Hey!
I've been a lurker on here for over half a year now, so I thought I'd finally make a post on here.

I'm a 23 year old married student, currently going to school for Dental Hygiene. I will be entering my final year next fall and I'm way excited about that!

Originally I decided to go vegetarian a long time ago. My parents fought me every step of the way, for some reason it just didn't seem normal to them, oh well. When I finally moved out at 21 and learned I actually had freedom to choose what I want to do with my life (what a wonderful thing), I finally last May made the decision to make a change in my diet. That May I went vegetarian and then in June I decided to go vegan.

I decided to go vegetarian because every time I ate meat or meat products I would have IBS symptoms of constipation for days and I always felt nauseated and ill... eww. I am also lactose n' tollerant, and figured the best thing would be to just cut every animal product out of my diet and see if it made a difference in how I feel. I still eat honey if it is in a food, but because it doesn't bother my stomach.

So my changes were mainly made for health reasons. I must say I feel a thousand times better! It started off as a month trial, and now I'm going for a year. Who knows it may just be permanent.

My challenges have been the fact that I live with an omnivore husband, and I still get bad cravings for things like fish, pineapple pizza, and cheese cake. Most meat and meat products make me think about puking, so I don't think I would ever go back to eating it. I also really hate most fake meats, most fake cheeses, and only occasionally I tolerate tofu (it depends on the firmness and how it's prepared)- which makes for fewer selections.