Time for change!

It’s now been over 2 years since I decided to go vegan, yet this place still has a very strong “omni” flavor because of my past paleo life. I’m still very much uncomfortable with it but unfortunately, no matter how strongly I feel about veganism and how much I am convinced that it’s the right thing to do for the planet as well as for the animals, and much as I feel uneasy about all the meat-based and other non-vegan recipes on here, they do represent many many years of hard work and I can’t simply go about deleting them all. Besides, I feel it wouldn’t really be the right thing to do. I will learn to compose with their presence and embrace all of my recipes, past and present! I once was a meat eater and I think I have to come to terms with that.

However, I’m hoping that with time, the meat-based recipes will become less and less prominent on this blog and will get replaced with as many delicious plant-based, cruelty-free, good for you and good for the environment recipes.

But my real true hope is that this change will also happen in each and every one of your plates, if it hasn’t already, and that you will soon not even care to make any of my old recipes.

Curious as to how the shift initiated for me? I’m more than happy to share the story with you! Who knows, maybe it’ll inspire you to take a walk down that same path, too!

As you may know, I’ve gone through many different stages throughout my journey… I’ve gone from omnivore, calorie restricting, weight-loss oriented, to almost vegetarian, then omnivore again, to grain-free, to strict paleo, then omnivore again, to now convinced vegan. The thing is, I’ve been exploring a lot, asking myself all kinds of questions, trying to find and define me. In all honesty, all this time, while always remaining health-conscious, I’ve been trying to find the ONE diet that would work for ME, that would magically turn my body into what I thought MY ideal body should look like. Or what society made me believe that my body should look like, rather. 

Then, something magical happened to me… I went through a severe depression! For several months, I remember creating recipes, cooking and photographing them while crying practically the whole time. In fact, I would find myself sobbing most every day. I never really talked about it on here because I was kind of embarrassed; no one likes to admit that they are ill. Plus, well… life had to go on, you know.

But that was probably the best thing that ever happened to me, because I eventually sought help, and that led me to discover meditation and the teachings of the Buddhist philosophy. This has has a profound positive impact on my life. Through those teachings, I got to learn a great deal about love and compassion and I soon started to feel a huge amount of that towards our Mother earth, as well as all the sentient beings that she shelters. I soon established that I wanted to make a valid effort towards making a change for the better, starting with reducing my ecological footprint. And well, the fastest and most efficient way to do that was to switch to a vegan diet, because animal agriculture is what’s destroying the planet at the scariest and fastest pace.

To say that my mind was resisting that change would be an understatement — like seriously… giving up meat for good? Are you insane? — but I was determined that it was the right thing to do. To help me reinforce that feeling, I worked up the courage to face my aversion — who wants to actually watch innocent animals get mistreated and abused? — got my head out of the sand and watched a few ground-breaking documentaries (all available on Netflix) namely What the Health, Fork Over Knives, Cowspiracy and Food, Inc. That totally did it for me, it was like an awakening from which you can never fall asleep again. My eyes finally opened up to how insanely badly the animals get treated, how we managed to turn them into actual products, and how extensively we’re destroying the planet to produce our precious meat. I wept.

This also lead me to finally realize the true meaning of “voting with your dollar”. Every single time I purchased a product from one of these monstrous corporations, I was in fact not only telling them that I was in total agreement with their ways and actions, but I was also FINANCING them! I no longer wished to be a part of this. Even if I did purchase most of my meat from local, sustainable farms, I was still contributing to the destruction of the planet, because the impact of raising the animals is the same. Plus, all the animals end up going through the same slaughtering process, and well, there is simply no humane way to kill an animal. And so I became vegan, practically overnight.

For the first time since I began this journey, I switched diets for entirely selfless reasons. And seeing as how it’s impossible for me to un-know what I now know, or un-see all that I’ve seen, I know that I’ll never be able to go back to consuming meat again. I can no longer be a part of the carnage, the torture, the abuse and killing of innocent sentient beings, all for our own personal egoistical pleasure.

And that is why I feel so strongly about this new lifestyle. I’m not doing it for me, I’m doing it for you, for the future generations, for the planet and mainly, for the animals.

I really hope that you will consider going vegan, too, if you aren’t already. Or at the very least, reduce your meat consumption drastically.

Do it for me, for the future generations, for the planet, and mainly, for the animals…