Wait, you’re a what?

Hey guys! Thanks again for checking out my blog. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment 🙂

Today, I am going to write about how I transitioned from being a meat-loving carnivore to semi vegetarian to a love-for-all-animals vegan. (Sorry I made this into a long post guys but bear with me, it is all relevant!)

Like most people in today’s society, we don’t really question where our food comes from. Growing up in a Hispanic household, my typical dinner was rice, beans and either steak or chicken as its main dish. Born and raised in New York and then moving to Miami when I was about 9, it was convenient to eat meat. If I had dance recitals or soccer practices to go to and my mom didn’t have time to pack lunch or snacks, I would typically buy a meal from a fast-food chain or a sandwich from a convenience store. My eating habits follow me to college where it progressively got worse. I would probably eat fast food at least 4-5 times a week and it ranges from fast-food to chips and cookies for lunch and dinner.

It wasn’t until I came back for the holidays around freshman year that a part of my family had switch their diets to vegetarian. I, like most people who hear about what a vegetarian is for the first time, thought “Why would anyone want to do that? Meat is so good. I can’t see myself giving that up.” Boy was I going to proven wrong within the next 3 years.

Like many people in America, I was not physically healthy. I would go to the gym once every 3 months and my diet was filled with horrible fats, sodium and sugar. Another thing I was dealing with was depression, anxiety and PTSD. Moving away from home worsened my anxiety to the point where I would have constant panic attacks during the day and at night. My depression got worse during the fall semester of my sophomore to the point where I had attempted suicide. I was at an all time low point in my life where I felt like all hope was gone. I knew I didn’t want to feel this way anymore so I started attending counseling at school, taking psychiatric medications and ultimately learning to pick myself back up with new methods to help me feel better.

I still felt incredibly lonely, seeing as most of my friends turned their back on me because of my depression. One day while I was having a phone conversation with my mom, she mention that I should get a pet. A pet? What would that do? I didn’t really see the connection at the time but I was trying new ways to help me feel better so I said why not? I ended up getting two kittens to keep each other company when I was in class. Slowly, I started noticing my moods were getting progressively better. No matter what went on during the day, at school or at work, I had two kittens at home waiting to shower me with love. There were nights where I would have panic attacks and sobbed hysterically and my cats would sneak up by my side, with their sounds of purring as if they were trying to calm me down. And that usually did the trick.

Aren’t all kittens cute when they are at this age? 🙂

Fast forward a couple of months into my junior year, I was searching on Netflix for a good movie to watch when I came across Food Inc. Gasps, tears and an hour and a half later, I made the connection that what I was eating on my plate for many, many years wasn’t any different than my cats that I had as pets. It is as if their eyes were saying, “would you eat me?” From that day forward, I changed my eating habits to vegetarian and I had never looked back.

Fast forward a couple of months, I was still dealing with my depression. Although I had been taking medications for almost a year, they weren’t working as well as they use to, which is typical if your body gets adjusted to medications. I wondered if there was anyway that I would ever be off my meds. I didn’t want to keep taking them for the rest of my life. So I went to a health specialist who spoke to me of a specific diet to help me wean off my medications. It was a no-meat, no-dairy, no high fats or sugars diet. I had to take special vitamins that would help nourish and heal my brain of my medications. The no-dairy rule was a no brainer anyways because I was lactose-intolerant anyways (made my transition to vegan so much easier). I had to do this diet for 3 months. I had to balance my diets with fruits and veggies in the form of shakes. And little by little, it worked! By the summer before my senior year of college, I was officially off all my depression and anxiety medication 😀

Here I am: almost 3 years of being a vegetarian, a year and a half of being vegan and I will never go back. Seeing as how I want to specialize in animal-assisted therapy, I have volunteer with animal adoption organizations and even a wildlife sanctuary. ‘I love animals!’ is an understatement for me.

So why am I vegan? I’m vegan for the cats who have helped me heal of my depression and anxiety; I’m vegan for the millions of animals who are slaughtered as if they are nothing just for a plate of food; I’m vegan for my health, for my mind and my body. It’s a lifestyle that I am happy to be a part of 🙂