“Veganuary”-Calling All Volunteers!

One of my favorite blogs these days is called “The Friendly Fig”.  It’s a veg-friendly site written by two young women who blog about vegan and vegetarian lifestyle issues.  While I get my recipes from other trusty “foodie” resources I enjoy their blog because they research and provide good information about cosmetics, travel and other “being in the world as a vegan” topics.  You can check out their site here.

Today, The Friendly Fig gals are promoting a new Vegan Magazine called Vegan Life and they will be on the magazine’s blogging team.  I will, of course, be subscribing.  What specifically caught my eye though was this:

Of course I was drawn in by this wonderful photo montage, but more to the point, “Veganuary” is an initiative that involves asking others to be vegan for the month of January.  Clearly there’s an attempt here to get on the “resolutions” bandwagon and why not?  Veganism dovetails beautifully with other common resolutions such as eating more healthfully, dropping some weight, helping others, being more compassionate and living more ethically and authentically.

I initially became a vegan for ethical reasons.  I simply couldn’t bear to contribute to the unnecessary pain and suffering of animals or turn away from the horrible environmental impact of my food choices. That doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a learning curve (how to cook, shop, eat out, etc) as well as a physical transition (oh yes, all that fiber) for me in that first month.  And really, one month was pretty much all it took to start to experience the benefits of the vegan lifestyle.  I feel lighter, I feel healthier and my taste buds have woken up.  But mostly I cannot overstate the peaceful feeling that I experience because my food choices are fully in line with my sense of myself as a compassionate human being.  I have cleaned up “my side of the street” and that feels amazing.

So, back to the Veganuary challenge.  While I have hardly taken the blogging world by storm, according to my WordPress “stats” I currently have 84 followers, and I know that many people in my world read this blog who are not followers.  So let’s say there are 100 people who will read about this challenge.  If you sign on,  I will provide practical support, recipes, cheerleading and a place to write about your experience (if you care to share it).

Any takers?