Vegan Mama PH

I am a 30+year-old mom of 1, based in the Philippines, Vegan.

I did not become a vegan overnight, nor I have the right motivations to start with. I hope, if you are reading this, that you find your motivation and inspiration to live a vegan life!

Here’s my Vegan Transition story:

January 2018. The New Year. I welcomed 2018 with “almost” (one meal shy of,) 200 lbs., a heavy weight champion and I called myself a happy mom. But, there’s one thing I knew for sure – I WAS NOT HEALTHY.

I kept it to myself and just focused on the good things in life: I was contented with my career (homebased, working mom), I have control over my time, I can spend more time with my family… What else I need to worry about, right?

Like every new year, I skipped having to write down resolutions. I am that mayabang… I thought to myself, “If I have the will, then I can simply do anything I want to do, or not!”. And just like that, I just continued “enjoying life!”

May 2018. Worries. Fast-forward to May 2018, I was not getting any better… One day, I just felt I was coming down with a flu or something. And, to my surprise, there are (not one, two, or three) multiple bumps in my armpit. Both sides! I was clueless at that time and also scared that it might be cancerous and I might die soon! No way, I thought… My child is only 2 years old and my family needs me.

My initial plan: Go to the doctor to have the bumps checked.

I messaged my closest friends, not to say goodbye but to get opinions. I even took a photo of my armpit. I also searched Google for potential diseases I may have. Yup, you guessed right – it just made me more paranoid and scared.

False Alarm. I meant to go to the doctor right away but that week, I was too busy and my time won’t permit, and maybe because I am SCARED as sh*t!

While waiting for my schedule to free up, I asked some friends if they know a nutritionist as I was also thinking about going vegetarian and then eventually vegan. I wanted to consult first because I was anemic to start with, and I wanted to be sure.

It turned out, the bumps were result of constant shaving of armpit. How did I know? I sent my photo to one kumare and she said she used to have those, too! She asked if I was shaving my armpit. I said yes… And she said to stop shaving and wait for the hair to grow and just pluck them out or have them waxed.

I know, I am getting away from the topic.. but let me continue…

I Still Want to Change my Diet. Aside from the armpit bumps scare, let me share with you our family health challenges:

My husband is overweight, pre-diabetic, hypertensive and sickly
My father in law is diabetic, triple heart bypass operation survivor, a foodie and pasaway
My daughter would likely have diabetes when she grows up.

So, a week after I discovered my armpit bumps, I asked my husband if we can take the meat out of our food for that week. He agreed and we were both vegetarians in an instant!

I Googled yummy vegetable recipes and joined vegan groups to get ideas. 2 days into vegetarianism, we already experienced great changes:

Regular bowel movements
Energetic throughout the day
We feel better in general!

With what we felt, I asked my husband if we can get rid of the eggs and dairy, too. He said it will be difficult but we have to try.

IT WAS NOT DIFFICULT. Getting rid of all animal products in our life was not difficult. It was so easy we were proud and felt it was the best decision we made (ever). Aside from help from the Vegan Facebook groups and Google, our conscious effort to change our life helped a lot.

All the reasons we used to have to NOT be vegan were all just in our minds. Pag gusto may paraan, pag ayaw maraming dahilan.

June 2018. Welcome to the Vegan World. Or, Not.

What started as a health choice is now because we don’t want to be part of the “killings” and the sufferings of animals anymore. May sound dramatic, but I have been inspired by other vegan people we meet along the way. I felt ashamed as we started with a selfish reason to be vegan…

So I started this blog to help moms like me (vegans, non-vegans, transitioning vegans). So they have a VeganMama to support, help, and hopefully inspire them. May this also be my contribution to the vegan world and for the animals! 🙂

And I, thank you!

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