Today I fell in love.....

I know, I know. You are all probably saying "Carly, how many times have you tried this? Why in the world are you doing this, YOUR CRAZY!."---Yes I know, I have tried to "be a vegan" like 10 times already, and have failed, failed miserably, going right back into a carnivorous life.--but today I am taking the plunge! As of today, I am going to use this year, to be my journey to veganism!!

Ok so, here is the deal--
My aunt and uncle have been vegans for about 3 years now, and it is always something that I have admired about them. I just found it fascinating that my aunt could make something taste SO DELICIOUS yet at the same time, that something is SO HEALTHY! Growing up I put healthy and disgusting in the same category, but since I began living with my aunt and uncle, my aunt opened my eyes to this world of healthy and yummy being in the same category! When I went to college, my aunt and uncle decided it would be a good idea to go vegan. I was not pumped about that by any means, because that meant when I came home on breaks, I had to also eat vegan. Gross city. But over time, I began to really enjoy my aunts vegan cooking, and I enjoyed even more what my aunts vegan cooking was doing for my meat eating body. I felt awesome. I felt awake, and alive, it was like my body was saying "thank you thank you thank you!!" Since my first vegan experience, I became interested in learning more about it. Lets just say, that my aunt was SO excited, because I was the only one of her kids that didnt throw the vegan idea out the window, I embraced it. I tried to go vegan over night a few times while I was in college, eating nothing but veggie burgers, and pasta, resulting in weight gain and sickness. Needless to say, I was discouraged! I still however had this drive in my heart to become a vegan, and do it RIGHT! When I graduated, I started to experiment more with cooking, because now I finally have my own apartment with my own kitchen! My aunt has given me great books to read ( The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone, has been GREAT inspiration), and cook books to find yummy vegan recipes.So that is where I am at this very moment. ---

I am going to take this year to transition into a vegan. I am hoping to learn more about myself, my body, and my health. I am hoping to continue to gain appreciation for this lifestyle, and find ways to make vegainism fun! I will share with you my "ups" and downs of becoming a vegan. I will share with you great recipes, and not so great recipes. I invite you to come on my journey to veganism! It will be fun. It will be exciting, it will be interesting for sure. So come and join me, as I go from zero-vegan in one year!

PS. the reason why i titled by blog, today i fell in love is because there is this cute little "green" cafe down the street from where i work, and there was a sign outside that read "VEGAN CUPCAKES."  For those of you who know me, you should know I am a SUCKER for a cupcake. So, I pulled in. I bought my vegan chocolate cupcake and I went back to my desk at work. I took the first bite, and I was in heaven! THIS CUPCAKE WAS THE BOMB! It put an instant smile on my face. It really made my day. So that was it for me. I said to myself "this is it, if veganism tastes this good, COUNT ME IN!"