More from My Soap Box

First and foremost, I want to say thank you to all of my amazing readers. I was worried about how my diet changes would be received, and your support completely warmed my heart. I know that these changes are necessary for my health and well being, or at least something that I feel like I should try to see if it improves my life. Before I get back to the fun stuff (food), I'm going to get "real" again and delve into why I feel it's alright for me, personally, to shift my diet.

For many, veganism is fueled by ethical and moral reasons. For me, it was mostly for health and restriction. I switched to veganism when I had disordered eating because I felt like it would be the healthiest way for me to maintain weight loss. I was afraid of eating meat and meat products because I thought it would make me gain the weight back. Instead, restricting my diet made things easier. If I was offered something containing "non vegan" ingredients, I would simply use my veganism as a means to refuse the food. Now, that's not to say that my choice wasn't fueled at all by ethical reasons because it certainly was; I always buy organic and local foods whenever they're available and wouldn't buy or consume something that supports cruelty.

Over the months I started to loosen the grip on my restricted eating, discovered new ingredients and increased my calories to a healthy amount (you can read more about it here). The more I loosened the strings, the more I began to wonder why I was denying myself certain foods. If I want to try goat cheese, why wouldn't I let myself? If I wanted to try fish, why didn't I? These questioned kept popping into my head and I shook them off because I wanted to adhere to my veganism. But why? I honestly didn't have a concrete answer.

The truth is, I want to try goat cheese. I want to try salmon. I want a poached egg. Am I ashamed to admit this? No. Food should be celebrated and enjoyed. What I have learned is that I think I was vegan for the wrong reasons and I don't think it's necessarily for me anymore. I want to fuel my body both with what it needs and what it desires. I want to feel like I'm in optimum health. I'm tired of restricting myself. I won't do it anymore.

I won't be labeling myself anything; I'm me. I don't need to attach a name to the way I eat or the lifestyle I live. I'm a little of everything that makes up my whole self.

Here's what you'll see on Organically Me:
- The same healthy, real food ingredients and recipes I've always posted.
- Occasionally there will be more personal posts. I don't just want to throw recipes at you like an autobot. I want you to know me and I want to know you all.
- Recipes featuring goat products, maybe eggs, and fish in addition to vegan and raw dishes. Or, at least one fish recipe, which is coming soon.
- The dairy, eggs and fish will always be local, ethical, wild caught and preferably organic. I will never buy a product whose origins I am not comfortable with or don't know. My wallet is crying already.

This is a new journey for me and I'm excited to take you all for the ride.