The Vivacious Vegan: Saving the Planet One Vegan At A Time

Care For Some Egg Whites With Your Veganism?

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When other vegans reinforce toxic perfectionism, then, the results can be devastating.

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We fail to appreciate the other as a whole individual, as we erase any parts or her or his activism or life that contradict our judgment. When vegans promote toxic perfectionism, they can create an excessive fear in other vegans and themselves of making mistakes. People who fear making mistakes are often people who end up doing nothing. Ours is a thankless job. As vegan activists, we often work tirelessly, for no money or for far less than we would otherwise earn, and we do so for no reason other than that we care. The animals cannot thank us, and never will. Our efforts are frequently invisible, ridiculed, or even fought against by the dominant culture, sometimes even by those with whom we are in the closest relationships.

Clearly, we feel assaulted by attacks.

But perhaps an even more insidious feeling is that of being deeply unappreciated, a feeling that can lead to despair. A desire for appreciation is not selfish or egotistical. It is a basic human need which, when not met, saps us of our motivation and inspiration. It would be tragic if vegans agreed on everything. Our diversity is our beauty, and our strength. However, the the way we disagree matters. It matters very much.

When we come together to discuss, rather than dispute, our differing ideas, we can enrich ourselves and our movement. In such a situation, we approach our disagreements with curiosity and compassion. We empower, rather than disempower, ourselves and our movement. Empowerment is the opposite of shame. Often we forget that underneath the role of CEO, author, speaker, etc. And we forget that our organizations are made up of activists who are people who care very much about the cause and the impact of the work they are doing.

What impact on animals do I hope this communication will have? So we need to continue talking, discussing, analyzing, and learning. But one thing is for sure: The most important way we can create a shame-free culture is to do everything in our power to take away the platform of those who shame. It is my hope that vegans will choose to become allies in creating a more compassionate and thus more powerful movement — to commit to creating a culture that is inoculated against shaming of non-vegans and vegans alike. To do this, we can create shame-free zones everywhere in our power: We can make a statement on our social media pages that we are committed to shame-free communicating, and then, non-judgmentally, if someone shares a hostile or demeaning remark, we can request that they share their concerns more compassionately and, if they do not, we can delete the post.

We can also speak to our conference organizers, meetup hosts, or organizational leaders when we notice shaming behavior being tolerated or encouraged. Most important is that we are not a bystander to harm. The majority of vegans are highly conscious, compassionate individuals who are deeply committed to personal integrity and social transformation.

So we have ended up as inadvertent bystanders, enabling a problem simply by not addressing it. Shaming damages our movement. As vegans, we do not have the luxury of oblivion; we cannot afford to simply gloss over hostile statements or ignore demeaning comments. We must do what we do best: We must examine not only that which we put into or on our bodies, but that which we take into our hearts and minds, and promote compassion over cruelty. However, the focus of this article is on the way we approach such questions, not the questions themselves.

So insightful and so very apt to read this right now as this has been on my mind so much over the last few months. This culture needs to end; it does nothing but damage. I myself have been part of this shaming culture and it does nothing but cause misery.

I strongly believe that it is vital that we people increasingly learn to reason through all our actions as well as our sub conscious impacts. This is so very important too. But I mostly thought as I read her article, that veganism is in my view, as I hope I continues to evolve and develop my ideas as a vegan, a BIG word.

I currently think that this is so because many things not associated with veganism in fact harm animals including people in that group biologically. Such things include for example the oil industry and our involvement with oil based products and our involvement with industries depending on toxic pollution! So I currently conclude, in agreement with Melanie Joy, that vegans have to develop their humility and compassion towards each other.

We are all a long way off being perfect if we chose to look. Life is not simple. This does not excuse our non-vegan actions I am certain most vegans have them if they really looked hard and fast at the different parts of their lives — I certainly do and can but gradually hope to eliminate them. In reality I am not at all, but it is my way to get to understand them, value them and even ideally to help them to start their journey to realising that non-veganism is not ok that is my view!

Any vegan attacking another vegan, must ask some questions about how they became vegan, how long did it take, and how vegan are they actually with a bit of extra analysis on the subject! I too was at that conference. The fact the organisers allowed the protestors to hijack their own 20 minute slot, makes it look acceptable to do this. I feel, as organiser, it would be my role to intervene. The timing of this article is spot on. Just yesterday some close friends of mine were shamed at a protest of which they were making a valuable contribution.

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They ended up leaving early feeling disillusioned and cast out. Part of the shaming culture, I think, is down to the internet. A lot of people separate their actual selves from their online selves. I think we all do this to some extent. Facebook and twitter etc. Flame wars can be infuriating, but ultimately something most people can walk away from back to their actual lives and forget. But for others, those very same exchanges can have a much more destructive impact. Thanks so much for writing it, Melanie, and to Tobias for sharing it.

Moreover, during the beautiful talk and documentary premiere given at the same time by founder of Indraloka Animal Sanctuary who arrived from US the auditorium was almost empty because of this shaming debate and people following the sensation and fights. It was really unfair and disrespectful. First thing I thought was that these so called protesters may have not been vegan or even activists at all.

Who in their right mind would be so disrespectful at a conference about empathy and compassion. What horrible role models. Personally, if I have issue with something or someone, I think, given the gravity of the work, it should be communicated to them in private. Too many looking for too much to say is wrong with the movement anyway. No reason to provide more fodder. You are using a light gray type on white background. Lose 10 lbs in 3 Days? The Secrets of Paleo Diet for Kids: Essential Natural Uses Of The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.

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The review must be at least 50 characters long. The title should be at least 4 characters long. Your display name should be at least 2 characters long. At Kobo, we try to ensure that published reviews do not contain rude or profane language, spoilers, or any of our reviewer's personal information. When I became vegan, I was living in my hometown which had a small population and small views. But, I do eat organic dairy and rarely some organic fish or chicken. My reasons for veganism were mostly issues with factory farms. That was also a tough one top explain to my little farming community.

Whoa, embarrassing typo above. At one time, veganism HAD to be synonymous with extremely healthy, because the only foods available for vegans were whole foods they would cook themselves.

He loves mock meats and loads up on things like mashed potatoes, bread and soy milk. Quite frankly, just the thought of eating like that, even if for only a weekend, makes me sick! Haha, I feel you on this Gena! Sometimes people tell me I can have milk because it is low-fat, or I can have the soup because it is only chicken stock, no meat, etc, etc, ETC! I can have a green juice and whole grain bread for breakfast…. I am not a vegan for health reasons at all, only for the animals, but I do like to eat fairly healthy a good portion of the time.

I think people have no idea and just think of a vegan as whatever their personal experiences have been. It could be a militant PeTA member, a tattooed person working at the co-op, or the nice friendly girl at the shelter. They just lump you in with it. I think it might be time for me to start thinking more raw…. I agree with the others, this post was dead on. Some vegetarians eat eggs, milk products or both. I know someone who claims to be a vegan in her eating, choice of clothing, etc. I myself was turned off by the Fuhrman followers because they come off to me as elitist and condescending.

So the confusion regarding food and food choices does not surprise me, nor does it annoy me. I think it is unfair to assume that people who ask or misunderstand are clueless or uncaring. I see it as an opportunity. If the mind is not healthy and manifests in an eating disorder, anxiety, etc. I totally know what you mean. We just gotta do what we do!

Eat Vegan Like Superstar Ariana Grande!

It depends on the person I think. It is always varied for me. Some knew a vending machine vegan. Some equate it with losing weight and health. And some are avid meat eaters that stare at me cross eyed at the thought of going one meal without meat. I remember trying to find flax oil at GNC and the lady said they were out but that they had fish oil which was better for me anyways. I just smiled and thanked her anyways. Everyone has their own opinion but I figure that at the end of the day, it is my body and therefore my opinion about what goes in it that counts. They are free to have their opinion about their body.

What an interesting post! Oh, I was very sweet. I get that question a lot as a vegetarian too. I get similar questions all the time, though as a vegetarian I do eat eggs. I was placed under particular scrutiny with respect to my vegetarianism when I began intensive outpatient treatment for my five year battle with an eating disorder.

Throughout the program, the rationale behind my vegetarianism was put under the microscope time and time again, especially as several others started the program as vegetarians and quickly changed their tune, citing vegetarianism as a part of their disorder. For some people, vegetarianism can easily be a front for restriction of entire food groups, but it is irritating when people lump all vegetarians or vegans into that category. Thank you for your thought-provoking post! When i first went vegetarian, i used to eat cheese puffs, blue cheese, iceberg lettuce, diet pepsi and oreos.

People really seem to find impossible to fathom that there are some of us that might be better than that, i guess. Gena, I love your blog. I am a frequent reader, but infrequent commenter. I view them more as a choice. But often, I think many people are not curious, and instead are simply translating it to their own lives.

This is my own two cents about why I think the topic of food becomes so passionate. You eat just that? However, there ARE vegans who are also really unhealthy. I feel kinda sad cos as vegans, we often tout the health benefits of our diet to animal-eaters, but really, my co-workers are not eating any better than the omnivores, with their emphasis on MSG-laden, salt-soaked, sugar-drenched vegan food.

I have an extremely fast metabolism, and I have to eat a lot to keep up. I am vegan for moral reasons not to torture animals. That question has been bothering me for a while..

People are so misinformed and prejudiced because they they assume rather than becoming educated. This is the problem. People turn the other cheek because they do not want to know. But in order to be a vegan, it takes much discipline and courage to look at what is really happening to animals. For me, it is purely for ethical reasons. And I love it because everywhere I turn, I am gaining more and more respect and love for all creatures. You know there is more out there than meat and dairy.

I used to be a vegetarian I was for about a year or so. Yes, I think many people are very confused when they hear a person is vegetarian or vegan. What I say now is, well, I do it for health reasons. Then since they usually no nothing about what a vegan is.. They have a protein count of a cup of beans and i like the them. No milk cept almond milk. I also try to eat healthy vegan, but my knees weaken at the pop.

They are not a food, full of chemicals, and water. Why not just drink water? Because I like the taste of pop, Root beer, orange, cream soda, coke, Dr. I strictly limit soy, as it disagrees with me so those substitutions work for me. Your email address will not be published. Leave this field empty. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Crafting a thoughtful, practical newsletter is part of that work! Each week, you can expect accessible recipes and links to thought-provoking articles.

These included, but were not limited to: Coffee delivery from one of my besties as I was working on Saturday morning.

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My first jog in over two long months. Hooray for the recession of tendonitis! I ran just under two miles in about thirty minutes, and I think a few octogenarians passed me along the way, but I could care less. Deep thoughts for a Sunday night. Comments I loooove this post! Sorry for writing a book with this comment, but your post really hits close to home for me!

Just…thank you for writing this. Yay for the tendonitis going away… hope you had a lovely weekend! I do believe it is a process Really excellent post and great discussion. And yes, I get asked if I eat fish too! Really great post, Gena! Hannah— In a word, no. Have a great Monday, Gena! Hi Gena, Hi from a loyal reader but rare commenter. Thought I would add my two cents.

I was JUST informed about that place and am now dying to go! So glad you liked it!

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