Veganism changed my life and I am grateful
Now I’m a cow. Moo
This is not a preach piece. I really do not care about your dietary choices. I don’t judge meat eaters and milk drinkers. About three years ago, I was eating meat and drinking milk and I have absolutely no right to pass comments on anybody’s morality, empathy, or lack thereof. Oops, I did it again.
But seriously, NO. This is not about why you should turn vegan. This is about why I STAYED vegan and how it changed my life. Truth be told, my body doesn’t even get along with milk products so I really do NOT deserve a medal for simply respecting my body’s dissent. No means no, right?
Violating your own body’s (and mind’s) consent is disrespectful.
A lot of people consider veganism to be an exercise in self-regulation, self-discipline, and constraint. It was none of that for me. Turning vegan has truly elevated me, mentally and physically.
Many also argue that we are naturally omnivorous, and we are. There is no doubt about that. You know what else is natural?
- Running long distances to catch our prey
- Adultery; more kids make evolutionary sense
- Killing members of the species to prevent overcrowding
We don’t do any of this anymore despite how ‘natural’ these things are.
In fact, we do so many things that are so unnatural — plastic, vaccinations, wearing vision correcting glasses, using soap, eating supplements, checking in on our vital signs periodically, and…
pumping chickens with antibiotics.
When we hold ourselves to the standards of primates, we create a facade of logic, a logic so illogical even the ministry of double standards would say no.
The planet we walk on today is different from the one our ancestors walked on. This selective usage of the natural argument is perplexing.
To move forward, we don’t need to look at what our ancestors did; we need to look at what’s best for us and the planet we call home.
The sanctity of the ecosystem is undermined. They provide us with food and we construct establishments that cage, rape, and mutilate them. It’s not the natural course of things.
I always get carried away.
But on a much lighter note, it helped me discover new flavors and get creative with my food. I truly enjoy eating food that promises that it will be nice to me.
I have found so many quick and easy recipes and thankfully, Indian food is mostly vegan or can be made vegan with very simple substitutes.
I want to quickly tell you things that got fixed:
- Skin
I HATED my skin. I was suffering from cystic acne that just would not leave. I waited for my teenage to get over because everyone promised it would leave by then. It didn’t. I tried several topical treatments and honestly having suffered from acne for some years, I had drowned myself in information about it. Sali-silly acid, benzoyl, per-wrongside, tea tree sp-oil — I tried everything (I have a fight to pick with topical treatment. If it works for you, I am so happy for you but it outrightly rejected me). It would help the situation at hand but would never make it go away. The world is also cruel so I always had people ask me things like “What if the marks don’t go away?” I would usually say that I didn’t know and it didn’t matter only to find myself frantically googling “Home remedies for acne marks”. I still breakout but not like I used to. You have probably read about how dairy flares up acne and it was true for me. I still have marks but I thank my skin for doing a good job at what it’s supposed to do. - Better energy levels
Have you felt your eyelids shutting in the middle of your workday? have you felt a heaviness in your system that makes you lethargic? I felt like that too. Veganism has compelled me to stay away from desserts and packed food (almost everything has something called milk solids. Thank you, milk solids). I get better sleep and I feel fresher. Yes, some days suck but those are the days I let my guard down. - Gut health
I have spent many nights in pain because my stomach won’t stop wringing and I couldn’t stop hurling. If you suffer from similar things, you’re being unfair to yourself.
I told myself that a cheesy pizza was worth it but it wasn’t, it could’ve given me an ulcer and a severely injured alimentary canal.
These short-term pleasures give long-term grief.
It’s been 17 months of following veganism (my veganism includes potatoes in all shapes and sizes and all vegan junk food) and I have not had a stomach ache as severe in these seventeen months. If your gut is screaming, tend to it.
If there’s one thing you need to do anything in life. It’s guts. Guts matter.
All these physical benefits aside, veganism has helped me get in touch with a more empathetic version of myself. I chose to see the videos that came with warnings. I cannot be a part of the value chain of torture.
This is getting preachy. I am not trying to be on moral upper ground. I can do so much better than I am right now but this simple choice of turning vegan has helped me to do my bit with so much ease. It is the choice to simply say, “No, I do not want this.”
I am fully cognizant of the fact that it is not easy to turn vegan when we have been taught all our lives that essential nutrition comes from animal products and that may be true but there is nothing that cannot also be obtained from plants and I have done my research and been my guinea pig. After a year of being vegan, my mom suggested I get a full-body test. To my delight, I was doing better than I was a year ago.
If you want to know more about how it was for me, you can find me here.
Truth be told, being vegan has not been about sacrifice for me. It has made me healthier.
Turning vegan was difficult. Staying vegan is easy, for me.
