Be Yourself, Be a Vegetarian and Be Happy

My name is Milda and I am 22 years old. All my childhood I was "chubby" and my family are the people who likes to eat so I was not an exception. After I turned 15 all the diet periods started, nothing really worked as I wanted to, I just got some sicknesses because I didn't eat normally. So all my diets were failed, I was really depressed, ugly and fat.

After 18th birthday I started to think WHAT do I eat and do I really like it. I have started to eat only food which I really enjoy to eat and I feel good after eating it. That's how step by step all the meat products were cut from my ration. One of the reasons to cut meat was that it DOESN'T HAVE ANY TASTE! All the taste it has is - spices we add. Of course my parents were telling me that I will get sick if I won’t eat meat and the word "vegetarian" sounded like a diagnosis of terrible diseases; but I was stubborn and I could feel that I am going right way. But after about 6 months I was still eating sea products. At about that time I started to think about esthetics, that animals are actually being killed to be eaten. That mind couldn't leave my head and in some months step by step I cut down all sea animals.

I was living as a vegetarian quiet long, but I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about it, I was reading articles on internet, trying to cook different meals, but I didn’t have any person who could help me, tell me about his experiences and so on. I was all alone. But I was lucky; after I turned 20 I met a person who had been vegetarian for 10 years. He showed me how many vegetarian and vegan people are around us, and how many different meals can be made. That vegetarian is not some kind of disease or bad thing; he showed me that I must be proud that I am vegetarian! (big big smile...)

Now I live not with my parents any more. I moved to Denmark, I live on my own. I always meet the people who are asking how I get my proteins, how do I survive, how...how... Some of them think that I am a real weirdo, but I have all arguments and sometimes we even have long discussions about food and life style.

Also I work in a restaurant, it is not veggie-friendly restaurant, I cannot change their attitude, and everybody thought that I am going to start eating meat, because we are getting staff food for free, and of course it is not vegetarian, but I don’t even think about eating meat when I know how it is made from the beginning. It doesn’t seem like food for me. Yes, I became picky and I am proud of it as well.

What I am doing now: I never buy eggs or milk when I am at home, but I still eat them, when they are a part of some kind of dish. Lately I started to feel that milk is not a right product for my body. Why? I feel so heavy after even a small amount of milk. And I cannot eat almost anything the rest of a day. So I started to avoid milk products. That means that I am on my way to become vegan.

To conclude: I don’t think person must force himself to eat or not to eat some kind of food, everything has to come naturally. And I wish everybody will start thinking what is suitable for them, when do they feel happy.

PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.