December 23, 2015. My family and I had just left Olive Garden. I had this massive pasta with the juiciest sausage and mouth-watering, melting cheese. I thought it was literally the best thing to ever happen that day. I devoured it as if my life depended on it. When we stood up to leave the restaurant, this excruciating pain erupted from my stomach like it was being wrapped in a blanket of nails. The pain continued for a couple of hours and shortly after making it home I got on my computer -doing what millennials do best- and started watching YouTube Videos.
Searching down my timeline I came across a video titled, “101 Reasons To Go Vegan”, with one (watch it completely) changing my life forever.
I knew it was a sign.
Prior to this I was getting notifications and talks from peers around me about becoming vegan and how most of the the food on our plate is not safe for our bodies to process. I continued to watch video after video and read article after article. It became unreal.
Once you become educated on the food industry and see how your food ACTUAL makes it to your plate, you can never un-see it. I grew up in a household where TV dinners, meat, and dairy were constantly consumed and no one thought anything of it. So you can imagine how my family looked at me once I tried to educate them on what they were really eating.
After immediately becoming enlightened with this knowledge I took baby steps into my process. I remember heading to my pantry and throwing out everything that had animal products in it. Honey, cheese, turkey, ham, bags of chips, gummies, and even juices all had to GO. I cold-turkey gave up meat and went pescatarian for about a week. After that my diet was raw and my body become very sick for two weeks, purging out all the processed and chemically treated food as it wasn’t used to a natural diet.
There are positives in the negative because after the hard part, my body started to thrive and I never looked back. I knew this was no phase, this was a major life change. There were so many benefits from this change like glowing skin and much more energy. There were a lot of positive changes happening in my life.
Going vegan wasn’t scary or too difficult to do. Its back to the basics. Its simple. Its delicious. Its real. Its not processed. Since then, I’ve watched numerous documentaries, read books, articles, and immersed myself in learning everything about plant based nutrition.
I made a commitment to become plant-based vegan and to try to educate others on how this lifestyle is not only ethical for the animals, but it is also ethical for your body and the planet. It was one of the best life-changing and defining moments of my life.
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