Sunday, May 7, 2017

Welcome to My New Blog!

Hi there! If you've followed me here from a previous blog, I'm thrilled to have you here still!

If you're new, I'm still thrilled to have you here! Let me introduce myself.

My name is Tiffany. I'm 28 years old (currently), married, a recently admitted PhD candidate for a doctorate in International and Intercultural Communication. I currently work as a fitness instructor, teaching hip hop, Turbo Kick, and Zumba. I also teach a cooking class once a month during the school year.

...and I'm a vegan. The World's Okayest Vegan! :D

No, I obviously didn't come up with that myself, but I feel like it really does perfectly describe me...and no one else has used it as their blog title yet (that I could find, anyway). Let's continue on to my vegan journey.

In 2013, I became a vegetarian; two days a week, I would do my best to eat vegan. I kind of "accidentally" became a vegetarian. I hadn't eaten meat by coincidence in three or four days and realized I felt really good physically.

I've struggled with my weight since I was young, so I thought a vegan diet would be healthier than what I was eating before. So in 2016, I decided to try a vegan diet but I wasn't SUPER committed. I let myself have a "cheat" day once a week. I did pretty well for the first half of the year, but personally 2016 was an absolutely terrible year; I'm an emotional eater so I kinda derailed.

But something changed in my brain this year. I don't know what it was; I didn't see some horrifying documentary, I didn't attend some life changing event. Some switch deep in my brain just flipped, and I have not even wanted to eat anything not vegan. In all of 2017, I have not (intentionally) ingested any animal products.

The reason I identify so well with the "okayest" title is because I admit that I don't buy exclusively certified vegan products. Oreos don't contain animal products (unless you're against the use of bone char in sugar, but we'll get to that in a minute), and you bet your butt I will stuff oreos into my face if given the opportunity. I check ingredients lists and if I don't see any animal products in there, I will buy it. Something that I would probably get reamed for by elitist vegans would be I will still buy thing with labels that say "may contain traces of *animal product.*"

I do my best to not consume any animal products. I do the best that I can, which is really all you can ask from someone (in my opinion). However, I really could do a better job of eating properly. There was a time where I was literally eating vegan beer brats and baked fries for every meal. It was tasty! But I became a vegan to eat better and in that aspect, I'm kinda failing.

Each week, I'm going to share a new vegan recipe with you! I hope you come and check back, and please feel free to comment or email me if you have any vegan questions for me!

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