2013: The Year of the Vegan

It’s almost the New Year!

The last few days I have been thinking about my New Year’s Resolutions, from last year (this year).

I was kind of thinking…I’ve barely done anything!

But you know what I have done this year…learned about veganism. Which has become so much more important to me than I ever thought it would be.

HA. It is funny to think about now, but I was one of those people who thought vegans were angry and extreme. I thought it was annoying when people constantly posted on Facebook being like KNOW THE TRUTH!

I remember passing tables set up with brochures on animal testing on the street as a kid. I looked at it and was shocked but then quickly looked away, thinking it was too insane to be true and that these people were probably crazy.

I remember thinking, “what’s wrong with free range eggs?”. “How is dairy bad?”. I also remember not wanting to know the answer.

I remember thinking Moby was like the only vegan out there, this weird skinny looking guy.

HA.

This has been the year of waking up and seeing the truth.

I only became vegan last fall.

Inspired by the commenters on this blog, I started getting more interested in animal rights on my vegan shoe blog (wow, remember when this blog was just about shoes…).

I read Free the Animals by Ingrid Newkirk, followed by the documentary about it by Shannon Keith (who I interviewed here), followed by Jenny Brown’s book The Lucky Ones. (she lays out the whole argument for veganism in that book and after I read that I remember telling my then boyfriend, I really want to go vegan, and I started trying for real.)

(Shannon Keith, head of The Beagle Freedom Project)

But it was only really when I listened to the Animal Voices interview with Anita Krajnc and was so inspired I felt compelled to interview her myself…did I feel like I really understood anything about animal rights.

Isn’t it funny how you think you understand something, but you really have no idea how little you understand it at all.

The whole concept of bearing witness.

I hate it, but it works.

The more you look at the torture and deaths of animals, the more you care.

I think it’s because the reality is so much worse than you thought.

You’re like “Trust me, I know what happens.” But you don’t.

Real death, real pain, real fear, suffering, torture. You can’t understand the weight of it unless you’ve seen it with your own eyes. Even though that’s literally the last thing anyone wants to do.

And also you see that what everyone tells you about how animals are just animals is kind of a lie. You SEE the humanity in the animals. You see how we all share like the life force or something. Something that makes us able understand each other without words.

I saw an article saying this leading hybridologists think that humans evolved when a chimp mated with a pig and that explains all these things our evolutionary history can’t explain. Even if it’s not true, that makes so much sense to me. If pigs were our ancestors it would explain why when I look at a pig I see myself.

Animals: strangely human. Humans: strangely animal.

You know what’s kind of scary. I now youtube animal abuses almost for fun. Is it fun to watch? HELL NO. But I know now that the more I watch the more I will be strengthened against all the bullshit coming at me from every direction–from the ads on tv, the posters at whole foods, the well meaning arguments from your best friends and family–and the more I will be able to simply and clearly defend animals.

happy cow farms beef……….

 

The more I bear witness or look at these videos, the more it is like the fog that was clouding my mind falls away and the more the truth is revealed.

People would not believe how hard food companies try to FOOL us into eating animals and make the violence invisible.

I’ve learned soo much this year. To the point where sometimes I have felt MINDBOGGLED about how sinister and like the plot of an Orwellian sci-fi thriller our world really is. Who would have believed it?

Who would have believed that swimming with dolphins is actually supporting the bloodiest massacre of dolphin families you’ve ever seen in the creepiest cove on earth (I recently have been watching footage from The Cove).

It is incredible that so few people understand these horrifying facts.

Sometimes it has honestly been really frustrating.

It is just so sad. Tears come to my eyes as I write this. It is so unfair. Thinking of pigs in their bars.

Tonight I watched this thing tonight on youtube from Oprah about a horrible case of child abuse. Not to minimize that at all, but that is exactly what pigs go through their whole lives.

What can I do? Everyone is still under a spell.

Well, this year I have become way more vocal about my beliefs. I used to hate to explain to anyone why I was a vegetarian. Now I try to use every opportunity to tell people I’m vegan, even sending my closest friends harassing text messages like “GO VEGAN!!!!!!!!!!” out of the blue. The other day this guy was selling cashew cheese in Whole Foods and I walked up to him and said “I’m vegan too” out of the blue. I felt this connection with him because he was selling vegan cheese. I don’t think he was vegan so he gave me a nervous laugh.

I guess the best thing to do if you can’t do anything much yourself is give money to people who can do a lot for animals. Maybe my favorite moment of this year was when I published my article on The Pig Preserve. At the end I wrote something like if you donate you now know what good things it will be supporting. It’s so true. That place is truly great. Giving them money is basically like saving a pig as it allows them to take in more pigs and give those pigs true freedom and happiness. (one can donate through Facebook)

Anyway, this year has been huge for me. Though I may not have achieved all my goals, could anything really have been more important than waking up to the truth. Honestly, I feel blessed to be able to see it.

The people who bear witness, in a way, it’s like they are the chosen ones (like in the buffy the vampire slayer movie).

They wake people up and explain the truth.

My favorite quote has always been The Truth Will Set You Free. I find that so true.

Have I been set free by seeing the truth of how animals are treated in this world? At first I thought no because it is kind of a horrible burden to bear. But then I thought yes, because well, I don’t know.

I guess it’s like if the holocaust were going on, would you want to know or would you want to continue to live in ignorant bliss. What if you were somehow participating in it.

You’d want to know, right? And you’d want everyone to know. Especially your friends and family. If no one knows about it, no one can stop it.

What do you think. Has veganism/the truth set you free? I’d love to hear your thoughts, vegan or not.

Also thanks so much to everyone who has read, liked, commented, observed from afar on this blog. You have started me on this path, inspired me, taught me and complimented me and made me feel wonderful.

Love Jay-Z,Beyonce and me. (3 vegans)

My Raw Vegan Fruitarian Journey: Better Not to Begin, But Once Started, It Is Better To Finish

I wanted to do a small update about my fruitarianism.

Well, around last April or May, I hired a life coach for a week to help me try to transition to a fruitarian diet. Ever since I saw one of Freelee’s rant videos online about Why You’re Still Fat and the answer was you’re not eating enough fruit–and I was like Wha???, I had been researching this high carb low fat version of raw veganism otherwise known as fruitarianism.

We decided I should just try to do raw till dinner to transition. So for a week, for breakfast and lunch I just ate fruit and then for dinner I would have my normal vegan food. I was already eating a lot more fruit, but I was really strict about it that week.

That month my severe cramps basically disappeared, which was thrilling and amazing to me.

I didn’t see much other difference though, and I even wondered if I had gained weight that week.

I kept going with it though.

All through the summer I watched fruitarian youtube videos from freelee, durianrider, fullyrawkristina, thefruitarian et al. Finally I was inspired so much I had to try a fully raw trial. It was kind of easy at that point since I was already eating so much fruit and the cooked vegan meals at night didn’t even taste that good. So I thought I’d go all in for a week. Just a week. To see if I liked it.

At the end of that week, I thought, I’ll go two weeks. That will definitely be enough time to see how I feel.

At the end of those two weeks, I was like… I’ll just continue. I felt good–but I wasn’t sure I saw any drastic changes.

On day 16 or so, I started feeling amazing.

There was a day when I was running to the subway. I’ll always remember the feeling. I felt filled with energy to the point where I felt weightless. I ran to the subway like I was an angel, a super being. I remember thinking as I walked down into the subway, Oh my god, maybe I have found that magic pill, that miraculous cure that fixes all your problems.

My skin was glowing. The term “weight is falling off”….made sense. My pants got really loose. I felt like a different person strength-wise in my dance class. All the tricks I thought I’d never do were suddenly within reach.

Then I had to go on vacation. I was excited about the vacation with my fam, but worried cause I knew it would be hard to stay fully raw with my family, who love to eat out.

It was quite difficult. It was difficult to deal with sitting at restaurants where everyone else was eating normally, and I was trying to refrain. It was also difficult to deal with the pressure from family members who were annoyed that I had chosen this restrictive path.

What they didn’t understand was all my dreams were kind of coming true. I had always wanted to lose weight deep down, but found it impossible. I had made up my mind that I would never lose weight and was happy with my body the way it was. But I kind of always wished it were possible for me. Suddenly I had found the solution, but everyone was angry at me for doing it and not being normal.

Also I had always longed to be an amazing athlete and dancer–yet I found I was just not strong enough. Or possibly my extra weight and height made things doubly difficult for me. I always felt like “I guess I am just not as strong as other people”. Suddenly I was becoming supercharged with energy and strength. I found myself easily able to do pushups. Running was effortless. My skin was now perfect when I had always had bad skin growing up, whereas my sisters’ skin seemed to be porcelain smooth.

All my problems were dissolving. Yet people hated the fact that I was doing it. Except my mom.

I guess it is just hard for people to accept. They think you are just trying to lose weight and starving yourself when really if you restrict your calories you will fail on the lifestyle in a heartbeat and always eat till you are full. They think you hate yourself. Or you are just trying to be difficult and weird. They tell you you are isolating yourself and that food is one of the reasons life is worth living and you’ll never find a boyfriend eating like that.

The works.

It is hard to be fruitarian alone because you’re getting all your information from random people in their bedrooms on youtube. It is really confusing. They disagree and fight a lot. I so often wished I had some fruitarian friends to consult with.

Anyway, after my vacation I kind of gradually fell into a raw till 4 program. I would eat mostly fruit but eat salads, rice, beans, vegan soups, corn pasta, or potatoes for dinner. I still tried to keep it as low fat and high carb as I could. And of course vegan. My food was kind of boring, and I was not seeing any of the drastic athletic benefits that I saw when I was fully raw, but I felt good and my cramps were still mostly gone and I had lost weight.

The only problem was I actually did not feel that great when I would eat my cooked food dinners. You start feeling the difference between raw and cooked food. When you eat raw food it is like you feel a rush of energy or nothing at all. When you eat cooked food dinners after that you feel all of a sudden drained and taxed, like you need to lie down. Sometimes I did have to lie down. I think I could have fixed this by drinking A LOT more water with my dinners, because after being so hydrated all day with raw foods, the cooked food suddenly really dehydrates you sometimes to the point where I’d have to sleep it off. The problem is rice and pasta tastes really good and gives you a great satisfied feeling right before you feel bad.

I sometimes wondered if I had ruined my body by eating so much raw food that I could no longer eat cooked food without feeling bad. And yet the raw food made me feel really good.

I often thought of the zen saying my karate teacher used to say in college” “Better not to begin. But once started, it is better to finish”. 

I still had dreams of going fully raw but found it so hard to give everything up a second time.

Anyway, I decided to try banana island yesterday. Which is what fruitarians call it when you eat only bananas. Which is supposed to be an amazing cleanse.

I had been increasing my banana intake recently and had gotten such good results in dance class on ten a day, I decided to take it all the way to an attempted 30 bananas a day.

I ate 20 yesterday. By 10 pm I could see it in my face. My skin was glowing like my skin had gotten younger.

(i posted this pic of me on fb cause I couldn’t believe my skin got so good so fast)

It was amazing! I still can’t believe eating bananas works so fast. Like, “Take 20 bananas and call me in the morning”.

When I woke up today I felt the difference in my energy. I felt charged up. I felt myself vibrating in a way. I know that sounds weird. But I felt myself vibrating with energy. I felt light. I feel really good right now.

I looked at my body in the mirror and I felt like a victoria secret model. Not eating salt allows any water weight on you to disappear. So you magically look thinner without having lost any fat.

I stared at the bananas in my vitamix today kind of in awe. Who would have ever thought bananas….were…so powerful.

Raw food is really amazing, but it can be a difficult journey. Sort of like with veganism, but even more extreme. You are going against everything everyone knows and loves. It is not easy for people to accept. It is not easy to do. But the benefits are so good that they make it worth it.

Or do they…

I am curious, have you or would you ever try or tried being a raw vegan/fruitarian? Do you think the benefits of energy, athleticism, feeling good, and improved looks seem worth the cost of giving up the extreme pleasures of the foods you know and love?