Your girl has gone vegetarian- aren’t you so proud of me?

I want to start off this post by saying that while I have no qualms about sharing my vegetarian journey with such a supportive community, I am vaguely nervous about doing so as not everybody has received my news so well. One person, really. But that’s alright! This lifestyle isn’t for everybody, and that’s perfectly fine. In no way am I criticising anybody in this post.

You do you boo!

At this point, I feel a bit silly even making an announcement like this as I’ve only started following vegetarian rules for two days. I first started off vegan, because I felt it would be better to just go the whole way instead of being a vegetarian and still consuming some animal products. (butter, milk etc.) I do understand that everything is a process though, and a life change like this will take some getting used to as I’m so familiar with an everything diet. I actually follow Islamic guidelines regarding food too, so I’m grateful for that as it’s definitely helped with transitioning as I can’t eat meat products in some restaurants and cafes as they’re unhalal.

A lot of the thinking behind my decision came from an offhand comment where my mum told me that she could see me following a vegetarian diet at some point in my life as I’m really compassionate and aware of the world around me. I took this with a grain of salt at first, because I’m that person.

I have said things like “vegetarian? no way! What a boring life.”

But, Maybe I was wrong. I must’ve been, because I’m taking this seriously. I want to lead a more compassionate life that’s in touch with my morals and beliefs, and that I stand behind one hundred percent. I’ve struggled with bad body image and eating issues for a while now, and that’s part of my reason for wanting to go ahead with this. Not the main reason, that’s animal welfare, but one of my reasons. I think this will help me to stop being scared of what I eat, and start embracing what happens when worries fall away and only pure happiness is left.

So far, I’ve watched a documentary on veganism. It showed a lot of behind the scenes footage on how our food is really brought to us, and even though I was aware before of the practices, it felt so real to me this time. It really hit home. I’m hoping to make this my next stopping point. It’s hard at the moment as this announcement is a bit of a bomb that I’ve dropped, and there’s not a whole lot of food for vegan recipes at home.. I did however make mini vegan cheesecake bites, and they were pretty yummy! My whole family tried them, and even my brother liked them. He’s seven and vaguely fussy, so I wasn’t sure if he would but I was pleasantly surprised by his reaction.

Right now, what I’m doing, it feels good. I feel good. Better than I have in a very long time.