Hello everyone! As you know, in my "Conversations while Painting" series,
I chat with you about things that are important to me, or things that have been on my mind lately
while painting a Bob Ross painting.
In today's video, I want to tell you my vegan story, which I've been wanting to tell you for a long time,
but honestly, have been a bit hesitant to tell.
If you're wondering why I was hesitant - in general, I don't like talking about veganism
unless someone asks me directly about it.
This is definitely not because I'm ashamed of being vegan - please don't get me wrong -
becoming vegan was one of the best decisions I made in my life, and I proudly tell anyone who asks me that I am vegan.
However, most of us hold very strong beliefs about what we eat - beliefs that have been nurtured all our lives.
And often, these beliefs are surrounded with very strong emotions protecting them.
For this reason, when someone tells us that they do something differently than what we believe,
these strong feelings can see this statement as an attack on our beliefs,
and try and protect them.
When this happens, often both sides stop listening to each other, and what was said an even backfire.
I've had experiences like this in the past when it came to veganism.
When I was in college, I still consumed meat and other animal products, and there were many vegetarians and vegans around me.
During this time, I considered myself a true animal lover,
but I still thought that the animals we consumed were there so we could consume them,
and that it was required for us to consume them to be healthy.
Back then, when vegans told me about veganism without me asking them to,
or told me that I was eating an animal carcass while I was enjoying meat,
I remember feeling judged, and consequently not absorbing what they were saying
and instead, rejecting their thoughts.
It was when I became close friends with people who didn't eat meat
and observed their lives up close, and became curious about the choices they were making,
that I started asking them questions myself
and listened and absorbed their answers instead of rejecting them
For this reason, when I was filming this video, I was very concerned about giving the impression
that I was judging or blaming people, or that I felt that I was better than others.
This is definitely not my intention.
All I want is to share my experiences
perhaps this will lead you to look at things with a different perspective.
Let's begin.
It all started after I graduated from college.
Before this time, I either ate food that my mom or the college cafeteria prepared…
It must be because my food was always prepared by someone else - I didn't really think about where my food came from.
But after graduating and getting my own apartment, I started consistently making my own food.
Of course I always knew animal products came from animals
but buying things like raw meat or raw chicken from the market, touching these products
I started to more concretely understand that what I was eating used to be part of an animal,
and this started to bother me.
During this time, I had two housemates that were vegetarian
and for the first time in my life I was in close contact with vegetarians.
Sharing the same kitchen with them, I started to realize that being vegetarian was not as hard
or unhealthy as I had imagined.
But still, I didn't want to commit to it myself.
I was worried about making a decision, telling people about it, and then failing at it.
For this reason, I decided to try it out somewhat quietly without telling too many people.
During this time, I allowed myself to have a bit of meat if I really wanted to, or if I went out with friends to a restaurant
that didn't have vegetarian options
But everything was easier than I had expected, and I noticed
that a weight that I didn't even realize was on my shoulders was lifted,
and that I felt a lot more at peace with the food that was on my plate.
I was so happy that for 2 years, I easily became vegetarian/pescatarian without much difficulty.
But during this time, I didn't even consider removing dairy, eggs, or things like wool or leather from my life,
because I thought these things were obtained without harming animals, and that they were healthy for us.
...
So despite removing meat from my life, I was still consuming a pretty animal-product-heavy diet.
I was eating eggs, lots of yogurt, cheese, etc every day.
When it came to healthy foods - I ate small amounts of fruits,
but I didn't really like vegetables or beans/legumes, so I didn't eat much of those.
In 2015, during a routine checkup, we noticed increases in my cholesterol
and glucose levels.
I was only 25 years old and was not expecting such high numbers in my bloodwork.
I was scared, especially because I had quite a family history of diabetes,
so I decided to make some changes in my lifestyle before these numbers turned into diabetes or heart disease.
After doing some research, I found out that I could lower these numbers by adopting a plant-based lifestyle
which was grounded on vegetable consumption.
Of course these sources also suggested limiting or giving up animal products.
When I first read this, I thought I couldn't ever do it, and that even if I did,
I would constantly be hungry, and therefore weak and sick.
And being a person who really didn't like vegetables, I was also not excited
at all to eat large quantities of them. But
there were lots of scientific sources talking about the benefits of a plant-based diet that instead of judging it without even trying it
I decided to give it a try.
During the first few weeks, I ate lots of veggies, fruits, and beans and contrary to all of my expectations, I was never hungry,
I was never hungry,
had a lot of energy, and felt healthier than I had ever felt before.
However… I was not enjoying my food.
I had no problems eating fruit, I always liked fruit,
but all my life, I had hated veggies and legumes, and I still didn't.
I didn't really know how to cook with them
so most of the food I made was somewhat bland.
Yes, I was full, but I didn't really feel satiated, because I wasn't enjoying my food.
But I felt so healthy that I decided to figure out how to
make this diet work.
I did some searching on the internet for delicious plant-based foods,
and the few recipes I tried taught me that these foods
could be very delicious if prepared properly.
It was a lot of fun to try all these new recipes, and to learn new techniques
Maybe you'll find this funny, but having reintroduced these foods into my diet
after thinking I hated them all my life kind of widened my horizon.
At first I expected that having removed animal products from my diet, I would feel limited and restricted,
but on the contrary, as I introduced these new recipes to my diet, I felt like
my diet became richer.
One of the most surprising things during this process was how much my tastebuds changed.
I always thought they would stay the same -
but I think your body starts to crave things that you give it.
I used to hate veggies, but after about a month, I became a different person, craving a salad.
After a few months of eating like this, it was time for another checkup.
I felt good, but I was still driven to anxiety
because of things I'd believed all my life.
Was I getting enough iron? Calcium? What if I had vitamin deficiencies?
.
But after I got the results back, I realized that all of these worries were for naught.
I wasn't deficient in anything, and beyond this, my bad cholesterol had dropped from 131 to 66,
my good cholesterol had increased, and my blood glucose went from 120 to 88.
Even my doctor was shocked and
urged me to keep doing whatever I was doing.
But I was still only plant-based for my health, I still wasn't vegan.
Like I said, I kept ending up on vegan websites when I was looking for recipes.
One day, one of these pages posted a video on why they were vegan.
In this video, she was talking about animal rights, as well as the effects of animal agriculture on our environment.
I was faced with facts that I hadn't encountered before.
For example, when I thought about dairy production, I used to imagine happy, healthy cows,
that lived many years on open pastures.
I didn't know that just like any other mammal, cows would need to be pregnant to produce milk.
. In this video, I found out that cows were forcefully impregnated,
and that their babies were taken away from them so that we could have their milk,
that their bodies became spent after giving birth pretty much continuously,
and consequently, that they only lived 5-6 years on a dairy farm, compared to a typical lifespan of a cow, which is 20 years.
I learned their babies, if female, were destined for a similar life themselves,
and if male, were sold to the meat industry to be killed.
I thought eggs were simply collected from chickens in their natural environment,
but I found out that male chicks were actually killed while they were still babies
because they have no value to the egg industry,
I also learned that animal agriculture was one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases,
and that it took about 2000 litres of water to produce one burger.
This video also suggested the documentary, Earthlings.
Of course I decided to watch it.
I cried so much during the first 10 minutes of this film that I almost couldn't keep watching.
But I thought that if I can't even bear to watch what humans did to animals on a screen,
then I should leave animals off of my plate.
Like I said at the beginning of the video, I am not saying this to judge or blame people who still consume animal products.
I truly believe that deep down, we all love animals and never want to hurt them.
I think it's human nature to be compassionate and love animals.
But most of us don't know these facts.
But right now, we live in a culture that is completely based on animal products.
Especially the meat and dairy industries are extremely strong industries, and they are doing everything they can to keep these truths from us.
They are the ones that put pictures of happy cows or chickens on yogurt, egg, cheese packets.
We believe milk is good for our bones because of ad campaigns that have been paid for by the dairy industry.
In such an environment, we can't blame or guilt anyone for consuming animal products.
But as we learn more, we can all do this:
please, look into how the food on your plate got there.
I am leaving 3 documentary suggestions in the description box that I've found helpful.
When I watched these documentaries, I felt like I was betrayed
and lied to all my life.
I wished that someone had told me these truths before,
and that I could have become vegan earlier.
Of course no one can be forced to be vegan,
I believe everyone needs to do their own research and make their own decisions.
And not everyone is in a place where they can go vegan.
But we can all question how our food got to our plate,
and do our best to make a compassionate choice when we can.
If you've listened to me thus far, thank you.
If you'd like to share your own experiences, or ask me any questions
please write them as comments below.
Maybe in the future I'll do a Q&A video on veganism.
Until next time, take care, and goodbye!
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