My Vegetarian Story

Hello lovely readers. My name is Tylah and I’m a motivational blogger for the FED Up movement. Currently I am a 16 year old school girl who is relatively new to the whole plant based diet idea. I wouldn’t call myself an expert on the political or environmental aspect of the movement but I am passionate about equality and compassion for everyone- including the furry creatures we share the planet with. A little bit about me- I have a cat that I absolutely adore, a food obsession and you’ll often find me procrastinating school work by singing very loudly to the sound of music (not the musical- in case you were wondering). I certainly don’t have as much knowledge as some of the other bloggers on here but I do have a heck of a story to tell, and basically I want to share that with you guys to prove that if I can transition to a meat free diet- literally anyone can.

It was nearly two years ago when I first considered cutting my greatly beloved meat out of my diet. Prior to that, meat was something I’d never think about or even question. Quite frankly I couldn’t have cared less about meat, it tasted good- and that’s all that mattered to me. One day I was on YouTube when I came across a video bashing a vegan channel run by a girl named Freelee. Curiosity struck and I explored her channel. At first I thought she was crazy- like seriously crazy and the amount of hate she got was insane. But one video led to another and I actually thought she was incredible (controversial opinion I know). From Freelee’s videos I started exploring more and more vegan channels. I watched recipes, I watched videos on vegan make-up products, I watched benefits of a vegan diet, what to eat in a day- basically EVERY vegan video on the whole YouTube platform. I was completely inspired and envious of those who were able to give up animal products yet I still lacked the motivation. It was then that I decided to watch a documentary I had heard about called ‘Earthlings’. That didn’t just give me the push I needed but also turned me into an absolute blubbering mess for about three hours. When my parents came down stairs to check on me it wasn’t a pretty sight. They asked me what was wrong and I sheepishly admitted it was because I didn’t want to consume animal products anymore. They looked at each other, laughed, rolled their eyes and told me to ‘shut up and stop being a follower’. I persisted and whinged and whined until they agreed, BUT I was completely on my own with no support. It took a solid two months of eating peanut butter toast and plain pasta before they even acknowledged my efforts. My biggest issue is the fact that my family never goes grocery shopping and I’ve had literally seven cents in my account for over two years. There is rarely fresh fruit or veggies and 90% of my pantry is processed lunch box food. Dinner every night is usually some form of frozen meat reheated. When they did acknowledge my diet, they didn’t change their efforts, sometimes they gave me the vegetables that went with a roast dinner or a block of plain tofu. Their efforts to end my diet was solidified by the rest of my family and even my GP. Half my extended family told me I was betraying my uncle who works in the dairy and cattle industry and the other half told me I was betraying God and the bible. People at school either laughed, raised their eyebrows or rolled their eyes when I said I didn’t want it eat meat. I’m not particularly someone taken seriously so I assumed people thought I was doing it for attention. Things started getting better though. My parents started understanding and helping me a tiny bit, I met other people passionate about the same thing and when my blood test came back showing my iron and vitamin levels increased drastically and that I no longer needed a blood transfusion (unlike when I was eating meat) I was ecstatic. Going vegetarian is something I will never regret. I hope to go vegan eventually but for now I’m just happy to have my parents support and to be involved in such a passionate movement.

#Motivation