Part of the purpose of this blog is to reflect on what my mindset was as a non vegan, the things that inspired me to make the switch to vegan along with the SEEDS that were planted, which I speak about in one of my first posts here. After a conversation with a colleague the other day, I realized I had forgotten a seed!

Someone in my office had and survived a heart attack pre-covid. Upon returning to the office after his heart attack, he approached some people to let them know about the risk factors for heart disease, and I consider myself one of the lucky people he reached out to. It takes serious courage to bring this up to anyone, let alone a colleague. I will be forever grateful as I know my path was forever altered for the better because of this one moment.

Below is a snip of the pamphlet my colleague shared with me. He was so respectful when he shared. He asked for permission if he could share and said he didn’t know this information before his heart attack and wouldn’t feel right if he didn’t help to increase our awareness on the risk factors.

I took the pamphlet home and reviewed it with my husband Paul and we were shocked at how many risk factors we had. We joked that my husband had all the risk factors except for pregnancy, but in all seriousness pretty much. Well, not quite, he doesn’t drink, smoke or do drugs so he didn’t have those risk factors either, but this was a wake up call. Having a piece of paper stare you in the face with the risk factors stacking up, had our attention.

As we are foodies to the core, we decided to start EASY and do something achievable. Food was not our starting point. It was after this seed that we started incorporating regular exercise in our lives. This was pre-covid and we were lucky enough to purchase an exercise bike and that bike completely changed our lives. We were both hooked and to this day have a regular exercise routine thanks to that bike. When covid hit, we were easily able to maintain our workout routines and carry on our healthy path since we were used to working out at home.

Then something unexpected happened. I decided to start bike riding to work in the summer. Something I never considered doing in my forties. I did used to bike to work infrequently in my twenties and always assumed I could no longer do it. Especially since I have FIVE hills to ride up on my way home.

I love bike riding to work, but only in the summer. Early spring and winters are a bit too cold for me. Each morning on my way in, I say hello to the gophers, the geese, birds, dogs or any animal I ride by. Feeling the wind on my skin and taking in the magnificent view of our city with the mountains in the background and the river by my side is a real gift.

We incorporated regular exercise into our lives as of October 2019 and it wasn’t until mid 2020 we started to sort of think about improving how we ate.

It’s a privilege to get to move my body and I feel so lucky that I’ve found exercise I enjoy. Whether it be the spin bike, walking, yoga, pilates, bike riding, strength training or swimming, there’s lots I enjoy!

I always say I’m a turtle and I’m ok with that. If my slow pace is what is needed for sustainable change, so be it. Change is hard, but that difficultly only lasts while you are in the transition phase. The journey to become vegan was a real mind bender for me, a huge shift in my mindset, my perspective and required trying new food and recipes. Now that I’ve arrived, now that I’m vegan, life isn’t hard, it’s easy! You don’t stay on the change curve forever, eventually you arrive and are planted in your new glorious life and you’d never in a million years want to go back. That’s how I feel anyways.

Peace, love & plants,

Michelle 🙂

p.s. I think it’s important to move our bodies and have some form of exercise in our lives, but I think the KEY is to do what you love. Don’t worry about what you think you should do in terms of exercise, just do what you love and then you’ll keep coming back for more.