From Asthmatic and Overweight to Just Right on a Vegan Diet

by Nia Garcia

I was a particularly thin child- I had severe asthma and took strong medication which caused me to regurgitate any food that was in my stomach from the meal I had to eat before taking the meds. I was always trying to make up for this by eating more. This became a habit.

By the time I was fourteen I put on too much weight and no matter what I tried to do I could not lose the weight. I dieted, starved myself, I was still very asthmatic so I could not do much exercise. However, I was more active than most in my situation; I did light sports and liked to go out dancing; yet, I was 4'11 and 125lbs.=Fat.

I came to the conclusion that I was who I was and it was a waste of emotional energy to obsess about my weight- I accepted it.

Then when I was in college a schoolmate gave me a video "The Animals Film" about animal use in our society. The day after I veiwed it, I couldn't eat the food on my plate: A piece of chicken and potatoes with butter. I threw the whole thing in the garbage and went back into the cafeteria to get a bowl of vegetarian chilli, a veggie burger and a rice with vegetables stir-fry (all completely vegan).

Two months later I visited the nurse's office where I was weighed and I was 98lbs (the same weight I am today,
fifteen years later). That was 27lbs in two months without even trying. I realized at this point that there was definitely something wrong and someone was trying to tell me something; mainly that there is a lot more wrong with the way we use animals beyond the pain you see them suffer throughout their short and delicate lives.

I saw big industries taking advantage of our human existence and once I realized this I started to reap the automatic benefits of a new way of thinking inluding a brand new figure!

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