Hxdream

Being Vegan was not something I woke up one day & thought,

“Today, I am going to be a Vegan.”

Why/ How I became a Vegan

It was sometime in the middle of  2010 when my mom had her very first mini-stroke.

For me that was a scary moment. I thought to myself,

“who’s going to take care of Hope if my mom was incapable?”

Hope is my sister who is 8 years younger than me with Down syndrome.

If you don’t know Down syndrome is a mental disability.

(I don’t want to call it a disability because she has so many abilities, but basically, she needs someone who will care for her 24/7 her entire life).

That thought was what started my journey into this world of becoming a Vegan.

Realizing my mom’s health was not the best, it encouraged me to become my own doctor. I surfed the web on exactly why my mom had her stroke.

Where I began was stress.

As I researched, it led me to many different discoveries. The one thing that it boiled down to was about food and how certain foods produce stress. So I was instantly fascinated.

In 2011-2012 Netflix was a thing for me.

Surprisingly Netflix, (at that time), had a lot of documentaries that were on food, stress, human body, intervention, and I was addicted to watching it all.

During my binge, I fell upon “Forks Over Knives” & it just made sense to me.  That was the documentary that really did it for be. There were many others that helped solidify my decision in becoming vegan as well. So I said,

“Okay I am no longer eating dairy, meat, or products that are processed.”

My goal from that moment on was to live the healthiest lifestyle so that I can stay healthy for Hope.

The Beginning was hard

it took about 2-3 months to overcome all the gas and the weird things that my body was going through.

Whole foods was my Disneyland and like Disneyland, Whole Foods definitely cost as much.

People thought I was crazy. Why would you give up BACON?

My own family didn’t support me at all. I remember my mom saying

“you’re going to regret it, you need meat, or you are going to become unhealthy.”

Of course at that time I did not have all the answers, nor did I have a guidebook on how I was going to stay vegan but I had this strong feeling inside me saying this is my path, my lifestyle.

I started to devote all my time into researching about superfoods, spirulina,  quinoa & so much more.

Discovering quinoa was fascinating for me. I had no idea that protein came in different forms. As a lover of cheese I found a product that was okay to be my substitute, Daiya cheese.

I will admit some substitutes that I started off were, were not savory but I how to adjust very quickly.

I started to study & learn how to  read labels and slowly I figured out what was to my liking.

There were very few vegan restaurants but I explored the many that I did encounter in LA:

Real foods Daily, Flore Vegan, Sage, Cruzers pizza, Vegan Glory and many Korean restaurants had options for me as well.

Being  of Korean and Hispanic decent I had more options to what I liked and would cook. My creativity for food was much more widely expanded as I grew up with the two culture along with the american culture.

For example: Beans, Rice, Avacado, Cilantro with some corn tortillas was an almost everyday staple that I never got sick of. Who doesn’t love Mexican food?

My friends enjoyed the new discoveries of places we would try and were very supportive.

I also did a 16-day MASTER CLEANSE that is actually which you can check that out if you would like. This detox helped jump start my new direction. It allowed me to purge out the old toxins and make room for the new.

Becoming Vegan led me into more of a spiritual path

I started doing hot yoga, hiking, asking questions, reading about crystals, learning about eastern medicine and culture.

This started to expand my mind which then expanded my world.

I did get made fun of for being vegan

also questioned a lot about where I was getting my calcium, protein, & etc. Also comments such as,

“you’re going to die.”

I didn’t have all the answers to answer their questions. I was self-educated on what I was doing and I wasn’t confident enough to respond with data or studies. I was doing this on my own, by myself and I was the test subject to myself.

Soon

a year turned into two years two years and so on. My results have been pretty profound.

I rarely got sick. I think in the 4 years since being vegan I can only remember being ill  twice maybe just once.

Weeks before a surgery for my breast augmentation my doctor told me that my blood results were the best he had seen on a patient.

I knew I was nourishing myself correctly and doing a good job. I just always made sure my diet was all around wholesome.

In 2014 I moved to Riverside for School. I lived out there for 3 years and my vegan diet became a bit challenging.

It was hard to keep up with school, eating right, and cooking.

Riverside was not as food developed as Los Angeles. The abundance of availability was not around.

I ended up resorting back to eating back to a meat eater diet.

I was not happy. My body was not either. I felt heavy, my energy level shifted into a lower one, and I could not think straight. I didn’t go full force in eating meat but I wasn’t strictly eating just vegan. it was about 60/30 for me. 60 percent vegan and 30 percent dairy/meat products.

After I graduated in two years I went back to slowly becoming vegan again. Soon I was back to my all plant based diet and I felt like I had found myself again.

The Vegan industry has changed over the 7 + years. Science has discovered so many more choices in plants and fruits. Flavors have evolved to so many savory foods and options.

How has being Vegan changed me?

Being vegan has made me become confident in decision making, It has opened new doors for me and has made me a much more conscious person.

If you know me you know I love working out. The vegan life has allowed me to feel good inside which helps me to push my limits and really challenge my body. Working out just works better for me as a vegan. I feel great, my body burns fat quicker.

Knowing that I am not taking part in the genocide that happens with farmed animals makes me feel cleaner about my energy and has motivated me to raise the awareness.

If you have ever thought to go Vegan, I dare you.  

I encourage you to make a change and start slow. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Start slowly by letting go of things that don’t serve your body, SODA>FAST FOOD> & So on.

The rest will fall into place 🙂