POP goes the vegan

My 'most visited pages' on Chrome this week have been Peta, Oprah, and Pinterest. Three pages that somehow all have something in common- FOOD.

In the course of deciding to be vegan, I have done so much research on so many pages. Typically, the pages I found were blogs on opinions or pages, if I scrolled too far down, had terrifying images of poor animals being... well, you can figure that one out. The folks at the frontline of animal-rights activists, PETA, kept surfacing no matter what I plugged into my search bar. On their website, I found a few great reference to things like meal planning, shopping lists, and vegan options at common restaurants. As someone who loves the grocery store and browsing the aisles, transitioning to the vegan lifestyle will be difficult because nearly everything has eggs, butter, or milk. So, having the shopping guide from their references will be helpful.

Fad diets are always popular- the second a talk show host mentions them, or a famous movie star goes public with their new eating habits, all the rest of the world jumps on the temporary bandwagon (and seems to fall off as soon as someone puts cookies in the office break room.) One blog that kept surfacing came from none other than Oprah Winfrey. With a caption reading "The Challenge is On!" I found myself actually interested in what she (or her editor) had to say. Although their challenge was only a week, their information was really helpful. One aspect that took me by surprise with their page was the 'Vegan IQ.' It was a quick test asking questions like "the average American consumes how many pounds of meat per year?" and "How many more years do non-meat eaters live compared to the average meat eater?" (200lbs, and 8-10 years, FYI)
But, the question that dropped my heart into my stomach was "How many animals do Americans eat in a year?" 10 billion. Not 1 million, not 100 million. 10 BILLION. Let's put this into a different perspective- there are only 7 billion people of Earth. I... have no words. Seriously, so heart breaking.


On a lighter note, if you're anywhere from 15 to... I don't know how old, you probably go on Pinterest. It's the source for anything and everything. So, I've added a new board to my page dedicated solely to vegan food. It's been a lot of fun to look at delicious foods and get online support from others who support this lifestyle. Check out my board HERE :) 

I can already tell I'm going to miss things like Panera Mac and Cheese, Pizza, and ice cream, but I still am really excited to make the transition- the countdown continues!