How I went Vegan

First off let me say it wasn't easy it took over a year, but I do feel it was worth it. I started transitioning to veganism in 2015. I do not remember the exact month, but I know it was several months prior to finding out I was pregnant with Naeem in June of 2015. So the main thing at first was meat, how do I cut out meat? I decided to slowly cut it down instead once a day with dinner I would make it once a weekend, so four times a month we had meat. After we got into that groove I cut it to it down to once a month, this was harder and took a little longer to adjust.

So to help the transition I found vegan recipes for meals I used to eat and tested them out. Once I got into the groove of once a month I started to feel like I didn't really need meat at all. While pregnant I ate meat 3 times, and it wasn't until I the day I gave birth that I decided to go fully vegan. I ate eggs the night Naeem was born and he had a reaction to them and that was it. I had dealt with severe food allergies with my oldest and I knew being vegan would eliminate a lot of the possible allergens, so my child's needs were the last push I needed to make that leap. Something that isn't common knowledge about breastfeeding is even though your child isn't eating the food, they still get the proteins from it and are inadvertently effected if they are allergic. Some food protein can take a awhile to clear out of your system cows milk for example can take up to a month.

Excuse my tangent, back to the topic at hand, after I went vegan I started missing the things I didn't wean myself off of eggs and cheese. I had stopped consuming cow milk in 2013 for Kyree as cow milk was one of his allergens and goat milk never really did it for me. In an effort to remedy my cravings I found multiple vegan cheese recipes and tested them out until I established some favorites. I made my own because I have yet to see any organic vegan cheeses in my local grocery and they likely would still be full of soy, hydrogenated oils, modified corn starch, etc.; none of which I choose to consume. I don't make soy a regular part of my diet because of its effects on estrogen, but that's for another post.

Lastly, eggs, which I until very recently have been missing, because everything thing I found for vegan eggs was soy based. I was going through looking at vegan recipe app on my firestick and that's when I saw a vegan egg recipe that didn't require soy. I went to the store the very next day to get Chana Besan (Chickpea Flour) commonly known as Gram flour and tried it out that night. It came out really good and I have been eating vegan eggs at least twice a week since then, I'm lowkey obsessed.

To be clear being vegan doesn't mean eating tons of soy and beans, it's different for everyone. There's factions of veganism there's raw vegan's, alkaline vegans, keto vegan, junk food vegan, high carb low fat vegan, whole foods vegan, detox vegan, etc. Personally, I don't ascribe to any of them I take what resonates with me and apply it to my diet. I pick for red potatoes and spelt flour as a result of reading up on Dr. Sebi's diet. I drink alkaline water and eat 95% organic as a result of my own personal research. I have come to the conclusion that is all generally a theory as none of these diets will work for everyone, biologically speaking it's impossible.

Ethically speaking, I am comfortable in my decision in reducing my contribution to the unnecessary mass slaughter of animal life. I am also happy that both my boys are vegan because there won't be a transition period for them. People ask me how I get my kids to eat vegetables, nuts, etc.; its easy because that's all they know they were never given the option of unhealthy foods. If you gave my 4 yr old a bag of skittles he would turn away from it, that's not food to him. Technically if you look at the ingredient's list its not food at all, but the point is if you only ever give them healthy food that's what they'll eat. They won't starve themselves, they eat because they're hungry. My youngest will grab raw onions off the counter when I am chopping them and eat them like there grapes. My oldest gets excited about cashews, coconut water, and fruit smoothies. It works for us, my husband has not fully transitioned and may not, at this point he's a part-time vegetarian. I say part-time because he still eats meat maybe once a month, he has slowly transitioned into to eating more vegetarian style diet, because I do most of the cooking and I don't cook non-vegan food. He cooks his eggs and uses goat cheese and I do not know if he will give it up, but that's his decision. Veganism isn't something to jump into with little regard, if you decide to go vegan and then go back to non-vegan foods it could make you seriously ill, that goes for any diet though. Anyway, it's a process and if you take your time and build a foundation it will make the transition that much easier in my experience.

Please don't hesitate to comment questions, concerns, and the like below. Thanks for reading!

**** Update as of 11/1/17 Dre (hubby) decided to join the family and became vegan as well!!! Can you tell I'm geeked?