From Dreamy of living-vegan.blogspot.com :
The Buddha did not say veganism is extreme. He did not say the Middle Path is eating meat. You can find in many Mahayana sutras that he even encourages a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle that does the least harm to animals.
Scriptures and sutras aside. Logic aside. Just go to your heart. Ask yourself honestly. Answer yourself honestly. Why is it you feel uncomfortable and want to defend meat-eating when others encourage you on a vegan diet? Why did such a reaction occur?
And we will find that the answer is not that people are pushing their ideas on us and they can’t let go. But rather we cannot accept veganism and need to defend our habits because this is not the same as the social-conditioning we have received all the way since we are young – the conditioning that eating meat is “ok”.
This was something that affected me a little too before I went vegan. The usual reaction to this is fighting back especially if the beliefs and social-conditioning are very deeply ingrained. This is normal. We may also feel guilty (which was something I felt a lot before I went veg), and in order to supress that. We find reasons to justify our own beliefs or deny these feelings. This guilt – comes from our natural compassion creating a tension with our own belief system which we have been conditioned to.
Whatever we choose is our choice. But I hope you will eventually choose to follow your heart.