Why I Became a Vegan

I wish I could say I became a vegan because of the animals, and it’s true, but only partially.

My reasons for becoming a vegan were a bit more selfish – I stopped consuming anything animal because of my health. I have had bad migraines ever since I remember; and when I say migraines I don’t mean strong headaches with sensitivity to light and/or sound, but devastating migraines, with hand numbness, partial blindness, inability to speak, throwing up etc. Though in truth, at that time I would consume plenty of chocolate and dairy products daily. I knew it had to stop; and so this is where my story started.

I had an appointment scheduled with a new doctor, and four weeks prior to that his assistant told me that I have to go on an all-vegan diet in order for my body to cleanse. Ok, never connected being vegan with cleansing my body (since at the time not a lot of people talked about the benefits of not eating meat or dairy), but I decided to give it a go. I wish I could say it was easy, but in truth second and third weeks were horrible – I was grumpy all the time, my head wouldn’t stop hurting, I had random food cravings of food I haven’t even thought about in years, everyone was getting on my nerves, I was basically going through withdrawal.

After that bad period came bliss. Not only were my blood results better, my energy levels higher, but even my skin got better (as someone who had bad acne, this was something I never thought possible). Fast forward, after my appointment I was allowed to eat ‘normal’ (whatever that means) again, but it was then that I came to the realisation, to my own epiphany:

Why would I?

Why would I continue poisoning my body with food I clearly didn’t need and was making more harm to my body than good? So then and there I made a conscious decision to completely cut all animal-based food out of my life.

The best decision I have ever made.

I still have migraines (once you suffer from them, they never completely go away), but they are much less rare and less painful and last only a couple of hours, whereas before they could last even up to 48 hours.

And that’s only the benefits regarding my health. After I stopped eating meat, I started to feel more connected to animals and nature, and I always loved animals, but now I value every single living thing more (even the smallest of insects), I feel calmer inside, I don’t crave sugar anymore as much as I used to, and instead crave various vegetables, my body is thinner, and I also feel more pride in regards to the positive impact I have on the planet – as we all know by now, the meat and dairy farming industry is a major contributor to global warming. 

The way I see it:

Every living thing has as much of a right to live on this planet as you and I or any other human, so who are we to feel like we have a right to rob them of that?

We all share one planet, let’s rather live in harmony than in pain and suffering.