Make the world a better place: BE VEGAN

Ine embarked on a vegan journey nearly two years ago.

On one particular evening, while experiencing the weight of a challenging day, Ine sought solace in a touching movie. Without much consideration, Ine turned to a Google search for “Movies to cry to” and decided to give “Okja” a chance. For Ine, movie trailers were best left unwatched, as the element of surprise was cherished.

Little did Ine know what kind of emotional odyssey lay ahead. “Okja” turned out to be a powerful catalyst for change, as by the film’s conclusion, Ine had transitioned to a pescetarian lifestyle with aspirations of becoming a full-fledged vegetarian.

Please tell us more about yourself

My name is Ine, I am a 28 year old girl from Norway. I grew up all up North above the Arctic circle in the city Tromsø, but have lived around in some different cities since the age of 16. I settled in Oslo for 4,5 years ago now.

I went vegan for almost 2 years ago. One evening I was having a bit of a bad day and wanted to cry it out in front of a touching movie. I googled “Movies to cry to” and ended up with going with the suggestion of the movie “Okja”, I don ́t tend to watch trailers before watching movies because I don ́t want anything to be spoiled beforehand, so I did not know what journey I was in for.

I watched the movie, and believe me, my wish to cry it out was fulfilled. By the end of the movie, I had become a pescetarian, aspiring vegetarian.

My fridge was stuffed with all sorts of meat, I especially ate a lot of chicken and my favorite “food” at the point was beef tenderloin, so when I had my friend visiting the day after I told her to go in the fridge and freezer and take all the meat with her home. “All of it..??” she asked, “ALL OF IT!”
I answered, without a doubt.

At this point I knew I wanted to become a fully vegan, but that was something I was imagining happening a few(maybe even many?) years into the future. I decided I wanted to take it slow because I did not want to be overwhelmed and end up backing out of my new conviction of following my inner morals.

The next few days I ate of the fish I still had left in the freezer, but it just did not sit right with me eating another once living being and I ended up also giving away the fish. At this point I had become a ovo-lacto-vegetarian and had also started following a lot of animal rights-pages and other informative instagram profiles, it did not take long for me to realize the truth of dairy and the egg industry and already a month after watching Okja I also stopped buying milk and eggs in the store. I still ate and bought food containing of it though, but it did not feel good and my heart was aching a little bit every time I consumed something.

So naturally, I also stopped buying these kind of products, but I went home visiting for Christmas and still ate the food I was served containing of it. I was in deep discomfort and on the upcoming days towards new years eve I took a step back and looked at myself admitting that the only right thing was to turn vegan already, I used the power of an upcoming new year and made it my new years resolution.

So on the 1th of January 2022, I was indeed finally a vegan. This was 2 months after watching the movie Okja. For me a life changing film who I owe my deepest thank you for.

Something I find really interesting is that even though I thought about myself as an animal lover pre-watching the movie I would never have guessed I would turn out a vegan. I ́ll come back to what I mean by saying that.

As a child and teenager I refused to let anyone tell me what we ate, for example if someone said “yum this cow is tasty” while eating a burger I would get terribly angry and march away telling them it was not acceptable saying something like that. In social media I have always deleted or hidden profiles who have posted hunting content, and (keeping in mind I actually am from the north of Norway) I have a lot of family members who have been or even still are hunters or fishermen…

In my early twenties I lived in collective living with a girl who was a vegetarian and I remember saying almost any other day to her that I could never do what she did and stop eating meat, aka animals. Haha sorry girl, I understand now how annoying that must have been.. I even made her
a plate of meat several times while making myself a meal, in an attempt of being nice of course, but I do see NOW why she got startled up for it.

Back then I must admit I got irritated and a little offended for why she did not appreciate me trying to do something nice for her, because really that was all that my intention was.

And I hate to admit it now, but the animals and what they had to go through just did not matter for me, of course I did not want them to endure any pain or cruelty, but I just chose not to think about it and in that way, they simply did not matter. So I often forgot that she was a vegetarian. “What was the big deal?”.

I am glad now that I have these past experiences, because they will help me to always have patience when I interact with meat eaters today. The cognitive dissonance is enormous, and I do not judge or hate upon anyone who is still in that state of being.

As a person who loves to go out to eat at restaurants and cafès I think the biggest challenge for me is to trust that when the waiter says it is vegan I believe in them.

I am terribly afraid of being lied to in this matter, as I know unfortunately many people don ́t take it too seriously or that they don’t fully understand what it includes being a vegan. Luckily I am a good communicator and usually not afraid of taking up my space, so here is a normal interaction for me with the waiter at a restaurant:

Me: “I ́ll have this VEGAN dish; name of dish, thank you”
Waiter: “Ok” Writes down
Me: “So it is fully vegan?”
Waiter: “Yes”
Me: “Great”
Waiter serving the food
Me: “Is this the VEGAN dish?”
Waiter: “Yes”

I find this way of being clear in my communication helpful because at the end of the day they are only humans and I have experience of working as a waitress so I know how hectic things can be and how easily mistakes can be made.

My friends sometimes make heartfully fun of me for “being annoying” with the staff, but I think it is worth it and just tell them back that this is very important for me. I yet to experience someone not being understanding when I put it that way.

If a place originally does not have a vegan meal I yet to experience a no when asking politely if they can make something for me not containing of animal derived products. I always make sure to clarify that this also means milk, eggs, honey – anything. If you give out respect, respect is usually given back to you.

I feel AWESOME about being a vegan!
𝙑𝙀𝙂𝘼𝙉 𝙁𝙊𝙊𝘿𝙄𝙀 🍓 | 🌱 Ine-Mari Berq

I wouldn’t in my wildest imagination dream of going back to my old diet. I literally feel like my whole life has been updated, and even thought I have more things than my vegan lifestyle to thank for that, I know being vegan is a huge part of it.
It does indeed feel great to be aligned with my values, and I would say it has even made me a more confident person due to the fact that I am being true to who I am and I like what I am seeing of who that person is.

When recommending someone to try meatless food I always focus on not overcomplicating things. Just eat what you always have eaten, but change out the animal derived ingredients with plant based ones. If something doesn’t taste great the first or second or maybe even third time,
just give it time and let your tastebuds adjust.

At the end of the day the taste of not contributing to animal cruelty and murder tastes better than anything else.

I do love to go out to eat because of the social and environmental aspects of it but I actually prefer to eat my own food at home. Even though I am not particularly fond of cooking, I am quite interested in health and fitness and by eating at home I make the food so I hit my macros
perfectly.

Or I think I do, lol, I do not count calories but as I have an education as a personal trainer I still have quite a good idéa of my nutrients. When I cook, time is key, and I rarely use more than 15-30 minutes on my meals.

My favorite dishes at home are my grandiose salads, woks or pastas. I actually don ́t have an oven so there are a lot of dishes I can ́t cook, but I don’t mind. We make the best of what we got! 🙂

What are some common misunderstandings or misconceptions people have about vegans or vegetarians?

I have experienced many times someone trying to give me a compliment by saying that I am not like the vegans they are used to, not understanding that it is almost like an insult for me. I always assure them that I am exactly like the vegans they are used to, they just haven’t spoken with me long enough yet.

Often they carry on trying to convince me that ́the one vegan they knew at a workplace two years ago ́ talked about being vegan all the time, and I don’t seem to do that. I tell them that I actually do mention often that I am a vegan and that they have to remember that they were around this person every day while they just met me at ex. this party right now.

I have seen other vegans putting pride in “not being a typical vegan” and I hope they one day can see that is just the society who still try to control and restrict them for being true to what it really means to refuse the exploitment of animals. Be proud of being the change.

Speaking of the topic of often mentioning being a vegan; I think a huge misunderstanding is that people think vegans talk about that they are vegan because we are proud of it or/and because we think we are better than people who is not, that is simply not the case.

We make sure to mention it often because we want to make people think about it as a possibility, to be familiated with a different way of thinking and doing things then what they are constructed to until now in life. Why? Because we ourselves were once presented for this change of living and know that the possibility to open someone else’s eyes may come when we least expect it.

One other misconception must be that vegans only care about animals and not humans, while that probably is the case for some minority of people (vegans AND others), it is significantly more vegans who equally care about humans or even more so. End specisme.

What advice would you offer to someone who is new to adopting a meatless diet?

Don ́t be too hard on yourself, it is better to start now and maybe have some screw ups along the way than to wait for the perfect moment that maybe is never coming. Just start, the animals thank you.

Please educate yourself on what animal agriculture includes. For me, as a person who do(did) not watch a lot of documentaries and at some level really did not WANT to know what was going on, the change became the surprising impact of the fictional movie Okja.

I often think about if I would have turned vegan before if I had watched documentaries like Dominion, Eartlings, Dairy is Scary, Dontwatch.org or the norwegian one “Griseindustriens hemmeligheter” and how much knowledge has to say before taking a stand to something.

Unbelievably, I still have not watched any of these documentaries, as I do use other tools or platforms more aligned with how I function as a person, such as books and instagram to gain insights.