Veganism - How I Got Started

One question that I often get is whether or not I truly believe in plant-based eating and just how I got started when it came to making the lifestyle change towards vegan and plant-based dieting. Healthy living and eating can be a journey for every person. Everyone has their own experiences and relationships with food that are formed while growing up. These relationships also tend to stem from our parent's relationship with food as well. When we're young, we often aren't shopping for ingredients and cooking for ourselves, which means that we end up eating whatever the rest of our family does. Whether it's specific recipes, ingredients, or spices, all of these affected how we viewed food going forward and helped us form our eating habits. These habits, of course, could be good or bad.

Not everyone has the proper knowledge to eat healthier, or maybe what we thought we knew was just a bit misinformed. That's why it's so important to create more avenues of useful information about healthier eating. As CEO and co-founder of PlantX, I make it a point not to single out those who choose to have a different dietary lifestyle. Plant-based food is right for me, but it may not be what someone needs in a certain period of life. People’s bodies tell them what they need. I have a deeply held belief that if you are craving something, whether it’s red meat or fish or anything else, that you should listen to your body and eat what it is asking for. Dieting is not always about just what you put into your body, but getting in touch with and listening to it as well.

That being said, I do enjoy allowing people to try out a great vegan or plant-based meal that they might feel skeptical about. Many people think that plant-based or vegan recipes cannot be filling, but that's where they're wrong! There's no better feeling than taking someone out to eat at a vegan restaurant and have them say just how much they enjoyed the meal and how full they feel afterward. We have a great number of delicious and filling plant-based recipes on PlantX too.

Plant-based dieting shouldn't be thought of as restricting yourself so much as choosing healthier sources for our nutrition. Instead of removing fat sources and protein sources typically associated with meats, encourage yourself to try something new with plant-based meals. We have some great stuff that can still meet your macro needs no matter what kind of diet you have. We welcome flexitarians.

Now I haven't always been plant-based. But I got to a certain point in my life where I wanted to educate myself and make healthier choices. I was even entirely gluten-free for a period of my life. For me, it's essential to continue to educate myself and learn new things while appreciating fresh ingredients, recipes, and experiences. The result has taken me to plant-based eating. Sometimes I will have a vegan meal, other times plant-based, but either way, I've been looking and feeling better than ever.

You can check out our PlantX podcast, where I talk with Todd Shapiro a little more about how I got started with plant-based eating alongside some other great topics today.

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