My Story

I grew up with the usual German eating habits. I ate loads of bread, potatoes and apples, meat and a lot of dairy-based-products. My mother always had an eye on a balanced nutrition but anyway I loved to eat candy, Nutella and other sweet things. I never thought much about eating healthy. 5 years ago everything changed.

I never was a big friend of eggs, milk and meat or fish. I simply didn’t like the taste of eating them pure. However I could not imagine to go vegan or at least vegetarian some day. Animal products have been part of the lifestyle I was taught. Moreover I liked eating burger or spaghetti bolognese. Of course I loved animals a lot but even this strong loving feeling wasn’t enough to bring me on a meat-less diet. Even though I really felt sad for the killed animals. At that point I didn’t know a single person who went vegan and meat was told to be a necessary and fundamental base for good health. That made it absurd to me even thinking about not including animal products in my nutrition. Anyway I was kind of interested in how these vegan people managed to eat something. I simply didn’t dare to show any interest into a lifestyle that went completely against the opinions of my family and friends who believed in the opposite.

On a school trip to London shortly before my graduation from school a class mate told me about a one-month vegan challenge he did with his family. This was the very first time I got in contact with a person who was open-minded and curious about this vegan lifestyle. He showed me pictures of meals he had and I was completely spellbound by those colorful, light and healthy looking dishes. What impressed me even more was the fact that his parents, adults, not only supported but initiated this testing challenge. After we came back from that school trip I spend hours on google reading experience reports and scientific facts about changing to a vegan diet. And then I made the step and asked my parents to try this challenge too.

After lots of discussions I finally made them agree.

We then switched our diet from one day to another. All of a sudden I got introduced to quinoa and amaranth. I ate sweet potato and dates for my very first time. I cooked tofu and was able to bake granola-bars on my own. I never had this loads of vegetables before. Never knew about a wider variety of foods. Every day I discovered something different. We managed to keep up with this challenge for two weeks during my vacations (we had absolutely no idea about veganism and hence followed the book „Vegan for Fit“ which was filled with recipes for each day. Unfortunately this book was made for a fitter body and weight loss which made all recipes go without carbohydrate-based-foods and therefore took like forever to prepare).

But even after two weeks of eating different I realized how my body changed. My skin became better, my energy reached another level and I felt more happy. And I stopped craving candy and refined sweets.

We all agreed on a change in our daily eating habits. Even though it took me one more year to went vegetarian and three more years to completely decide for a plant-based and whole foods diet.