Why I became vegan, how I managed the transition and how it changed my life completely ( in a positive way!)

Since I constantly get asked about my vegan story and how I made it, I thought I would write a blog post about it. I hope I can inspire and motivate you! If you have any specific questions, don’t be afraid to ask me on instagram or write me an email. I am always happy to help! This blog entry is coming from the bottom of my soul – I truly believe in Veganism and since you clicked on this page I assume you are at least interested in this lifestyle.

Soooo let’s start from the beginning…

My life before I’ve been vegan

I loved meat. The uncle of my best friend called me ” Chicken-Gina”. That already says it all… When we had a barbecue at my friend’s house I always asked for chicken, that’s why. I had a white bun with German pork sausage fresh from the butcher or cheese for breakfast, veggies and meat for lunch and same for dinner. When my sister and I had a movie night we had all the goods: Haribo, chips, a ton of milk chocolate, cookies and more.  That was around 5 to 6 years ago.  My cousin was a vegetarian. But I thought I could never make it – I decided to only buy organic meat though. I believed, it would make a difference. Then, one day, I had to write a research paper for school and give a lecture for the class. I decided to compare the organic food production with the conventional one. This was the beginning!

Vegetarian over night

So I did a ton of research, also visited a demeter ( organic) farm and I was shook. In Germany we have different seals for different guidelines. Organic doesn’t mean organic. And even on organic farms the livestock farming is a huge torment for all animals. I watched the typical PETA videos and I knew I couldn’t take this responsibility anymore. I decided to become vegetarian and save lives instead of taking lives. My family was sure it was only a phase and I would never be vegetarian for long terms. And here I am 😀 The uncle of my best friend started to name me “veggie-Gina” and a new me was born.

The transition was pretty easy. There were a lot of vegetarian substitutes for meat and I had cheese of course. Cheese….a true addiction! A cheesy pizza with fresh tomatoes, pesto and feta – mhmmm yummy , I sometimes ate this twice a week! I really didn’t get the thing about veganism. The chicken lay an egg anyway, the cows produce milk all year-long naturally,   milk is good for you and so on. That’s what I had learned. Lies over lies.

Three years later things had changed. I had changed. I informed myself about the dairy and egg industry and knew how bad the conditions are. Millions of male baby chickens get brutally killed, because they are not profitably for the egg industry, the hens are sick and full of hormones, antibiotics ect. . Cows only produce milk when they are pregnant and give birth to a calf. The baby cows are taken away hours after their birth. The cows get hormones too, to produce more milk and so on. The conditions for these animals are more than bad. These creatures have feelings too but they can’t step up for themselves.

“If you choose to eat to eat meat… you love pets not animals” – Miley Cyrus

The thought of becoming a vegan was more and more likely to me and I didn’t like milk or eggs anyway ( just in sweets or other produced food). But I had my difficulties with cheese.

The cheese addiction was real…

Oven baked feta and pizza – the reasons why I didn’t make it the first times I tried to go vegan. 2 Weeks were fine and one time I even made it for two months. At home it was really easy to eat vegan. I’ve been the one who takes care of grocery shopping and I also cooked for myself but when I was out with friends or at my grandma’s it was too difficult. I didn’t want to be impolite or the one that always need to get a special treatment ( In German ” eine Extrawurst”).

I struggled with my eating habits, with me and my body. I always tried to be healthy and do a lot of sports but I was never balanced and had to struggle with myself. So at first I just reduced dairy and eggs in my “diet” but the more I got to know about the producing industry the less I was happy with my daily nutrition.

The best decision of my life.

I can’t explain it but all of a sudden I was determined to not make excuses, to be strong and to go vegan. With no exceptions. I started to workout daily and this combination was my solution for everything. It goes hand in hand. You eat healthy, you feel good and want to so something for your body. You workout and want to eat healthy because you want to treat your body well. It’s all connected. Going vegan was literally the best decision in my life. I would have never thought that I could fully love myself and live a balanced lifestyle. All the failures in the past… but you can do it. If you believe in yourself and veganism you won’t fail. Since I’m vegan I’m getting closer to the best version of myself everyday. I am happy to make a difference. My sister is a vegetarian now and my dad just became vegan. It’s insane – one person DOES make a difference. YOU can make a difference. Our body doesn’t need meat, dairy or eggs. It even harms us.

Drinking milk is weird. It’s made for little baby cows not humans. We don’t need our mother’s milk a life time either!

Positive health effects of a vegan lifestyle

These are a few benefits that I noticed with my changed eating habits:

• less headaches ( I used to have migraines 3-5 times in a week, now I have approximately 2 times in a month)
• better skin
• more power and endurance -> I’m working out everyday for an hour, I am motivated and full of energy. I feel like I can push myself further than I used to as a non vegan
• balanced mind, soul and body
• less food cravings ( I used to have them everyday and I couldn’t think of anything else than food. I felt guilty and had a bad conscious during and after every eating attack. Since I’m vegan I only have them once in a while when I get my period or when I am extremely stressed )

There a lot of long-term health effects ( reducing the risk of cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and more) but I only wanted to focus on the positive effects and you can see and feel already  after a short time as a vegan. In the end it’s true what you believe that is true and every body is different anyway.

What about deficits??

Also vegan doesn’t necessarily  mean healthy . If you only eat fries and other vegan fast food or if you’re eating very one-sided , you will probably have deficits. But if you take some time to explore the world of healthy vegan foods, you will see that it’s an enrichment and that it’s fun, varied and delicious to be vegan AND healthy. As long as you eat an accurate amount, fast food is fine though. Balance is the key!

The only thing I have to take in separately is B12 . All energy comes from the plants!

Vegan for everything

…That’s what the illustration at the beginning of this blog post says. There are so many reasons to go vegan but no real reasons against it.

The only thing I regret about going vegan is that I didn’t do it earlier. 

It’s not a great text to get all the information about veganism.This was my story with my opinion. It’s up to you what you make of it 😉

A blog post with my tips to go vegan is coming soon!

Hugs, Gina