As of December 1st, 2011 the solid line is drawn and I’m officially “a vegan”.

Wiggity what? That’s what I would have said if I knew this a year ago, or even six months ago. This decision came on suddenly and it came on strange, but I know it’s a lifestyle I need to explore and experience.

A cataclysmic event occurred about a month ago when getting a sushi dinner at a less than five star establishment; I usually don’t mess around with three or four star sushi. I ordered and ate a unagi (eel) roll, some soybeans and salmon. When I walked out of the place I was full. So full, apparently, that I felt like something was trying to come up my throat. Something about this feeling in my throat made me want to vomit.

Bare with me here. As I felt a somehow non-physical squirming in my throat all I could think of was: that’s an eel. The eel. The one I ate. Even though it was sliced and diced by the chef, then chewed up in my mouth- it felt as though it had re-pieced itself together in my esophagus and was trying to escape.

Needless to say, it wasn’t pleasant. Uncomfortable images of eels swam in my head for a few hours after that meal. Normally when I eat food, animals and their products in particular, I’m not very conscious of it in any other form than what is before me. In the last some odd years I’ve definitely paid more attention to where my food comes from, if it’s “organic,” local, etc.

However, being really conscious of what I consume just hasn’t been a part of things.

The following day I started to feel intense pains in my stomach. Maybe it was a type of food poisoning (I don’t know, never had food poisoning) but the only reason that food was poisoned is because it was an animal and humans poisoned it! The thought of this made the pain I was experiencing feel deserved to me.

It was in the middle of my standing-work shift when the pain came in intervals. I had to hunch over a counter or on the floor whenever it struck. When it started at first I began seeing the eel images again with my eyes closed.  As it continued, more living animals like chickens and lambs were flooding my mind. Mass numbers of them! They were not happy. The images and what I was experiencing was so hand in hand at the time that I started to think it was their trauma I was experiencing and their cries for help I was seeing. Then it would stop completely. I’d stand back up and all the thoughts would vanish- but the memory remained. This went back and forth for about an hour.

That was the day I thought about becoming vegan, for the first time in my life. Over the next couple weeks I remained open to the idea but was iffy. Alas, “signs” and affirmations of veganism kept showing up in my life. I didn’t take it lightly.

The effect animal product consumption has on the land, animals and people are all just out of control. I researched healthy and balanced vegan diet plans, watched informative videos and documentaries, talked to vegans, read articles on elephant journal and then decided—yep, vegan time.

As far as not being able to eat certain yummy foods like cheese, that’s a fact of the matter. Some things outweigh individual desires and this is certainly one of them. Debates on the topic of veganism being “right” or “wrong” are not on my agenda whatsoever. If people are interested in it either way there is plenty of real information out there.

In a quantum and Chinese medicine perspective, “you are what you eat” has very true meaning. Every particle in everything we eat holds its own energy vibration as a result of its process through space and time. When we consume food it literally becomes a part of us on the energetic level.

In 2012 I’ll begin seeing clients as I start my acupuncture student clinic internship. It makes sense to me to think that the cleaner I am on this energetic level than the better able I’ll be to facilitate great treatment and outcomes for the people who I work with. This is another motivating and inspiring factor that veganism has for me. This is a commitment which I will stick with through the New Year. After that, I’ll evaluate where things are at and potentially re-introduce some animal products like eggs and fish into my diet.

The belief that I’m formulating is that I should eat only what I have the ability to grow and honor, snag from under a chicken in a coup. Basically, know exactly where, who and how when it comes to what is on my plate, while holding feelings of respect and gratitude for that food and its journey to becoming a part of me.  That bridge will be crossed if and when it appears. For now, it’s time to cleanse.

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Capri Kurtz is working hard/hardly working as a graduate student in the amazing lineage of Classic Five Element Acupuncture. She is inspired by nature and    energized by love and laughter. Striving to evolve-she writes on her blog, “Pilgrimage to Balance”, at www.fivelementalife.wordpress.com & for fun on the twitter  @fivelementalife.