Today marks my 1-year vegan anniversary (you can read my vegan story here). I’ve been recently thinking a lot about what has changed since transitioning to a plant-based diet.

Here are the most significant changes I’ve noticed over the past year.

I feel better. Before adopting a vegan diet I had chronic digestive issues. I was in pain, often. The kind of pain that made it hard for me to stand up straight. That used to happen a few times a week. In the last 12 months I can really only remember a handful of times I had trouble. Last year, I was in and out of more doctors offices than I can remember. In the past 6 months, I haven’t seen any.

I have more energy. The biggest thing keeping me from making the transition sooner was that I feared I would lack the energy I needed to stay involved in endurance sports. That is absolutely false. I have more energy now than ever before. I even gave up soda and coffee in January and still find that I have an increased amount of energy throughout the day.

I learned to cook. It’s amazing, I don’t suck at cooking. I’m no gourmet chef, but I can put together a decent meal without a recipe. That’s something I could never do before.

I am no longer afraid of food. I never really nailed down a specific food that made me sick. I never found a pattern or direct link to anything that I was eating. This led me to being constantly worrying about the foods I ate. I would order the blandest thing I could find at restaurants and pack half my suitcase full of safe foods when traveling. It was never fun. I find myself once again trying new foods instead of constantly eliminating foods from my diet that I fear to be the “culprit”.

I’m still taking it one day at a time but for now, I am incredibly grateful I have found something that works for me. It was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. So today, for my vegan anniversary, I’m celebrating my health.

While adopting a vegan diet was the best decision for me, it was an incredibly personal decision. I certainly don’t feel that vegan diet is right for everyone. I am not a RD or nutritionist and cannot speak to the health benefits for everyone, this is my experience.