Yo! I feel like I’ve been kinda bad at answering your questions lately. I guess summer came in between, as a blogger it’s hard to keep the same posting pace when all of your friends are on springbreak doing fun stuff all the time haha. So from now on I thought I’d start picking up some of your questions from my comment sections in my posts. This one is first out, since it’s a really important topic to me and I know it’s probably the most common question/comment too:
“To be honest I feel a little bit disappointed. I felt so inspirated every time you posted about your veganism and how good you felt by not causing pain to animals and watching you eating eggs and moule is kind of disappointing. At the same time I think that trying to please others sucks and at least you are not hidding yourself or pretending you are still a vegan and I really appreciate it.”
“Är inte du vegetarian/ vegan? Eller ärter du fisk ibland? Undrar bara, för är själv vegetarian som ibland äter fisk och kan tycka att det möts av förakt av vissa vegetarianer. Tycker personligen att en ska äta det som känns rätt. Hur tänker du?”
Okay- to begin with I’m NOT a vegan anymore. I know some still seem to think I am but I hate to admit I’m not. I still thing animal rights and environment is the one question I’m really passionate about, and I still truly believe veganism (maybe with consuming fair trade/eco musseles- that’s a discussion I’d love to take in another post soon) is the best way to live both for your health and conscience. I can’t explain what happend to me, but about a year ago I just got very claustrophobic of all the “rules” holding me back, not just in my diet but also in life in general- being a girl and blogger in today’s society means that there’s alot of things you’re supposed to and not supposed to do, so I just decided to not care that much anymore, for my own mental health’s sake. I think I forgot the reason to why I was doing what I was doing, it was more about following rules and making everyone happy than an ethical statement.
Now when I’ve let myself be free from that a while I’ve realized that my body and soul prefers vegan food 90% of the time anyway. To find that feeling is very nice- now I feel like I can eat vegan because I truly want to and not because I just decided not to eat meat. It feels like a choice more than a restriction.
I guess what I am trying to say is that nobody’s perfect- especially not me. But I’m still the same old Ebba who’s passionate about animal rights and the environment, even though I’ve been eating cheese and fish and mussles once in a while the past year. But still, I’ll probably go back to a vegan diet soon anyway,
You are doing great, Ebba. Even if by having a balanced 90% vegan & 10% regular diet, you’ve already minimized by 90% the damage towards the environment in comparison with a regular diet. And that’s something to be proud of. Your choices should feel natural, especially something as personal as nutrition. Veganism – and this is something some of the vegans out there still have to understand – is a matter of spreading compassion, understanding, love, not only a matter of food intake. A vegan should not judge another fellow being just because he or she felt a natural need to eat in a certain way.
And if your body has asked for mussels/cheese/milk it is because that was the natural choice for your body in that moment. Especially since you’ve been vegan for very long, therefore the “cravings” can’t be accounted to a custom. Human body is smart enough.
Don’t judge yourself, love yourself!
Love,
A vegan.
I’m totally on your side here. You’re absolutely right by putting your mental health first. None of us are perfect indeed, and to judge each other for that is a very stupid thing to do. Instead of shaming others for what they do wrong, we should praise each other for what we do right, for being conscious, and support and encourage each other on our way to making this a better world for every living being. No matter how small the steps.
And no matter what, health and eating habits are not something you want to mess with, speaking from experience. So put yourself first. You are already doing better at protecting animal rights than most.
Peace xo
I support you Ebba! I started doing that kind of diets and i know it can be hard sometimes, but dont be hard with yourself 🙁 youre an amazing person and you deserve to choice what you wanna do in your life. Please dont think what another people can say about the things you do! Be free! If u wanna eat cheese, or eggs, thats ok! We know that you love animals, but its not easy left eating cheese sometimes! We love you ’cause youre a lovely person! Be kind with yourself!