I remember deciding to try going vegetarian more than 10 years ago, the gateway to eventually adopting a vegan lifestyle. I had already slowly given up red meat, then pork. Now while on vacation, I thought I’d see what options I could find at a French restaurant, to test whether I could make this work.

I can thank an open-minded chef at the Lakefront Restaurant in Mammoth Lakes for his vegetable Wellington because it was a savory delight with multi-layered flavors and colors. It was the first of many times at a shared table that I smugly thought, well, I am definitely eating the best meal at this table—and without meat!

The question that preceded this and similar choices: what if I could eat and live well without hurting animals? And the answer was a resounding “yes I can”. I can, and you can too!

There so many great reasons to give up living off of animals and adopting a vegan lifestyle, as many reasons as there are vegetarians and vegans. And there are millions of us in the U.S. and worldwide! We’d make quite a party, and a force for change, if we joined together—with great food and gorgeous cruelty-free outfits, and so much fun and conversation.

That’s the goal of the Joivert website, to bring people together to live well with delicious vegan and vegetarian recipes and to explore other ways to appreciate animals, and to just enjoy.

I have two friends who told me they had tried to “go vegan” by eating nothing but plain kale for weeks. Of course it wasn’t sustainable; kale can get pretty old pretty quick, and you need more nutrients to stay healthy.

Both of these ladies soon went back to a full-meat diet, and with their stories, my idea for this website was born. If my friends had been better prepared with tips to approach their new lifestyle, they could have succeeded and inspired others.

Since I committed to going vegan when I started this website a year ago, I am 99% there. I still struggle to find vegan food sometimes when I travel, and for that reason I’ve had to add cheese and eggs back into my diet for protein for a couple of weeks of the year. Follow me while I figure out how to eliminate all animal products from my diet, wardrobe and more!

Follow me. Share your own tips. And enjoy!