The Decision that Changed My Life

Ahh yes, have I made you curious about what decision I made that was so profound that it changed my life? Fear not, I will tell you in a short while. But, I beg you, give this post a chance. Yes, you can roll your eyes and scoff and think "ugh here goes this this hippie liberal vegan chick shoving her beliefs down everyone's throat again." Let me assure you that is not my intent at all. I want to share with you how one decision changed my life (for the better), and how it will impact not just my future, but the people i'm closest with as well.

Alrighty, here is this huge choice that has affected me in the best way possible: I went vegan. *gasps all around the room* (come on, you all knew this post was coming, don't even act surprised)."But Ella, where are you going to get your protein?", "But Ella, plants feel pain too!", "But Ella, we have evolved to eat meat, so by not eating meat you are going to slowly starve to death, and duh carbs make you FAT!!!!!" Worry not, I will attempt to answer these and many more questions in this post as well as share some super interesting facts with you!! woohoo.

Let me start with why I went vegan in the first place! It was February of 2015, and I was sitting in my living room, searching Netflix for something new to watch, when I found it: A documentary called Vegucated. Basically, it talked about veganism and informed me (and many others) on the Animal Agriculture and showed some behind the scenes footage. Now, I won't lie to you, when the woman told me (again, and many others) that she was Vegan, the first thought I had was "WHY?! That's SO extreme??? Vegetarian I could MAYBE do, but Vegan????? No way, Jose. That's crazy." I mean I was raised German, which meant some type of animal product was present in every meal. But, I watched the documentary, became educated, and decided to cut out meat. I mean, honestly it just didn't look appealing anymore, and it really wasn't that hard to do. (See back in 7th grade I tried going vegetarian and lasted a week, before caving in to a nice juicy steak, so I understand that it's really tough to cut out meat, not to mention eggs and milk). My problem was that I loved sweets, and there was no way I could cut out cookies, ice cream, cakes... Mmmmhh, yumm. So I was vegetarian, until one day in June. At this point, I had looked into veganism, I followed a bunch of vegans on social media and religiously watched their "What I Eat in a Day" videos, but the thought of giving up all these delicious sweets just wasn't working for me. So, one day in June (of 2015) I decided to watch the documentary called Earthlings, and let me tell you I have never cried so hard during any kind of film as I did while watching Earthlings. I remember at one point my mom (who is absolutely wonderful and so supportive of my veganism) came into my room, asked why I was crying and when I told her she kind of snapped and said "Well, if you don't want to watch it then just turn it off" (mind you, this was all very knew to both of us and it can be hard to adjust to these huge changes). The thing is, I knew that I had to watch this because how could I use my precious dollars (my vote) to support an industry so horrible that I couldn't even watch its practices? The answer is, I couldn't. So after that documentary I decided: "This is it. I am committing to veganism. This is who I am." HAHA, well that was easier said than done. For my 18th Birthday, my mom ordered a special vegan birthday cake and we were so excited because my whole family was over and I could FINALLY show them some yummy vegan food and break the stereotype that vegan food is bland and gross. Well HAHAHA turns out that was THE WORST CAKE I HAD EVER EATEN. I mean, they tried but it was so sweet and... I can't even think about it. Gross. But my brother's cake looked so fluffly and yummy that I decided "you know what, it's my birthday, I'm going to have a piece of cake even if it isn't vegan." That one piece of cake turned into two months of not being vegan. Turns out it's very easy to fall off the wagon. Anyways, in September I decided to try again, and well I've been vegan ever since (yay!).

Alright, now for some of the most asked questions I get after telling someone (well actually most of the time I don't tell people, it's more my friends will mention it, make a joke, or my mom tells other people) that I'm vegan.

• "If you don't eat meat, where do you get your protein?" Ahh, great question. Thank you for being so worried about my possible protein deficiency (which isn't a thing, people). Did you know that almost all foods contain some trace of protein (even potatoes! ahh how I love me some potatoes). Beans, tempeh, tofu, broccoli, spinach, meat alternatives, lentils and legumes, nuts... the list goes on and on. 
• "It's okay, I buy free-range, organic, grass-fed..." Here's the thing about that, Animal Agriculture is such a huge business that those words don't really mean anything. No matter if your beef if grass-fed and organic, the cows themselves are still exploited, mistreated and slaughtered. (I will incorporate some pictures below): 
  
   I don't know about you, but spending my entire life in a small crate with no room to move doesn't sound very appealing.
  
  
   This is a picture of "Free-Range" Chickens, which basically means that there aren't seven chickens stuffed in a box the size of an apple crate. yuppi!
  
  
  Organic beef! Yes! Delicious. Did I say beef? Sorry, I meant "organic" cows!
• "What about fish? Fish is healthy and good for you" Yeah, sure fish might have some great omega 3 and omega 6 fats, but if you think about what all goes into our ocean (basically everything: trash, waste water, oil, toxic waste, leftover pharmaceuticals, plastic...) and you think about all this sea-life swimming in that junk, and then you EAT that junk... Doesn't sound very good to me. (Plus did you know that with all the plastic that is thrown into the ocean, many marine animals will eat that plastic and then die of starvation because they feel "full" but don't get any nutrients, and then you end up eating these fish that have been eating plastic... so really you're also eating plastic...) Not to mention all the poor animals are die due to "by-kill" so so sad. And there are other ways to get all your good nutrients without having to eat fish.
• "Well.... Our ancestors ate meat so we EVOLVED to eat meat!!" I'm sure our ancestors ate meat, but back in their day they needed meat to survive. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but they didn't have a Safeway or Trader Joe's down the street from them that catered to whatever they were craving? Also, if you take a look at our intestines and lets say a lion's intestines (lions are carnivores), you will see that the lion's intestine is very short because it needs to digest meat quickly, while ours is very long, so the meat just kind of sits there and starts rotting while you're supposed to be digesting it... Yumm. Just take a look at this chart:
  

  
• "Plants have feelings too." How I despise this statement. First of all, okay sure there have been studies that have shown that plants have signals similar to nerve signals BUT this does NOT i repeat NOT mean that they are sentient!!! Unlike plants, the animals that are being raised for food are sentient, they have feelings. These animals are smart, they create bonds among each other and feel fear. Why would you want to eat anxiety and fear??? 
• "I would go vegan, but it's so expensive!!!" I mean yeah, an organic sprouted granola bar with imported cacao nibs and exotic fruit will be expensive (and probably not very tasty), BUT if you look at the main calorie contributors around the world (rice, wheat, corn, potatoes... mhhh i really do love potatoes, and beans) you will find that they are in fact cheap. AND if you pair that with some in season fruits and veggies, you will find that you are actually SAVING money!! Wow, who would have thought.

I'm sure there are many other questions out there, good thing google exists!

Now on to some very interesting (and shocking facts):

• It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef! To put that into perspective that is 2 MONTHS worth of showering or 6 MONTHS worth of flushing your toilet!!! (Cowspiracy)
• Every second, 1.5 acres of rain forest is destroyed to grow crops (like soy), which are then fed to animals, who are then fed to humans. This rapid destruction of rain forest are leading to extinction of many animals and species. Not to mention the Amazon has the greatest biodiversity on land known to man (Cowspiracy).
• Eating meat is destroying the ocean (not to mention being the biggest contributor to Climate Change). Animal Agriculture contributes 18% of the world's green house gases, these gasses are absorbed by the ocean (which acts as a carbon sink). The carbon mixes with the water to form Carbonic Acid (yay chemistry) and Hydrogen gas. This carbonic acid is not only slowly eroding the shells of sea life, but it's also causing the temperature of the water to rise, which causes algae to migrate to colder water, and that leads to coral being bleached (ie the Great Barrier Reef, which contains the greatest biodiversity known to man). 
• The American Heart Association has stated that Heart Disease is the number 1 killer in the US, much of this is diet related. Many animal products contain high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. These cause plaque in the arteries, which disrupts blood flow to the heart and therefore increases your risk of heart disease and stroke (not to mention consuming animal products also increases your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, and some cancers).
• And lastly, 6 MILLION ANIMALS ARE KILLED FOR FOOD EVERY HOUR. 

Now, I know this post was very long, and trust me I have so much more I want to say, but I will spare you the read. I will, however, make a list of some great books, documentaries and presentations that I have read and watched and I think you should too because it is so important to educate yourself on this corporation and I mean it is your body and health after all. I also know some of you might totally disagree with me (let's be honest most people won't even read this entire post), and if you do I encourage you to start a conversation! I would love to hear about your thoughts and concerns, and I think it would be great to start a discussion about veganism! 

Thank you so so so much if you read this entire post, I know it was lengthy. If you have any questions about this topic, please feel more than welcome to ask and I will try my best to answer.

I challenge you to really consider what you are putting in your body, and if maybe you could cut down on your meat, dairy and egg consumption (even if it is for one day), because one person CAN make a difference! I mean, Rosa Parks did (as cliche as that example is).

Ella, Out *mic drop*

Books:

• Skinny Bitch (funny but informative)
• Eating Animals (low key thought it was kind of boring, but it has some really good statistics)
• China Study (this just sums it all up)

Documentaries/Presentations:

• Vegucated (not very graphic, but very informative)
• Earthlings (very graphic!!! be warned. I do believe everyone should watch it still)
• 101 Reasons to be Vegan (super funny, chill presentation. changes your outlook on what you eat. 10/10 recommend)
• Plant Pure Nation (really neat. son of the guy who wrote the china study. proves that a plant based diet is healthy)
• Cowspiracy (great if you love the environment, and want to help save this planet)

Of course, Youtube is always a great option as well. So many informative videos out there.