Who are you?

First off, I am neither a doctor nor a dietitian.  Everything I write about is based on my own personal experience as I adopt a completely vegan lifestyle.  Nor am I a writer, or even enjoy writing for that matter, but the reason I decided to keep this blog is I believe there are people out there who are similar to me.  That being someone who recognizes there are massive problems with our diet and what we consider food – and curious if you really get everything your body needs from a plant based diet?

So then, my name is John, I’m 31 years old and I’m a web development student in Barrie, Ontario, Canada and I am Vegan.  I enjoy participating in many physically challenging events, from marathons to Ironmans and everything in between.

Why did you start The Vegan Cow?

The Vegan Cow | Vegan Inspired T Shirts has 3 Goals:
1. Create fun, unique and inspirational vegan shirts that people will be proud to wear.
2. Help spread the message about what it means to be vegan, and why choose vegan.
3. Raise money to support vegan charities.

Why Vegan?

For me, it all comes down to not supporting what I know is wrong.  There is no need in this world to inflict unnecessary suffering on another living being.  Animal agricultural is built and survives on people buying their products.  If you agree that factory farming of animals is wrong, there is a very simple solution to the problem – stop consuming it, and stop buying it.  I don’t want to start the introduction with a rant so we’ll just say more to come on this subject.

Why the blog name “Powered by Plants, Insulin and sometimes beer?”

Plants – obviously because I’m vegan.
Insulin – because I’m type 1 diabetic and require insulin to live
And Sometimes Beer – because I don’t want people to think vegans are on this crazy unrealistic, unsustainable diet, completely different diet – and all we eat is greens.  In fact, I’d venture to say that most vegans eat a larger variety of foods than most meat eaters.

What is the purpose/goal of this blog?

I want to use this blog to share how I switched from a total meat heavy diet to vegetarian then eventually vegan and why I think everyone else should do the same.  It wasn’t a smooth transition – there was a lot of trial and error and things I wish I knew then that I know now.  I also enjoy cooking and will be sharing lots of my favourite vegan recipes.  Since I do a lot of physical training there will be plenty of protein rich dishes and simple tricks for getting more protein in your diet (which was my biggest concern of the vegan diet).

I will track my progress as I push my body to the limits on a 100% vegan diet.  I will be begin with the 30K Around the Bay road race on March 30, in Hamilton, Ontario (further than I’ve ever run before).  I will continue to track my progress as I train for the 2015 Ironman Muskoka in the fall of 2015.  For those of you who don’t know, an Ironman consist of a 3.86KM swim, 180.25KM bicycle ride and a 42.2KM run non-stop, which must be completed in under 17 hours.

To training vegan – I say cheers to the good life – low carb beer, beans n rice burritos, and 5 units of insulin. Time to get a runnin’.

I would love to hear any feedback, advice, suggestions for content or any questions you have for me or about living vegan.  I can be reached at john@thevegancow.com or subscribe to our mailing list below.

 

Every summer in Canada it seems like we have a huge problem with stray cats and dogs on our city streets.  Every year the humane societies receive more animals than they can help.

Currently, we see a poor cat or dog on the street and feel obliged to help out – since they can’t help themselves.  We collect these poor animals and take them to the humane society, which does not have the resources to provide for them all.  As such, many will be euthanized anyways and be of no use to humans.

Rather than taking them all to these shelters, what if we send them all to a farm.  A farm where they can get all the food and water their bodies can handle.  The one’s that grow the fastest we can continue to breed, since after all they are the most useful.  Yes some will get sick and die off, but that’s life.

The females we can use to produce milk.  Yuk – cat milk is gross you might say.  Given a little bit of time, the scientists can add hormones, antibiotics, and other delicious food enhancers – like colour – to make the milk taste just like cows milk – which is obviously more natural.

Since these once stray cats and dogs are now farm animals, they don’t have any rights.  Perfect!  Now we can start turning this problem into a billion dollar industry by breeding them, selling them, turning them into food and clothing.  The faster we can breed these cats and dogs, the more money we make.  Some may argue that we shouldn’t have the right to breed cats and dogs just to sell off as commodities.  Well, I made these cats and dogs so I have the right to do whatever I want.  After all they would have never existed in the first place if it wasn’t for me and my modern breeding techniques.

The beautiful thing about this solution is it converts those useless stray animals that roam our streets and go through our trash into something beneficial to us humans.  Cat and dog lovers may reject this idea, but unfortunately for them humans are higher up on the food chain – and we all need our protein right?

Now if you think that this whole “solution” is ridiculous and down right cruel, I couldn’t agree with you more.  However, the whole idea is not nearly as far fetched as you may think.  When you replace cat and dog with cow and pig you have factory farming.  Cat and dog equals cruel and inhumane, while cows and pigs in the same scenario equals billions of dollars in profits.

“Moving towards a world in which we love and respect all animals the way we love our pets”

A big part of my conversion to the vegan lifestyle was due to some great documentaries that showed me what I was buying, eating and supporting.   Here are five documentaries (in no particular order) that I think you will find very educational, and hopefully influential.

Forks Over Knives

Argues that most, if not all chronic diseases could be prevented or reversed by eating a whole foods plant based diet.

 

Vegucated

Follows 3 meat loving people as they eat a vegan diet for 6 weeks and learn about the hidden secrets of animal agriculture.

 

Peaceable Kingdom – The Journey Home

Follows farmers as they change their beliefs and attitudes towards animal farming and what they are doing to animals, as well as animal welfare rescuers as they work to save animals.

 

Earthlings

Very graphic documentary that looks at humans use of animals as pets, food, clothing, entertainment and for scientific research.

 

Gary Yourofsky Speech on Veganims

Though not a documentary – it is a great speech that will probably make you rethink your relationship to animals.