Why Did You Go Vegan?

Rodolfo

I went Vegan eight years ago, when I was 17 years old for ethical reasons.

I had known about Veganism and had been really close to a vegetarian, but never really considered going vegetarian. I was training for sports, and didn't want to jeopordize my chances of winning the regional championships.

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However, after the end of my senior year of high school, I found that I had no reason not to try and go vegetarian. I had been hanging out with a friend who was already vegetarian, and we decided to just do it and go Vegan. Our first meal was falafel at our favorite middle eastern retaurant.

Life has taken me many places since then, but I have never strayed from being Vegan. As time has gone on, I have found myself finding an equilibrium with my body and being Vegan has become really easy.

Two years ago, I also married a Vegan, and had a 100% vegan wedding: cake, food, wedding dress, tuxedo, etc., and even had the whole thing catered by a fancy restaurant. It was a real blast.

I currently live abroad, and being Vegan abroad has gotten easy as well. I live in Chile, where there are practically no other vegans or vegetarians, and I have found that I have been eating better here than back in the states when I would reach out for processed vegan food before anything fresh. Here, the lack of vegan processed food has forced my wife and I to eat vegetables again.

I am training again, and being vegan has helped me listen to my body and to maximize my potential. I am putting on muscle faster, and loosing fat quickly. I am no longer 17, and it has been a while since I trained, but I am surprising myself with how much flexibility and recovery I still have. I hope that by July, I will at place in the Chilean national swimming championships, and I hope to sport a big tatoo announcing that most everyone got beat by an old Vegan swimminer.

But the biggest adventure lies ahead. A few weeks ago we found out that my wife is pregnant. And even though we have had easy sailing as far as our Veganism goes, having a baby will involve us with the medical community much more than we are used to. My wife's and my health over the last 7 and 8 years, respectively, has been a testament to our Vegan diet. However, the measure of our own health will be difficult to demonstrate as evidence of Veganism truly being a healthy diet for a growing fetus. What we need is support, not critizism, and I am apprehensious about how the Chilean medical establishment will deal with it.

I have sent to the states for several books that will provide us with information, but books don't bridge culture gaps, people do. I hope that this pregnancy won't be a battle, and being our first, and being inexperienced, the last thing we need is some doctor telling us to drink milk and eat fish for the health of the child.

But we will hold strong. The health of our child is first, and we know that health is compatible with ethics. We will raise a Vegan!

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