One day, I went to my mom and told her we needed to go to the store and grab some almond milk and coconut milk. I decided that I had to start off somewhere. That was the first step in my journey, and I have not consumed meat since July 15, 2019, the day we switched out our milk. I did some more research too later that day, and here are the five reasons that led me to becoming plant based.

Weight management
Body issues and weight is something I have always struggled with, but eating plant based foods has made me drop 15 pounds. A lot of the plant based options have less calories and, contrary to popular belief, taste very delicious. Eating plant based would give me the option of managing my weight and others had great success stories with it, which is what encouraged me.

The dairy and meat industries are very cruel
They usually pack the chickens in cramped cages for their eggs and feed them hormones to grow them faster and make them lay eggs faster than they should by nature. Similarly, with the dairy industry, a cow produces enough milk for its calves, not all the humans they are supplying. Therefore, the calves are removed from their mothers and the males are slaughtered for veal or raised for beef.

Animals deserve a shot at life
Many of the people that disagree with me being a vegan are oftentimes dog or cat lovers. Just like house pets, the animals people consume have feelings and it just feels wrong to slaughter over 9.59 billion land animals yearly, according to animalclock.org, just for our consumption, when we can live a perfectly healthy lifestyle without killing them. I find it a bit odd when one dead person means so much to us but killing that many innocent animals is nothing at all.

A new challenge
I hadn’t done anything like this before, not even a diet. I decided it was time to give myself a challenge. It made me feel like a better person, it made me feel like I was making a difference, and it made me feel motivated.

If you are interested in going vegan too, here are some tips:

1. I personally did not look back after I made my decision, but if you have cravings, don’t go cold turkey. Try making your portions smaller and go vegan over time, or become vegetarian and then vegan.

2. Beyond burgers and Beyond meat is the best plant based beef ever. My non vegan family even eats it sometimes. It tastes just like beef.

3. Tofu can be good, I promise. Just learn how to cook it. I really recommend panang curry at Thai Ghang Waan, or any panang curry with coconut rice recipe online.

4. When I went to Pakistan, a lot of people didn’t like that I was vegan, but you just have to get used to being told to ‘just eat some chicken’.

All in all, I definitely would recommend going vegan, and the satisfaction of doing something that you know many others can’t do is real.