Hey, I’m Ariana!

Canada · Joined in June 2017

I have always been a very active person. I was doing somersaults and headstands before I could walk. I was always at the park either on the monkey bars or swinging myself as high as I could get. Ask my elementary school friends - you could always find me spending recesses outside doing walkovers and flips. Even in my backyard, at camp, and in high school, you would still find me doing the splits or whipping out my aerial whenever possible. I did gymnastics for about 5 years, soccer for about 2 years, competitive dance for about 8 years, and free skiing/ski racing/ski instructing for about 15 years. In 2014, I went to my summer camp as a counsellor. During the first out of nine weeks - training week – I was sitting by a couple vegetarians at the table. I recall one mentioned that she wanted to try going vegan, and a few other people said that they wanted to join her, too. I had heard about veganism before, and had dabbled in the occasional veg meal, but had never contemplated actually going vegan. I remember looking at the beef burger I had just taken a bite out of; I put it down, and picked up a veggie burger instead. BAM! Vegan (almost). Though most of the summer I was successful in my veg endeavors, since I had done absolutely no research on how to go vegan properly and get all the proper nutrients in, I failed a couple times. When I came home at the end of August after a mostly-vegan nine weeks, I resumed eating lean meats and a bit of dairy in my favourite chocolates. I figured that because these were meats that we bought at the supermarket, it would be much better than the questionable meat that they used at camp. Well, I started doing my research, and by mid-November of 2014, I had eaten my last piece of meat (salmon). By the time I had finished my Christmas 2014 chocolate, I was fully vegan. I won’t lie and say that I’ve never slipped up. In the first few months of 2015, I had 3 “Grandmother brownies” that contained eggs in them (since then, she has created a new recipe and now makes “vegan Grandmother brownies”!). In residence at school two years ago, I had the carrots that usually just come cooked plain or with a bit of maple syrup, but this time they had both butter AND honey on them. I learned my lesson and ended up always asking the caf staff what was vegan. Though at first I thought I was being obnoxious holding up the line by making the servers go to the kitchen and clarifying with the chefs what was vegan, in the end I am so glad I did: not only did I end up learning the names and the stories of all the wonderful staff, but I was also able to feel good and confident about the food that I was putting into my body. Since finding veganism, I have become much happier and healthier. I have also inspired some of the people around me to go vegan - starting with my sister! Like many, I began to be vegan for the animals, but now I'm vegan not only for the animals, but also for our planet and for myself. <3 If you want to get to know more about me, I post on Instagram @lovecolourfulfood and @lovecolourfulfitness. :)