I’ve been vegan for over a decade now and it was the best decision of my life. I only wish I’d learned about it sooner.

My vegan journey has been an interesting one: it took me from being completely unfamiliar with the concept of veganism to becoming an advocate for it and even building my career around it.

Where my Vegan journey began

My journey to veganism started when my first child was born with a dairy allergy. She rejected my breast milk and had to be put on a formula free of cow’s milk.

Once weaned, she still couldn’t stomach dairy—so as a family, we all ditched it. As cheese lovers, this was difficult at first, but eventually, we all did it and felt better for it!

It was ditching dairy that would lead me to veganism, and my daughter always likes to remind us that it was thanks to her our lives changed for the better. And it’s true—without her allergy, none of us would have gone vegan!

The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone was the book that changed everything for me. 

I was researching dairy-free recipes when I came across it, and I thought it would just be a cookbook. But what I read opened my eyes to the truth about meat—and how unhealthy it actually is.

I couldn’t believe what I was putting in my body, and all the damage it was doing—not to mention the fact that I was feeding it to my children! After reading The Kind Diet and doing countless Google searches to confirm what she said, I vowed never to eat meat again!

“I initially went vegan for my health”

When I first went vegan, it was not because of any moral or ethical beliefs; it was purely for health, so I wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

I showed my sister what I had discovered and she was instantly on board, unlike many others in my life. We were excited to get started and did a lot of research on what it meant to be vegan and what we could and couldn’t eat.

The start of my vegan journey was exciting—I experimented with so many different recipes and didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. The food available to vegans back then wasn’t anything like it is today, so in the beginning, I had to do a lot of cooking from scratch. As a family, we made our own almond milk and even found an amazing recipe for cashew cheese!

A short while after going Vegan, I felt like a new person, my mind felt clearer and my mental health improved. I felt like the world was a new place, and I had a whole new perspective on food.

My physical health improved also, I lost weight without even trying, my energy levels skyrocketed, I had better digestion, clearer skin, and felt full of life.

In terms of food choices, I found myself gravitating towards smoothies, salads, fruits, nuts, and seeds—things that were once foreign to me but now seemed so normal! 

I had a natural instinctual reaction to treat my body well with healthy foods instead of processed crap which used to be my go-to. 

Once I started feeling better and seeing results, I knew that this lifestyle change was for real.

I understood without a doubt it was the way humans should be eating.

And now, having been Vegan for over 10 years, I’m more convinced than ever that it’s not only the ideal diet but also one of the most powerful tools we have to fight climate change.

It wasn’t until I was a year or two into being vegan that I really “got it” and realized how awful the meat and dairy industries are, and how many lies I had been told my whole life.

I started following other vegans on Instagram and learned the truth from them about the cruelty involved in these industries and their impact on the environment. It made me feel sick to my stomach to think that I have been contributing to this horror all along. I was shocked—and then determined to help make a difference. And I never looked back!

It was then that my vegan journey got more meaningful, and I started activism.

My sister and I got creative and started making clothes with vegan messages on them, took lots of delicious photographs of our vegan meals, and posted them on Instagram, hoping to spread the health veganism message by showing people how fun and easy it could be to eat more plant-based foods.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

We were on the receiving end of ridicule from family and friends who were adamant we should eat meat. 

It was hard to take at first, but eventually, I reached my breaking point. It was time for me to stand up for myself and for all animals.

Ultimately, going vegan and how much it meant to me caused the breakdown of some long-term relationships. Some people weren’t able to see things from my perspective and they didn’t care or feel they needed to change after learning the truth. 

When we started our page we were just a family of vegans who wanted to share our passion with the world. But then—BOOM—we got swarmed by meat eaters who wanted to tell us how wrong we were and how much they hated vegans.

We tried to keep posting our activism, but it was hard because of all the hate coming at us. So we shut down the page.

But that wasn’t the end of our activism—it was just the beginning!

We didn’t stop there, and we will continue to fight for them until every cage is empty.

My children and nephew are so passionate and proud to be vegan that they inspired me to write a book for other young vegans.

I wrote a book called ‘The Vegan Dinosaur’ that I hoped would help children feel proud of their Vegan lifestyle. I also created a new Instagram account, workbooks, and other materials with the hope of encouraging peaceful activism with less friction from meat eaters.

I wanted to be a voice for animals who can’t speak for themselves so, on top of this, I created a Youtube channel to help people realise why they should go vegan and open their eyes to the truth. 

I started my vegan journey with a mission to become healthier, by the end of it, though, I had found more than a new diet: I found my life’s calling.

Now I work mostly for vegan companies and am filled with passion to change the world

I am thrilled at how rapidly veganism is growing and there are so many products out there now that make it so easy to live a cruelty-free lifestyle. 

There are no more excuses. The world should be Vegan!

I really hope you’ve enjoyed learning about my vegan journey and that it has inspired you in some way. 

No one vegan journey is the same, but we all got here in the end 🙂 If you enjoyed mine, check out Pete and Tracy’s too. Pretty different, as you’ll see…