My Lifestyle Transition Into Veganism

     After over 11 years of working in the culinary industry at some of the best hotels and restaurants South Florida has to offer, I had a thought. A sobering moment I would say, that changed my whole approach to food and at a greater extent... life.


         My mother came down from Tampa for a brief summer visit with me, here in east Hollywood, FL. A few days into the visit, we were on our way to the movie theater to catch a flick. As we were driving down a road that I'd well traveled on my bicycle, passing by small groups of iguanas,  random dragon flies, and various of types of spiders hanging out in webs in the above over-shadowing trees. I am sitting shotgun passenger side when I noticed an iguana laid prostrate on it's back with it's mouth hanging open. It was clear the iguana had been hit by a car as it laid there dead in the gutter. As many times as I'd seen the iguana in passing, hanging out amongst others; it was only now that i recognized it as a life. I characterized the iguana as HIM' for the first time, rather than an IT'. I said to my mother as we drove past, "Look... He lost his life...". A life I witness him living in many previous days.

         This very moment, is when my perception of the value of life had changed. I knew that lizard was apart of community that would travel every so often across the street to a little pond and come right back over to a shaded area under a few adolescent palm trees. That was his life, and he lived it, until it was taken from him.

         I watched a documentary of  Michael the gorilla, who lives in captivity. He communicated through sign language his earliest memories of his parents death when he was a baby. Describing the gun shots. They were killed by poachers.

         In recent news, killer whales discovering the easiest most strategic way to kill a shark and sharing the tactic with each other, causing large migrations if great whites to flee the summer hangouts off the coasts of California. The evolution of intelligence is certainly not contained to the human race.

          My value of life skyrocketed from having been limited according to my perception of intelligence set by societal standards, to a transcendent mindset, the only bounds being that of life and death itself. The same electrons, protons, and neutrons in the atoms that give life to my cells, do not discriminate as they give life to the cells that make up the body of that iguana and all the living species of animals on the earth.

        I do not buy into the narrative of equality, but I certainly believe in importance relative to context. For example a child's life over a lizards life is not equal in my eyes, but relative to the context of the community of the Iguanas, that lizard was important and he valued his life, in my opinion. He could've been reckless and a bit of of suicide lizard but for the sake of this blog post he was responsible and enjoyed his life, lol.

       Having this new mind, I still had not made the connection to Veganism. Mystified to chicken, beef, and pork being animals as opposed to protein that I previously purchased at the supermarket.

       Three weeks into my 90 Day Fitness Challenge, on a Wednesday evening as I was editing one of my youtube videos, I looked up from my laptop and said,

        "Oh my God, I'm a vegan...".

         Though I still had a week's worth of meal prep that contained turkey breast in my refrigerator and a cloudy understanding of what it was to be a vegan; I knew that I was a vegan.

         Early childhood memories, of not enjoying meat; pushing it aside for an extra helping of rice and vegetables, came to the forefront of my mind. Remembering several childhood occurrences of telling my mother that I will no longer be eating flesh; re-affirmed this lifestyle that seemed to fit like a glove. It only took me nearly two decades to re-discover that childhood mind of choosing food full of life as oppose to a plate of death. I cannot say that I chose this lifestyle, but i can say that i was born and it seemed to be apart of who i was from the time of having an understanding of life and death; plants and animals.

          I am not a vegan that makes their voice as loud as possible for people to hear my message and join my cause. I simply value life and document the ways that I do so. For anyone looking to see, can clearly see and choose for themselves what best suits them for the value of life that they lead.

If you have been one of my longtime followers, my apologies for the mass deletion of many of my blog posts and recipes. In making this transition, I felt it only suitable to keep posts and recipes that display my new perception rather than my old one. 


Thank you for the support.