So uhhh you’re vegan?

I want to start off by saying, we were all not vegan at some point, therefore I find it inconsiderate and rude to argue with non-vegans. I never liked "preachy pushy vegans" when I wasn’t vegan and I still don’t like them now. Like I said, we vegans were all also not vegan at some point and if someone yelled at us or made us feel like a bad person for how we were raised well, that just isn’t fair. Having said that, this post is filled with my personal opinions, and personal opinions are exactly what they are, personal - they aren’t supposed to conform they are there to provide insight into the way I see things now that I’m vegan. I think it goes without saying that you should never take someone’s personal opinion as a direct insult to the way you choose to live your life, because it isn’t intended that way. People are just different - there’s 7 billion of us, how could we not be?

I thought about what I would write in a blogpost on being vegan for a long time and I decided that it’s too big to fit into a single post seeing as it’s quite a big part of my life and my identity. It’s just not possible to talk about it all. So in this post I’m going to talk about how I came about being vegan and what it’s been like since it hasn’t even been a year yet! I might include monthly follow up posts where I’ll be sharing what I normally eat, health benefits I’ve noticed and other vegan related topics like buying vegan fashion which I’ve been working on for a while now. This post is just for those who are interested or curious. Once I actually met real vegans I asked them 101 questions and I know since going vegan people have done the same to me so here it goes...

(These are some questions friends & family have asked/told me with good intentions haha)

The first time I heard about veganism I shook my head thinking how impossible a challenge it was and like most people would say it’s “too much” and what literally everyone says “I like (insert animal product here) too much, I could never." Then when I first decided to become vegan back in April 2014, I really thought it wasn’t a big deal. When I make up my mind about something, it’s pretty much set in stone especially when it comes to food I am very good at making resolutions. Plus I had done the whole vegetarian thing since I was 15 so I honestly didn’t think much of it. The thing about becoming vegan though is that it forces you to see the world differently and it all starts with a plate of food. It’s no longer meat plus a side. You have to reinvent not just your plate but your life too as cheesy as that may sound. NO PUN INTENDED.

So let’s backtrack a little bit, I, like many of you (I presume) had a not so healthy relationship with food when I was younger. I can remember being 12 years old and dieting on slim fast and hating my body and looking back on it it’s a very sad but true reality for so many of us. It wasn’t until I turned 18 that I stopped having negative emotions about food. I never felt guilty again for eating anything and it made my life so much easier. Food stopped becoming a crutch for my problems, and it began solving them instead. I started watching cooking shows 24/7 (Masterchef Australia being my top, obviously) and I started teaching myself how to cook. I would look up recipes online or try impossible dishes I saw attempted on Masterchef. I had a lot of fun with it, made a lot disasters but realized soon that it became a great way to relieve stress. When your cooking you’re doing a million things at once, theres no time to be thinking about your day or about tomorrow. So rather then creating negative feelings about my food, I created a love for making it. Putting the time and effort into making my food made me feel like I deserved to eat it and be proud of it. What I’m trying to say with all of this is that veganism can appear to be restrictive which is why it put me off so much because I felt like my options were minimal especially since I loved to cook so much. But in fact the opposite ended up happening and I ended up cooking greater more elaborate food all because I was forced to think outside the box.

An unwanted side effect of veganism is that you don’t just think outside the box anymore when it comes to food but you start to apply it to your life as well. At first you may decide to become vegan for your health but without a doubt the only way you will carry on being vegan is because you love animals. All animals are sacred and all animals have personalities and quirks. Just take a look at your own pets, I have two cats and they are two completely different personalities. Also, if you have a dog you know they are sassy little creatures that are always there to brighten your day. Becoming vegan, you’ll soon realize pigs, cows and chickens are no different. I went on a walk with my dog the other day and the calves started playing with my dog and running after her. Like I said, all animals are the same and you will soon realize all animals deserve the respect of not being confined to cages for their entire lives. You’ll see it’s a pig and not pork; a cow, not beef; a chicken, not poultry. You’ll see that society has misled us and you’ll see the really scary facts. You’ll see that factory farming is the number one cause of climate change. Or that one vegan meal saves 3000 gallons of water. Or by not eating 1lb. of meat, you save more water than if you didn’t shower for 6 months! You’ll keep it up for the earth and all it’s species because that’s the only thing that really matters. I don’t think I’m alone in experiencing a lot of sadness too because once you see the world’s true colors (and I’m not just talking about animals anymore either) it can make you very sad and/or very angry. Its only natural there are so many vegans that are preachy and pushy. It takes a lot of energy to push those negative feelings to the side and to not let the world’s problems consume you. I know I’m getting a little serious over here but these are things I went through and still go through transitioning to veganism.

Now there was one more big thing I couldn’t overlook any longer either and that was leather. I already didn’t wear fur - thank god for that - but I started to realize how creepy it is to wear something else’s skin and though I tried to ignore that for a while I couldn’t keep it up. I couldn’t justify wearing leather just for my own vanity or because I loved fashion so much and plan to work in fashion. There’s a lot of excuses out there to justify leather like saying “Leather is natural and fake leather is made up of chemicals” when in fact real leather is also treated with harsh chemicals (so it doesn't decompose). I realized my goal and main reason for being vegan was to stop supporting the meat industry and I knew that buying leather indirectly supported that. I didn’t buy any leather anymore since going vegan and I’ve been replacing every leather thing I own as well, which thankfully wasn’t that much. Commodities are great and they make life fun but keep in mind that they don’t actually matter. This is something I’ve always known and lived by: that material possessions are actually pretty pointless and that it's people and experiences that are invaluable. So then, if material possessions are so pointless, why would an animal’s life have to end over it?

So there it is. A short summary of what becoming vegan has been like for me. It effected me so much more then I realized it would and writing all this up was very therapeutic and affirming. Thank you for taking the time to read through my personal opinions - I sincerely hope I didn't offend anybody because that was not the purpose of this post. I believe you can spread awareness in a positive light and I hope I've done just that.