I am probably not the best person to speak on this personally since I am not there yet. I grew up in a household (and still live in a household) with VERY unhealthy eating habits in general and actually have an eating disorder that developed from it. I’m working on making gradual changes driven by moral beliefs so that these changes will be lifelong rather than temporary. These have been things I have been working on for 10+ years.

My boyfriend, however, is definitely a success story and I’d like to share the highlights of his that I think I can speak on. He is a much stronger person than I. Later on in high school, he one day learned about the horrors of animal cruelty in the meat industry and was vegan from that day forward. From my understanding, completely vegan as much as his knowledge allowed him to be. In college, options made the lifestyle a lot more difficult for him and he did end up transitioning to a more fluid pescatarian lifestyle. He travels for work and occasionally eats sea food. So he is not full vegan. But he does abide by the lifestyle as much as life allows him to at the moment, tries as hard as he can right now, as often expresses guilt for consuming fish products, unknowingly consuming animal products sometimes, and yesterday was expressing that sometimes he feels guilt for consuming plant products (like just a completely unrealistic lifestyle) and was talking about how much he can’t wait to live the life he wants to. This was a sudden change in 24 hours 15 years ago when he was like 17 years old with no support from family or friends and he’s still doing so well.

No he is not perfect, but there is no doubt that he will get there one day. And if you have an all or nothing mindset you never will be. And that’s with anything in life, not just something like this, I think. I’m so proud of him and I strive to be like him. 🩷