Category: Austin

Home After Austin – Good Bye Vida Vegan Con – Day one

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It seems like only a week ago I was boiling in the Austin, Texas heat… probably because it was merely a week. How time flies by when you’ve got your head buried in a computer trying to get the final pieces together to launch a business. But more about that eventually. As we were driving down to Niagara VegFest yesterday, JC put my coffee in a Vida Vegan Con One mug, and I got all nostalgic. Heading to @niagaravegfest & feeling nostalgic about last weekend in Austin. This mug is from the very first @vidavegancon in pdx. The organizers really started something special with VVC, and I’m grateful to have been able to participate and to meet so many of you there. #vegan #vidavegancon A photo posted by MeShell (@veganinyourcity) on Jun 7, 2015 at 7:52am PDT It’s been a weird week, but mostly a productive one, despite being in a travelling daze for a few of those days. Looking back at the weekend in Austin – I’d say it was something special. Especially after some time to decompress and reflect. Getting the opportunity to meet and talk to so many incredibly wonderful people in the real world is powerful. It’s so meaningful. I used to happily say I lived on the Internet, but as time has passed, I have to admit that while I live in both worlds simultaneously, I’m finding the real life connection and conversation thing to be just a bit more fulfilling. I am so grateful to…

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Notes from VVCIII – Preventing Ex-Vegans. 10 Strategies to Maximize Long-Term Success on Vegan Diets – Ginny Messina

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Saturday Session – Preventing Ex-Vegans – 10 Strategies to Maximize Long-Term Success on Vegan Diets – Virginia Messina, MPH, RD Reasons People Stop Being Vegan Health concerns Not confident they’re meeting their nutritional needs Lack of social support Lack of convenience Missed taste of animal foods (meat/cheese) Didn’t see diet as part of their identity Found it difficult to reach purity (avocardo) Believed they could reach all of their goals without being veg. Helping People Stay Vegan Promote realistic benefits (relates well with Matt’s talk) There are accurate and legitimate benefits to eating a plant based diet – but some of those claims are exaggerated and many ex-vegans began to doubt the benefits of their vegan Vegans may have lower risk of cancer – but vegans still can and do get cancer, and a vegan diet cannot reverse cancer. A vegan diet is not going to make you look youthful forever – sets people up for disappointment (setting appropriate expectations) Promote ethics and ethical reasons behind following a vegan diet. The ethical and animal rights argument for veganism are unique, universale (or pretty close) and stickier. (because most people like animals – campaigns like Why Love One but Eat the Other?) Makes the diet part of their identity. Humane research council survey Understanding successful behaviour change: the role of intentions, attitudes to the target and motivations and the example of diet. Vegan diet does not automatically equal weight loss. When people don’t achieve their goals, they will pursue other angles or other…

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Austin, TX – I’ve made it to Vida Vegan Con 2015 after all.

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For the last few months I’ve been waffling about going to Vida Vegan Con in Austin, Texas. JC and I have been working on a business, and everything was coming together for a launch right around the end of May/beginning of June. That’s all still true and we are still launching a business very soon, but after that happens, I’m sort of hopeful that I’ll be too busy to travel. We’ll see! After expressing my fear of missing out on the final VVC festivities, and watching me plan out a variety of different convoluted and increasingly ridiculous ways of getting to and staying in Austin, and probably some what in response to trying to cheer me up about our foster cat Martha, my sweet human encouraged me to go, and I literally booked the plane ticket the day before leaving. And the hotel gods inexplicably smiled upon me with a room, in not so expensive hotel, within walking distance to the conference center. I wish JC could have come with me, but he’s holding down the fort and doing some business stuff. Yesterday morning, after somewhere under an hour of sleep, JC dropped me off at the airport, and I entered the second longest customs line I’ve been in thus far. But somehow it moved much quicker than expected. I flew in on Delta, which has biscoff cookies, and power napped against the wall between Toronto and Atlanta. Highlights of the Atlanta airport – I was rushing off to my terminal (I got…

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