How I decided to become vegan

I want to share my story and I hope it will inspire someone to become a vegan if you are not one already.

My food journey on the way to become a vegan

I should probably start at the beginning of my whole food journey. Since I was 12 I was struggling a bit with my weight. Honestly, I had never been really overweight, but 10-20 pounds more than I wished to be. I should mention though that I still was in a healthy weight range all the time.

But as I always wanted to be tinier, I tried probably every single diet that exists in this world: from fasting, to juicing, to counting calories, to counting points, to vegetarian, to Mediterranean, to Paleo…. You name it, I tried it.

From vegetarian to Paleo!

So I certainly have not become a vegan since the childhood. It took me quite some time to get there. But I was a vegetarian for almost 6 years in my early twenties. And that was pretty easy for me to accomplish, because I did not care for meat in my menu too much anyways.  The problem was though that I did not realize that vegetarian can be very unhealthy if you choose wrong vegetarian foods. Potato chips, sugary cereals, breads, chocolate and lot of soy products are all vegetarian, but they can be very unhealthy. So I had gotten to the point that I started to feel tired all the time. And the reason was the food choices that didn’t nourish my body.

So I decided that being a vegetarian was not for me. And I started to slowly introduce meats back into my diet. At the time I became a personal trainer and was working out pretty often and intensively. So I felt like that was it. I needed a lot of protein to sustain my energy level and I must had meat.

Therefore I slowly became a paleo person. For those who don’t know what is paleo, I will talk about it in my other article. Stay tuned. It’s coming 🙂 But basically it is a diet based on all natural foods that the caveman was eating in the Paleolithic period. Great diet, but it includes lots of animal products as a source of protein. 

Strange fact: Although I got back to eating meat at that point, I must say that it was very helpful to find out Paleo diet, because now I am combining vegan and paleo together. That would mean following a strict vegan diet, but at the same time removing the foods that are not allowed on Paleo. So it came out to be a pretty healthy diet.

How yoga influenced my decision to become a vegan

And when I started practicing yoga seriously in my 200-hour teacher training I was told, that real yogi eventually become a vegan. At that time I said to myself:  “oh, no. I will never do that again.” Then later on, when I went to Dharma Yoga for the first time, and Sri Dharma Mittra kept saying that each of us should be at least a vegetarians, I said to myself: “No way. This is not happening.”

Long story short, after only second time visiting Dharma Yoga Center in NY I literally woke up one day and decided to become a vegan, but just for one week. Just to check to see how that feels. Because I could not imagine that one can get all the necessary nutrients out of plants only. So I told everyone that I was about to become a vegan for a week. This actually helped me to stick to my plan.

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How I felt when I tried to become a vegan 

Interestingly, the week passed by very easily. And I was amazed how light I felt, not only in my body, but also in my mind. I started to realize, that as soon as I decided to go back to meat, I lost my true connection between my body, mind and soul. I had either too much energy, or not enough. I could not find the peace in my mind. But during that one week of following a vegan diet, I felt that awesome feeling of happiness and true joy of life. The same lightness and happiness that I felt when I was a vegetarian.

Then I thought to myself to stay a vegan just for as long as I could keep up that wonderful feeling of calmness. But let me tell you, when you decide to do such a change in your life, your family usually does not respond too well. They can not seem to see all dishes made of plants too appareling to them.

How my family responded to my decision to become a vegan 

At first my hubby absolutely disagreed with my decision to become a vegan. Although I somehow could convince him that we still could enjoy the food together. To be honest, the most important was my own wiliness to stay a vegan. But later on some magic things happened. And my husband slowly stopped eating meat himself. Even more, little by little my decision affected many people around me and even if they did not become a vegan, they started to eat less meat in general.

Just try to become a vegan for one week

So the whole point of my story is that if you decided to become a vegan, but think that no-one will agree or support your decision, just try it for one week straight. Check to see how it is going for you. And think about all the good you are doing to the world and to yourself by becoming a vegan. 

Conclusion

Sri Dharma Mittra keeps saying: when you have meat in your fridge, you keep corpses in your house. And that is terrible just to think about! After hearing that I personally started to look differently on meat and probably will not be able to go back to eating meat ever again.

After all, veganism is not a diet. It is a set of mind. It is a lifestyle. It is a true care for all living creatures on this earth. And ones you’ve got that set of mind, you can never go back. Once you realize that we are all one, you will never think about eating meat ever again. 

Happy and healthy eating to all!

Namaste ॐ

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You can check more articles on a VEGAN topic. Find out more information about being a vegan, also great vegan restaurants and vegan recipes. […]

And for more resources on how to become a VEGAN visit the following awesome website:

vegansociety.com