People decide to become vegan for different reasons.

Often it is a combination of a few motivators that make someone decide they want to live their life differently. For me, my path to veganism started with my own personal health. I saw, read and heard so many studies all talking about how going vegan could completely change my health and wellness.

Once I had started implementing the changes and joining the vegan community, other information flooded my way, and I found a new motivator, the environment and the effects of animal agriculture on our planet.

Animal agriculture has changed so much in the past century. From the small town family farm, we now live in an age of industrial sized farming operations, and we are now learning about those changes and their effect on the planet.

While farming always has been (and hopefully always will be) an essential part of the fabric of the prairies, over time many farmers are finding more sustainable ways to run their farming operations, and it is changing the landscape of the world.

I am a visual person. When I make a change, I enjoy having an idea of the differences my choices make in the world. I came across the website, thevegancalculator.com that is used so anyone who is vegan can get an idea of how many resources and live they are saving with the lifestyle change. As well give non-vegans a clear idea of how many resources are used in the production of animal products.

In just 10 ½ months of veganism and based on the average North American consumption of animal products, these are my current statistics on resources saved:

363,000 gallons of water
13,200lbs of grain
9,900 sq ft of forest
6,600lbs of CO2 emissions
330 animal lives

While not everyone is ready to make the change to veganism completely, numbers like this are truly shocking, and entice a lot of people to start minimising the amount of animal products they consume.

Sometimes as a regular everyday person, we can feel powerless to things we see happening in the world. That is why I like sharing my experiences since becoming vegan, seeing these numbers, knowing the changes I am making to animals lives, as well as helping the health of the planet, makes me feel truly more powerful then I have before, and it is a very good feeling.