Plus Size Vegan

That’s me. A plus-size vegan. Vegans are not all skinny (shocker). Yes, when I first converted, I lost about 15 pounds…but more than anything, I attribute that to just not knowing what all I could eat yet. Believe me, I found the vegan junk food. And the 15 eventually came back…and then some.

So what does it mean to be a plus size vegan? There are obvious benefits, like knowing no living thing is suffering on your account. That’s a biggie…for me, anyway. But there are challenges, of course. Since I don’t eat or wear things that were gotten through the exploitation of animals, that means my already limited clothing options are *even* fewer.

But I don’t want to talk about how *hard* it can be to do…I want to offer ways that make it do-able and easier.

First I have to say that veganism is *so* much more mainstream than it was just a few years ago when I started…and I feel confident the trend is only going to continue and with time there will be more and more options available to those who don’t want to eat or wear animals.

Specifically I feel that items that were in the past made from leather, are now much easier to find made out of an alternative material. Shoes and bags especially. There are a lot of great companies like Lulus, Payless, MooShoes, Toms and even Zappos, that lets you search and sort by materials used.

With actual clothing items, you want to steer clear of leather, fur, wool, down, silk, cashmere, angora, suede, nubuck, shearling. There are *plenty* of other materials available. Fortunately, “stretch” is a man-made invention!

Sometimes you need to do extra research – a lot of glues used in clothing – especially in bags and shoes -are derived from animals.

So some extra effort is required to be a plus-size vegan…but the rewards are infinite.