I’ve always been weird. As a child, my earliest memories from school were how I was always so much different than everyone else—not just personality-wise, being extremely shy compared to them, but also in my interests. The other kids weren’t into the things I wanted to do and talk about which was probably why I didn’t like talking to them. But the weird thing is I didn’t like being weird as a kid. I had such severe social anxiety that I wanted to fit in and be like everybody else. I was terrified of being ostracized and rejected by my peers. I didn’t want to stand out, so I would hide my weird interests from them.
Continue readingTag Archives: vegetarian
Born Vegetarian? The Evolutionary Psychology Behind Not Eating Meat

I’ve been a vegetarian my entire life. No one in my family or anyone I knew was vegetarian; it was something I came to on my own. When I was a child, people would often ask me why I didn’t eat meat, as if there was some moment or reason that precipitated it, but I never had an answer. Today I can name a whole host of reasons to be a vegetarian—ethical, health-related, and environmental—but I wasn’t aware of those benefits of vegetarianism when I was four years old. Yet as far back as I can remember, I’ve had an instinctual disgust toward meat. It was as though I was born a vegetarian. But is that possible? Are certain people natural vegetarians?
Continue readingIs Picky Eating Related to Social Anxiety?
When I was six, I thought there were nails in meat, so I refused to touch it. I watched Popeye get strong from eating spinach, but I’d have rather been weak than eat disgusting green leaves. I ate pizza every single day for most of my life. Yeah, you could say I was a picky eater. Continue reading
Why am I a Vegetarian?
For as long as I can remember— basically since I was physically able to feed myself— I have been a vegetarian. People always used to ask why I refused to eat meat, but I never really had a good answer. It wasn’t for health reasons— I ate horribly. It wasn’t because I was an animal lover— I never had any pets and was afraid of dogs. It wasn’t because I was emulating someone else— no one in my family was vegetarian and neither were any of my friends. Continue reading
How I Went from Pizzatarian to Plant-Based and Gluten-Free
It sounds insane to me when I hear people say they don’t eat vegetables. But I forget that, not too long ago, that was me. I used to be the same way. I ate pizza for at least two of meals everyday for the better part of my life. So how did I get from someone who never ate vegetables to someone to eats nothing but plants? It didn’t happen overnight. It was a slow gradual process with slight changes and additions to my diet over time. Continue reading
The Worst Night of My Life (So Far)
The worst night of my life was May 25th, 2012. The days and weeks before, I’d been feeling chest pains and numbness in my left arm and leg, and it only seemed to be getting worse. After Googling the symptoms, I began to fear it was heart-related. The symptoms always seemed to get worse after I ate, so when I felt the pains after lunch that day, I was too afraid to eat dinner. I got home from work and started crying as I told my mother about my condition. I really feared I was going to have a heart attack. And I was only 26 years old. Continue reading