Intro into who I am...

Hi my name is Ashley Ditter. Welcome to my personal blog where I will be sharing my life as a vegan and all the knowledge I have obtained over these past 7 1/2 years. Lets rewind a little bit into how I got introduced to the vegan lifestyle. It was January of 2013. I was living in Seattle and I worked downtown at a high end barber salon. I worked there for three years from October 2010 to October 2013. I was introduced into veganism one day while at lunch with a coworker. Let's call her Paris. I remember that day so vividly sitting at lunch with our Mediterranean falafel salads. Which she introduced me to and now Mediterranean food is my favorite! She told me " You're a smart person and I think you should go vegan." I questioned her saying "What does smart have to do with it?" She explained to me saying that well you are such a sweet person and that you seem intelligent that there would be no question not to go vegan once I informed myself. She recommended that I watch a couple documentaries Forks Over Knives and Vegucated. Which are both on Netflix. Up to this point Paris and I have known each other for 3 years working together and we became very close friends my last year working together. So she knew me pretty well to advise me on making this decision. So I had no reason to doubt her. She is such a nice person and I respected her. So I went home and watched those documentaries. First I watched Forks over knives and then Vegucated. I remember right after watching Vegucated this feeling like a light bulb went off inside of me. Like literally my eyes were wide open and I said out loud I'm vegan. I am a loving caring compassionate person and I love all animals and I don't want my body to be a graveyard. So I instantly went to my fridge and I got rid of a few things. I've always considered myself to be a healthy person so I didn't get rid of much. I don't drink milk or consume a lot of meat. So this change was pretty easy. I got rid of some frozen shrimp and chicken and maybe some ground beef. But I already replaced dairy milk with almond milk when I was 16 and haven't had dairy in 18 years. Maybe if something was baked with it I did. But dairy is so bad for you cause it causes osteoporosis. I never had a huge addiction to cheese and now I love cheese even more as a vegan especially Follow Your Heart and Chao. Those are my faves! So back to me cleaning out my fridge. Well after that I went to my closet and looked to see if I had anything with leather, wool, cashmere, silk and got rid of a few things but not much. I never liked wool cause it's itchy. I think I had a pair of wool socks I got rid of. I got rid of a pair of suede boots I barely wore anyway, a few silk dresses, a few angora shirt (that's rabbit hair by the way), some leather belts and that was it with clothes. Next I got rid of my down comforter and some decorative down pillows. Cleaning supplies were all replaced with Method an all purpose cleaner. Then bathroom necessities such as tooth paste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, finger nail polish, makeup and other bathroom necessities. I did one full swoop and it was cleansing and I felt reborn and invigorated! I'm so happy Paris introduced me to this lifestyle and I will never live any other way! To her I will always be eternally grateful! #vegan #vegan4ever #veganliving #health #animalrights