It’s Day 1 of #VeganMoFo18 (Vegan Month of Food 2018). This will be my first year participating in VeganMoFo, but I had so much fun with #PlasticFreeJuly that I thought this would be another fun campaign to get involved with!

So allow me to introduce myself! I am a Vegan Health and Lifestyle Coach in the Seattle, Washington area with my business, Trimazing! Vegan Health and Lifestyle Coaching. I started health and wellness coaching during my 20-year firefighting career, leading the Wellness/Fitness program at my fire department as part of the International Association of Firefighters/International Association of Fire Chiefs Wellness Fitness Initiative until I retired in 2014. I am a certified Health Coach, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, and Peer Fitness Trainer through the American Council on Exercise, a licensed paramedic, and hold a Masters degree in Leadership, with focused study on servant leadership and coaching.

I became vegan in 2009. I was struggling with being overweight and was really unhealthy. And I was scared I was going to die of cancer. My dad and his mom had both died of blood cancers and the governor of the state where I worked had enacted a law adding 12 types of cancer to occupational disease presumptions for firefighters, including the blood cancers my relatives had; this meant that being a firefighter exposed me to substances that could cause cancer. I couldn’t change my genetics and I didn’t want to stop being a firefighter, so I started to research cancer risk reduction. I found study after study pointing toward decreased incidence of all types of cancer with significant reduction or elimination of animal protein consumption. But more than that, a whole foods, plant-based diet was also found to reduce, even reverse Type II (adult onset) diabetes, and the cardiovascular benefits were extremely compelling, too. So I decided to try it. Without going on a diet and just putting better fuel (plant-based nutrition) into my body, that year I dropped 60 pounds, 7 uniform pants sizes, 3 uniform shirt sizes, and dropped my cholesterol and blood pressure readings. Beyond looking better, my fitness level soared, and gave me new energy I could not contain. I became an adult-onset athlete at the age of 39! Ten years later, I still maintain great health and fitness without ever dieting.

I started this blog in 2010 not necessarily to chronicle my transition to veganism, but to share my journey into my new-found love of athletics. I’d never been an athlete and was really excited to share everything I was learning about triathlon and how being whole food plant-based contributed to it. What started out as a personal campaign to improve my health and prevent disease led me to examine all areas of my life and develop incredible stewardship for animals and the environment—veganism truly opened my eyes. Now, not only does my blog look at triathlon, but whole food plant-based food, and the environmental impact of being an ethical, zero waste vegan as well.

The theme for my #VeganMoFo18 will be on being a Zero Waste Vegan. This month I will share vegan food-based tips, tricks, lessons learned, links for recipes, resources, and more on zero waste. Reducing our environmental impact has become my passion and I am excited to share what we are doing in our household to help save this planet, animals, and future generations from certain destruction should we continue on our current path. It is a crisis situation that we must mitigate, and we can all help with small changes that can save our planet. Please join me this month, and beyond, to learn simple steps to a better life and world, and be #Trimazing!