I have been a vegetarian since i was 5. I became one at first because i didn’t want to eat the cows that i loved to look at in the fields ( i live in iowa), and then my mom became a vegetarian with me; 15 years later my whole family are vegetarians and even some of my extended family. I love being a vegetarian because i could never eat anything with a face and it is good for the environment. i would love to win a subsription to VegNews. My sister got a year subscription as a present two years ago, and didn’t renew it last year… i have missed all the amazing issues they make.

I’m a newbie! I have been a vegetarian for the past 9 nine months and I have never felt better! Since my conversion I have more energy than ever, am more mindful of my dietary intake, and I even shed a couple of pounds! It has been a win-win move if you ask me. My herbivorous transition came about one night when I was looking at the “meat” in my beef burrito and it was then that I contemplated the sad fact that my beef was once alive and moving not too long ago. I am an animal lover and a friend of the environment and I couldn’t think of a better way to lead a healthier and sustainable way of life than eating a vegetarian diet!

I’m still working towards being vegetarian. (Living in the NW, I just can’t give up the fish) I enjoy eating less meat because I know I am getting most of my nutrition from the sources that an American diet usually doesn’t allow. The thought of eating a living creature doesn’t comfort me as well as how they are treated to “make” the meat.

I am a vegetarian for 1 1/2 years now and have never felt better about myself. I find it very empowering and feel very enlightened. I will never turn back. I feel strongly that we have no right to use animals for food or shoes when there are such viable options!

I recently went back to my vegetarian diet earlier this year after a news story showed a downed cow being forced into the truck going off to the slaughter house by a pallet truck. I can’t imagine eating an animal after becoming more aware of the treatments of livestock in America.

I love VegNews and as a vegan I would love to win this contest! You are what you eat!

Wow! This looks great! And it would totally compliment my new vegan lifestyle. I wasn’t even really much of a vegetarian before i jumped into veganism about 3 months ago. Once I started reading about it, it seemed silly to not just go whole hog (pardon the expression). I love the new foods I get to try and avoiding things that are bad for me anyway. I feel fab and people are so interested about it that I get to have great discussions all the time. We veg*ns are the future so people better get used to hearing from us!

I am working towards becoming a vegetarian and possibly a vegan and am finding it somewhat hard. This prize pack would really help!

I love vegan cookies! Send them my way.

I’ve been a vegetarian for nearly my entire life and have been a vegan for the last five years. My two-year-old is also a vegan —and we love it because it keeps us healthy, gives us lots of energy, and is a delicious way to take care of the environment. We just took a batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies out the oven before we logged on—would love to try some of these cookies listed too! AND we LOVE VegNews!!!!

VegNews is awesome as far as mags go, i especially love the “Annual Veggie Awards” issue. Great fodder for my equally awesome vegetarian blog.

Neat giveaway. Good luck to everyone.

Missy.

P.S. I’ve been a veghead since March 2007, and my favorite part of being veggie is not supporting the horrid practice of eating animals. Peace.

I may as well clarify that I have been vegan for about 10 months (since all other contestants are stating how long they’ve been veg), so I don’t have all that much experience.
Yet my favorite part about being vegan (besides saving countless lives and resources) is the look people get on their face when I inform them that eggs are, in fact, chicken periods, and that in every glass of milk there’s a few drops of pus. They are instantly disgusted and say they’ll always think twice before consuming those products ever again.
It feels awesome to know that I’ve got them thinking about what goes into their food, even if they don’t stop eating animal products instantly. Vegan is the only way to go; for the animals, the people, and the environment, and I am proud to be a part of the movement in getting the word out.

For me, there are so many amazing things about being vegan, it’s hard to know where to start! First on the list, of course, is not being a willing participant in the harm/ enslavement/ torture/ slaughter of animals. Even when I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian, I thought that it was just better not to think about where cheese comes from. But, you know what? It turns out that I was wrong. It’s been a far better experience for me to educate myself about what’s really going on! It’s amazing how good you can feel about your choices when you know you’re making the ones that are right for you (and the animals!) based on the facts instead of trying to hide from reality. I’m finally living a life that’s in line with my values, not just turning a blind eye to the things I’d rather not think about. It’s tremendously empowering! I feel much better about myself than I ever did before, and I can walk out into a field and look a cow in the eye and not be ashamed. (BTW, the book that had the greatest impact on me was “The Food Revolution” by John Robbins. I also subscribe to the VegNews e-mail newsletter, which is an awesome source of updated info, as well, but I’ve never read the magazine.) Then there are the health and environmental benefits of being vegan, which I need not explain here. Everyone who’s ever read a book about it knows that this is clearly the way to go on those fronts! Some people think it’s weird or complicated to be vegan, and it’s totally not that way for me at all. It’s the most natural thing in the world, and I enjoy discussing it with interested people because it’s brought so much joy to my life. I bake vegan cookies and take them in to work or make dinners and have friends over- I love to share the experience with others and show people that vegan food is delicious! I think most people think of the transition to veganism from the standard american diet as cutting a bunch of foods out, but in reality it’s just making more room on your plate for amazing foods that you might otherwise never have tried!!! There’s so much variety in vegan ingredients- the options really are endless! The Standard American Diet is just plain BORING! Mix it up! Go vegan! =) Anyhow, I have gone on long enough. I have enjoyed this opportunity to share my experiences with you, and if anyone out there is still just thinking about becoming vegetarian or vegan, do it. Seriously. You’ll never want to look back, and the animals will thank you. =)

I’ve been vegan for over 5 years, and veggie before that. I can eat without guilt and sleep with a clear conscience. Being vegan is compassion in action!

i made the conscious choice to become a vegetarian when i was 14, my folks thought it was a faze. That was 20 years ago, and i have never gone back to eating meat or questioned my decision to stop. i have two children that are being raised vegetarian. We are not vegan, but we raise our own free range organic eggs. Our chickens are very loved and spoiled. This is a wonderful gift pack, and i would be honored to win it.

It’s not always easy being a vegetarian in a house of non-vegetarians… but the fun part is when slip in a meal that appears to have meat, but it’s soy- everyone is not only surprised they liked it, but also recognize immediately that they didn’t have that heavy, stuffed feeling.
Woo!

Quitting meat is harder than quitting smoking. I know, I did the latter last year and have been working on the former most of this year. I made the descision to start cutting back on meat and dairy after my son was born a) to lose the baby weight and b) to do whatever I can to make sure the world is still livable for his children and grandchildren. Eventually, my desire to cut back morphed into a desire to give it up entirely, but its pretty tough going. Especially since all of my extended family seems to think the food pyramid goes meat, then grains, then dairy, then fruit, then vegetable. I’m also in the military, and thats not exactly a vegetarian friendly organization. But I’m working on it, and I believe that I will some day be there.
VegNews has the best recipes. I probably shouldn’t be the one to win this, but I thought I’d comment jist to say thanks for all the inspiration and motivation Ecorazzi has given me this year to kick the meat habbit!

Animals have souls.

Since I don’t live in the USA, I’m not eligible for this gift. However I’d like to leave my testimony!

I have been a vegetarian for 11 years. Before that, I really, really, really loved meat (lucky me, I never got fat)! I could almost eat an entire barbecue chicken all by myself (sorry for the horrible picture…I know…looking back, uhhh…disgusting! ), and I loved shrimps… But from a very early age I was truly fond of animals and Nature in general…

The years went by and one day I met a vegetarian. She was very nice and I was a bit confused about that lifestyle. I asked her a few questions about it (I now find it very amusing, because people who meet me for the first time and realize I’m a vegetarian, get confused too)! A couple of years went by and my love for Nature, and animals in particular, grew bigger. I became an environmentalist…

One day I watched a documentary about the fishing of shrimps – they said that for every few shrimps that were captured, dozens of fish were thrown overboard already dead…Ok, that made me question a lot of things. Some time later I saw on the news how animals were dragged into small trucks (I can still remember the look in the eyes of that poor cow – submissive, helpless and resigned…). And that was it! Enough!

I said to myself: you have 2 options; you either stop being a hypocrite and assume that you really don’t love animals that much or you do really love and respect them and change your lifestyle! And so from that day forward, no more meat or fish!

Recently, about a year ago, I decided to take another step. No more eggs from stores – in our local markets there are still people who sell home-bred chicken eggs; the animals don’t live in tiny cages; on the contrary, most of the times they let them wander in the farm and so they eat natural food,- no more milk from cows (only soya milk) and just black chocolate (this was so hard ’cause I LOOOOOVE chocolate ). The only thing I still haven’t changed in my diet is cheese and this because where I live there’s no substitute for it. But as soon as I find one, cheese will be no more…

Right now I feel perfectly healthy and have no intention to go back…ever! Besides, the more people I know and the more I know people, the more I love and respect animals and Nature!

Oh… and if there are people out there who really want to know why we are all vegetarians and vegans, go to YouTube, write down ‘earthlings’ and watch (all the parts) the horrible truth about how animals are treated worldwide.
It’s damn intense and not many people are able to watch it, but it’s your choice.

You can either look the other way and pretend everything is super, like most of the ‘zombified’ humans, or you can face the truth (as hard as it may be), open your eyes and heart and take a step towards evolution!

Sorry, I’ve already written too much…it’s just that I love to write…;)

Thank you and blessed be!

I have been a veg for abut 10 years. People always ask me how someone can stay healthy if they don’t eat meat or drink milk. I wonder on the other hand, why a full grown human needs to suck on a cow’s teet for survival. I eat a variety of food, about every vegetable known to man, and I wish that restaurants would get more creative and offer more selections besides salad or an oil drenched portabello mushroom sandwich.
Pick me! Pick me! I love ABC cookies!

After I turned 30, I started to have trouble digesting meat. Then in 2001, there was the chicken-head incident at McDonald’s, and I said to myself, that’s a strong argument for vegetarianism. I also read “Fast Food Nation,” and it really got me thinking. One day, in January 2002, I was so disgusting with some wings I was eating, I decided to go vegetarian.

A few months later, after reading more stuff and learning of the dairy-veal connection, I decided to go vegan. I’m 40 now, and it was the best decision of my life. Living in a major city like I do, I almost have a built-in social group; there are plenty of veg*ans in the DC area. I also have discovered a love for cooking and baking (sometimes) and have learned to like vegetables I never did before. But I still won’t eat broccoli. Sorry.

But as I’m a subscriber to VegNews already, I want to shout out to all the newbie and wannabe veg*ans out there and give them my support. I think giving up meat is harder than giving up smoking (although I never smoked) because most people get support when they want to kick smoking and all smoking advertisements are in print. But you can’t watch a half-hour of TV without being exposed to an ad for some dead-animal product or other crap that results from animal exploitation.

I was a vegetarian for a long time, and am trying to transition back to veggie style after finding out about a ton of food allergies I had. Turns out I was allergic to a lot of the things I was using as veg staples: wheat, peanuts, and sesame being the big three.

Reading VegNews totally inspires me to keep making the changes to reduce my intake of meat. Yay!

i haven’t become fully vegetarian, but i can go days just enjoying my veggies & not missing the meat. giveaways rock!!!

what an awesome give away! i am a magazine freak!

this would be awesome…i’ve been wanting to subscribe!