Veganuary is an annual challenge run by a UK nonprofit organization that promotes and educates about veganism by encouraging people to follow a vegan lifestyle for the month of January. The event began in 2014, and participation has increased each year, reaching 400,000 people signing up for the challenge during the 2020 campaign. Compared to all the countries in the world, the UK has the most vegans. This is evident by all of the cool vegan options being available first at global chains in the UK long before they reach the US. 

I heard about the challenge seven years into my plant-based journey, and I was never able to properly sign up for the campaign because I had already changed my diet permanently. I have been living a plant-based lifestyle since 2007, and I don’t plan on going back. I went vegetarian back then for the animals and the environment, but I’ve since learned about all of the life-changing health benefits of eating whole plant-based foods. I’ve only ever seen positive changes to my health and energy over the past 15 years, and I plan on continuing my vegan path because of what I have learned.

I first learned about vegetarianism when I was seven years old in Catholic school from a kid who was actually Buddhist. I noticed that they gave him a sandwich without meat on one of the days we were having sloppy joes. I asked him about it, and my mind was opened to a new world with another way of being. I had never questioned my consumption of meat, and the conversation gave me the opportunity to test my deeper critical thinking skills. I would refrain from eating meat during the season of Lent, and I found it easier every year because the rest of the old-school Catholics were doing the same. I wasn’t able to live a fully vegetarian lifestyle while I was still living at home, but I was able to learn how to cook for myself and transition into a vegetarian lifestyle during my last year of high school before stepping fully into becoming a vegetarian when I went off to college. 

Being vegetarian during a time when it was still fringe allowed me to view everything from a different perspective. The more I researched, the more I was determined to uncover more hidden information. Asking questions led me to change my academic major, and I became a writer and a journalist. My palate became more open to new cuisines and cultures from around the world, and I truly began to question everything from where our food came from, why different foods are priced, marketed, and monitored the way they are in each country to how these food affect every cell in our bodies and how legislation and the cultivation and distribution of different foods affected everything around us.

I ended up becoming fully vegan out of protest to help prevent animal slaughter and suffering and to shrink my environmental footprint, especially in regard to climate change. Meat production is a significant contributor to deforestation, habitat loss, and species extinction. A considerable amount of land, water, and resources go toward the farming of crops for animal feed used in factory farming before actually feeding people. However, I still wanted to prioritize my health and make sure that I wasn’t deficient in anything.

I made sure I planned my vegan diet so that I was consuming the necessary vitamins and minerals needed to thrive and stay active as a long-distance hiker and runner. I ended up staying vegan when I found it easier to run a half marathon and when I noticed that I never really got sick anymore. The severe digestive issues that I had as an omnivore before I went vegetarian diminished as I cut out red meat and dairy. Mild symptoms only surfaced whenever I ate fried foods or whenever I consumed way too much sugar. Because of this, I realized that becoming vegan made me more in tune with my body and ultimately more health conscious.

This plant-based path has completely altered my life. I became a better athlete, a better cook, an individual who is more conscious of the world around them and their actions, and a better writer and researcher. Events like Veganuary are great reminders of how far I have come on this vegan journey, and I hope to see more people join the growing movement of those going vegan next year.