Vegetarian to Vegan

At the ripe old age of 11, I came to the realization that I could no longer eat animals. I simply could not, and would not do it any more. My poor Nonna (Italian grandmother) thought I'd truly lost my mind. She was the same woman who raised rabbits “for eat” in her back yard, and she kept egg-laying hens. Her homemade pasta, ravioli, frittata... it was all such amazing, utterly perfect food. My dear Nonna was the best cook on earth! I enjoyed every single morsel of the food she prepared.
In 1977, my grandfather Pietro died and Nonna became a widow. It was also during this time that my mother went back to school to finish her nursing degree. Nonna lived alone and needed the company. I wasn't yet 4 yrs. old and I needed someone to look after me while my mom was at school. We were a match made in heaven, and Nonna and I became inseparable. Like all Italian grandmothers, Nonna loved feeding me. There was sweet caffe latte or hot chocolate in the morning (made with whole cow's milk.) There was fresh egg pasta or breaded veal cutlets for lunch (with plenty of fresh buttered vegetables and a garden salad on the side), and during the Summer months, Nonna might even help me chase down the ice cream truck for ice cream sandwiches! We always had such fun together.

Polenta for dinner would have been delicious on its own, but it was always layered with cheese and meat sauce, and it was topped with sausages. Nonna's food was prepared with such love, but in retrospect I realize that many of the very foods my family enjoyed were setting us up for a lifetime of obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. (In my immediate family alone, we've suffered from every single one of these diseases.) 
Just like everyone else I knew, we sometimes supplemented our Italian-American diet with fast food and convenience foods. And every holiday or family gathering was an occasion for either a BBQ, or a roast of some kind. Cake and ice cream always followed dinner.

As you can imagine, when I stopped eating animals my Nonna initially freaked. 
I can still hear her asking me: “You crazy, o what? Why you wanna do dis kinda ting?” 
Her attitude soon shifted though, as it was most important to her that she be able to continue to feed me. Meatless sauces were made “speciale” for me, and there were lots of additional vegetable dishes on the table. The veggies were delicious (and they were often cooked in butter and olive oil and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.) I consumed countless frittatas that were incredibly delicious. She would prepare them, telling us “Cheese iza di main ting” while grating cups of fresh parmesan into the eggs. Everything she prepared for me was vegetarian. My special food contained no meat, but it was often full of dairy products, and I happily consumed them. 

I was a vegetarian and I thought I was healthy. And by avoiding meat, I was helping animals, right? 
I didn't want to have a heart attack in my early 40's, like my dad. 
I didn't want to develop Type II diabetes, in my 30's, like my mom. 
I didn't want to have my breast bone sawed in half for a bypass surgery, like my maternal grandfather (and later, my own father.) 
I wanted to be different!

How healthy was I as a vegetarian?

I was in the 5th grade. I began menstruating a month before my 11th birthday. I was overweight from about age 4, when I began spending more and more time with my sweet Nonna. By age 11 and a half  and standing a bit more than 5 ft. tall I weighed 120 lbs. I was “a big girl”. I was proudly the tallest girl in the class, but I was way too chubby. Throughout my entire childhood, I was told that I was too fat. My pediatrician put me on the airline stewardess diet. He told me to “Lose it!” as he swatted my rear end with my chart. That didn't work. When I was 13, the doctor suggested I join Weight Watchers, which didn't help much either. At age 14 when I graduated from the 8th grade I weighed 160 lbs.! A boy in my class told me that I was built like a line-backer, and I was crushed. (He was right.) 

High school only made things worse for my health, as I now had a steady income from babysitting. I could afford all the grilled cheese sandwiches, veggie burgers with cheese, french fries, pizza, frozen yogurt and soda I could consume. I graduated from college at age 21 and at 5' 2” I weighed more than 190 lbs.! My highest weight, in my early 30's, was approximately 210 lbs.! (My top weight may very well have been more than that, but I didn't own a scale. Not stepping on a scale helped me to successfully keep my mind on other things. At the doctor's office, I'd simply step on the scale backwards so I wouldn't see the numbers, or I would firmly refuse to be weighed. They couldn't force me to stand on that scale!)

Yes, I was a vegetarian. Yes, I exercised regularly. And yes, I was obese and I was in serious denial. 

I had back problems, hip problems, sore feet and acne. I avoided visits to the doctor's office. I refused to have blood tests performed, using my needle phobia as an excuse to avoid having a lipid panel ordered. I had a bad feeling about the numbers... 
I wore oversized clothing. If I gained a few pounds, my clothing wouldn't be tight at all. I had it all figured out! Avoidance served me quite well, to the detriment of my overall health.

I wasn't the only one who was worried about the weight taking its toll on my health.
Five years ago, as my father Nick was dying from pancreatic cancer, he took a serious interest in my health. Two months before he died, I sustained a serious industrial injury to my thumb. As I recovered from hand surgery I was unable to drive to his house to visit him. I couldn't go a day without seeing him, so I walked there every day, with my arm in a sling. I quickly dropped about 10 lbs. and it made Nick incredibly happy. He kept telling me “You're in your prime, Anna. Keep goin' the way you're goin'...” It felt wonderful to be able to put a smile on his face.
My father was an incredible man and I loved him dearly. There was such urgency in his message. He was at the end of his life, and he desperately needed to get through to me. I still had a lot of life ahead of me! Throughout Nick's life, he abused his poor body, and he blamed himself for his health problems. He suffered from a heart attack, abdominal aortic aneurysms, sepsis, a quadruple bypass, and finally pancreatic cancer. He was tough alright, but he wasn't tough enough to beat that fucking cancer. It had metasticized to his liver and bones and no chemotherapy or radiation could stop it. 
My dad suffered immensely and he could not bear the idea of his children following in his footsteps.

Fortunately, my story takes a positive turn. Three years ago, I went 100% vegan, cold turkey! It was the easiest and best decision I have ever made in my life. I had watched the film Forks Over Knives and the science behind The China Study opened my eyes. But, I still wasn't quite ready to commit. I was full of the usual excuses. Shortly thereafter I watched the documentary Earthlings, and it was a done deal. In our culture, we have normalized the consumption of animals and animal products. We seldom think about where our food comes from. When our food comes from animals people don't ever want to know the details. That is a fact that I have always understood. Our culture has normalized the use and abuse of animals. That has never made sense to me. Three years ago, I finally came across the information I needed to make the most logical, healthiest and most compassionate decision of my life. I'm happier than I have ever been and I'm eager to share all that I've learned.

These days, I welcome blood tests. After all, the results have been awesome! (So much for that pesky family history of mine.) My decision to go vegan has made all the difference in the world. I have never felt physically or mentally stronger, and this is only the beginning. Now, I'm working on recruiting more people to ditch the meat and dairy and take control of their health!

So far, it's working, too...

Not long before I began following a plant-based diet my longtime vegetarian partner Mike, was diagnosed with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He also had dangerously high cholesterol. He was tired and grumpy and lacked the energy to really enjoy his life. Like me, he ate his fair share of veggie burritos topped with sour cream and cheese. Like me, he loved cheesy pizza, ice cream and eggs. He watched both Forks Over Knives and Earthlings and went cold-turkey vegan too! His liver numbers are completely normal now, his cholesterol is perfect and he has so much new-found energy that he joins me in lifting weights and exercising at the gym several days a week. 

My mother, a 69 year old Type II diabetic who was insulin-dependent for many years, no longer needs insulin!!! She is mostly-vegan, most of the time. The shift in her diet has been enough to help her lose a considerable amount of weight and she is slowly coming off her meds. Her cholesterol has been reduced and her energy level is through the roof! 

If only my dad were here to see us transform into our healthier selves, he would have been so proud. Who knows? He may even have joined us. He was so desperate to continue to live his life, and he would have tried anything to simply have more time. I'm taking better care of myself, in part, to honor my father's memory. He wanted me to live my life. 

Going vegan has completely changed my life for the better! I'm so much happier now. I'm nourished, inside and out. I've lost more than 65 lbs. (most of which has fallen off with very little effort) & I'm physically stronger and faster than I have ever been in my life. I have greater endurance than ever before. I run miles without back, foot or knee pain. I lift weights frequently and I frankly run circles around a lot of folks who are half my age. I want to make it clear that I did NOT go on a diet. I didn't wake up one morning and decide that it was time to lose weight. I simply altered my lifestyle so that it would better reflect the person I am. 

If only I had known life could be this good! I look back at my chubby childhood and my “life before vegan” and I want to educate and liberate the trapped person I used to be. Like so many others, it was easier for me to live in denial about how overweight I was. It was easier for me to turn a blind eye to the horrors of factory farming than to find an alternative to dairy products. I was overwhelmed. I was stuck. I was programmed into thinking that it wouldn't be possible for me to live without the very disease-causing animal protein and fat that tasted good to me.

Food was killing me. Now, food is fuel. I'm enjoying an active, happy life fueled by a 100% vegan, plant-based diet.

I have such passion for veganism and I have no reason to keep quiet about it. I certainly do not want to contribute to the unnecessary suffering of animals. I don't want to stand by silently as I see the people I care about suffer from largely preventable diseases. If sharing my story can help other people live more compassionately and gain more control of their health, I'll feel that I have truly made a contribution.

Just like Nonna, I love to cook and I love to feed people.
Veganizing family recipes like pasta al pesto and even creating desserts to bring to my meat-loving co-workers has been much easier than I ever could have imagined. 

All I had to do was seek out the information. 
You can do the same. 
I have absolute confidence in you!
Do something truly good for yourself, the animals and the planet and join me! 
You'll wish you had done it sooner!