My Vegan Anniversary: How I Feel Two Years On

On April 1st I turned 2, well, my vegan journey did. And nothing has gone quicker in my life. I still remember nervously asking my Mum if it was okay if I tried being a vegan, despite my family being meat eaters. And it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

What initially made me go vegan? 

On Twitter, I follow quite a lot of what you'd call "woke" people, and they were all feminists (which also made me a feminist) and all of a sudden they were all turning vegan. I was thinking "Hang on, what's all this malarkey? Not eating animal products? Never." But they were tweeting facts constantly and I was getting more educated on the horrors of the meat, dairy and egg industry day by day. 

Another reason I decided to go vegan is that of my love for the actor River Phoenix. River had been vegan since birth and throughout his short, but peaceful life, he would talk about veganism and even did a few ads for PETA. At the time, I decided to go vegetarian on January 1st for River because I didn't think veganism was suitable for my lifestyle (Oh how wrong was I?!) 

How did I feel when I first transitioned?

Transitioning wasn't the easiest for me - mainly because I wasn't 100% educated so I didn't know that it wasn't purely meat, dairy and eggs that I had to avoid. I was made aware that there were many other ingredients I had to avoid like honey, shellac, beeswax etc. I did make mistakes, and I still do today. I don't think there will ever be a time in my vegan journey where I don't make mistakes. It's part of the process and I don't beat myself up for it anymore. I remember trying Linda McCartney's pulled pork burgers and finding out later that they had honey in them and I felt so terrible - How could I have done this to myself? But I just knew not to purchase them again but luckily the honey was actually taken out of them a few months ago. Cheers to that!

How do I feel now? 

I feel great. Knowing that I live a cruelty-free life is an amazing feeling. And I don't have to compromise any of my favourite foods. I still enjoy burgers, fried chicken, mac and cheese, sausage rolls and much MUCH MORE! It's just that no one had to die for it and there's nothing more I could want.

Another amazing perk I get with being vegan is that the animals know - I swear! Animals are always drawn to me if I see them. Since being vegan I've started looking after a stray cat because he kept coming to my house, and my neighbour's cat likes to wait outside my front door for me to stroke him. I'm sure they can sense it!

During my vegan journey, I have turned my mum, brother, boyfriend and a couple of people on Twitter vegan. It's a damn lovely thing to be able to change someone's life for the better. Being vegan you save animals for a lifetime, but turning other people vegan means you save animals for eternity.

If there's one thing I'd love for my readers to take away from this is that veganism is much less scary than you think. Don't think of it like you have to give up your favourite foods - think about it like you're going to replace your favourite foods with cruelty-free versions. Never go into veganism thinking you're going to lose weight, because boy, vegan food can be unhealthy. So like any diet, just make sure you're eating the right foods and you'll be just fine.

I just want to thank anyone in my life, vegan or not, who has supported me on this journey and kept me going. This has been the best thing I've ever done to myself, and I've never felt more...me.

Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions for future blog posts. I am also happy to answer any questions about veganism you may have.

💓 Phoebe xoxo