Why I went Plant Based

I’ve always had a huge love for animals. I had a dog named Sassy when I was young and she was more like my best friend. I would nap in her bed with her and she would sleep in mine. She always knew when I was sad and would come rest her head on my lap. When she died it was like losing a sister. I can’t believe she died 10 years ago.  I still think about her all the time, and she is regularly in my dreams. She was the smartest dog I have ever known. The first time we took her to my step mom’s house she was asleep in the back seat for the entire drive; the next day she walked all the way across town on her own to end up on her doorstep. She was amazing. Because of her, I have always felt like animals are special. 

Growing up on meat

Fishing and hunting are really big in Kenora; my family never hunted but we always fished. In the winter we would go ice fishing and everyone would lay their fish out on the ice. They would be flipping around and I would feel bad for them so I would pour water over them for hours, trying to keep them alive. I didn’t realise I was making them suffer more.

I grew up eating meat, it was just the normal thing to do. Hamburgers and ribs were actually some of my favourite foods. For some reason I just never really thought about what I was actually eating. There was a disconnect.

The beginning of my veggie journey

One day in University about 6 or 7 years ago we watched a documentary on the food industry; I think it was food Inc. and it was devastating. I had to leave the room because I couldn’t stop crying. The way the animals were treated was heartbreaking. 

From that day forward I stopped eating most meat, but didn’t consider myself vegetarian. I would still eat the fish that my parents caught and occasionally the deer and moose meat my aunt and uncle caught because I knew the animals lived a long and happy life. Eventually meat started trickling its way back into my diet as more time passed since watching the documentary, but I was in denial about what I was eating. I just couldn’t think about it. I didn’t know any other vegetarians at the time, and I thought it was just easier to eat meat. The gym was my priority throughout University and I was uneducated about where to get my protein from if I didn’t get it from animal products. 

A year or 2 after I graduated I moved to Australia and became friends with Kirstie who was vegetarian. We ended up living together and she would cook for me so I naturally stopped eating meat again, but I would still have milk, eggs and a shit ton of tuna. Kirstie and I ended up living on a Hari Krishna farm for a month (more on that later ) and were completely vegan for the duration of our stay. When Kirstie left Australia, meat slowly started making its way back into my diet, again. It had been years since I first watched the documentary, and even though new ones were coming out, I couldn’t bring myself to watch them because I knew what I would see, and I knew I couldn’t handle it. 

Finally, 2 years ago, I went to a wedding and the dinner was steak. I got mine medium rare, I swear it was still breathing. I also must mention my crippling, irrational fear of blood. This steak was so rare, it was literally bleeding. I can’t even say if the inside was warm because I took one bite, had to spit it out, and ran out of the room to get some air because I was about 30 seconds from fainting. 

My parents and sister were coming to visit after the wedding and we were doing a tour around Ireland. We passed a sign on our way to Kerry that said Petting Zoo and my sister and I made my dad turn around so we could go. We got to pet baby cows, and pigs. And they were like dogs. They wanted to get their belly rubbed and scratched behind the ears. I also learned that pigs are as smart as a 3 year old child. This visit, combined with the raw steak at the wedding made my decision very easy. From this day forward I never ate beef or pork again. At this point it had nothing to do with the health benefits, because I was unaware of them. It was simply due to my love of animals. 

Ignorance is bliss

The gym is still a huge part of my life, and I always thought you needed copious amounts of protein and that you could only get this protein from animal sources. Even what I learned in Personal Training College was that animal products are key if you want to build muscle. So I continued to eat chicken and fish, even though I hated chicken. I couldn’t cook it myself because it made me feel sick and I couldn’t cut into it myself, it had to already be in pieces or it made my stomach churn. I was literally forcing it down because I thought it was good for me. I still ate loads of fish and eggs and I’ve never really liked milk; I would only put a little in my coffee sometimes. My friend Vicki had been plant based for a while and she had told me to watch a couple documentaries but I couldn’t bring myself to see animals suffering again, and as they say, ignorance is bliss. 

The train ride that changed my life

When I went to India in October and the food on my yoga course was vegan, I was delighted, but I still believed I needed some kind of animal product to get the proper protein, so I continued to eat this weird Indian yogurt shit they provided at breakfast. Cutting out chicken was the next natural step, and I knew leaving for India that I wouldn’t eat it again. When we would go out for dinner on a Saturday I would still get prawns or fish curry, and I would still get eggs for breakfast. 

I was still uncertain about the health benefits of not consuming animal products; I was reducing my intake solely because of my love for animals. Most of my friends on my yoga training were plant based or vegan or whatever you want to call it and I learned so much from them. They knew that I was a Personal Trainer and recommended the documentary Game Changers. I watched it after I left the course on a long train journey across the country and I was convinced. I had no idea what going plant based could do for your health, and how much protein was in so many different plant sources. I know Game Changers is a very biased documentary, and that you should always take everything with a grain of salt, but it was the push I needed to continue digging deeper. I asked my friends from my yoga course for more documentaries to watch and they recommended What the Health. Oh. My. Fucking. God. Mind was blown. I won’t go in to detail, if you’re interested, you can watch it yourself on Netflix, but from that moment on, in the middle of India, on a train, I knew that I was done. I started reading more and more about being plant based and everything I was reading only made me more concrete in my decision. 

Living my best life on plants

Over Christmas some butter, milk and cheese slipped into my diet, because other people were cooking for me and that is fine, going plant based for me was a gradual process that took years in total. Now, being almost fully plant-based, I have never felt better. I have more energy, and I fucking love the food that Im eating! Where before I would almost be gagging trying to put chicken in my mouth, I am devouring my meals and I feel satisfied! Fruit has never tasted so good and I no longer feel the need to snack around meals. It is the best thing I have ever done. I feel like this is me. I know I was never meant to eat meat. I always had this crazy fear that I was going to get terminally ill. And now that I know I am feeding my body with whole, natural, unprocessed plants, I no longer have that fear. I know that I am helping the environment, and I don’t feel guilty by contributing to animal suffering. There is no better feeling. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I am truly alive. 

People ask me if I miss meat and my response is, you actually couldn’t pay me to put meat in to my mouth. The 2 biggest concerns people have when going plant based is usually regarding getting enough protein and enough vitamin B12; those were my biggest concerns as well. I recently got my bloods done and both levels are above average. Getting everything I need and more from plants.