There are a plethora of reasons I have evolved to adopt a vegan lifestyle. Here are some of my stories and experiences that led me to this path.

My Journey

I only became vegan in my mid-20s. Hell, I didn’t even like most vegetables until high school. As a kid, I was such a picky eater that my mom made a list of everything I did eat so she would know what to make for meals. It fit on one side of a 3″x5″ index card.

It was only when I moved into my first apartment after college and began cooking for myself that I discovered the sweet and savory aroma sauteed onions added to a dish. So I started liking onions. They say you need to try something ten times before you begin to like it. So start trying. Like anything, taste is a learned behavior and mental attitudes can make all the difference.

Food is fun. Play with your food. I promise it will taste better and open your mind to the amazing world and rich diversity that vegetables and fruits provide, not just in color and taste but in textures and designs too. It’s crazy awesome what you can do with food and mindblowing how it truly affects how you feel. I challenge you to try it and test out the vegan diet.

Environment

As someone who is Nature-oriented, my endless endeavor to be more in harmony with the Earth and conscious of my impact on her opened my eyes to the astounding difference a vegan lifestyle can have on the planet.

Body Health

On a vegan diet, I feel so alive. When you give your body what it needs without the added sugars or processed crap, it wastes less time and energy filtering through the excess shit resulting in more purely converted energy.

Spiritual Practice

Animal Rights

Ever heard that saying “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? Yeah, it’s the Golden Rule that’s been around since the beginning of time. This extends to all Life forms and energy transfers which is where the animal rights aspect of veganism comes into play.

As a kid being raised in the country and in close proximity to farms, I developed an idyllic view of where food comes from. Additionally, my mom’s side of the family are hunters. And in her adult life, my sister moved out to Oregon to assist in the operations of a non-profit sustainable farm. I visited her there during Spring Break of my senior year of college and got a brief week’s hands-on view of farm life.

I respect anyone who in a sacred manner kills and utilizes all parts of an animal. It’s lightyears better than the concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) of the industrialized meat, dairy, and egg establishments that stack animals on top of each other with no breathing room, put unnatural grains and antibiotics in the animal feed, and pollute the environment with methane and sludge runoff. So sure, you can eat meat if you want; I just recommend you know where it comes from. And still, you’re eating death and dense dead flesh. Personally, I don’t want that heavy energy in my body.

Sunfood Living

How about this one: “For the universal god so loved this earth that she blessed us with a single sun, that whoever seeks and eats of his pure energy shall be strong, healthy, and forever youthful.” It’s a slightly different take on the famous Bible verse from John 3:16, but it is my interpretation and plays into the metaphysical aspects of the Great Book and keys to Transcendence. Call me blasphemous but my spiritual beliefs revolve around Nature and Universal design. I believe God is Nature is Love is Us.

My Religion

I grew up in the Lutheran faith tradition and have always had a fondness of the protesting Protestant and rebellious nature that Martin Luther brought to the table. He was a proponent of getting money out of church politics and everyone reading and interpreting the Bible for themselves, not blindly trusting what the Priests told them from the pulpit. The invention of the Guttenburg press made printing a (relative) breeze so the layperson could actually and finally own a copy of the Bible translated into their vernacular and not rely solely on the educated Priests to translate from Latin. This was revolutionary.

In that spirit, I too want people to interpret their own value system revolving around a higher entity. Learning about Buddhism, Taoism, meditation, yoga, and the Hermetic Principles have been instrumental in forming my views of the greater Spirit/Source/Universal God that I believe in and that binds us together in Love.

Don’t be confined to one thing just because that’s what you grew up in or were taught. Explore the world and people and religions and find what resonates with you.