It has been a true journey for me. Since I was little, I had always been a meat-eater. I never really thought about how meat ends up on our tables. I guess I was young and gullible to believe that animals live a happy life, where they can run freely, eat whatever they want and were slaughtered with one deadly injection.
To be honest, my meals would mostly consist of meat, with rarely some vegetables on the side. In fact I kind of hated vegetables and it’s sad to say – I loved meat. As many woman, I always struggled with my diet. I tried all kinds of diets, which all eventually didn’t work.
So when I saw an article - briefly talking about the book "Skinny Bitch" and its great reviews, with comments from people that this book had changed their lives - I was immediately attracted to it (having no knowledge about the vegan side of it).
As this book wasn't sold in my country, I had my friend, who was going to London, bring it to me. Of course I thought it was another diet book, but with the great reviews I read - I thought it was worth giving it a try.
When I started reading the book, I felt like it was really talking to me – about all the problems and mistakes I’ve made concerning food. The book made me laugh and made me cry. I had never read something so eye-opening. How could this be that I didn’t know it all before? Why wasn’t this on the news? I claimed to be an animal lover and what was the truth? I was a killer. I was so frustrated and mad at myself for eating meat all these 18 years.
I was still living with my parents, so I let them know about my transmission and I became a vegan overnight. At first they were really cool with it – but three months later, they confronted me (as did some of my doctors) that I have to start eating dairy and fish (I had a tumour that caused osteoporosis at a time, so they were convinced that this decision would make it all worse). They actually brought a bowl of fish soup in front of me and wouldn’t leave before I ate it.
For a while – I again ate dairy and fish products, leaving out other meat products. But I wasn’t happy. Every now and then I started crying out of the blue – because I was mad at myself that I didn’t have enough in me to stand up to my parents and be a true Vegan.
After I had gotten my tumour removed and was living alone. I started to really educate myself about the pro’s of becoming a true Vegan. For me it was very important to know as much as I can. So I read a lot of books, some of them suggested in “Skinny Bitch”, reread the “Skinny Bitch” and watched all kind of movies about the subject.
After all that - my mind was finally made up and NO doctor or family member or society – could change that.
I am a true Vegan now and I couldn’t feel happier about it!
Thank you all who are following my twitter page "skinnybitchbook" and my new blog. But most of all I want to thank Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin for changing my life!
