Ms. Porter asked when I became vegetarian and how supportive my family is with my decision. I promised to tackle this topic because I often wonder about people and I think support with any lifestyle is helpful. I don’t even know where to begin…

My road to vegetarianism was very gradual. Throughout my teen years I was always interested in food and enjoyed cooking the occasional dish. I grew up in a home where it was rare not to eat a home-cooked meal. Both my parents cook and I grew up eating my fair share of assorted pasta dishes. It was pretty normal to have beans (kidney beans, chickpeas, etc) with the pasta as well. When I moved out I just started cooking. It didn’t even cross my mind to get takeout. I loved being in the kitchen. My very first cookbook was LooneySpoons. This cookbook is now out of print but it was a great introduction to cooking.

So fast forward a few years. Lots of stress and not taking proper care of my body left me exhausted and with a lot of heartburn, bloating and weight gain. I’m only 5 feet so any weight gain on my small frame is very noticeable. I didn’t look healthy and I certainly didn’t feel good either.

Of course, at the time I didn’t even know what heartburn was since the sensation was always in my throat. I really didn’t know my body and I certainly didn’t know that food could cause one to feel like crap or really good. When I figured that out it was enlightening!

It was around that time that I started a regular yoga practice and slowly started taking care of my body. The neck and back pain that plagued me for years was gone and slowly the migraines disappeared. It wasn’t immediate but it happened. I remember going about my business one day and suddenly realizing that I hadn’t experience back pain in a while and that I hadn’t felt nausea or the other discomforts of a migraine in a while too. Wow!

I started keeping a food journal, documenting when I felt any heartburn or bloating. I soon discovered that whenever I ate meat of any kind I felt the heartburn and I felt lethargic the day after. This went against everything I believed in. My whole life I’ve experienced hemoglobin and iron issues and was told to eat meat to feel good. However, eating meat made me feel awful. So I gradually started decreasing meat consumption, including red meat, chicken and fish and seafood. I started feeling wonderful.

Now I didn’t become vegetarian overnight. When I became pregnant with my first daughter I had been flirting with vegetarianism, however, following the advice of well-meaning individuals I started eating flesh. My pregnancy was great but the days leading up to my daughter’s birth were awful. To make a long story short I had a form of toxemia/preeclampsia called HELLP Syndrome (HELLP stands for: hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, and lowered platelets). So, I learned from this lesson and was a full-blown vegetarian with my second pregnancy and have never looked back.

I love eating this way because I get creative in the kitchen and I’ve learned so much about how food is medicine. I roll my eyes when people ask where I get my protein or don’t I feel bad for the plants that I’m killing. I don’t preach about my lifestyle and just lead by example. The way we eat is so ingrained in our society and I think we need to shift people’s thinking into what is healthy and what is not. Before any of this I remember thinking that vegetarians were a bunch of yahoos. I didn’t get why one wouldn’t eat meat. However, my ideas were based on how I was grown up. There is now so much information out there about what eating flesh and the over consumption of protein does to your body. There are so many resources to support this lifestyle.

My parents have surprisingly been very supportive because they see what I eat and how I feel. Plus, what I eat is not very different than what I was raised eating — lots of vegetables, legumes, grains and fruit. Of course, I meet resistance. That’s normal with any decision.

I became vegetarian so that I could take proper care of my body and feel good. Over time, however, my ideas about why I’m vegetarian have evolved. Yes, it’s still about me — feeling good, not experiencing ill effects from food but also trying to keep heart disease, obesity, diabetes and other diseases at bay. There are also environmental reasons and also just being humane.

So there you have it. Please feel free to send me any questions.