“Your wealth is in your health,” a saying commonly used by my favorite YouTube astrologer Kelly Rosano.  It’s pretty accurate when you think about it.  Without health what do you really have?  If you’re wealthy and treat yourself (your body/mind) poorly perhaps you can financially afford to buy your way back to good health, but for how long?

Since I was 15 I began trying to preserve my looks.  As I grew older and wiser I realized this preservation wasn’t about expensive creams, and dermatological peels but rather health and hydration.  It’s amazing to me the amount of people that lack hydration.  You can literally tell just by looking at them!  I say this because as I make the slow climb toward my 30’s I’ve began          paying attention to my fellow peers, and bright eyed college students that parade over the island of Manhattan.  It’s the 21 year old guys and gals that I iD on my weekend bartending shifts (the trade that funds my startup) that have opened my eyes to this lack of not giving of fuck.  Some of these kids have crazy wrinkles in their forehead and around their mouths that has them appear to be older than they look.  It’s our generations YOLO mentality that living in the moment is far better than planning for the future.  Granted, we all have our moments of over indulgence and we deserve to enjoying ourselves, but at what cost?

The real reason I bring this up is because I’ve been living a vegan lifestyle mostly on but sometimes off since I was 18 (I’m now 27).  I had a few lapses here and there but derived from peer pressure, boyfriends, or friends who had an influence over me at the time. From 2016 to 2017 I was not vegan, in fact, I was quite the opposite. Crushing steaks, sipping wines while eating cheeses, brunching on eggs, and eating what I thought was well. While I wasn’t necessarily eating more, the quality of what I was eating had me gain about 30 lbs, and that was practically overnight!  I jumped up 2 sizes and felt uncomfortable at all times.  During this time period I was working on my first startup with a close friend and we were both pretty unhealthy.  It wasn’t until I dropped the partnership that I had an awakening.  I was compromising my true self for someone else.  It wasn’t just a food thing, it was a life thing.  I drastically altered the course of my life and aligned myself with someone who wasn’t aligning with me.  This is a story for a another time, but you get it.  I dropped the negative energy that piggybacks along with a carnivore lifestyle because you can’t expect to feel good when you ingest food or use products that are inhumane to our planet.  Now, I know a lot of people don’t really care about the planet but if you’re at all awake, you should.

As Americans are all trapped in this matrix of false advertising that has been instilled in us by our government for ages.  While perhaps back in the day it wasn’t so bad to eat beef, or drink milk, today those same foods come from factory farms. Workers in these factories are underpaid, animals live in their own feces, pumped with antibiotics and treated poorly by the same underpaid workers who could care less about these conditions most likely because of their own dark reality. This slew of negative energy is infested in the food that you are now consuming because the food industry chain is lame. To think the corporations behind the food source would prevent any flaws in the production, is an ignorant thought that should be further researched by oneself in the age of information.

Either way, I’m no expert on the subject, I just know that our planet is severely taking a hit from our dietary choices, amongst other things!  So here are some photos of some of my favorite vegan meals, and always remember your wealth is in your health, so hydrate, eat lots of veggies, and love yourself!