Why do veg*ns keep track of...?

January 7, 2006 I smoked my last cigarette. (Many former smokers could tell you when they smoked their last cigarette.) A couple of months later, I ceased eating meat. I remember the last time I ate steak (and I think meat altogether) because my husband and I went to his favorite steak restaurant for his birthday, on his birthday. (I could barely eat it it as I felt guilty and disgusted.) Later that summer, I became vegan. I don't know when, just that it was still warm. I quit smoking and eating meat and getting more active because I was becoming educated and aware of what I was and was not doing to my body and what meat eating did and did not do to the earth I believe that God gave to us to care for. (I was raised being "green" before it was even a pop culture adjective. Becoming vegetarian, and eventually vegan, just went with that for me.)

As for the "veg*n" spelling, that is the word that covers both "vegetarian" and "vegan".

I can only speak for myself, and I compare it to an alcoholic giving up booze or a smoker giving up cigarettes. When I went veg, I kicked a lifelong (socially acceptable) addiction. Perhaps some of us do it the same way people on the wagon talk about how long they've been "clean".

I remember the date I went vegetarian--January 4, 2002. I just wish I could remember the date I went vegan; I only remember it was a few months later.

I have no idea of the date I went vegan and it was recent. People ALWAYS ask "how long have you been vegan?" I just went back to look at the question for advice I asked when I first started and it says about 10 months ago. So I go by that lol. I think it was around March 2010. But I was too focused on the animals and learning, I forgot to keep track of that I guess.

Most questions simply ask "how long have you been...". I remember simply because I was ten years old when I switched over to vegan eating, and that leaves very easy math for me to say "about 14 years". Do I remember what day/month it was? No. That's why I don't say (and I haven't heard anyone say) "14 years, six months and four days". This is not AA. We simply give estimations when people ask how long we've been vegetarian/vegan, because some do indeed wonder whether it is something that is maintainable for the long-term, or whether there are "road blocks" to deal with within certain time-frames of transitioning their diet.

I don't really "keep track" of it, I just know I went Vegetarian on November 1st, 2004 because it was on a bet to go one month without any meat--My grandma didn't think I could go one week without chicken and tempers escalated, so we made the bet, lol. I know I went Vegan in the Fall/Winter of 2009/10 'cause it was so recent. But I don't have an exact date for that as it wasn't an overnight thing.

I think some people keep track b/c it is an important date in their lives. Some people see it as a milestone.

Others keep track simply by coincidence. I for one know how long I have been vegetarian only because I know I quit meat sometime in the summer(I think August), and I was vegetarian while I had a certain job(I remember b/c everyone was very curious about it, and would ask a lot of questions). I know that I quit that job about 9 months later. I know know that I was vegetarian for nine months in one job, X amount of years through another job, and X amount of years in my current job. I simply add the time together.

I don't know the exact date, nor even the month, when I became vegetarian. All I know is it was when I was 14. However, I know when I became vegan, because it's so much more recent - a year and a half. I think things like that are significant because they are fairly life-changing decisions/events, that's why we tend to remember them. And also people ask you how long, often because they can't imagine going one day without eating animals and are therefore utterly dumbfounded that you have gone decades without eating animals and are still alive and healthy-looking.

I just remember the date I went vegetarian... June 10th 2008:) And I went vegan January 1st 2011 (not too long ago haha). I don't know why I remember, really. It was just a good day for me I guess :)

Why not?. It doesn't take that much. I cellebrate my veg aniverserys. Other people want to know how long you've been veg too.

some people like to celebrate dates, nothing wrong with that. it's kinda like birthdays, some people love them, some barely remember.