Hello love! Welcome back to my space! It’s Friday, so that means it’s time for another celebration! Shamelessly Fabulous Friday was born from my desire to share and celebrate creators that inspire me, uplift me and add a little sunshine to my day, in the hopes that they do the same for you.
I am so excited to be sharing and celebrating Peggy, creatress of Veggie Peggy!
Peggy danced her way into my feed several months ago and to say I have been inspired, is an understatement! Peggy shares ways that you can live a colorful life from the inside out by sharing healthy food and practical wellness tips in such a loving and compassionate way, you can’t help but feel empowered. One way that I would describe Peggy’s energy, is ELECTRIC!
One of the things I absolutely love about Peggy is that she has this way with words that makes you feel like you can do anything! After I read her motivational captions, I am ready to conquer the world, for real! Recently, Peggy has joined forces with TikTok and become an educational content creator bring the level of her wellness and informative posts to the next level! I cannot wait to see what Peggy does next!!!
I sat down with Peggy and had the most lovely Soulversation, here’s what she had to say:
I like to start the conversation with the obligatory but not to be rushed over, how are?
For the most part I would say that I doing very well, you with the whole pandemic, its been crazy but fortunately nothing has impacted me directly. I did have to stop working. I wasn’t working there for long, so I was used to not working for a little bit. I have projects coming in, which is something that I have always worked for and strived for and it’s finally happening.
Although things externally are crazy, internally, I have peace and I do have joy and I do have blessings. That’s something I constantly focus on because it could be a lot worse. Every time I wake up in the morning I have breath in my lungs, and I’m not saying that just to say it, its true. The older you get, the more grateful you are and the more aware you are that not everyone is not granted another day of life.
It’s something that I am constantly aware of because of things that have happened in my past. For a good amount of time, I would wake up with pain, before I change my lifestyle. I would wake up with pain and inflammation. I remember specifically when it stopped, I thought, oh my goodness, there’s no more pain. I was so grateful after that. I was so aware that I was pain free. I’m grateful for healing, I’m grateful for health, I’m grateful for another day of life.
It’s not that we should ignore that bad things, its more about changing your perspective. You choose to focus on certain things although there are things that are going on, it’s a choice that you make to focus on what it is that you do have.
Would you mind sharing your vegan journey with us?
About 5 years ago I was working working 9-5 at a law firm, I had stopped dancing professionally and it was just work. I think what happened is, because I wasn’t dancing any longer I didn’t have an outlet. I am naturally creative and I’m a performer and it’s something that I love to do, I love to connect. I had all of those aspects being on a dance team. There was the connection, there was the growth, there was learning, there was creativity and the performing.
I danced professionally while working at the law firm for a while. Then I stopped dancing. I was an administrative assistant and was being paid very well. I always thought I wanted to be an attorney, however, after a year or two working there, I was like no, that’s not for me. I didn’t know what else to do so I stayed there.
I became so drained. I felt the life coming out of me every single day. I didn’t have dance to balance it out and I didn’t like it. It’s not that I wasn’t grateful for it, it just wasn’t feeding my soul. Other outside things started happening and I became depressed. I got promoted at the law firm and it got worse. I started to experience anxiety.
I started numbing all of my feelings because I felt lost, I was depressed. I didn’t know what to do with my life. Food was my comfort. I would come home from work and eat until I fell asleep. It became a pattern, every single day. I didn’t realize that I was comforting myself because I didn’t feel well. The more I ate myself, to death, the more I got sick. I have always had problems with inflammation but it got worse. I would be standing around and I would feel pain in my chest. Not to mention, I was gaining a ridiculous amount of weight. I went to a check up and my doctor was looking at my chart and she saw how much weight I gained and she was baffled at how much weight I had gained in a year. She told me that I needed to do something, she started talking about nutrition and I was thinking, I know how to get fit, this is just temporary. I thought that if I just focused, I could snap back just like that. So it went in one ear and out the other because I knew what I was capable of. But when you’re in a dark space, you can’t, its not that you’re incapable, its just harder. So this whole snap back thing that I thought I was going to do eventually, every time I tried, I failed because it was my mindset that needed to change.
Instead what ended up happening was I tried to fix the physical aspect. I knew I need to find something to do with how I was eating. I was on You Tube, I saw Food Inc. Food Inc talks about where your food comes from. That documentary revealed a lot of things about food and what’s in the supermarket. Then I saw a raw food documentary. I thought it sounded interesting, so I did it for 8 months. After I did it, all of the ailments that I was feeling healed and disappeared. I had a lump here (on wrist) that was painful and inflamed. It was a cyst, gone! A lot of the things that I was suffering with just left, gone!
After that, I knew I wasn’t going to be raw vegan forever but I did continue on my plant based journey and incorporated as much raw foods as possible. It went from that, to healing my body and then from healing my body to having an understanding of what I was going through, that in turn helped me with my mental aspect.
Did you notice any sort of spiritual changes when you made the switch to a plant based diet?
Short answer: yes! I was always a spiritual being as far as religion, going to church, taking to God on a regular basis. However, when you’re not in line with your mental health and your physical health, other things start declining as well. My spiritual health was declining. I think it was me trying to connect back with my spiritual health that lead me to wanting to change and wanting growth. I believe that purpose and spirituality is connected and I believe that God has me here for a purpose. I have purpose but God is not going to do it for me. I have to do the work, so through that there was growth. The more you live in your purpose, the more you’re spiritually growing.
Do you believe that this is what sparked your interest in studying mental health?
Absolutely! It brought me back! I found a letter that I wrote to myself when I was 9 or 11, and I talked about the things that I wanted to be when I grew up. I’ve always been drawn to psychology, I’ve always been drawn to helping people in their mental aspects. It wasn’t until people like parents and teachers started telling me, ‘you would be a great lawyer’ because I like to questions things. They fed into that, so I thought I wanted to go to law school. It wasn’t until I went back that I saw what I wanted to do.
It wasn’t until going through depression and going through anxiety and healing myself with food to make me realize that I wanted to help people. It took me a while to decide between mental health and nutrition. After I overcame all that I overcame, I though maybe dietetic would be what I wanted to do or a registered nutritionist.
I had to think about what get’s me fired up. I thought about the courses that I would take for mental health and the courses that I would take for dietetics. The mental health courses excited me so much and I knew that I wanted to gain more knowledge in this field.
What are some tips you have for someone that isn’t self aware but would like to become self aware?
The first thing is to listen to yourself. We all have inner thoughts, some are aware, some are not. We have to be aware of how we talk to ourselves. After you do something realize how it made you feel. That is what helped me grow.
After a while, I told myself that, I’m vegan, so I’m going to have some vegan junk food, because hey, its vegan, I’m not harming animals. I had vegan junk food every now and then and guess what happened, the aches and pains started coming back. So I had to realize what works for me is whole foods, mostly raw vegan. That’s what makes me feel amazing. A lot of people eat things and think it’s normal to feel like crap, when its not.
Listen to your thoughts and your body. Understand how you feel after hanging out with certain people, understand how you feel when you eat certain things. A lot of people are going through their days without analyzing. You have to check in.
What is keeping you grounded these days?
Finally being in a place where I am right now. This is what I’ve been praying for, for a very long time. I’m seeing the fruition of working hard, I’m seeing the fruition of doing things and slowly growing. I always wanted to live a life where I’m making money through a merge of fitness, mental health and nutrition, and I’m finally seeing that come together. This is what I’ve been working on and this is what I’ve been building. Seeing my vision and living with purpose.
Who inspires you?
I’m easily inspired. I can’t think of one name but I get inspired scrolling on Instagram. With big names, Viola Davis inspires me, she went from being a kid that didn’t know where her next meal was coming from, to going to Julliard and working on her craft and now she’s a huge name in acting! She worked so hard for that. Michelle Obama inspires me, she just oozes confidence and wisdom. Jennifer Lopez, because she was a dancer turned actor and singer. I draw inspiration from that because people want to put you in a box, they want to tell you that you’re just a dancer so stick to that. But you have to see it within yourself do you what you want to do. Beyonce’s work ethic, inspires me, I love seeing people driven.
What has been the hardest thing to grow your vision?
Doubting myself. What happens is when you doubt yourself you don’t put in 100 percent of the effort that you should be putting in. It’s like self sabotage, there’s a part of you that says, why go all out, its not going to happen.
What book has had the greatest impact on your life?
The Slight Edge, he talks about what determines success is something so small but no one wants to do it and its being consistent. It planted a seed that made me realize how important it is to build daily habits.
What simple thing brings you joy?
I love music, that’s what increased my passion for dance. I love laughing, so comedy, laughing brings me joy!
What are you listening to right now?
What are you best practices for getting through challenging times?
Prayer. Reading literature that speaks and aligns to my faith. Watching sermons.
What are you favorite self care practices?
Dancing and working out.
What are you grateful for?
I’m grateful for seeing my vision come into fruition.
What gives you hope you hope for the future?
Living in my purpose
Where can we find you?
Instagram: Veggie Peggy YouTube: Veggie Peggy Facebook: Veggie Peggy Twitter: Veggie Peggy
I had so much fun sharing and celebrating Peggy today! If you need some inspiration in your life definitely check Peggy out! Thanks so much for stopping by and until next time, stay fabulous!xo
