I was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disorder...I had always wanted to go vegetarian...
Just kinda got forced into diving in. Haha.

I was always kind of wary of how animals were treated more like products than living beings, and at one point I randomly stumbled upon a surveillance video posted online, showing how workers treated chicken at a rather big company here in Germany and it ended up being the nail in the coffin. Went vegetarian cold-turkey after that and have been for the past 8 years.
Spent a long time doing just that and growing up, and in the last few years I've taken slow steps closer and closer towards being Vegan; no more eggs, almost no milk; cooking and baking vegan whenever possible. I've inspired a few people to at least try (and sometimes even stay!) being vegetarian, namely my boyfriend!

Quite honestly, I fell in love with a vegan.
Though I cannot count myself a complete vegan, as I still enjoy cheese and sour cream for the most part, so I am more of a vegetarian, but I do not buy cheese of sour cream on a regular basis, it's more like a treat, once in a blue moon.

But thanks to meeting and falling in love with a vegan, I took the leap of simply changing my lifestyle to suit us. I've been vegetarian since 2014, which isn't long, but I am proud. c: I have my boyfriend to thank for all of this, and all the help he has done to help me get into the life I have today, and I couldn't be happier really.

Taking a philosophy course and learning about Peter Singer was the most important thing for me. I suddenly realized that my wish to eat animals didn't outweigh the animals wish to live, so I shouldn't eat them. Later health reasons have helped keep me motivated. I'm currently only vegetarian, but avoid animal products as much as I conveniently can.

When I was 18, my college class took a tour of a local farm, and the lady mentioned how her cows are happier and healthier because they eat real grass like they're supposed too. A lot of animal feed has antibiotics and growth hormones that fatten the animal, and make her less healthy and happy before she is slaughtered. And when I heard that, I thought "What right do I have to take this cow's life for my own stomach?" So I decided I would try being a vegetarian for a week.

That was 8 years ago, and I've been an orthodox vegetarian ever since.

Going vegan, for me, well it kinda just happened. I started out going vegetarian on the last weekend of July 2017. Always had plans to go vegetarian and well, it finally just happened. Three months later, I'm thinking to myself that I'm already doing a part time vegan lifestyle and well, I should just go and do it full time. So I did. Meant giving up my goats milk products, but eh, it was a necessity if I were to be vegan. Already noticing that since going vegan, I've lost nearly 20kg as of this writing. Being vegan, its a bit of a learning curve. Can't eat at many places where I live, but eh, the price you pay going vegan. Adapting and finding out where I can eat these days.

I have tried several times to go vegetarian and failed. Recently, I found out that Fred Rogers was a vegetarian. I want to emulate Mister Rogers as much as I can, so I figure that if he could be vegetarian, then I have no excuse. Plus, I have a vegan friend who is a body-builder, and whole nations of people are largely vegetarian, so why should I struggle with the decision?

Honestly, eating meat made me very sad, but I thought that it was my only option because of poor education and poor motivation. The few times I tried to go vegetarian, I got a little sick, but I've been sick on meat (because of pre-existing conditions), so I figure that if I am going to be a little sickly anyway, I may as well stop torturing myself and other creatures and just do what I feel in my deepest heart is right. I'm much happier now, and I don't find myself overeating like I had been.

So, as much as it is a dietary thing, the ethical reasons are overwhelming. I also really lament how animals are treated like objects or a product. Some Buddhist Scriptures are also very persuasive towards choosing a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle, so that also motivates me. It's still sort of a new change for me, but I'm really enjoying the all-around health benefits like a cleaner conscience and a cleaner metabolism. ^u^

Just what i was brought up as and cant see myself being anything else. No need to eat meat so why do it?

I was watching another hyperbolic, sensationalist documentary about the benefits of juicing vegetables. This was about six years ago. My mother was there, and I turned to her and said, "Not eating meat doesn't sound too hard... right?"

We both decided to give it a try, but it proved to be too daunting for her. I think it was because we went from following on omnivore diet to not consuming anything except for juiced kale and limes.

It was too much all at once for me, too. I backed down to a pescetarian diet after two days, then cut out fish and cheese and everything else after two weeks.

Veganism became something attractive to me in increments. Curiosity was my initial motivation, but the benefits became apparent to me over time. I'm completely in love with it now, or... I think more specifically it's just a part of my life, is something I tried on a whim and discovered it suits me so profoundly that it'd be counterintuitive to discontinue it.

When I was in 6th grade I finally sat down and actually thought about WHAT I was eating.

I always loved animals, I realized it was unethical for me to eat them. I went vegetarian "cold-tofu" XD

A year later, I thought about it some more and came to the conclusion that the only way to avoid animal exploitation entirely was to go full vegan. So I did, again "cold tofu"

My poor, poor mother

At first I wanted to get an upper hand on having a healthy lifestyle more so than being compelled by moral obligation. Over time, however, I was increasingly appalled by the way humans treat animals as pieces of flesh manipulated for profit. We humans are animals too, and I feel that it is great folly to ignore the harm done to our fellow animals and the environment, which in turn negatively affects us. How nice it would be, if humanity could consume less animals and turn to a more sustainable system.

Being a gardener, I'm all for the proper stewardship of the land and raising more of one's own food.