Ariella is a freelance musician and an electric cellist with Sterling EQ, earth and animal lover, yogi and vegan. It is my opinion that some of our biggest challenges in terms of the more thorny issues we are facing are not a case of debating the cold hard facts. We need to understand the relationships and emotional response and wade our way through the minefields. Ariella's thorough and heartfelt response to one of these has all the touches of an artist. She has done some of that wading. It is difficult to be happy when the impact you have isn't sustainable. Ariella writes beautifully, and I hope you find her piece as genuine and kindly provocative as I did.
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The Devastating Effects of a Plant-Based Diet
by Ariella Rosanna Caira
Veganism absolutely ruined my life. At least it completely destroyed my ideologies about food, my old eating habits and my indifference to what I was consuming. There I was thinking I'd simply be rejecting using, eating and wearing animal products, that the rest of my life would go on as before, but boy, was I wrong. "Going green" was like experiencing a seriously devastating break-up. My divorcee's dishonesty seemed to be everywhere: the gelatin lurking in a seemingly innocuous sorbet, the milk protein hiding in the dark chocolate I had thought was lactose free, the bit of leather trim on a handbag I was eyeing and the honey in my shampoo. Everything was tainted. The Ronalds and Colonels seemed to sneer at me from their fast food logos. Adverts which once made me salivate now made me physically sick. I started to see things through a different pair of glasses; a view which made me see quite clearly that cow's milk is quite literally the secretion from a lactating bovine intended as a growth formula for a baby cow and not as a daily beverage for an adult as well as our skewed ideology of speciesism which says pat the dog but make a patty out of the pig.
I became obsessive: spending ages scrutinising food labels, getting emotional in the meat aisle and boycotting restaurants which refused to keep soy milk. I felt alone. I felt like I'd been given this new knowledge that no one else was aware of and I didn't know what to do. No one in my family shared my sentiments. I dared not attempt any sort of debate with friends for fear of alienating myself (hell hath no fury like a person's diet under fire). Life before this "awakening" was so blissfully simple and safe! But I couldn't unlearn the facts I had absorbed from books like 'Eating Animals' by Jonathan Safran Foer or those hard-hitting doccies like 'Food Inc, The End of the Line' and the ultimate 'Earthings'. I couldn't forget, but I also seemingly couldn't move forward. I was trapped in the same meat-centred society as before with the same principles and ideologies, but my beliefs and Truth had changed. I had changed. And it was then that I realised that if I was going to make this sustainable and indeed pleasant for myself, I would have some work ahead. I couldn't expect the biggest transition of my life to be a piece of (vegan) cake - changing habits of a lifetime was going to require a little patience. We live in a world where we expect things to come easily, but nothing good and enduring happens overnight.
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And so I began my journey and the first thing I needed to change was my attitude. I had an undeniable calling to follow this lifestyle and come hell or high water I was going to embrace it and make it work for me, so much so that I would love every challenge it presented along the way.
I started to read. A lot. I discovered blogs, forums, chat groups. I was certainly not alone. I connected with locals through social media. I discovered alternate recipes for favourite treats like chocolate truffles and carrot cake. I began to frequent markets and became a regular client of an organic fruit and veg supplier. I started to only eat local, in season and recycle everything that was recyclable. I became a better cook, experimenting with new foods and flavours. This also made me more economical and more connected to my local community and what the small businesses were producing. I became healthier, replacing saturated fats and hormone-filled animal products, with fresh fruit and vegetable salads and juices and my skin, hair, nails and energy levels thanked me for it. Heck, I even started cooking food for my dog to avoid buying the processed kibble we automatically assume is good for them!
The effects of this choice were reaching far beyond what I put on my plate. My actions of shopping and feeding, which before were selfish and unconscious, were now purposeful, meaningful, extending beyond myself and having an actual visible effect on my environment and the people around me. Without proselytising, friends and family were getting curious about my choices and sampling a slice of the vegan pie. I learnt to smile at the inevitable negative comments and calmly deflect the age-old arguments regarding the calcium and protein myths. I became strong enough to not feel embarrassed or ashamed of my veganism and rather to wear it with a mixture of humility and pride, explaining to those who would give my pitying looks at social gatherings that it's not because I "can't" eat certain foods but rather that I "choose" not to. But most importantly I became empowered. I was conscious of every choice: I no longer just accepted what was foisted upon me as a consumer by supermarkets and the corporate powers that be. If the media purported something as healthy or nutritious, I would immediately second-guess it, looking deeper for the true (almost always financial) reason behind the promotion, instead of grabbing greedily at the two-for-the-price-of-one on offer. I was in control of my own life and my own decisions. My health, my environment and my choices mattered and had a right to be nurtured. My powerlessness turned to power as I stopped struggling with the challenges of being vegan and began to wholeheartedly embrace my Truth.
And this journey also brought my partner and me closer together. We've come a long way from the first weary (hungry) weeks where "crème brûlee" and "4-cheese pizza" seemed to wave at us from every menu and limp, unexciting salads were the order of the day. We hardly ever step foot in a mall these days and when we do the life-sucking force of the place, which we were previously numb to, is now quite tangible. Instead we juice carrots and beets collected from the local co-op and have been on many explorations together discovering new restaurants and eateries which we proudly support. We engage in stimulating conversations about animal rights and read articles and watch revealing documentaries together. We sometimes laugh that date night has gone from sushi and an escapist rom-com to kale chips and Cowspiracy. He's learnt to stirfry and we bought a wok in celebration and we're planning a summer veggie garden so we can harvest our own health from the back yard. I'll admit we've become eco-nerds: we get fired up about recycling, maintain our grey-water system and are investigating solar power options. But our vegan life isn't thick with rules and regulations, stifling us and unforgiving if we err. Rather, we question and look for ways to do things better, not "perfectly", together, with patience and consideration and always with love. We're healthy and happy and better functioning members of society than before because we are awake and aware. We are living consciously, knowing that this planet isn't simply here for us and our pleasure. Rather, we are on it, however briefly, and have a fundamental obligation to treat it with consideration and care because without it, we simply would not exist.
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In writing a blog about several topics in which I admit to being a complete beginner, I am going to have to rely heavily on the people I am writing for who cumulatively know most of what I am likely to learn already. I would love it if some of you found the time to write a guest post on the subject of happiness or learning. The framework I use for thinking about these things is what I call the '5 + 2 points' which includes proper (1) exercise, (2) breathing, (3) diet, (4) relaxation, (5) positive thinking & meditation, (+1) relationships, (+2) flow. Naturally if you would like to write about something that you think I have missed, I would love to include that too. If you are up to doing something more practical, it would be awesome if you did a 100 hour project and I am happy to do the writing based on our chats if that is how you roll. Email me at trevorjohnblack@gmail.com
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