Veganism is a very important topic to me and I could probably write my entire blog on being vegan. Today, I want to discuss why I decided to make this change and describe the process of becoming vegan.

I’ve been fully vegan for about 3 and a half years. I was vegetarian for a year before that and pescatarian for a few months even before that.

So, why did I stop eating meat?

The primary reason I chose to stop eating meat was for sustainability.

This was around the time that posts started showing up more commonly on social media about how animal agriculture was one of the most harmful industries affecting our planet and by eating less meat, we could all make a big difference.

Let’s start with a little backstory.

I come from a family that had meat in every meal. Meat was a staple and the centrepiece of any dinner. Because of this, going vegan or even vegetarian seemed absurd to me at the time. I personally felt a bit apprehensive of eating meat and how it made me feel emotionally, but never enough to actually change my habits.

I started to become educated about how livestock, especially cattle, are really detrimental to the earth. Previously, my understanding of eating meat didn’t extend far beyond knowing that it was a big contributor to my own ecological footprint. And that used to be enough for me.

I encouraged my family to commit to Meatless Mondays. Once a week, we would forgo any meat products and eat a vegetarian diet. After a few months of this, and much more research on sustainable eating, I decided I would try my best to eat even less meat.

I decided I would go meat-free three days each week. I was already doing one day, so how much harder could three days be? Jumping forward a couple of weeks, I realized it really wasn’t much harder for me at all. Another couple of weeks later, I was sitting down to eat a steak and suddenly I realized that I did not need or want that steak. I told my family that would be the last piece of meat I would be eating, and thus begun my short-lived pescatarian diet.

I was fortunate enough to take an elective course in university that was essentially a three week trip to Iceland to learn hands-on about the country’s environmental policies and issues.

It was definitely the best experience of my five years at university. Iceland was a beautiful, electrifying country. It is still (and will probably always be) one of my all-time favourite places I have been lucky enough to visit. The course material was fascinating and provocative. My classmates were all like-minded individuals and made the trip memorable and meaningful. Each of them cared about sustainability in their own way and openly shared their perspectives about caring for our planet.

I was still eating seafood in Iceland when we went out to restaurants, but I was inspired to cook only vegetarian meals at the hostels. I didn’t particularly like handling seafood anyway.

After the trip, I kept up the same mentality. I would eat seafood at restaurants and occasionally at home. I still lived at home at the time and it was easier for my parents to make one pescatarian meal we could all eat. Still, most days of the week I was strictly vegetarian.

One night we went out for dinner and I ordered a seafood pasta. I ended up feeling quite sick that evening. I don’t think the seafood necessarily caused the stomach ache, but the correlation was there. That night I decided I would stop eating seafood.

My six month journey as a pescatarian was over, and I was officially a vegetarian.

Everyone is different. Everyone has different dietary needs and wants. For me, committing to a vegetarian diet was easy. The most difficult part was making separate dinners than my parents. Besides that, I had no problem eating vegetables. I still ate dairy and eggs, so I really had no difficulty finding suitable meals at restaurants.

I remained a vegetarian for the better part of a year. Not eating any meat or fish helped me mentally, as I always felt a bit guilty eating animals. I also knew that the most substantial reduction in my environmental impact could be achieved by eliminating meat.

So why give up animal by-products?

Wanting to be more eco-conscious led me to give up meat. From what I had researched, food production contributes somewhere around a quarter of all global emissions (give or take). Of that entire contribution, roughly 60% of emissions are from livestock and 40% are from agriculture. I wasn’t eating livestock and from what I had read, the difference in emissions between a vegetarian and vegan diet weren’t huge.

Well, it’s estimated that dairy animals make up 20% of all livestock emissions, or 3% of all global emissions. That’s a pretty significant number, and that’s just considering emissions! Cattle ranching is the number one leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon, amounting to 80% of total deforestation.

I had the numbers, I had my own personal conscience and I had a strong determination to make a change.

After some hard facts, I knew it was time I started phasing out all animal by-products from my diet.

This was definitely the hardest phase of my transition to veganism. I didn’t have too much trouble giving up meat and finding vegetarian options at restaurants was never a challenge. Giving up all animal by-products, however, was a different story. I had alternatives for my staples at home, like milk, butter and mayo, but veganism just wasn’t popular at restaurants.

In the early days of being vegan, it was common for me to request vegan options at a restaurant and have the waiter ask what that meant. Finding a decent vegan meal always meant going to a full vegan restaurant, something that friends and family weren’t always interested in doing. I had many bad meals in those days. I can’t even count the number of veggie platters I had at nights out with the family.

As veganism gained popularity, it became easier to find vegan options at restaurants and regular grocery stores. This made dinners significantly less of a hassle for me and my family when they cooked me meals.

These days, being vegan is so much easier.

There’s an alternative for everything, in every store. Fake meats are making headlines. Sometimes I feel like I even have too many options when looking for a plant-based milk; there’s oat, almond, cashew, soy and pea milks, all available in a variety of flavours.

There’s so much more I want to talk about regarding veganism. Health benefits, recipe ideas, sad documentaries on Netflix, the list goes on. For now, I think it suffices to say that I am vegan. I am happy that I am vegan, I am happy for everyone else who is vegan, and I am happy for every person who tries to be a little bit vegan.