You Know You’re A Vegan When…
You can eat a vegan cupcake without gagging from the slight aftertaste a baked good can have that doesn’t have milk, eggs, or butter in it.
You get excited when you find meatless protein sources like Gardein chicken tenders that don’t taste like flavored soy but actually taste GOOD.
You plan ahead and pack your own meals and snacks when heading into hostile territory: a family gathering with carnivores who won’t think twice about whether or not ‘your food’ is present in abundance.
You don’t miss the pizza, chicken wings, oso bucco, spare ribs, corned beef, fried chicken, and all manner of culturally conditioned and factory-farmed garbage that you used to swill down with impunity.
You start explaining the ecological, environmental, spiritual, and physiological benefits of veganism to people who ask you about it.
You start bonding with tofu instead of dreading it as the cube of moon paste that doesn’t ever taste like anything unless and until you season the hell out of it.
You get giddy like a child meeting a movie star whenever you pass by a farmer’s market or a favorite specialty store or Whole Foods Market.
You enjoy the challenge of going to mainstream restaurants like Macaroni Grill or Bahama Breeze where you proceed to torture the server with the dietary zinger, “So I’m a vegan. Do you have anything for VEGANS?”
You go to the doctor two weeks after you started the vegan lifestyle and he wants to know what it is you are doing differently because all of your blood work-up numbers are vastly improved.
You start watching movies at home like “SuperSize Me”, “Food, Inc.” and “Forks Over Knives” and actually pay attention to, and enjoy them.
You catch yourself figuring out the light-bulb moment when you realize that being vegan doesn’t just mean with food, but with apparel and accessories produced from animal fur or as a result of animal suffering.
You begin identifying with famous vegans like Bill Clinton, Alicia Silverstone, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia DeRossi, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman and Russell Simmons and look to them for inspiration and motivation.
You get through a Thanksgiving without missing the turkey and sausage stuffing and a latin Christmas with no longing for the sweet ham or garlic-basted pork and are content to munch on a celebration roast and yucca with black beans and rice and a salad.
You realize people are coming to social gatherings at your house and bringing you vegan fare especially for you!
You look forward to the questions “You’re what?” and “You eat THAT?!”
You sit by the curb like a forlorn dog waiting for its’ master waiting for your new copy of VegNews to be delivered.
You wake up one morning and it is as easy and natural and right as the sustaining breath of life that flows through your lungs, seemingly effortlessly and without thought or preoccupation.
You go the cupboard or refrigerator and instinctively look for the foods you can eat and not the ones you used to eat.
You share the vegan lifestyle message with anyone who is interested to learn about it passionately but without prejudice.
You proudly greet each new day knowing you are going to make a difference and set your head down on your pillow at night easily, peaceful at having left the world better than you found it when you woke up.
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Repost Courtesy of Glenn Osrin, Miami Vegan Examiner, December 5, 2011
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