Why I Became Vegan

My path to being a Vegan is an interesting one. I would say that the Vegan mindset started in 2002 when I was going to school in Rhode Island.

While attending Culinary School, I had to do a cooking internship for the Summer. I worked at a resort on the beach and was offered an apartment when the resort closed for the Winter. I had no idea what I had agreed to. In the wintertime, everything closes and the whole town was deserted! I didn’t know this.

So there I was, in the dead of winter, no job, no people and a ton of snow. I had to live on a very very small amount of savings, so I started getting some books on frugal living. This turned into a fun pastime and hobby. Seeing what I could come up with to eat on $20.00 a week for me and my daughter. Through reading some of these books and learning some of these techniques, my eyes were opened with regards to just how much unnecessary waste we accumulate. My new motto was “Recycle, Reuse, Reduce”.

What originally began as a method to save some money, turned out to be a desire to not want to fill our landfills with garbage. Reusing everything I could made me feel good. I was saving a ton of money but I was also helping the planet by reducing waste.

As my passion for reusing and reducing things grew, my awareness expanded into other ways that I could help the planet and the environment.

I started doing some research and stumbled upon several articles as to how becoming a Vegan could help the cause of Global Warming; an issue that I was already extremely passionate about. More so than all of my recycling efforts, by simply going Vegan, I was doing the most EFFECTIVE thing possible to help reduce man made causes of climate change and for the environment. It was very exciting to discover, because our media puts so little emphasis on this one simple thing that we could do that would make a HUGE and IMMEDIATE effect on Global Warming much much faster than all of the energy efficient light-bulbs, Prius's and recycling efforts ever could.

If you are interested in knowing more about how this helps, there are several articles on my Charities/Volunteer link or you can check out this article that was recently published by the New York Times.

If you are a Non-Vegan reading this article, and you think its something that you’d like to try, but are not sure you could make the switch, start with a small goal with eating just a couple non-animal based meals a week. We live in a world of supply and demand, so even reducing two meals a week can help our planet.

If you are really into fitness and/or bodybuilding and consume high protein, there are many non-animal high-protein sources available such as Seitan, Tempeh, High Protein Tofu (in select stores), or a Soy, Pea or Hemp Protein Shake. You can always feel free to Contact me if you’d like to learn more. This is my passion and I love helping people who want to contribute toward the future of our planet.

You can make a difference in this world. As Martin Luther King said, “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step”.

The Most Eco-Friendly Diet for the Planet is Vegan!