Welcome!
First off thank you so much for giving my blog a look. It
has been a long time coming for this blog and I think it is about time I got
into this whole blogging universe. I have so much to share with you all. So I
suppose the easiest thing to do would be to start at the beginning and just go
from there right? Ok.
My name is Laura and I am a college student in Vermont. I
have lived in Vermont from the time I was three years old and since then I have
been a native of the southern part of this small rural state. About three years
ago my younger sister, Sarah made the decision to become a vegetarian. As a
compassionate animal-lover she could no longer stomach the idea of taking
another being’s life for her own taste buds or dietary satisfaction. It was not
long after that I also made the choice to give up meat (that includes all red
meat, white meat, fish, and pork). The official date of my acceptance of a
vegetarian lifestyle was November 2, 2009. I knew very little about the animal
rights movement, the environmental benefits of my decision, or even the health
benefits of my decision, all I knew was that I could no longer contribute to
the murder of so many innocent lives.
So there I was a happy little veghead in Vermont with my
little sister filling up on Greek yogurt, skim milk, and lots of veggie burgers
when I decided to seek out some new vegetarian recipes. I stumbled upon Colleen
Patrick-Goudreau’s podcast Vegetarian Food for Thought (link is down below) and began scrolling
through the episodes. I clicked on "A Visit to two “Free-Range” Egg Facilities" and I was horrified with what I heard. I went on to listen to every single
podcast that demystified the kindness of “humane” dairy farming, the debeaking
of small chicks that came out of the egg industry, and the undeniable
connection between dairy farming and the veal industry. I have not been the
same person since- on January 13, 2011 I went vegan (no animal products in my
diet or in my lifestyle) overnight. I knew little besides the fact that I could
no longer contribute to that kind of mass suffering when I knew there was
another way to live, to eat and to thrive. Now nearly two and a half years later
I have not looked back once and I never will.
I am now beginning
yet another piece of my journey towards becoming as compassionate and conscious
as I can be in my daily life. I have never been exceptionally involved in
environmental issues. I do what I can when I can to turn off lights, use reusable
shopping bags, and unplug chargers and electronics when I am not using them, I
don’t drink bottled water, and I reuse containers when possible, small steps
that are helpful and are great environmental practices, but I feel somewhat lax
when it comes to advocating change environmentally. I believe a whole foods
plant-based diet is one of the best ways to lead a green life, and I want to be
an outspoken advocate of this. There are so many steps that can be taken to
stop destroying, damaging and abusing our planet with the implementation of a
whole foods plant based diet and I am unbelievably excited to use this blog as
a way to help you make plant-based green changes to your diet, or to at
the very least take steps towards this amazingly rewarding and compassionate
lifestyle change!
I plan on posting once or twice a week with ways that I have
(and you can) implement green plant-based living into your daily life through
the use of green vegan products, resources, recipes, and so many other plant-based
cruelty-free outlets.