Here’s the big one. The main question we have gotten on our plant based journey. Why did we do it? Why did we become vegan? Grab a cup of coffee and I’ll be happy to tell you everything.
Let’s start at the beginning of our marriage, shall we? I was a terrible cook (some may say I haven’t mastered it even still…) I mean, I was fully cooking out of pre-packaged boxes, just adding meat that I had no idea how to prepare. We were eating a pretty typical American diet of meat, cheese, milk, cereal, eggs, with some canned vegetables and fruit sprinkled in here and there.
Fast forward a few years and we started to get a little smarter about what we were eating. I stopped buying Hamburger Helper, but we still ate a lot of pre-packaged meat and foods. Think, sleeves of hamburgers, bags of meat balls, canned soup and Kraft cheese slices.
The first big change came after having our second son. Around Easter of 2014, we decided to take a “real food” challenge. That meant no processed foods, only whole foods. Think Paleo, but we still ate grains and dairy. We kicked a lot of sugar and packaged food and pretty much from then on, I stopped buying garbage from the grocery store (for the most part). We cleaned up our diet quite a bit around this time. I was following pretty religiously 100 Days of Real Food blog.
The beginning of the plant based journey
In 2015, came the biggest changes. Here is where we start getting into the why of becoming plant based. John had come off of training for, and competing in, an Ironman Triathlon. Even though he was insanely fit, he wasn’t feeling totally great. At this point, we had already cut out red meat but were still eating poultry, dairy and eggs. He was having some intestinal issues that he couldn’t seem to shake. It didn’t make sense because he was probably the fittest and healthiest he had ever been!
Bye, Bye Dairy
He came to the conclusion that dairy had to be the culprit. Every time he ate dairy, he would get very uncomfortable and have trouble in the bathroom (that’s all I’ll say on that, just know it was sort of scary). We made the decision to stop buying dairy products at this time. This was so hard for me. I put cheese in literally EVERYTHING that I cooked, prepared, looked at. E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. But, in true matrimonial solidarity, I stopped eating and buying dairy for the whole family. He was finally starting to feel better (and so was I, honestly) after we cut out all dairy.
Wait, what?
The next thing that happened almost knocked me out of my seat. One day, out of basically nowhere, I got a text from John saying “I don’t want to eat chicken anymore”. Guys, the man basically ONLY ate chicken like, all the time for every meal. Chicken, broccoli and rice. That was his diet. I was pretty thrilled at the thought of never having to touch a dead chicken again though, so I enthusiastically jumped on that bandwagon! His reasoning behind it was this video from John Oliver about chicken farming. It turned him off chicken forever.
From there, we stared watching documentary after documentary and listening to podcasts and reading articles all surrounding the meat and dairy industries. It became something we couldn’t look away from any longer. We started to feel very strongly about becoming fully plant based for ethical, environmental and health reasons. We eventually stopped eating eggs, and that was probably the last thing to go.
The Big Why
When it comes down to it, we just don’t believe any animal should have to suffer in order to give us satisfaction in eating. There is nothing nutritionally from animal products that you cannot get somewhere else in a healthier and more sustainable form.
There is usually never just one reason why, especially in a topic like this. People often ask if we think we would ever go back to the way we ate before and I can honestly and resolutely say absolutely not. There are some things that you cannot turn away from and forget once you’ve learned about them. The effects of meat and diary consumption are at the top of my list of things I can’t unlearn. How we were eating just didn’t make sense anymore. It didn’t align with our core values, and it wasn’t something we could continue with all that we now know.
I encourage everyone to make their own decisions and to become informed on where your food comes from! I am not here to convert you to veganism (but if you want to, I’m all for it!!!). I’m here to show you it’s possible if it’s something you thought you couldn’t do. Being vegan is EASY but I know becoming vegan is a STRUGGLE. Sometimes, you just have to leap and start your own plant based journey.
Please let me know how you made the choice to become plant based or if you are thinking about it, I’d love to hear from you!!!
