I can’t remember the day exactly, but about 4.5 or 5 years ago perhaps, I began eating vegan. People become vegan for many reasons, but my personal reason was that I find myself happiest the more I close the gap between the natural human habit of conflicting ideas and actions . I couldn’t come to any conclusion whereby it was okay to murder pigs, but not dogs, for example. After reading a lot of literature and watching some of the traditional movies that exploit common appalling food industry practices, I decided to begin my journey with eating vegetarian, and giving myself the year to become vegan.
Although at one point in my life, I did order my steaks “still moo-ing”, I found that eating a vegetarian diet was no huge deal for me. Most of my life I ate a predominately vegetarian diet because of my feelings towards animals (however, it did not prevent me ordering my steaks in such a crass manner), but also because I generally preferred the flavors of vegetarian dishes to meat dishes. My favorite food was a bean & cheese burrito (Tex-Mex style), & I could eat them every day. I was vegetarian about 6 months when one day it hit me: it is time. My mind just does that these days. I hear a voice that says, “You are now ready,” and low and behold, I am! So whatever day that was, it was one of the best days of my life!
I realized I couldn’t prepare for it really. I tried to prepare for it with books and things, but until I just knew it was time, I wasn’t somehow brave enough to dive right in. But now I was ready to commit to my “practice”. I did my best to avoid things that I knew were obviously meat or dairy, etc. I didn’t make an exclusive “no honey” agreement right away, either, because I hadn’t YET found conclusive evidence of harming bees in my extremely limited research, and often things I thought were vegan at first turned out to have honey, but I did try to steer away from it. But that is to say- I didn’t beat myself up if I ate something and later discovered it had honey in it. In fact, I didn’t beat myself up at all, which is something that the “perfectionist” in me has been programmed to do. Looking back, becoming vegan is probably the thing that most influenced my favorite saying today, “Practice makes progress.”
Slowly but surely I began even cutting out things I could find at fast food restaurants, realizing the power of voting with my dollar. Eating vegan was also my biggest teacher of how much the energy of “money” can instigate change in our society. I kept telling my husband that I was sure the more frequently I paid for organic, vegan food, the more easily accessible and inexpensive it would be. And years later, I feel that has proven to be the truth!
The longer I am vegan, the more I have the habit of scouring all ingredients and have now become a very “strict” vegan. I don’t eat questionable things. If an item can be derived from plants or animals, yet it doesn’t specify from plants, I don’t eat it. And eating this way has had held so many benefits! For one, it’s crazy interesting to see what weird things manufactures put in food. I mean, why would one put animal hair in bread?? It’s really good without it! The best benefit for my health is that I eat less and less processed foods, and I feel great! Eating vegan has taught me to be more compassionate to all things, including my fellow humans, not to mention not all of the benefits to other animals, the environment, and our planet in general. Also, I believe that energy is in all things and that we contribute to our body, mind, and spirit energies by our thoughts, what we eat, and what we put on and around our body. So the best thing for my overall well being is that I know it has considerably raised my vibrational frequency. Moving closer into alignment with following my personal truth, I also now I do not wear clothing or wear beauty products that are not created with compassion and are not compassionately resourced. And like I said, this is all just progress. I don’t do it all perfectly. There are a ton of things I can change in order to be more compassionate to myself and the planet, but it’s just one step at a time.
Which brings me to the newest step on my journey!
I have been feeling the urge to be raw for my own health. This has been harder for me, because from my personal experiences to learn from in this lifetime, I have always found it easier to share compassion with others and to be hard on myself (something I am always working on!), and it isn’t a matter of helping animals this time. I know this is the best thing for me on my path- a thing that is more in line with self love for my personal journey. And yesterday it hit me, the same way that I knew I was ready to be vegan, I knew, without a doubt, it was time to eat raw and that this time I am really ready. So today I’ve jumped in with both feet! And I am EXCITED!!! I already quit drinking coffee at the beginning of the year in preparation, but I will continue with tea for now. I plan to get a pitcher on Monday in order to start creating sun tea, however. I made some dressing not thinking about that “toasted” almond oil won’t be raw, but most importantly I am super pleased and happy with how well I’ve done today otherwise! I mean, I created my own dressing!!! AND an AWESOMELY DELICIOUS smoothie with cacao and maca and vanilla bean and YUM! I’ve been making a mental list of things I am using that seem questionable on if they are raw or not so that when I am out I can look them up for certainty before purchasing (i.e. Coconut milk).
I am also really thrilled about the other goals I have that I think this will move me towards! Those visions being things like gardening, a healthier weight, more water intake, healthier skin, more open third eye, a higher vibrational frequency, less food packaging, and more food and body care creativity!
With Love <3 Freedom
*PLEASE NOTE THAT 2 OF THE PHOTOS (THE RAINBOW FOOD AND “RAW”) ARE NOT MY OWN CREATION, & I DON’T KNOW WHO THE CREDIT GOES TO.