My Vegan Journey

The Awakening

Seven years ago I was eating one of my meal preps on my lunch break (baked chicken breast, quinoa and mixed veggies). As I was eating, I started to feel nauseous. It felt almost like I was eating raw, rubbery flesh. I thought to myself “maybe I just didn’t cook this right or all the way through.” I threw it out and that evening I made a new fresh batch of meal preps and made sure I did so more mindfully and more intentionally so that I wouldn’t ‘ruin’ it again. The next day when I went to eat the new meal prep, the same exact thing happened. I then thought to myself “ okay maybe I’m tired of eating chicken breast.”

The Transition

So I gifted my meal preps to a coworker (who loved it) to not waste the perfectly good food I had made and that evening, I made ground turkey instead of chicken breast. The next day, the same thing happened. I then figured “okay maybe my body needs a little break from animal protein”. At that point, because it was clear that my body wasn’t wanting meat, I made a commitment to eat meat only once a week to give my body a break and to notice the difference, if any, that it would make. The next week I ate no meat or dairy and had no problems. The following Saturday I wanted to treat myself to a nice solo meal so I took myself to a restaurant and used it as an opportunity to reintroduce meat and dairy. I ordered an alfredo bacon pasta and followed that up with a pumpkin ice cream sunday from my favorite ice cream parlor at the time. Although the meal and dessert were delicious, I noticed myself feeling a bit nauseated immediately after.

The Turning Point

As the day progressed, that nausea got stronger but was subtle enough to where I thought to myself “maybe I just ate a bit too much.” I went back home and let my food digest a bit before getting ready to go over to a friends house for a small get together. Within about an hour of being with my friends, that nausea grew to a point that made it impossible to be present. At this point, my stomach was in so much pain and my body was very clearly communicating to me that it could no longer keep the food in. Not long after that, no matter how much I fought, I had extreme, uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea. This proceeded for the entire night and was so bad that I had to stay over my friend’s house and couldn’t even hold down fluids. It continued until the next day but eventually subsided enough so that I could drive myself back home.

Embracing the Change

I tried to rationalize and make logical sense of what I was experiencing. Maybe it was an allergy, maybe the food was bad or maybe it was food poisoning but truthfully, I knew exactly what it was. It was my body, mind, and spirit making it crystal clear to me that I had to stop eating meat and dairy completely. Even though I finally admitted that to myself and accepted it, I was far from ready for what that meant. It meant that I had to give up a version of myself that I was so attached to. It meant that I had to give up the foods that I knew and loved my whole life. It meant that I had to rearrange my diet and life. And I would have to start from what felt like scratch with little to no information about where or how to start. I can honestly admit that I had no idea how to start this journey that I was about to embark on. I didn’t even understand what it meant to be vegan. I was not ready but I knew that I would never truly feel ready. I knew that whether I was ready or not, I was being called to put an end to the consumption of meat and dairy and I had to honor that.

Learning and Growing

Thankfully, although it was challenging to get started and commit to going Vegan, I already had a diet that mainly consisted of whole foods because of how passionate I was about health. More than 90% of the meals I consumed on a weekly basis were made at home. When I started to make the transition and learning about the massive impact eating meat and dairy has on our overall wellbeing and on our planet, I realized that I had been receiving signs to go vegan long before these episodes started happening. I had already completely stopped buying and drinking cows milk and consuming butter and started to eat cheese less and less because of how horrible I felt each time I had it. I realized that my body wasn’t rejecting meat and dairy all of a sudden. It never wanted or needed it to begin with.

Gradual Changes

Although my goal was to stop consuming animal products as a whole, I knew that in order to make that change sustainable and long lasting that I had to do it efficiently and effectively. I did this by learning from others, being patient with myself and making small, gradual changes. For me, this looked like first removing cow, pig, turkey and chicken meat. These animal proteins negatively affected me the most which made them a lot easier to let go of so I got rid of them first. I continued to eat eggs, sea food and dairy but only when I went out to eat which wasn’t often. I started to take myself to Vegan restaurants so that I could get used to eating out at vegan places and get some inspiration for my new vegan meals. I watched many videos from Vegan creators, did research, read articles and watched documentaries which only reconfirmed what I was experiencing and why.

The Journey Continues

The more I learned about the meat and dairy industry and the more I learned about my body and what it needed, the easier it was to commit to not only a vegan diet but a vegan lifestyle. Something that really helped me stick to transitioning and ultimately adopting a vegan lifestyle, that continues to help me to this day, is having a WHY and asking myself some important questions. I asked myself often “why is this important to you? why is it important for you to choose this and stick to this every day? why is it worth it to rise above the challenging moments? why is it beneficial to continue this journey even when you don’t necessarily want to?” Asking and answering these questions helped me especially in the times where I wanted to give up or where I was faced with obstacles.

Facing Challenges and Stereotypes

There were many times where I caved in and ate something that absolutely did not align with my goal and ‘why’. It was not always easy. There were so many times where I would eat something just to appease someone else to avoid being judged or having to explain myself or to satisfy temporary, old cravings/habits. Many moments where although I didn’t want to participate in the consumption of animal products, I would give in to it and make excuses for it. A huge challenge for me was going out to eat with people that were not vegan and being met with constant criticism and stereotypes. When you go vegan, the protein police come out of the wood works and all of a sudden everyone is deeply concerned about your health and nutritional intake. It can be so discouraging and disheartening to have sometimes the people closest to you constantly asking you to eat meat and diary, constantly disrespecting your boundaries and feeding you false information and stereotypes about Veganism. It can be really hard to honor and speak up for yourself and what you believe in when you are made out to be difficult, picky, complicated or flat out strange. Hearing misinformation and comments like “you’re going to raise your kids vegan right? you don’t want them to have deficiencies” “you’re vegan…what do you eat, salads?” I have even had people that claimed to love and care for me purposely put meat and dairy in my food so that they could make me eat it. When those moments occurred, I offered myself grace, understanding, compassion and a bit of tough love by reminding myself of my ‘why’. If I am truly committed to living in a way that best serves me and the world around me, would I be consuming animals? For me, the answer to that is a very easy, very hard no. I had to remind myself of that often. I also leaned into community. I leaned on people that understood, accepted, honored, supported and respected my journey. Writing this now I am so proud of myself for rising above the challenges and obstacles that I faced and sometimes still face. Did that always look perfect? Absolutely not. Will it ever look completely perfect? Not likely. Is it worth it still to make a daily effort to being intentional about being and doing better for ourselves and humanity even when obstacles arise? YES. My why and will kept me going when I didn’t feel like continuing and when I ran into the many obstacles and stereotypes that are too common when being Vegan. Needless to say, going Vegan can be a challenge and it is important to prepare for the reality of that but it is also really important to understand the infinite amount of benefits you can experience by choosing it anyway. What that is worth it isn’t at least a little challenging? Since I’ve stopped consuming animal products entirely, I am more energized, more compassionate, more radiant, more grateful, more healthy, more youthful, more disciplined, more grounded, more connected, more empathetic, more intuitive, more in tune with my mind and body and more aware.Things that I experienced on a daily basis that I thought were ‘normal’ I no longer experience. One being excessive bloating and sluggishness after eating. I felt tired, drained and fatigued almost every day before going vegan and thought that was normal because it was the norm. Although it isn’t always the case because not every Vegan eats whole, high vibrational foods, I feel better than I ever did when I consumed animals. And one of my favorite parts, contrary to popular belief, is that I save a decent amount of money!

I truly couldn’t recommend this lifestyle enough and if you’re reading this and aren’t vegan, maybe this is your sign to start. I promise you that it will be worth it and your mind, body, spirit and the planet will thank you!