My journey of becoming vegan/plant based
About 5 years ago my husband Corban, started talking about becoming vegetarian or what is now called flexitarian(eating some meat but mostly vegetarian). I was immediately against this, telling him that I literally don’t know what I would eat. I grew up eating meat and or cheese at both lunch and dinner, and protein was the main food group I had grown up being concerned about. Dinners like pork chops and rice, grilled chicken and rice, and so many more meat-based meals was all I had ever known. So we decided to start small by trying to eat one meatless meal a week.
And then January 1, 2020 I decided that I was done. After really not feeling good eating some ham and cheese sandwiches at a New Year’s Eve party the night before, I took a hard line and went vegetarian! Corban was just starting a busy season at work where he ate a lot of meals in the office, so he waited and then join me as a vegetarian in March 2020. I was vegetarian for over two years, and then after following Andrea Hannemann (Earthyandy.com) for multiple years and loving cooking from her cookbook, and then early this year I found Simon Hill (Theproof.com) Via a Rich Roll podcast, I decided to fully embrace it and go vegan. I feel much more energetic and clear when I am eating whole plant foods.
April 2020 with the start of the pandemic and eating more at home, we finally bit the bullet and got a Vitamix blender. I now swear by them, use mine between 1-4 times every single day, and even travel with it because I need my smoothies! I also have the food processor attachment which I love. Here’s a paid link to the Vitamix store https://www.vitamix.com/rewards?_cts_=lC6krmP2 .
I am a sucker for a good plant based burger, impossible nuggets, or french fries though, so it is definitely a balance. Finding how the science backs this up for long-term health put me over the edge. I became vegetarian for health reasons, environmental reasons, and animal cruelty reasons. And becoming vegan was just a natural process and not evolution. Another early influence for me was Ezra Klein‘s podcast when it was still on vox.com. He talked about how him and his wife slowly became vegetarian and then vegan and even hearing that multiple years ago, I had a feeling vegan was where I would end up.
It takes time to totally change how you eat and how do you think about food. so give yourself time and grace if you are thinking about this process. I now have a smoothie for breakfast every morning, sometimes for lunch, I love eating big salads for dinner. But it took me about three years for my brain to comprehend that a meal could not involve chewing, i.e. a smoothie.
Here are some pictures of plant based/vegan meals I have made. Açaí bowl, various salads, vegan biscuits and gravy, chickpea Marsala, and brown rice ramen.
