The day I decided to go vegan was to be one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I feel healthier, have more energy, sleep better, my hair and nails grow faster and thicker, my skin and eyes are clearer and I’m more mentally alert. Being vegetarian for 26 years and vegan for just 18 months, those 18 months have changed my life in so many positive ways. One of the highlights is seeing some of my recipes published in this magazine.
As a vegetarian, I used to think I needed milk, eggs and cheese for protein and that I was living a cruelty-free, healthy lifestyle: how wrong I was. After watching Forks Over Knives, Cowspiracy and documentaries like What The Health, I couldn’t go on living as a vegetarian. At first I thought I’d miss cheese and eggs but I don’t miss them at all. One of the hardest parts of being vegan is people assuming I live on tofu, nuts and beans. So I set up my social media accounts to post pictures and videos to show them it is actually the opposite. I eat a healthier, more varied diet than ever before and I look forward to meal times as cooking has become a passion. I still have pizza, burgers, cakes, ice cream and other foods, just vegan. After a while, the number of followers on my social media increased and I decided to experiment more with vegan food. Like all new things in life, you learn what works and what doesn’t. For example, my first chocolate cheesecake was delicious but slightly lumpy and hadn’t set as I expected, but now it’s restaurant-worthy (so I’ve been told).