After starting to raise silkie chickens as pets and learning what wonderful creatures they are, I realized I didn't want to eat chicken any more. Cutting out other meats became easy after that, but cheese, yogurt, and eggs remained in my diet. At that time I was still operating on things I had been led to believe from my past, like dairy and eggs were good for you, so I continued to consume butter, cheese, yogurt, and eggs. (I was also mostly unaware of the extend of indecencies that are occurring in big Ag, and I had a mental picture that vegans were protesters, which is not something I align with.)

Physically I had been steadily gaining weight since becoming a mother. A couple times I worked out really hard for a prolonged period of time and regained my prior lithe figure, but soon after lowering my activity level my weight would start to go up again. It was the proverbial story of "after having kids my body was never the same--and then after menopause it became worse." What became really frustrating was that no mater what I did to turn the table, I continued to gain weight. In my mind being vegetarian should have helped with weight loss, but not only was I steadily gaining weight I was steadily becoming more and more frustrated with my body, a self-picture that was new to me and was very disconcerting.

After being "mostly vegetarian" for a few years I was introduced to the whole food plant-based diet concept after watching "The Game Changers." At the conclusion of that movie the most prominent thought in my mind was, "Why haven't I heard this before?!" At that moment I became consumed with learning as much as I could about a whole plant diet and the health and environmental benefits of it. I watched every documentary available on Netflix and YouTube, then started watching every presentation by the prominent doctors and experts in the plant-based world I could find. Alongside that I began cleaning out my frig and cupboards of all dairy, and stopped eating my beloved chickens' eggs.

On July 4, 2020, I had my last vegetarian meal and began eating plant-based. I have no question in my mind of the power of this diet and look forward to experiencing its benefits myself. I also have no question that this will be my diet of choice until my end. But I also know that I'm fully dedicated to the plant-based lifestyle because I took the time to learned a lot about the nutritional, agricultural, and environmental factors. Based on my experience, I have a much better understanding of how much it takes to turn around one's mindset, and it is my hopes that I can, in some way, contribute to others beginning on the plant-based journey as well.