to the next trend.
The solution:
My reason for going vegan and becoming an advocate for animal liberation has been a photo I saw on Tumblr, back in early 2014. I was in the middle of preparing a presentation on the topic of animal welfare (think why zoos are bad and why fur is a no-no), when I stumbled upon animal rights. It was not attractive and shiny and sunny. It was sad and cloudy, and there was so much fucking blood everywhere!
I started blogging right away to share what I learned, but 12 years in, I still have not gotten my big break. Because my mission has always been advocacy and the famous “saving the world” cliche. Don’t get it twisted, as someone who is in love with anything related to business and marketing, I’m not opposed to making money, but it has to be built on something honest.
Vegans who are out there writing books, coaching and earning while being advocates for animal rights, have based their ambition on justice, while many people go vegan because they can post cute photos of bunnies and lambs, and pose with colourful veggies, looking healthy and glowing.
We are talking about a moral philosophy, not something you can change when the algorithm changes. I mean, you can, but it was never real, and you’re not a trustworthy person when it comes to any other moral issue in society.
- Assuming every health problem is due to a lack of animal products.
The problem:
This is the most common excuse people give when quitting being a moral human being. “It was just making me sick”. “I was ill the entire time, and I actually thought I was dying”. “My health improved after taking one small, teeny-tiny, almost microscopic bite of salmon”.
The second they started coughing, or they had a mild headache, or even saw their iron levels drop, the first thought was “I must go to a naturopath and be told I must eat flesh”. I wish I were joking, I really do, but 95% of them (and this is me being incredibly generous with the percentage) didn’t go to an actual medical professional, and claimed with their whole chest that after taking one bite of flesh, their health improved.
I had something like that happen to me after I was sent to the emergency room, after my blood tests came back showing severe anaemia. Three doctors told me to start eating meat (before any tests were done!!!), but I knew there was something else, and I was right (read here).
If I were consciously or subconsciously looking for a reason to start eating non-human animals, I would be happy that three medical professionals told me I must stop, but I knew what I ate, and I knew my body. So after many tests, we found the problem(s), and now, a year and a half later, we are still solving them, but none were about my plant-based diet.
The solution:
The solution is simple. You notice the symptoms, go to your doctor and ask for blood tests, ultrasounds, CTs, MRIs, all the necessary and available options. In the end, you will have two possible answers.
Either you learn that the cause of your illness was something entirely unrelated to what you eat, so you can move on and focus on fixing what’s wrong.
Or you learn that it is your diet, and you find solutions to the problem that do not require you to start drinking cow’s milk and eating pig’s meat. That means supplements, improving your diet and maybe working with a nutritionist or simply reading a book or two, talking to a doctor on how to solve it, and if they are assholes, finding a better one who knows that veganism can be healthy if done correctly.
Many doctors are uneducated on the topic of nutrition, and as you can read, I know from my personal experience that at least three Slovenian doctors are deeply brainwashed by the propaganda. I could listen to them, even though I knew in my bones and heart and spleen that anaemia came from something else, and stop being vegan, or I could do what I did. Stand firm when telling them that I know what I eat, and that the issue is unrelated. It took some time, but I was proven right, because I know what I eat and I know I am doing it well.
Now that you know, you can do better and focus on solving what needs to be solved.
Animal liberation is not something you pick up as a hobby to practice on Saturdays or when you’re bored. It’s a deeply ingrained moral and ethical code that you live by. Yes, it has a name, but it’s not different from not being racist or not being antisemitic.
You’re living according to your values of equality and justice. So if you don’t have days off for being prejudiced against other humans, you shouldn’t have days off for being a speciesist. And since the only reason we believe we are superior is that humans came up with certain rules that dictate who has more value and worth, but there is not a single piece of evidence in nature that human supremacy is justified.
While I agree, being vegan in a non-vegan world is much more difficult than not being an antisemite in our society (although this is changing, but let’s not go there), it is not impossible. You just have to want to create a plan that makes it sustainable, healthy and good.
Tanja
