This morning, something exciting happened--someone from my school newspaper committee emailed me and asked if they could interview me to write an article on my Instagram account! I was super excited and immediately concurred. I'll include the questions and my answers in this post, but first there's something I want to address.
Had I been asked to be interviewed about my account for the newspaper last school year, I would've freaked out inside and said no. When I first made my account, I wanted it to be a secret. I'm not really sure why, but the idea of having anyone from my school following made me uncomfortable. Maybe I thought I'd be judged, and to avoid that possibility, I hid my passion from everyone who knew me.
I also kept my account and passion hidden from most of my extended family. My dad's side of the family is huge (we're talking about 100 cousins total), and whenever we would go to a Swanson family gathering, my dad would always bring up the Instagram app on his phone and show my relatives my account. This led to them asking me about it! Again, I don't know why, but I hated this. HATED it. I felt, almost, ashamed for my passion? It was to the point that I even asked my dad to never tell anyone about my account again.
But then, one of my relatives said something that changed my mind... he told me that what I was doing was really cool, and that I should "Never hide something I'm passionate about." (*hear the mic drop in the background*)
Dang.
He was right. What he said truly resonated with me. For so long, the thing that changed my life, the thing that made me a healthier, happier, more confident, more fit, less stressed, and less anxious person, was kept a complete secret. For the stupidest, stupidest, stupidest of reasons.
Eventually I opened up to everyone about my account. I made a post on my personal Instagram talking about it, and explained briefly the reasons why I made the account and made the choice to follow a plant-based diet. All my built-up fears of publicizing this melted away as I received lots of positive feedback. And maybe they judged me, I don't know. Actually, they probably did. But who cares?
The point that I really would like to drive home here is that the possibility of judgment or fear of being viewed as different should never stop anyone from following their passion and sharing it with the world. I mean, imagine a world where no one chased after what they cared about. It's pretty safe to say that that would be a very miserable and boring place. There would be significantly less art, music, food, literature, self-expression. Seriously though, try to envision your school without the band kids, no theater kids, no student council kids, no math team kids, no sports kids, etc. I can't speak for anyone else, but to me, a homogenized community like that in which passions are hushed and everyone follows the same mundane routine would be bland and horrible and boring and unbearable. No thanks to that world.
Whatever your passion is, follow it. And share it with your family, with your friends, with your classmates, with everyone. There's just something refreshing about seeing someone pursue things they care about. Not to mention the joy that you uncover when you discover a passion of yours. But please never, ever hide that passion. Don't hide it from your classmates, and don't get mad at your dad when he tells everyone about what his little girl is doing. (He's doing this because he's proud.) You never know how you might inspire or change someone else's life by doing sharing about what you care about. And maybe they'll think it's weird, but odds are they'll think it's pretty cool.
Also, consider this: Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
Yay for the wonderful aspects of individuality and passion.
{Here's a random senior picture of me cheesily smiling at the ground to fill up some white space in the middle of this post}
Now, for that school newspaper interview I was talking about!
1. Why did you decide to go vegan?
For as long as I can
remember, I’ve always been interested in eating healthy. Alongside this, there
are a couple specific reasons that led me to transitioning into eating
plant-based.
In October of 2012, my
sophomore year, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, and to prolong her
life and maintain her health, her oncologists and other doctors put her on a
raw vegan diet. (Raw vegan meant she only ate raw, organic fruits, vegetables,
nuts, and seeds.) It sounds intense, but that helped save her life! After that,
I became very interested in learning about how what we eat affects our health,
and I later began to research the effects of consuming plant-based protein vs.
animal protein. And, my dad once said, “Why should it take a life threatening
disease to make us eat right?” That question really resonated with me, but I didn’t
make any dietary changes for another 16 months.
During those 16
months, I dealt with a few mental and physical health problems that brought me
down on a daily basis. My doctor told me that cutting back on meat and dairy could
improve these types of problems, and so this sparked my interest as it went
along with what I learned from my grandma’s experience. So, one night, I
decided to change everything, and finally live the healthy lifestyle that I had
dreamed of and kick those health issues to the curb. The next morning, February
25th, 2014, (it’s an important day to me!) I woke up and announced
to my parents that I had given up meat, dairy, all animal products, and gluten.
Initially I intended for it to be a 21 day detox, but I felt so great at the
end of the 21 days that I continued!
2. Was the transition hard?
Not at first. Luckily,
my parents were incredibly supportive of me, and were willing to spend more on
groceries each month to buy higher volumes of fresh fruits and vegetables,
which made everything possible! Also, documenting what I ate on my Instagram
account kept me accountable in a way, and it was fun for me to watch my account
grow. I met some awesome people who share the same passion as me, and having
that constant source encouragement and support in the Instagram community was
helpful! Surprisingly, avoiding the unhealthy foods that I used to love really
wasn’t a problem at all. There are alternatives for almost anything—coconut
milk ice cream, dairy free yogurt, butter, milk, chocolate, etc; even vegan pizza—you
name it.
After a few months it
got more difficult to stay completely plant-based, and I eventually lightened
up and reintroduced gluten and started to eat small amounts of dairy here and
there. To this day, I’d say I’m about 80-90% plant-based. But I’ve learned that
the better I eat, the better I feel, so I live by this rather than striving to
eat perfect all the time.
3. How has it impacted your life?
Healthy eating changed
my life more than I ever anticipated or could have wished. It improved my
health in every way. For a start, I stopped getting frequent headaches and
stomach aches like I had before. I noticed that I felt increasingly more
energetic, happy, positive, and less stressed and anxious, all the time, which
was amazing! And making the change to eat healthier led to the implementation
of other healthy habits in my life, such as improving my sleep and exercise
habits. I got more fit and felt great overall!
For everyone, but
young adults especially, a positive body image and self confidence can be difficult
to have, due to constant exposure to unrealistic standards in the media and
also the common tendency to be hypercritical of ourselves. But I learned that
once you put in the effort to live healthier, you become so much more
appreciative and grateful for your health and your body, and you spend less
time critiquing your imperfections and trying to reach some stupid standard. It
was wonderful.
4. How did you come up with the idea to make an Instagram
account?
A couple months before
I made the change, I found some health Instagram accounts, including @marensdelights and @sweetpeppah, who belong to people who promote healthy and active
lifestyles. It all seemed so perfect to me—pretty smoothies, healthy meals,
overall healthy and positive outlooks on life. I wanted to do the same thing
that they were doing, so I did!
The Instagram community
has to proven to be quite amazing; and it’s a great place to find motivation
and support. Now I’m friends with Mären of @marensdelights and Gracie of
@sweetpeppah, as well as other people who are food nerds and health nuts like
me. I love it, and I am so thankful for the positivity that my Instagram
account has brought to my life.
5. Would you recommend being vegan to others?
Absolutely. It's a big
change and it requires a lot of time and motivation, and it can be expensive depending
on how you shop for groceries, but the benefits outweigh the cons by a long
shot. I strongly believe that it is one of the best things that one can do for
their health, for the sake of ethics, and for the environment.
However, I do
recognize that making such a drastic change probably isn’t possible for
everyone. But as aforementioned, you don’t need to eat perfectly all the time
to be healthy, and you don’t necessarily need to cut out such a large portion
of the food triangle either. Simply incorporating more fruits and vegetables
into your meals and snacks, and mindfully cutting back on processed and refined
foods, can have profound positive effects on your health and life! When people ask
about how I eat/ask for advice, I tell them my motto: Strive for improvement,
not perfection. One can be reached, and the other cannot.
