When I think back to how things started I have to laugh. I was working on a short film and a few of our production staff revealed to us that they were vegetarian. I was like “great, what are we going to be able to feed them, a bunch of side dishes?” And now I’m here eating daiya cheese, tons of kale, and quinoa. :-)
I began my vegan journey a few months ago (April 2011) and it's been an amazing transformation. I was tired of how my body felt and I knew I needed a change. I wanted to be more compassionate and kind to my body but I didn’t know how or where to start. But, I did remember hearing about Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet. I went online and did a little research and decided that I needed to check this book out. When I received the book in the mail I was excited and nervous at the same time. I wanted to see what new and delicious food I would be trying but I didn’t want to hear about how terrible I was for eating meat. So, I proceeded with caution. “I’m just going to be a flirt,” I said, which in her book means to just try and incorporate some vegan changes into your life from time to time. No commitment. That’s exactly what I wanted, no commitment! I wanted to give it a try but there was no way I was going to give up my In-N-Out cheeseburger. As I continued reading the book I realized that by eating meat and dairy, I wasn’t just affecting my health, I was also contributing to the pain and suffering of animals and their children. I continued to research by searching the web and watching documentaries and I was finally faced with the question “Am I going to make a change or not?”
I never in my life thought that I would give up eggs, dairy, cheese, and meat...but I'm fully Vegan now! Woo hoo! My husband is still a meat eater (I’m slowly trying to convert him). Oh man, you should have seen his face when I told him "I think I want to try and adopt more of a vegan lifestyle," he looked at me like I had been taken over by the invasion of the body snatchers.lol Don’t get me wrong, he's very supportive, now...but it was definitely hard for him to accept that his meat and cheese loving wife had changed her eating so completely and so quickly. But, it was like something wonderful had come over me and I knew that living a more compassionate and vegan friendly lifestyle is where God was taking me.
