To be totally honest, I can’t quite remember the exact day that I took the plunge to be full-on vegan. I do know that the last meat I ate was a salmon steak on May 27th, 2018(thanks to Instagram archives), and after a year of eating lots of eggs and cheese, I woke up a day in April 2019 and decided to be fully plant- based.

And the reason was that I had a dream about eating raw eggs.

Like a full egg and I just popped it in my mouth.

With the shell and everything.

I know it’s gross and crunchy and yeah. And that’s why I decided to stop eating eggs.

And I thought…. if I am quitting eggs, then why not just quit cheese as well and just go  vegan.

And so that’s why I’ve been vegan for a year. I ate raw eggs in my dream.

It’s a lot harder to track when this was because I was already eating and posting a lot of yummy vegan recipes thanks to friends and my brother’s influence. 

It’s become a lot more than just finding eggs unappetizing. I have noticed that it’s become more about being a conscious consumer. Both buying consumer and eating consumer. Following a vegan lifestyle has helped me think about what I’m grabbing in the grocery store and what I am putting into my body.

First off, I have thought about the sustainability of the foods that I consume. I not only started buying more mushrooms instead of chicken, but I started buying bulk carrots instead of packaged baby carrots. And I take them home in reusable bags. Instead of going immediately for processed substitute soy burger patties, I opt for a bulk portabello mushroom or choose to make my own from black beans and quinoa. 

Anywhere that I can buy local or buy fresh or buy package-less veggies, I go for that over frozen. I choose glass and aluminum packaged items over plastic-covered. 

Buy it’s not just veggies. Dry foods like beans and rice and popcorn and noodles are still prominent in my diet, so I choose to buy bulk. I plan my grocery trips to reduce as much waste as I can. I’ve switched my thinking from omni to vegan, but also from mindless consumer to conscious consumer. 

In addition to a mindset shift about how I shop,  I have also started eating more whole foods, and I have incorporated more veggies, fruits, and unprocessed proteins into my diet. I’m not saying I didn’t eat veggies before, but I started centering my meals around vegetables rather than meat. 

I feel like I have more control over what I put in my body. Mostly because I have cut out dairy and eggs and gelatin, so that limits a large majority of “junk” items that I could eat. But I still limit my vegan sweets and snacks, by focusing on veggies and fruits (and popcorn), and eating nutritious meals instead of looking towards snacks. 

So it’s a lot more than just cutting out animal products. It’s creating a healthy lifestyle for both me and the planet. 

Your full-time plant eater for a year, 

AJ