Why I'm Vegan | My Vegan Story!

hey wonderful human beings welcome back to another video if you're new here my name is remy and i share lots of vegan recipes and tips to help you live well and today we're going to do another video in my plants please series a series where i share my best tips to help you transition into more of a plant-based or vegan lifestyle and i thought that we could talk about my vegan story because i realized i have no video on my youtube channel dedicated to my journey my experience my story with veganism and it is a question that i get asked quite often so i thought it was about time i'm hoping this video is not going to be long-winded and off the rails i tried to write out an outline but it just got messy so i'm going to tell it to you as if i'm just telling someone for the first time i also have to give a little bit of a warning i will be talking about my experience with substances alcohol and an eating disorder and kind of mental health topics like that it's really difficult for me to go into my story without mentioning those things because they're all kind of intertwined and that's also why it's taken me so long to film this video so the first time i was introduced to veganism was in college i think i was in between my freshman and sophomore year when i realized that i had a really bad problem with digesting dairy this is super common for actually most people because you know we are not baby cows therefore it makes sense that we lack the ability to properly digest another animal's milk and specifically if you're asian it is really really common to be lactose intolerant and i was allergic to milk as a little kid so i don't know how i suddenly kind of grew out of it or was able to consume dairy but uh i noticed it because when i went to visit my boyfriend in amsterdam i noticed i was eating a lot more dairy and i kind of connected the dots on the days that i was eating more dairy i would have an upset stomach i would wake up in the middle of the night and get sick like i would throw up and it was kind of scary because i didn't really understand why it was happening it took me some time to kind of put it together i was thinking like am i allergic to being in amsterdam i genuinely didn't know what it could be because i never suspected that dairy would be an issue for me anyways i decided to experiment and i cut out dairy for about a week and during that week of time i was cooking for myself and experimenting with vegan products because by nature all vegan products are also dairy free and i was reading through a couple of recipes i think it was like a mac and cheese for example when i started to see the word vegan pop up and i was really curious everybody's talking about vegan like what does it really mean so i did a little research and i wasn't too familiar with what it really meant to be vegan i kind of just thought of it as a diet and for health reasons it made sense to me i had been feeling so good after that week of being dairy free like i could physically feel better and more energetic than ever less sluggish just this feeling of lightness um that i thought why not try cutting out the meat and the eggs and the rest of it too so that next week i went vegan basically cold tofu as you guys may know and that was that i felt more amazing than i had ever felt before and if you're somebody who's ever had like chronic digestion issues you know how good that feels so just feel normal or just to not have to think about your stomach all the time not have to worry about stomach aches randomly they can be really debilitating i mean for me personally my greatest fear is to get a stomachache because if it's a headache i can kind of manage but for some reason when it comes to stomachache one of the only ways i can feel better is to like curl up into a ball and you just can't do that in public you know so um that's how it started and it was definitely for my own personal reasons it was selfishly motivated it was for health reasons and a lot of people like to say you know if you go vegan for health reasons you're not really vegan i you guys know how i feel about that i don't judge people i'm not an exclusionist when it comes to being vegan but i do think if you're going to commit to a vegan lifestyle and do more than just eat vegan as a diet that it is important to understand and get connected to the ethics and just the impact on environment and animals other reasons for going vegan basically i didn't really want to watch documentaries because the thing is i am a very sensitive person and my reasoning was like i don't need to watch things like earthlings because i'm already vegan i'm not eating that stuff you know but occasionally i would see a video pop up from like more of an activist social media account or youtube videos where people were showing clips of animal cruelty and just kind of the reality behind the meat industry for example um so i would definitely say that learning those things are what really drew me into the lifestyle and created that connection for me and i think those are the reasons that i'm still vegan today i have a lot of friends and i know a lot of people who have gone vegan for health reasons and kind of tried on as more of a diet which is okay no judgment on my end but i think a reason why it's easier to fall out of something like that is because you're not really attached to it it's not something that you feel your values are connected to it's more of something you're doing for your health and therefore it's a little bit easier to disconnect and step back when you don't have that connection or understanding i do have to mention that during the time that i went vegan i was working on eating disorder recovery but it was kind of before i decided to go vegan that i was already in recovery for the most part and the thing about recovery is that it's tricky i really do believe it's a lifelong practice it's something that you have to check in with and maintain it's not just going to one day disappear so you know i was for the most part recovered and of course i had spoken with my nutritionist my doctors and they decided that i was in the clear to eat this way so long as i was meeting my nutritional needs and following my prescribed meal plan at the time and you may already know this but veggie can started as my food accountability log as i was recovering from an eating disorder so really i was using it to document the meals that i was eating to be compliant with my meal plan and then as a result it turned into a vegan food blog one thing that really frustrates me is that a lot of people used to i don't hear it as much anymore but a lot of people used to frame veganism as an eating disorder and i can understand where they're coming from i think a lot of people see it as something that's restrictive even though for me i actually found it to be very liberating because suddenly i had this reason to eat that i had lost when i became genuinely afraid of food i thought of food as like numbers macros things that would make me fat because i had an eating disorder and my mindset towards food was really really messed up and once i went vegan i found this sort of reason to eat i felt good about food it was kind of exciting and new to learn to cook in a new way and i felt good about what i was doing it was kind of like this positive reinforcement knowing that what i was doing the way i was eating was really going to benefit animals and also the environment and then my health as well all in all for me personally it was a really beneficial experience that i would say was the key component into like the final step of my recovery and really helped me to love and appreciate food this is not the case for everyone but it was for me and of course i always recommend speak with your doctor speak with your nutritionist if this is something that you want to do but for a lot of people it can be a little tricky to discern am i going vegan for the right reason if you're in a disordered mind state so that's all i'm going to say on that but for me personally it was one of the best things i could have ever asked for as far as healing my relationship with food so that was a big component of it as well another thing related to mental health that you may already know is that i struggled with substance and alcohol addiction and abuse and i really must say when i started to feel physically better it did become really difficult to keep up with those habits of like using substances and consuming things i could physically feel that i was damaging my body i had been sort of healthy enough to now have a baseline and you know when you're eating less processed foods and foods that are more easily digestible and then you throw something in there that isn't great for you you feel it and for that reason alone there was less motivation to continue in my old habits so i would also say that veganism helps me with my recovery in that sense veganism did so much for me in terms of improving my physical health but also my mental health and it's really all-encompassing um i think too the most important thing that i kind of realized one day is that i was eating better and eating this way and eating plants because i wanted to be compassionate and it really taught me to be compassionate towards myself that was sort of the missing piece for me and when i think about it now i mean it was a lot going on i was working on my substance and alcohol addiction also my eating disorder recovery and transitioning into this like new lifestyle but the truth is having the passion and the motivation to really kind of embrace the new lifestyle was very healing for me i felt like i was really growing as a person and learning to be compassionate for myself and i was actually one of my therapists that mentioned that to me they asked me why i was going vegan and when i told them about the compassionate element they asked me whether i felt like i was compassionate towards myself and practicing compassion towards my body and that really really clicked and stuck with me when you're restricting your intake and you're consuming substances in order to cope or use it as a means of escape you are not being kind to yourself fast forward to where we are now 2021 i've been vegan for i think six or seven years at a certain point i kind of stopped counting because it's just something that has become my lifestyle it doesn't feel like something that i really think about ever because it's so ingrained in my habits my lifestyle everything but i've been a vegan for a long time and i've also gone through phases of being a little bit more health focused then for a certain period of time i was very activism focused i just couldn't understand why other people weren't vegan i had definitely less empathy and understanding for people who weren't vegan and i was more of um i don't want to say an extreme vegan but i was definitely saying things that were very i guess i was framing things as very black and white and as you may have seen in one of my recent videos where i talk about things that i wish i knew when i first went vegan my mindset has definitely shifted a lot and now as you guys know i create vegan recipes full time as part of what i do it's my job it's what i love i'm so passionate about it and it's afforded me this platform my mission is not necessarily to tell people hey everyone you need to go vegan but it's more to encourage more plants on plates i love to see more meatless meals whether that's one meal one day or somebody being interested in trying one vegan dish for example i live my life the way i feel is most aligned with my personal values but i never impose my values and beliefs on other people because we're all our own person you know what i mean garbanzo bean i think i'm rambling a little bit and definitely going on tangents a little too much so i think we'll wrap it up here because that is just about it for my story it's been many many years veganism has come so far and i'm so happy to say that now in 2021 veganism is definitely a little bit more normal i really did experience a lot of people judging the way that i ate and my lifestyle even from family members who just couldn't understand what it was and i'm so grateful for how far that movement has been able to come i've been so happy to just be able to contribute in my small way by putting out youtube videos and sharing recipes um it really is a good feeling so that is my story i hope you enjoyed i would love to hear from you if you're vegan how long ago you went vegan i've met some people who've been vegan for 10 20 years and it's really inspiring to me would love to hear it in the comments below or if you're just transitioning or just kind of flexitarian plant-based whatever it is i'd love to hear from you so let me know and as always if you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it a big thumbs up subscribe and hit the bell button so you don't miss my last and final planes please video i'll see you in another one soon bye [Music]

Channel: Veggiekins

Views: 34,439

Keywords: vegan story, why Im vegan, why i went vegan, my vegan story, going vegan, vegan advice, vegan tips, how to go vegan, veganuary, vegan gluten free, vegan, gluten free, vegan food, healthy living, snacks, wellness, plant based, veggiekins, nyc, nyc vegan

Id: 7xhx_5J3BSE

Length: 11min 27sec (687 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021