Past struggles
I have always had digestive issues, since I was little. I hated cows milk and scrambled eggs as a child. Go figure. But this story begins in my early teens and ends at 20, so we'll start there.
TMI: 2 weeks without a bowel movement, hell. Writhing in pain and unable to concentrate on school work.
Along with digestive issues I had a number of different ailments: Chronic UTIs, high anxiety, ADD, depression, very frequent panic attacks, insomnia, acne, chronic migraines, exhaustion, anorexia, slow brain function, just utter bitchiness.
UTI: painful, no matter how much water you consume you never feel like you again, frequently. Started to appreciate the times when I didn't hurt, although short.
High anxiety: coupled with terrible abusive relationships. Paranoia's a bitch when you're in a a small room with a guy that gets pouty and distant whenever I say the word, "No."
ADD: Diagnosed at 14, meds helped a lot in the beginning. But they started to affect my heart rate and made me depressed and anxious.
Panic attacks: I'm in a tiny box and I need to escape. But I can't. How do I get out. I can't. I'll hyperventilate until my body calms down. Eventually I can hide the symptoms from my classmates so I can panic in front of everyone and no one would know.
Insomnia: Went from sleeping like a baby to not at all. I have a test in 5 hours how am I gonna do if I can't get my brain to rest. But also sleeping until 2 pm on my days off because I didn't sleep on my days on.
Acne: embarrassing clusters that you can't quite cover up with makeup. Also great for high anxiety. Is everyone looking at it?
Migraines: School nurse tells me to lay down for 10 minutes. Nope, not working. Gives me pain meds, not working. Nothing worked.
Exhaustion: see: anorexia: insomnia.
Anorexia: Tired all the time, not eating anything for a long while until I either had to because someone would find out that I wasn't eating or I would almost pass out. Too skinny: editing pictures of my face to make them thinner because they were "fat." NO. Just mentally. not physically. Malnutrition to the max.
Slow brain function: see anorexia: calorie restriction and sugar restriction = bad for the brain.
Utter bitchiness: See everything else.
In a nutshell, not a healthy body.
Until I found the Holy Grail.
VEGANISM
Unlimited calories, carbs (aka, the way to my heart) whatever I want and staying small and lean.
Happy, healthy, GREAT digestion, no urinary problems, memory is creepy good (ADD not an issue), sleeping at night and waking in the morning, no migraines, very seldom acne, no panic attacks, low anxiety, depression: gone.
The sky is brighter, birds chirp louder, new relationship: strong.
Before veganism I could explain all my ailments in complete and utter detail and complain about them all day. But I don't have much to say about how I feel after turning vegan because I just feel happy. Just happy.
How I started
Jenna Marbles turns vegan again. Oh yeah, reminds me that Freelee is a (yet controversial) vegan Youtuber. Lets search her up.
An old video about the animal agriculture industry? Sure.
Holy shit. The industry grinds male baby chicks alive because they deem them nothing.
Boom, out pops a vegan Anna.
That's it. I became vegan right as I saw that and never turned back.
I watched Earthlings one week into starting my vegan journey and it only fortified my bond with animal rights. Then Forks Over Knives, then Cowspiracy.
Then the World Health Organization says meat causes cancer. I'm glad I'm vegan.
More to come: my thoughts about where we are today and how you can change that by going vegan, also, foodporn. Get ready for smoothie bowls.
VegAnna
This is awesome!
ReplyDeleteOne grammar mistake. You have to find it. Lol