What is “The Joyful Vegan”?
May 16, 2007 by joyfulvegan
Welcome to The Joyful Vegan: Stories of Transformation. As the founder and director of Compassionate Cooks, through which I teach vegan cooking classes; sell my cooking DVD, cookbook, and recipes; write extensively; and produce a podcast, I have the privilege of hearing from countless people who have become awakened to their own values of compassion for animals and who recognize that being vegan is a powerful means for preventing animal suffering and cruelty. Most everyone who learns about the unspeakable cruelty perpetuated against animals on our behalf often experiences denial, then anger. But what most don’t realize - and can’t until you go through this experience yourself - is that what comes next is beyond what anyone could have prepared you for. The sense of freedom, of empowerment, of joy that comes with knowing that you are no longer part of that violence is indescribable.
Once the lens through which you see the world changes, nothing is ever the same again, and I believe that in order to stay humble, we need to remember our story. We need to remember where we were and how we got to where we are now. At the same time, in order to feel supported, respected, and understood, I believe that we need to connect with other like-minded folks, as we navigate through a world that champions animal cruelty as a social norm and looks with suspicion and derision upon those who reject cruelty and violence.
Sharing our story with each other validates our own experiences and helps us see that we’re not alone - that many others go through the same feelings of pain, disbelief, anger, joy, relief, and frustration.
This blog is for all of you. I invite you to submit your stories of transformation: what your tipping point was, how you made the decision to become vegan, and what the experience has been like since you made the change. Your stories of transformation will inspire others to find their own voices and to recognize themselves through your stories.
For the animals, both human and non-human, I thank you for participating in this project.
~Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Founder and Director
Compassionate Cooks
http://www.compassionatecooks.com
Colleen:
You are wonderful! Thank you for posting my story; I really get a feeling of belonging when I read about the experiences of other vegans and see my own views mirrored in their statements. If you decide to run for President, please give me a little advance notice so I can get American citizenship in time to vote for you.
Hi, Colleen. Thank you for inviting me to share my story with you. Actually, it’s OUR story; my 15-year old daughter and myself. Your podcasts inspired us to become vegan forever. We were horrified by the videos and the sad reality of these industries. Please continue to spread the word, my friend.
My husband continues to eat meat, while we’ve been vegan since February. It started as a way to give up something for Lent, and we have never looked back. It was a “safe” time for us because we were giving up something. Once my husband realized we were serious past Lent, the pressure began.
“You’re one of those PETA people!” he accused early on. He even went the “why do you care for animals over children?” routine, which you so astutely brought up as a common misperception in one of your podcasts.
Jessica and I weathered the “storm” with my husband, who has now lost weight due to the vegan dinners I prepare. Earlier in the spring, I wrote you a letter stating my despair and grief over the reality of what’s happening out there. Jessica and I continue to share our thoughts with others, and it is simply amazing how many respond over time.
I love your name, Compassionate Cooks, because you are not only compassionate to our animals, but also to those who are still in the dark about this reality. It is YOUR COMPASSIONATE APPROACH that has been needed for quite some time, so others can be reached. The overwhelming response to your podcasts, myspace and websites, I’m sure, are a testimony.
Lastly, please know what made me vegan, besides the obvious…I didn’t know that I could literally survive without meat. Thank you for helping me understand that this was a lie I was told many years ago..by my parents and society.
Keep up this amazing labor of love, Colleen.
Gratefully yours,
Linda Castor and Jessica Larson
I became a veg* over 10 years ago, but would falter at times. I then met a wonderful woman in Houston with a vegan radio show and she gave me the final “push”, as it were to become a vegan. I have never gone back and enjoy good health and such a wide variety of foods to eat, all with compassion. Now, living in western Montana and the difficulties of now being in a hunting culture, our family is building, as I write and starting a farmed-animal sanctuary near Missoula,MT. I am sitting here caring for my six dear little chickens and know I will be giving safe, loving care to future farm animals at: NewDawnMT Sanctuary.
Sincerely,
Susan Eakins
I just found your blog, and am very happy I did! I’m a vegetarian as of about 65 days ago, and have decided to become vegan as well. The play I’m in opens next weekend, and we run for two weekends–between now and then I’m crazy busy with work, rehearsals, family stuff, and don’t have the time to cook at all. But I’ve committed to myself that the day my mother returns back home after her visit ends on August 8th, I will cut out the dairy products.
I’ve been a little worried, because I have relied rather more heavily on cheese than I felt comfortable with, if only for my health reasons. But after reading so many other people’s success stories, and finding so many incredible vegan recipes, I’m confident that I can do it.
Now to bear the barrage of criticism from my well-meaning but non-understanding husband. Sigh.
Hi Colleen,
I’m so happy to have found your blog. I stumbled upon it while searching for the written version of one of your podcasts, The Joyful Vegan. I thought I would print this out to show my mum, hoping it would help her to understand why I’m vegan.
You convey a sense of peace, a sense of calm. When I listen to your podcasts and read your essays, not only am I comforted by the knowledge that I am not alone in the way I see the world, but I am grounded as well; I remember why I made the decision to avoid animal products, even though at times it can be a challenge.
I wish there were more people like yourself.
Thank you,
Tere
Great blog Colleen! Some FAB information within your posts. I look forward to reading more in the future. Keep up the great veggie vision. My Veg Blog
I am so glad I found this blog, I have almost no support in being vegan, I have been a vegetarian for 17 years, since I was teenager and I just didn’t know how to be healthy and have no dairy or eggs, now suddenly I have become aware of the dairy industry and the egg industry and all its horrors…..but the thing is, my husband is totally unsupportive and thinks I am being extreme and difficult, he wont listen to me and everytime I say I cant eat that because of cheese or whatever he gets annoyed. Now other people in my family are telling me that soy is dangerous and will give me and my children cancer, I dont know what to do if I cant eat or drink soy either. But I dont want to contribute to the suffering of animals. I dont even want to give my children meat or dairy because of how unhealthy and dirty it is besides how terrible the animals are treated.
At least I have this blog now to go to and read other peoples comments and know that i am not alone in this.
Thanks.
Hi, Colleen and readers,
I really admire those of you who struggle with veganism, but still persist! For some people, it is an incredibly difficult transition, especially if other household members do not join in. It is so inspiring to others who would make the switch to see others overcome the challenges associated with going against the grain. I attempted to be vegetarian twice as a child- but my parents couldn’t provide the support I needed (since I couldn’t exactly ride my daisy bike to the grocery store alone). Now I am very fortunate to have a husband that fully supports my veganism at home. I have been sharing all the amazing vegan recipes I have found (Like the Magic Chocolate cake- wow!), and I think I am definitely winning over my family members who were convinced they would starve to death if they went vegan.
Good food will win the world!
Hello
Very interesting information! Thanks!
Bye
I finally saw the light after coming across the Vegetarian Food For Thought podcast in a crazed state of download mania (I admit I’m a podcast junkie). So once I listened to a few episodes, I started to question why I pamper my dogs and treat them like royalty, then turn around and force other animals to suffer for my pleasure. Since I couldn’t find any difference between my precious pups and pigs, cows, and chickens I decided to go vegan right then and there. Was a pretty simple decision.
Hello from Cattle Country,
My wife and I watched “Lady In The Water,” and afterwards, while I was out working in the garden, my wife went ‘internetting’ and found that the star of the film was a vegan as a result of this film called “Earthlings” so she pulled it up on YouTube and began giving me status reports. “Oh great,” I thought every time she’d come out and go “OH MY GOD!” but as I walked by I started watching.. and couldn’t stop …. it was like a car accident: you don’t want to stare, but you can’t look away. Worse, it was like seeing your SELF in the car crash.
“Well, so much for meat….” I said and that was it. No more meat. We even had a roast thawing in the sink and ended up throwing it out because we couldn’t break that knowledge. Veganism took about 2 days longer - how could we be ethical vegans and continue to consume products with so much horror attached? Might as well eat meat… so we quit.
We found your podcasts while looking for a supportive community and congrats, you really bring that sense of community. I drive for a living and listen to you pretty much all day, off and on. Reminds me that I’m not crazy. So, thank you very much and keep up the good work.
A couple of things I’d like to share with you:
I am a courier and used to work for Greyhound. Up here in northern alberta, I was horrified a couple of winters ago to be unloading the bus and finding that the box I was handling was “cheeping”. Baby chickens. Chicks. In the belly of the bus, in the middle of winter (it was about -40C). Half of them were dead. Even as an avowed carnivore I was disgusted by this practice. Now I realize that this isn’t the only horror these creatures have to endure, but it hasn’t really been mentioned… they’re born, stolen, debeaked … next scene they’re in the factory farm. But these animals are SHIPPED LIKE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS. The boxes are handled by people, many of whom are just like factory farm workers: overworked, underpaid, and a little sadistic. I saw how these critters got handled just at our one station, god only knows how the rest of their journey went. Arg.
So I no longer work for the bus but still do courier work in rural Alberta. There is a chicken farm between the town where we live and the main urban center from which I pick up my freight. Even as the avowed carnivore visiting this facility made me sick: the stench. The lack of windows. The terror in the clucks that I heard. To find a consignee I had to enter the offices of the “barn” (large windowless steel shack) and the stench of.. poultry (dead birds and chicken crap) was so revolting that I nearly horek’d. Every time. And I still ate chicken. Since awakening I wondered what I would do the next time I had a delivery for them. Well, it happened the day before yesterday, and after speaking with my union rep and knowing that I couldn’t endanger my own family’s welfare (ie continued employment), I refused the delivery on the grounds that the site made me ill. They can drive into the city and pick up their stuff from now on.
Finally, I would like to give you an analogy for the transformation my wife and I are feeling since awakening to the truth - see, I hear “The Matrix” (or “Meatrix” if you prefer) used a lot, but unlike the Matrix, if you take the Blue Pill you go back and forget what you’ve seen. I can not forget. Have you seen “The Truman Show”? Basically this guy is raised living his entire life ignorant that everything around him has been carefully scripted for a TV show, and once he catches on and discovers the truth, he can’t go back.
That’s what I think it’s like. How could I go back to living the lie and pretend I didn’t know that almost everything around me was a lie, a carefully orchestrated facade designed to keep me consuming and perpetuating the industrial complex.
So long for now, we plan to sponsor your podcast as soon as we’ve paid off the bills.
Peace be with you and kindest regards from our family,
James & Marci Bethell
and our sons Darwin & Orion and our daughter Ella
and our dogs Bosley and Foxy
and our kitty Mini-Mews
Hi Coleen. What a great site!
I am actually here because your photo icon for blogspot — the one where you’re lying on Lili the Pig? — made me laugh out loud. I have a picture EXACTLY like that of my daughters. Must be a go-to Farm Sanctuary photo opp:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20092026@N00/498677572/in/set-72157594506820687/
Ok, let me read all these great posts now . . .
I’m sure this has occurred to you…
“The Joyful Vegan: Stories of Transformation” could be the basis of a wonderful book (one that could come out in a newer, more updated version.)
The diversity of the stories contained here continually blows me away (and blows away most, if not all, of the stereotypes about vegans). If there were a book version of this, I’d buy a copy for all my friends.
For the same reason that Studs Terkel’s books were such good reason (the authenticity and diversity of oral history), this could be a powerful book, in which almost every non-vegan reader could find their vegan mirror image.
Of course, you’d need permission from submitters, but I’m sure most people here would love to see their stories featured in a book that could transform more lives and help support your work.
I became vegetarian and later vegan as a result of two different experiences happening at nearly the same time. One was a conversation I had with my husband discussing my friend’s veganism. The other was the news story about Scarlett the cat. Scarlett was a cat found by a firefighter outside a burning building. She had repeatedly gone back inside to rescue each of her kittens until her feet and hair were singed, her ears burned off, her eyes seared shut. But she kept going back. I couldn’t get her out of my head. Every time after that I wanted to consume meat, I would get a mental image of Scarlett and lose my appetite. After some research on the net and email help from my friend, I later went vegan.
My husband is now a vegetarian also. My son is vegetarian now and makes “Ew, yuck!” noises when he even sees a commercial for meat on t.v. We sponsor a rabbit at Farm Sanctuary and a turkey for Thanksgiving. Meat has been forever banished from our home.
Dear Colleen:
Thank you, thank you for your terrific podcast. I have been a vegetarian for about 6 weeks. It has been a slow, long process to get to this point. I’ve always been a picky meat eater, never eating veal or rabbit, more fish than chicken, but I did enjoy foie gras until about 5 years ago when I witnessed jars and jars of enlarged livers at a shop in Nice. Super Size Me and Fast Food Nation opened my eyes to the evils of the fast food industry, and as an environmentalist who is always looking for something else to do I was very interested in “cost” of raising meat to our environment. I started replacing the protein dishes that I was used to all my life for veggies with a side of Tofu, but I was definitely still eating meat. I only started listening to your podcast to get some more vegetarian dish ideas, but instead you opened my eyes and mind. I had no idea the demise of male baby chicks, or the conditions at slaughter houses. I didn’t know any of this. Of course I started listening to your podcast 3 weeks before a trip to Prague and Budapest. I thought about waiting until I got back to start totally eliminating meat from my diet (my many excuses including: it’s so hard to read an Hungarian menu, they won’t offer me any Vegetarian food, etc), but something you said about “doing something rather than do nothing” made me think. My master plan — eliminate meat from my diet for three weeks, fall of the wagon and eat meat in Europe and then come back and eat a plant based diet again. But it only takes three weeks to change a habit. And it was so easy being a Vegetarian in Europe. Almost every menu had a Vegetarian section with wonderful foods to choose from and the wait staff was always accommodating. I did not have any excuses, yes, as a “newbie” I messed up a few times, but almost all of my meals were vegetarian or vegan. And I had a wonderful vacation with lots of energy and a clear mind. On the train from Prague to Budapest I listened to 6 hours of your podcast and now I am completely “up to date” waiting for your next one. And I plan to sponsor your podcast as soon as I have paid off my trip
P.S. Last week I went to a Chinese Hot Pot restaurant and had the veggie-based soup with delicious vegetables, noodles and frozen tofu! I had never heard of frozen tofu before … you put a firm tofu in the freezer for a day and it creates these little holes that, when defrosted and put in a soup or stir fry “holds in” the flavor .. delicious!
Collen, I listen to your program often. I really enjoy the perspective, the way you frame your arguments and all of the information you give to back the cause. Please check out my blog sometime: http://www.punkrockpedagogy.wordpress.com. I am an aspiring vegan biology teacher. My passion for the sciences and understanding the interconnectedness of everything eventually led me to change my eating and consumptive habits. I set up the site for many of the same reasons you set up the Joyful Vegan, we should draw from each other’s knowledge and positivity after all. Take care.
thanks for the information.
Hi Colleen,
Thank you, this is just what I needed. I am Christian vegan. I have to say, I never have had so much opposition in my break room at work as to when I pull out my hummus and carrot sticks. It makes me sad and attacked. Sad, because I would like to believe if they new the suffering these animals went through, they would be doing the same, and attacked, because of the things said back to me with such hostility and defense.
Nonetheless, I am thrilled to be making a difference in the lives of animals. If I think too much about them, I feel flushed and I could cry, and I have to say I think I am a pretty tough gal when it comes to expressing my emotions. Anyways, I needed to hear from another Christian with her feet on the ground to say that you feel the same way. I have to say when people say what I am doing isn’t biblical, I just say the way these animals are treated aren’t biblical either. After all a proverb says that a good man takes care of the needs of his animals, and that God knows even when a sparrow falls the ground. God just doesn’t create things that He doesn’t love, and if He loves animals (which He does), then I know we should love then too. Unconditionally. Who knows, if the world treated animals the way they did in the Old and New Testament, maybe I would eat meat, but for now, I am totally meat and dairy free.
Blessings and puppy kisses..
I too protest the inhumane treatment to animals. I am a vegetarian. I have recently created a blog about the inhumane treatment of animals, personal views of such things, and am starting to write about chinese fur farms. My blog is of such things and would like to know if any animal supporters would take a look. Thanks and thankyou for your great blog. http://proactionsite.blogspot.com/
Colleen, thank you so much for your podcast! I am the mother of a beautiful baby boy and my husband and I have decided to raise him as a vegan. Friends and family have been hounding us for months over our decision, one friend even told me her doctor said raising him vegan would be the equivalent of cruel and unusual punishment. The same day I had decided to give in and add dairy to our diet, I stumbled across your website and listened to your podcast on the mothering instincts of cows. Thank heaven I had put off going to the grocery store! My husband and I have been reafirmed in our decision to remain a vegan family and I am at peace again.
Thank you so much for reminding me of the peace and joy found in living a vegan lifestyle.
God Bless
I too am a fresh Christian Vegan! Truly I was lead by the Holy Spirit to adopt this lifestyle and feel truly blessed to have a peacefull plate during each dining moment. My family of a dear husband and three daughters think Momma is crazy but they have noticed my new passion and appriciation for all of God’s creations =). They all still choose to eat meat and animal products… I have proven that you can eat vegan anywhere. Today my husband chose BBQ yes yuck… my 13 year old daughter choose the meat free baked potato! I was so proud of her I mean we were at a place w/ little pig drawings every where how could you enjoy meat.
What a neat enlightment & I am so glad I can share it with Colleen and others.
I am a Christian vegan and many of my friends are vegans and vegetarians. I adopted the diet a long time ago to reduce animals suffering. It is something I believe strongly in.
Your blog is really awesome and I will share it with my friends.