Emily made a life-changing choice: to part ways with meat indefinitely

Emily comes from a quaint town in South Wales and proudly bearing the vegan banner for nearly eight years now! Reflecting on her early days as a vegan, she fondly recalls the challenges she faced and finds solace in witnessing the remarkable progress society has made in embracing this lifestyle.

During her teenage years, Emily’s growing awareness of society’s exploitation of animals became a catalyst for her passionate advocacy. It was the realm of cosmetic animal testing that struck a chord within her, as she found it unfathomable to subject innocent beings to such cruelty for the sake of beauty. This initial concern expanded to encompass other industries, with fashion being the next target of her scrutiny. As she delved deeper into the topic, Emily’s path led her down a captivating YouTube journey, exposing her to the harsh realities of slaughterhouses and sparking a flame of vegan activism within her.

Meatless Movement had a chance to chat with her recently.

With conviction in her heart, Emily made a profound decision: to bid farewell to meat forever. Within a mere week, she transitioned to a vegan lifestyle, vowing to align her actions with her values. From that transformative moment onwards, Emily has remained steadfast in her commitment to veganism.

Join us as we explore Emily’s incredible journey, uncovering the milestones, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped her as an unwavering advocate for animal rights and a compassionate lifestyle.

Tell us more about yourself, please

My name is Emily, I am the foodie behind @vegangrubwales.

I’m from a small town in south wales and have been vegan for about 8 years now! I’ll always remember how difficult it was to maintain a vegan lifestyle in the beginning and love to see how far we as a society have come within this time.

Coming into my teenage years I became increasingly conscious of the way society has used animals at their own disposal, in particular my concerns manifested in animal testing of cosmetics. I felt that to use animals in such a cruel and torturous way, all for the benefit of cosmetics and vanity was absurd.

From there, I began to question how else we use animals for unjustified reasons and quickly turned against using animals in fashion. Eventually, this investigating led me down a YouTube rabbit hole of slaughter house footage and vegan activism and just like that I vowed to never eat meat again. One week later I became vegan and have been ever since!

Upon becoming vegan, everyone had something to say
Emily 🌱

“This won’t last”, “it’s just a phase” and “will you only eat grass?” circled around me by my nearest and dearest. This made me only more determined. I went through the angry phase whereby I simply couldn’t understand the logic of eating meat ( I still don’t, but the resentment has settled somewhat..) and wanted to educate anyone who crossed my path. Eventually I learnt that this would result in me having absolutely zero friends and being labelled a “pushy” vegan, and we all know the connotations that come with that. By now, I like to think I’ve learnt how to educate in a more neutral and beneficial way, although I’m sure many would disagree…

At first, vegan life was hard
Emily 🌱

It was all dietary requirement books and pizza’s without cheese. Restaurants simply weren’t equipped for vegans here in the UK, particularly in rural wales. We have come a world away from this by now, with almost all restaurants having multiple vegan options, or vegan menus. My biggest struggle today is travelling abroad. When on holiday I find myself explaining what vegan means to every waiter and still being served dairy or eggs. The worst I’ve experienced is skiing in the French alps, there is certainly very little thought for vegans amidst the snowy mountains!

My favourite app to overcome this is happy cow, wherever I go I’m keen to check the app and find out what’s vegan friendly in the area! This is a game changer and a total lifesaver on holidays!

All the best vegan grub in Wales & beyond 😋
Emily 🌱

I started my Instagram about 2 years ago, simply because I loved eating out and cooking. As Wales became more and more vegan friendly, I realised that these were gems that should not be missed. My friends told me I should share these with the world as well as my own home cooking and so I did. There’s great vegan finds on there and I’ve now started creating a highlight every time I visit a new country to share these with my followers too.

There is definitely still a stigma attached to vegan food and meat alternatives. This is very prevalent amongst my meat eater friends who are anti-vegan, I find that they often make up their mind before even trying the food. Whilst this is a difficult challenge, I always encourage them to try vegan food and appreciate the flavours. My boyfriend is a meat eater but we live together and I generally do the cooking, he understands that my terms are I’m willing to make him dinner but if he wants meat, he has to cook this himself. Most nights he’s happy to eat my food and rates it highly, he thinks that vegan food is so much more flavoursome than meat!!

If you’re just going vegan, don’t be too hard on yourself!
Emily 🌱

It’s a big change and can be tough going but try to remember your ethic and principles behind this decision. Every time I look at meat, I see the flesh of an innocent animal and am instantly disgusted. This has kept me off for all the years. Of course, I still have cravings but most of these can be solved by the amazing vegan alternatives out there these days! Have a Google and try to find out what the best alternative is for what you’re missing. Even vegan cheese tastes good now, so count your blessings!

If you need some household staples as a vegan, I would start with these: cathedral city vegan cheese, this isn’t meat alternative (whatever is your fave), lots of veggies to keep you full, oatly barista milk, vitalite vegan margarine and squeaky bean deli meat for the fridge!! In respect of the cupboard, get on the nutritional yeast!! This is a game changer and I add it to every meal possible! Get plenty of herbs and spices to pack as much flavour into your food as possible. I love chickpeas for texture and always keep plenty of tinned goods for a rainy day!