Hey guys, I thought I'd give a shout out and tell you all a little bit about myself.

I have tried vegetarian diets before in the past when I was younger, and my parents would always yell at me and tell me it was unhealthy and shove meat in my face.

For a period in my life I would consider myself to have disordered eating, although I was never clinically diagnosed, I got to my lowest weight ever and was really ill, and I feel this contributed to my poor digestive health and IBS. I came to a point where I realized I was lactose n' tolerant, and then slowly starting with red meet and then to white meats everything seemed to irritate my IBS. I came to a point where I was gaining large amounts of weight and I felt ill all the time because I went between periods of horrible diarrhea and constipation. (TMI sorry).

I finally came to the conclusion this May that I would take the leap and go for it, to go vegan and see if it alleviated my issues. I didn't go "vegan" until June (I still eat honey products) and I've been going strong since and have NEVER felt better. Now that I live on my own and can make my own choices it has been easier for me, and not only that, my parents have noticed a difference in my health and now respect my choices.

So as much as I do love animals I want to make it clear that I am doing this foremost for my own health. I feel like after doing a lot of research and learning about how the meat is processed and how the animals are fed pesticides and antibiotics I am glad I don't put that into my body anymore.

Well so that's my story. I obviously have a lot to learn still, and I'm just enjoying the process.