Well guys the Wesley’s are VEGAN!!! For the past ten months my family has been vegan and I must say it has had an excellent impact on not only the kids’ health but mine and my husband’s as well (he’s lost over 35lbs).

Our journey to becoming vegan started back in 2017 after Tyson had that crisis and was in the hospital for 4 or 5 days. After that I sat down with my husband and told him that I thought it would be best for the kids’ health if they stopped eating meat. We believe we are fighting Sickle Cell as a team, so my husband and I decided to go vegan as well. I was aware that meat causes inflammation in the body and because of that it can affect the blood vessels and affect the flow of blood. I also knew we loved meat (especially me being from the Midwest, I could live off meat and potatoes) and would have a hard time cutting it out completely cold turkey. My goal was to be completely vegan by August of 2018. That way I would have just about a year to say goodbye to my beloved meat. So I started gradually by only cooking meat for dinner. Then I cut back to only cooking it a few times a week. We did this for a while and eventually I stopped cooking meat altogether. We did however still eat it if we would go out to a restaurant, or to our friends and family houses. But I began to notice that after not eating meat for a few weeks or even a month and eating it again the kids would have pain crises. So in September of 2018 we stopped eating meat completely. Yeah I know I missed my goal by a month, I told y’all that this was hard for me.

The kids went pain free for several months but, when the weather turned cold in January both of the kids had a crisis at the same freaking time. I was a little discouraged at first I can’t even lie. But then I began to notice that not only were they not in as much pain as before, their crisis were only a couple of days as opposed to 6-8 days. Again last month Jordyn had another one but it didn’t even last a full 24 hours. Tyson has been having them more in places he’s never had them, like his hands, the bottom of his feet and even shoulders ever since he started playing drums, so my husband and I are trying to figure out exactly what to do about that.

Other things I’ve noticed since going vegan is that the kids have more energy, even though I didn’t think that would be possible. My husband and I are definitely feeling a lot healthier as well. I have had more energy too. I used to get so tired around the middle of the day I could barely keep my eyes open but that almost never happens now. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted on how our vegan journey is going, but for more specific details on our diet go the Wesley Diet page here on my website. I’m also thinking of sharing some of my vegan recipes, so leave a comment below if that’s something you’d be interested in.