Vegetarians: What did you think about vegetarians before you became a vegetarian?

i thought they were all hippies. now i feel bad for being so stereotypical!

I decided to go vegetarian in third grade. My parents weren't too happy! (No one in my family is a vegetarian.) I'm now in sixth grade and I just went vegan. So it took me three years. I don't think I would've been ready to go vegan earlier than I did. Vegans can all say how easy it is to be a vegan and get protein and everything, and it is if you're ready. If you go vegan unprepared, it just won't work. (People will probably thumb me down for that, but I'm just saying what I feel as someone growing up vege/vega with no support.) When I went vegetarian, it was weird for the first, say, half a year. Then it became routine. I have a feeling it will be about the same for veganism. So, if you just went vegetarian 40 days ago, you're probably right that it would take you 5 months or so to realistically consider becoming a vegan. Good Q!!!!

I'm a vegan, but I'm going to answer anyway.

I remember last year - when I was a pro hunting meat eater - I watched a documentary on BBC Three which showed meat slaughter, and it had a bunch of people go see the animals killed in a glass room (I've seen it before, it wasn't anything shocking), and there was a vegan there. I remember being kind of intimidated by the things she said, because she was really confident. I became vegan a few months after that.

When I was 13, my (meat eating!) friend made me watch a lot of PETA videos, and vegetarianism became the obsession of our group. We were sort of the popular group, so it caught on throughout our year. Loads of people used to lie about being vegetarian.

Veganism was the coolest, but the most anybody ever managed was about a week.

And before I was a 9, I didn't like meat, and neither did my family so I was a vegetarian.

So vegetarians have always been 'normal' for me, even though I live in England. I respected how they could do something I didn't have the willpower to do. I just didn't make the effort to really feel passionate about their reasons.

I grew up in a family where not eating meat was different and weird. So really, I never really thought about vegetarianism/veganism at all.

I have to say that I LOVED meat, and I would just leave the vegetables on the plate to be cleared away at the end.

But then I saw a duck being killed in front of me and I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about two weeks but I didn't do any research and got so horribly sick so I ate meat again without thinking about it. From then I was sort of, "That's amazing, that people can not eat meat! I could never stop eating it, I would die!" (I was about 10 years old)

Fast forward about 3 and a half years, I sat at the computer surfing websites and came across the "meet your meat" video. For the rest of the night I just cried my eyes out and found veganism as an alternative to a diet including animal products. I did my research and went vegan over night.

It's been about 8 months now, and I'm so glad that I found out then and not later.

:-)

I became vegetarian when I was 12, and I heard about other vegetarians only once before that. I was curious, because I always felt bad about eating meat. Seeing someone else being a vegetarian, and doing it great made me believe I can do it, too.

Well I wanted to be a vegetarian when I was like 8 years old. I didnt know what a vegetarian even was at that age. People told me they only ate vegetables or that poultry was an acception and all different stuff. When I switched back to eating meat I thought any vegetarian was awesome and eventually I switched back to vegetarian,now vegan. Its not that my family was unsupportive, my mom took me to a nutrionist but of course I didnt like that protein shake. My dads family didnt understand what vegetarians really were obviously and the confusion led me back to meat eating, remember I was a kid and didnt know much of thinking for myself. Good question =] Hope you like my answer!

I always thought that they were really cool. I have always loved animals, but when I was younger I never felt strong enough to give up all meat. I ate all meats as a child, then went vegetarian for a year when I was eight, then back to eating white meat, then pescatarian, then back to white meat, then to vegetarian, and now vegan. Best decision ever, never going back.

When I was little if I found out someone was a vegetarian, my respect for them went WAAAYYY up. And when i found out someone was vegan, I automatically assumed that they were the coolest person ever. And I wondered what they ate, and why they took such an extreme approach.

I wish everyone saw vegetarians and vegans as people to be respected, but, alas, it is not so... :(

wow great question!

well i only met one vegetarian in my whole life before i became one (probably they kept it secret).. that was 5 years ago ( i didnt even know what vegetarian meant until that day that i saw a section of food for them so i asked) so when i was told what i was, i only thought "oh wow i could never do that, i love meat so much" lolllllllll AND NOW I AM!!! hahahahah.. oh but when i thought of that the only thing i was thinking about was the "taste", the idea of animals being slaughtered NEVER crossed my mind!!!!!!!!! never never.. then i saw the video meet your meat and thats when i changed

well actually before watching that video (which someone sent me here in yahoo answers) i got curious and began searching through the vegan/vegetarian section and asked a few questions.. it grew my interest........ and since im studying dietetics i LOVE nutrition and that was another reason why i was so attracted to this way of eating

I used to think their diet was very limited, when in fact I was the one eating the same foods over and over. Since becoming a vegetarian I have tried and enjoyed so many new foods!

at first i thought it was kinda stupid, because i liked the taste of meat and i was afraid of overly processed food products like fake meat (which i assumed vegetarians had to eat all the time), also i thought the only reason to do it was some sort of denial of mortality complex in which you dont understand that animals die. then gradually over time i wised up, i learned about how it helps the environment by using less land- that was a big step toward becoming one, and i learned about factory farming and all the negative thing associated with that, and when the time came i was ready to quit eating meat, and i havent looked back.

I've never not been one, so I don't really know...all the same I still think some veggies are strange for only doing it 'to get thin' (even though this obviously doesn't work) or to be cool, since it seems to be a fad. It should be for the animals!!

Though I really admire vegans, I could no way go without chocolate or cheese...plus just about everything has hidden animal substances in!