My vegan story

I wanted to make this post for a while. Because it gives a lot of insight and you also get to know me a bit more, if you don't know me yet :)
This will be the longest post I made yet and it also might be the longest I'll ever make. So you better grab some tea and some (vegan) snacks :)
First of all, thank you for being interested in this post and my story. It's the most personal thing I posted online yet. And as I'm not super comfortable with being vulnerable, it's very special to me. I hope I can help or inspire some of you.

This post is also kinda therapeutic to me and I hope in the end, I can fully dedicate myself to my new chapter in life without looking back. This sounds pretty heavy and horrible, but it isn't that bad. I just exaggerate with my words sometimes 🙈

It's been a bit more then a year that I'm vegan. Actually about a year and a month. Going vegan has been one of the best decisions I've ever made.
When I look at my life I can't even believe that I didn't go vegan earlier. So here's the story:

It might have already started as a kid. I've always been a very picky person. When I didn't want to do or eat something, I just didn't. I always wanted to determine by myself. I questioned things and kinda lived in my own (magical) world. And I was totally fine with that.

I grew up in an very "Swiss" family: Both my parents grew up on a traditional animal farm. So eating meat, dairy and eggs was the most common thing to do.

But I never really liked most meat. I only ate chicken, minced meat, fish sticks and sausages. And sometimes bacon, or ham, but not often. The most ridiculous thing was, that when I prepared the meat myself, I found it extremely disgusting and NEVER touched it with my hands. I would rather use a fork and knife to cut weird things out of my chicken breast for 10 minutes then using my hands. I was also always afraid that I didn't fry it for long enough. The same with eggs.
And when the meat would still look like an animal after cooking, like a whole fish, I wouldn't eat it either.
Also, I didn't want to eat calf, deer, lamb, baby pigs or rabbits because I thought they're too cute to eat. You see, I had a very weird connection to animals as a source of food.

What I really loved was dairy. I drank a hot chocolate every morning through my entire childhood. When I got older I had cereals every morning. And I loved cream cheese. And fondue. Mozzarella. And other cheese. And yogurt. And milk chocolate. All those nasty things 😅

Then about 3.5 years ago I got some pretty bad tonsillitis. I've always had some sore throats as a child. But tonsillitis is totally a different thing. So I thought the first or second tonsillitis would just go away by itself. They did but then they started to come back and were very painful. It had hurt so bad, I didn't want to eat at all. Some days I only ate some bell pepper and cucumber, because it was the only thing that didn't hurt so much.

I went to see a doctor of course and they gave me antibiotics. The tonsillitis went away but after a few weeks it came back. And yes, of course I took the whole package of antibiotics, I did everything the way the doctor told me. All in all I took three different antibiotic treatments and I never felt fit during all this time.
And the funny thing, well not funny of course, was, the doctors didn't even know what caused my tonsillitis! They just gave me antibiotics because it was the common treatment when you have some inflammation in your blood and not a virus causing your illness (antibiotics have not effect on a virus, only on bacteria).
I also went to see a specialist, he poked right into my tonsils with a syringe, I think I'll never forget that feeling... The blood he removed was milky and looked very unnatural. But he didn't find the cause of my illness either.

I think I had a tonsillitis almost every month for about 6 months.
It also was the time of my bachelor thesis, so I couldn't just rest for months and take things easy.

With the help of another doctor, who was both a holistic/alternative and "western" doctor, I was fit enough to make my degree and felt a bit better.

But right after my bachelor degree party I had another horrible tonsillitis, the worst I've ever had. It turned out that I got an abscess on my tonsils. I had to get surgery immediately and get my tonsils removed, because the abscess was spreading down to my heart, which would have been life threatening.

After surgery I even got antibiotics directly into my blood stream. Which brought down my immune system even more.

Of course I felt better after the surgery, my illness was gone: The tonsillitis never came back, I didn't have tonsils anymore obviously...

But the time after the surgery wasn't the best either. I felt weak and unhealthy. My hair was very fragile. My immune system and gut didn't work well: Antibiotics destroy every bacteria in your body, the bad AND the good. And we really need the "good" ones to work properly.

In the winter of 2014 I also got a cervix inflammation. This is something you don't feel and wouldn't notice without going to your gynecologist regularly. I was a bit shocked because after being sick for about half a year I clearly wanted to look forward.
And this was the moment it changed something in me. I didn't want to be this sick, weak and sad person anymore. I did a lot of research on the topic of my inflammation and I've found out that dairy assists inflammations in your body.

So in spring 2015 I've quit all dairy products. At this point, this wasn't even hard for me anymore. I'm a very stubborn person and this for once was very helpful.
Et voilà, the cervix inflammation went away within about two months :)

I started to feel better. I got back to where I was before being sick.

Then, last year in August 2016, I've watched forks over knives. And cowspiracy. These documentaries got me; I started to understand a lot. I've quit eating meat, fish and eggs over night, I didn't consume dairy at that point anyway. I'm extremely lucky that my boyfriend got on this path with me. (He actually suggested watching the documentaries).

Going vegan changed my life a lot. The longer I was vegan I felt more energized. I felt connected with the animals and the planet. And also, I felt more connected with myself. I started to care more about myself and others. I feel healthier and I don't need to count calories anymore. I enjoy eating again and don't restrict my food (which I did sometimes before when I didn't feel thin enough, which was crazy). I eat when I'm hungry and I eat more intuitively.

Going vegan also made my mind go into a new direction. A caring and loving. It made me think a lot about my personality and other things. In the past year I've changed a lot. In a good way. And going vegan made me realize that I had to change. That I wanted to change.

What I actually went through character wise is a whole different and even more personal story, which I will totally share someday. But not yet. I'll do when I'm ready.

When I went vegan I went all in. I knew I could easily replace every animal product, as I already did with dairy products. I didn't even really crave animal based foods anymore. And still don't most of the time.

It might sound silly but a whole new world opened up for me. New things to try and enjoy. An all positive and kind and giving and healthy world. I did a lot of research, about different food, about nutrition and animals. At first, I went vegan because of the health benefits and the environment. After a while it kinda made "click" and I had the connection to the animals too.

Of course it took some time to find recipes that I like and figure out how to replace everything. But honestly, I eat a bigger variety of foods then before. As I told you in the beginning, I'm extremely picky. But with this new thing, veganism, I forced myself to try new food. I even eat garlic now! I hated it my entire life x) I love to try new products now. On instagram I share those new finds with  #yunabantries. Check it out if you're interested.

One thing you better get when you go vegan: Get a high speed blender, this will make your life so much easier! It might be a bit of an investment when you want a good one, but I promise, it's worth it :)

If you aren't vegan, please do me and yourself a favor. Watch these documentaries and you will understand why people are so passionate about veganism: Forks over knives, cowspiracy and What the health (they're also available on Netflix!). If you don't go vegan after these two movies and still want to contribute to the meat, egg and dairy industry, consider watching earthlings. I've never watched it myself and never will but I know what it is about. I'm too sensitive for this kinda stuff...

I think that sums up my vegan story/journey pretty well. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask in the comments or on my instagram.

What I'm interested in hearing from you: Are you already vegan? Did you consider going vegan yet? What holds you back from becoming plantbased?

Little note: In the end, it doesn't matter why you are vegan. As long as you don't harm any animal, it's fine :)

Have a wonderful day with yummy plant-foods 🌱