I still remember the exact night in 2014 I decided to go vegan.

I was sitting in the dark, watching a documentary about the dairy and meat industries—specifically focusing on the lives of cows—and something inside my brain just shifted. I didn’t want to be a part of it anymore. But back then, I was terrified of the judgment.

I was living with people whose opinions carried too much weight, and the fear of the awkward dinner-table conversations and the defensive questions made me shrink. So, I stayed quiet. I kept eating the meat I didn’t want for seven more years.

Then, 2021 hit.

The pandemic forced everyone into isolation, and with the outside world on pause, I finally had the space to stop making excuses. I realized the only person I was breaking a promise to was myself. That year, I decided to stop stalling. I drew the line in the sand, and I haven’t looked back since.

The easiest “sacrifice” I ever made

Here is the honest truth that people who don’t get the vegetarian lifestyle find hard to believe: giving up meat wasn’t a struggle for me. I didn’t spend months craving a steak or crying over a barbecue.

Looking back, I realized I was only eating meat because it was there. It was the default setting, the easy option readily available on every plate put in front of me. I never actually liked the taste or the texture of it; I was just operating on social autopilot.

The moment I removed the default setting, my body felt an immediate sense of relief. It felt less like a restriction and entirely like a liberation.

Three years in the (concrete) jungle

A few years later, I packed my bags and moved to São Paulo. Living completely on my own in that massive metropolis, I finally became the sole ruler of my kitchen.

This was the era where I started cooking for myself with real intention, experimenting with flavors, and getting so deep into plant-based living that I was right on the edge of going full vegan.

I even opened a tiny corner of the internet back then called Plant-Based Pilgrim because the spark was so bright.

But São Paulo is a heavy machine. It’s a city that can easily swallow your vital energy, your peace, and your creative dreams if you aren’t careful. The burnout was real, the environment was chaotic, and that specific creative portal closed for a while. But the seed remained buried in the soil, waiting for the right climate to sprout again.

No dogma, just planet earth (and a few plot twists)

Today, I have absolute certainty that choosing this path was the best decision I could have made for myself. I love being a vegetarian. I still carry the quiet desire to experiment with a fully vegan lifestyle in the future, but my approach to vegetarianism is completely free from dogma. 

I have a broad vision of this lifestyle that goes way beyond what’s on the plate—it’s about the preservation of the planet, and that means looking at the bigger, messier picture.

So, let’s talk about the plot twists and the “controversies.”

1. I want to have children in the future. And I have already promised myself that if my body suddenly experiences a primal, biological craving for meat during pregnancy, I am going to eat it. No guilt, no self-punishment, no ideological warfare against my own womb.

2. I don’t judge people who buy real leather shoes or accessories. In fact, from an environmental standpoint, I prefer them. The animal has already been slaughtered for the meat industry; using the hide to create a high-quality, durable piece that will last a lifetime makes way more sense to me than buying synthetic plastic alternatives that will end up in a landfill in six months.

I’m not here to be the perfect, sanitized poster girl for a movement.

I’m just a pilgrim navigating the physical world, trying to tread a little lighter on the earth while keeping my humanity completely intact.