At first, it was about weight loss. I'll say it again. Weight. Loss. I wanted nothing more than to get my body healthy and in shape. But as I continued to eat vegan, I realized that weight loss was not the only thing keeping me going.

In a backwards way, it kept me going to the gym. At first, I was in the mindset that if I was eating bad, I just needed to go to the gym after to burn off the calories. Chocolate chip cookie (or four?) -go to the gym. Milkshake? 30 minutes in the sauna will burn off at least half of those calories…right?

Wrong. Eating healthy pushed me to go to the gym because if I was going to eat healthy, why not at least try to work out harder? The harder I worked, the better I got in the gym. The first month, I trimmed down eight pounds. By the second month it was fourteen pounds.

Eating vegan doesn't always have to be expensive and time consuming. There are cheap, great recipes that you can do for less than a dollar. There are so many great YouTube channels that have videos that will show you step-by-step how to do affordable food.

I realized that my body felt better when I wasn't eating meat and dairy products. I was never lethargic after a meal. I never had a stomachache after a vegan meal. I was more energetic, more inspired to take care of myself, and was spending more time in my kitchen doing something I love -cooking.

As a pet parent, I realized something else. While having a conversation with my friend, we were discussing our animals' eyes. She said, "our cats and dogs have eyes." She paused for a moment before continuing, "and so do the animals we eat. How can we take advantage of these animals that across the world could be considered family?" Whenever I look at that Chick-Fil-A drive-thru, I remember what she said.

And while not all meat-processing is bad or inhumane, most of it in America is. Meat processing is a main contributor to pollution on our earth. I realized while I was on study abroad, having a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle wasn't a rarity in a lot of parts of Europe. There were hundreds of vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the places I visited. It gave me the opportunity to explore a new food culture and community and I realized I wanted to stay.

Even if you don't want to commit to vegetarian or vegan ways of living, a meatless meal might be a way for you to branch out and try something new! Enjoy fruits and vegetables. You might find that you don't want that chicken sandwich because that chickpea burger looks pretty good.