The first thing I tell everyone when they ask me this question is I always loved meat and dairy so if I stopped eating it I had a pretty good reason!

I started dieting and having body image issues since I was 17. I was always at a low BMI but wanted to be underweight, I hated my body and I tried countless diets to lose weight. Atkins, calorie restriction, low fat, master cleanse, cutting carbs and even anorexic “Tumblr” diets like the ana diet, the abc diet and water fasting for two weeks. I would always count calories and made sure to never eat more than 800 per day, I was depressed, didn’t have energy to exercise and when I did it was always extremely exhausting, I would get dizzy and I even passed out. After every diet lasting a few days to a few weeks and losing 2 or 3 kilos my body would have enough of starving and I would start binging uncontrollably. I would go for really high fat foods like sweets and dairy and wouldn’t be able to stop eating even if I wasn’t hungry, I had tried vomiting sometimes but wasn’t able to and of course I gained back all the weight. I was never diagnosed with an eating disorder but I knew I had one. For 5 years food ruled my life, all I did was think about it, felt guilty if ate more than I should and always felt like I would never be happy until I was at my target weight. Not the most productive way to spend the “best years of my life” one might say.    

At this point you’re either relating to my story of thinking I was really stupid and you’re right. I was a naive young female with low self esteem, no real knowledge of nutrition and an ambition to be happy through imitating the looks of my role models, beautiful, smiling, skinny actresses, models and fashion bloggers.   

Fast forwarding a bit to 2013 when I joined Emirates and moved to Dubai to be a flight attendant. Because of the crazy work schedule I took a break from strict dieting but kept counting my calories occasionally and weighing myself until after 6 months of working for the company. We had to get weighed in and have our uniforms checked, I remember the lady in charge of the image department telling me I’ve gained weight and handed me a slit to go and have my uniform’s skirt widened. I was heavier than I’ve ever been at 58 kilos (still a normal bmi) and I decided instead of widening the skirt to start dieting again. Just as I began looking at “thinspo” on tumblr and channel 3 weight loss videos on youtube I came across this Freelee the Banana Girl. Could it be possible to be thin, fit and still eat a lot and not calorie restrict? YES IT COULD.

HEALTH BENEFITS

I went plant based the next day after binge watching Freelee’s videos, I immediately felt better than I had since being a kid, I had energy, positivity and knew that this “diet” was nothing like the others and after a few days I even stopped counting calories for good. I simply stopped eating animal products and instead ate more fruits, veggies and starches until I felt full. No calorie restriction, no hunger, no feeling guilty after eating, no worries about gaining weight, NO DIET. Without even trying I went back to my normal weight of 55 kilos and for the first time in years I could eat like a normal person again and enjoy food for what it is… nutrition. 

After experiencing these amazing benefits of a plant based diet I started looking into it more. I watched Forks Over Knives that gave me all the scientific proof behind why eating plants is the best thing you can do for your health. It explains how physiologically we are similar to all herbivores, from our teeth to the length of our intestines and it also shares some of the biggest studies ever done on human nutrition and how it was found that eating animal products is directly linked to the most popular diseases today like cancer and heart attacks.      

ETHICAL CONNECTION

It’s funny how at first I was adamant about not going vegan. “I’m plant based, I’m doing this for my health, I’m not one of those crazy vegan animal lovers.” A few months and a few documentaries later that became a: “I’m vegan, but I’ll only tell people if they ask me and make sure to never be pushy about it.” to now a proud veganizer, helping everyone I know cut animal products from their diet, making videos about it on youtube and bringing it up in every possible conversation with strangers, with a big smile on my face saying “Do it! It’s the best thing you can do for your health, the planet and the animals!”

What did I watch that turned me into this “extreme” vegan? This crazy hippy that thinks killing animals is wrong? I simply got educated. After a life long of being brainwashed into believing it’s ok to treat animals as products and emotionally disconnecting myself from the reality that I was eating a sentient creature that was tortured and murdered for my personal satisfaction, I saw the madness in all of it. The documentary Earthlings and the youtube video The Best Speech You Will Ever See by Gary Yourofsky changed my life, I cried after watching Earthlings because yes, it contains very graphic images, but every meateater needs to watch this because here’s the thing, if you can’t even watch the poor animal die then with what decency can you eat it? For a lot of people the emotional connection is much harder to make, especially for men, constantly being told by modern society that men shouldn’t feel compassion. It’s not easy to make an emotional connection when you are not an emotional person but don’t let society’s rules dictate the person you are designed to be. You’re not a drone.

VEGAN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT 

Although I was already vegan at this point and knew about the environmental impact of consuming animal products from various youtube videos, I think a great documentary that compiles all the environmental reasons for going vegan is Cowspiracy. It’s really important to understand that animal agriculture is the number one contributor to climate change. Cow farts y'all, no joke. And if the world doesn’t go vegan pretty soon, better start building that airconditioned bomb shelter like, right now. North pole ice caps melting, sea level rising, environmental refugees (you could be one of them), increase in extreme weather, more hurricanes, typhoons and drought, mass species extinction, fresh water depletion, deadly insect migration, increase in diseases and more. NO. NOT FUN. The future is going to suck big time if we don’t do something about this now and the worst part is we’re still going to be alive when all this happens. We’re just going to be old, wrinkled farts and dealing with climate change will not be fun when your joints hurt and you’ve got a broken hip I assure you. 

So GO VEGAN!