A New Lifestyle

As a lover of all things food and nutrition related, I get some sort of "thrill" one may say, from trying different food lifestyle changes. I put this into action by adding, on top of my already gluten allergy, a vegan diet plan. I have certainly gotten large amounts of criticism for choosing this way of living, but after having done extensive research on this topic, and learning all of the benefits eliminating animal based foods from your diet can do for your body, it seemed like a no-brainer for me to choose this path. In the past, I had dabbled with the concept of becoming a vegan, only lasting a few weeks at a time due to not having properly researched how to healthily incorporate all of the necessary food groups into my diet. In addition to this, I saw veganism as more of a type of eating, not a way that the body is meant to eat & a soul-fulfilling diet. After reading various books about Ultra-Runners and their famous tendency to drift towards a vegan diet, I was inspired to really give this a try for real. You could say that Eat and Run, Finding Ultra, and Born to Run are truly what led me to discover my full human potential.

I have been a vegan now for a couple months, and love every second of it! I do not miss meat or dairy products whatsoever, and I view these "obstacles" as some may same, in a way that seems to me like a game of staying clear of foods that could be a major contributor to developing heart disease, cancer, or other life threatening illnesses. For me, being vegan is not a hippie approach of trying to convince all people I encounter that eating meat is like downing a glass of poison or pesticides. I do not lecture or preach my beliefs in an obscene way, as I have learned through observing that this is not the way to get people to listen. I am a vegan for me, myself, and I. Don't get me wrong, as an extreme lover of animals, and a dedicated planet lover, these are certainly factors that I take into account every time I pass up ice cream, a container of Greek yogurt, or a deliciously juicy angus beef burger at a summer cookout. For anyone out there who is contemplating developing this lifestyle, please understand this: being a vegan means being healthier than the rest of the population. Period. Less occurrence of obesity, heart disease, cancers, and the list goes on of the benefits of being a vegan. I refuse animal products becasue my body does not need them to function, so why clog my arteries and kill defenseless animals all in an event to just make me sick in years to come anyways?