Veganniversary: 5 Years Later!

What the?!

5?! I’m 5!

I can’t believe it’s been half a decade since I had consumed meat. Five years since my life completely changed. 1,825 days of no animals harmed!

I am so proud of myself for not contributing to the suffering of thousands of animals. I’m ecstatic that I’ve learned to cook healthy for myself, for my family, my friends and countless clients over these years. I’m blessed to have had so many amazing opportunities within the Boston community and to have met so many incredible people along the way. I’ve taught endless public classes, private home lessons and demoed for hundreds of people. I’ve talked organics, GMOS, smoothies, quinoa, cholesterol and kale with so many of my readers, as well as random strangers who recognize me at Whole Foods. I’ve been lucky enough to be the first to experience many vegan or juice cafes, and now see them flourishing and opening up multiple locations.

But what’s been the best part? The most rewarding over the past five years? To have many of my students evolve into close friends. I have incredible people that I get to work with, who end up feeling like I’m just cooking with friends. AND I GET PAID TO DO IT! Many a times I spend hours cooking with these people in their homes, helping them get healthy, and yet, we spend much of that time being one another’s therapists on an emotional level as well. We talk and talk and talk, about vegan food, about marriage, about work. And we BOTH feel so whole by the end of it. For the clients who barely knew how to slice onions and now text me pictures of the recipes they make even when I’m not cooking with them. For the students I’ve had who I still meet for smoothies just to catch up and talk about all the delicious things we’ve tried lately. For the couples or mother/daughter teams who now spend quality time cooking together after lessons with me. For a few, really poignant moments when students have come up to me, and after six weeks of classes say, “I was terrified of cooking before, but you’ve made it fun and easy. These classes have changed the way I view food”.

THAT.

Those moments make all my late nights, long days, sore feet,worth it.

So what now? What’s next?

2015 was all about me taking care of everyone else. Me stressing myself and overbooking myself, meanwhile, hardly remembering to eat or cook for myself. I said yes to every class, every client, even if it wasn’t worth the effort, because I didn’t want to turn anything down. I barely slept in 2015. I had days where I consumed nothing but smoothies. Everyone who hired me was happy, well balanced, and well fed, and there I was. Exhausted, starving, stressed out and physically drained.

So 2016 will be my year of balance. Of really considering opportunities. I am lucky enough to pick and choose the business that I want now, and so cutting some clients or classes in order to make time to take care of myself is SO worth it. Quality over quantity at this point. Because I can’t really take care of everyone else unless I take care of myself.

And I know I’ve said it alot, but at the end of the day, this blog, working with other bloggers and local businesses is really important to me. And I think taking more time for that is more rewarding that making a little bit more money with stressful clients.

SO-THANK YOU THANK YOU, THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO MADE 2015 SO CRAZY! I am looking forward to the next year, the next 10 years, the next 20 years, of The Vegan Pact 🙂