My name is Ericka. I am 25 years old and I am a fairly new vegan. I have adopted the vegetarian way for 6 months then transitioned into a vegan about 3 months ago. As I continue to live this lifestyle, I have seen quite a lot of skepticism, both negative and good. Good usually comes from people trying to adopt the lifestyle or already have. The bad obviously comes from all the meat eaters and chefs I know, which in my case is quite a few. I get many questions like “where am I gonna get my protein?” or “don’t you know you will end up anemic and malnourished?” Most of the time I don’t have much of a response. I also have been told I am going against the bible and what god says (yes people have went there). Again I have no answer. Well here I am to document my vegan journey and everything I learn along the process. As far as right now, I cant begin to explain how dramatically my body has changed. Already at 25 I had a lot of medical issues. I was overweight, suffered from major depression and anxiety, extremely bad GI problems (every problem in the book) and I felt so tired and fatigued everyday. I couldn’t sleep at all but yet my body always felt weak. I was a complete mess. But on the bright side, that was then and is no longer a now. As soon as I started cutting meat, dairy and animal products, my problems pretty much vanished. And it almost happened instantly. I have lost a total of 20 pounds since April and continuing losing weight every week. Its like I took a miracle drug and all my problems went away. I sleep so well and my mood has changed for the better. I overall am just an overly happy vegan and proud of it.