Welcome! I’m Celeste, California girl, writer, psychotherapist and burgeoning plant-based foodie. I started this blog to blab about my plant-based diet and all things vegan. My purpose here is to share, connect and inspire.
You don’t have to be vegan to get something out of this blog. Whether you’re vegan, veg-curious, following a plant-based diet, need to lose weight, love animals, are concerned about your health or are just hungry – there’s something here for you!
You can expect to find…
- Friendly posts about my experiences navigating a plant-based life
- Easy vegan recipes
- Information on the welfare of animals
- Restaurant reviews
- My thoughts on vegan friendly stuff
- Health and nutrition info
- Other random ramblings
You will not find…
- Judgment! I certainly will never judge you for the way you choose to eat. I welcome everyone!
Check out Meet Celeste for more about me and my transition from chubby carnivore to lean, green vegan.
The header and layout of this blog has been designed by Natasha Basacchi.
Honk If You're Vegan 
Just love your blog title!!
Aw thanks! I just checked out your blog, by the way and love it!! The journey you guys are on is amazing!!!! I’m your newest follower. Celeste 🙂
Aw awesome!! Thank you for your kind words.
It was great meeting you as well Celeste. Thanks for your kind words. I’m not sure if Vine will have any entrees you could have, but they do have a handful of salads and sides you might be able to enjoy. Maybe chef can omit the cheese for you. My Seabirds Kitchen story will post tomorrow by the way….. hope to run into you again in the near future. — Anita
Wow – you’re on the ball! I won’t be posting about Seabirds for at least a week. I’ll check out your write up and I hope that we meet again too! Celeste 🙂
Congratulations, Celeste! I have nominated you for an award. If you do not wish to accept it – no problem. Simply interpret this as my admiration and for sharing your wonderful vegan posts with us all. ~ Amelia 🙂 http://mungaiandthegoaconstrictor.me/2014/02/03/thanks-for-the-nominations-part-two/
Thank you SO much! 🙂
🙂
Thank you for sharing and greetings 🙂 🙂
*clicks follow* I love your blog, I’ll definitely be coming back to read more! 😀
Wow, this is a great day for finding vegan blogs. I also went on your twitter page and followed you. The maple bar recipe looks SOOOOO good, I can’t wait to try it. I’m a vegan as well, animal activist, etc. and am just shining today with all of the incredible people I’m finding on blogs. All days are good but some just rock.
Thank you SO much for your lovely comment! I love your enthusiasm, that you’re vegan, that your an animal activist and that you’re following me!! You rock! Celeste 🙂
Great to meet a friendly non-judgemental vegan!!!!
Celeste, I thought of another post you might like. I loved these friends!
http://talesalongtheway.com/2014/02/19/friends-at-cept/
Hi Celeste, Thanks so much for following my blog. I had cut meat for 20yres except fish and chicken, then dairly except for skim milk in my tea but 6 yrs ago I started eating meat again occasionally becuase I was alwasy so low on iron. I found eating meat twice or three times a month less complicated. Now the dairy…well, Imoved back to Montreal where we have amazing cheese and you got it…I slipped back. I look forward to trying again but with tastier choices…yours!
I get how hard it is to resist the foods you love (believe me, I slip up at times for sure!). Good luck with going cheese-free again. I’m sure that tastier choices will make a difference. I know I wouldn’t be able to maintain this diet if I didn’t eat stuff that tasted great to me. Thankfully, I’ve found ways to make a vegan diet really delicious. You might consider ordering some cheese from Door 86 Vegan Cheese. I haven’t tried them, but I’ve been told they’re delicious. No matter what, you’re trying and that’s the best any of us can do. Have a great week! Celeste 🙂
I do have to be mindful of cholesterol for my age and due to other conditions…
My husband’s high cholesterol and high blood pressure are what first brought us to a plant-based diet. Both his cholesterol and BP went down dramatically within weeks of going on this diet. It’s a good thing. 🙂
Oh wow, that’s cool. I remember cutting cream in coffee, cheese and still did not work…I quite smoking and that brought it down tremendously. I am glad to see that…I am going to check your blog more often…with my hypothyroidism added to the mix, I really want to be healthier without taking extra medication.
The name of your blog is awesome! I’m dabbling in the vegan side of things today (inspired by Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before 6 book) and look forward getting ideas from your blog. Cheers!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I’m excited that you’re dabbling in veganism, that’s awesome!! I started out as a part-time vegan, but once my foot was in the door there was no going back!! Celeste 🙂
I am looking forward to read about weight-loss and management! I love to know about nutritious food and I am really happy to be your follower!
Thanks so much for your lovely note! Hope you’re having a wonderful week. Celeste 🙂
Just saw your doing an event for the IE vegan meetup! I’m part of that group but I don’t think I can make it! It would have been cool to meet you! 🙂
Bummer!! Oh well, maybe we’ll meet another time. Celeste 🙂
Celeste, I’m pretty sure you have got these awards before, but here’s the Dragon’s Loyalty and the Versatile Blogger award to show my love for your blog and the way you inspire the world to become vegan and compassionate!
http://eatingwelldiary.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/another-day-of-awards-trophies-and-many-thanks-to-you-all-for-the-follow/
Thank you!!! I really appreciate it! Celeste 🙂
Hi Celeste. If you have the interest or the inclination, it would be great if you could comment on this vegan debate.
http://emynow.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/a-debate-in-animal-advocacy-to-be-or-not-to-be-an-abolitionist/
It was started by legacy of pythagoras.
All the best ❤
Hey Emy! Thanks for sharing this with me – I’ll check it out. Have a great weekend. Celeste 🙂
So happy I came across your blog! Love the recipes and look forward to seeing more. Thank you for the follow also 🙂
Have a wonderful weekend!
Hi there, just letting you know that I’ve nominated you for the sunshine award! Acceptance is optional. But if you’re interested, please come check out this post!: http://ineedafeed.wordpress.com/2014/05/08/sunshine-award/
And have an amazing day!
You’re such a doll!! Thank you so much for the nomination – I really appreciate it!! 🙂
Hey Celeste, I’d like invite you to be part of a fun ‘Blog Tour’- The Writing Process. You’ll be asked a few questions. I’d be so delighted for you to accept. See Tammi’s recent post ‘Blog Tour’ on GMO Free Girl as an example. My post will be this Monday. Thanks 🙂
Hey Abby! Sounds like a cool thing to do. I’ll consider taking part and I’ll definitely check out your post on Monday. Thanks so much for the invite chica – I appreciate it! 🙂
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that! 😀
Hello Celeste, Thank you for visiting my blog and the follow. Love your vegan blog and look forward to reading more. Keep in touch 🙂
Thanks for your lovely comment – I appreciate it! 🙂
After leaving a comment on your latest posts, I’m so happy to see this about page. I’m going to be complexly honest, I’m as nervous talking to vegetarians and vegans about how I haven’t been able to give up meat 100% (I really am trying, though) as I am about telling meat eaters I’m trying to at least go vegetarian. I hope to be vegan, but there’s just so much to learn. One thing at a time. This is all to say, thank you for not being judgmental. I hope to learn a lot from your blog.
Thank you for your honesty, and you’re certainly not alone. I know that there are some people who go vegan ‘cold turkey’ (bad analogy for a vegan – hehe!), but it’s a process for most people. It certainly was a process for me. I struggled in the beginning because I craved the familiarity of the diet I was used to. The hardest things for me to give up were cheese and ice cream, and I cheated on these all the time at first. Over time it got easier and I grew to love being vegan. Eventually my cravings for ice cream and cheese just stopped and now I don’t crave them at all anymore.
As you make the transition, you discover that there are tasty substitutes for just about any food you love. You’ll also learn how to make yummy vegan meals and your taste buds will adjust. It really gets easier and much better over time. Both my husband and I would never think of going back to how we ate before now. We really love being vegan.
I know that there are some vegans who will judge you for not being perfect, but I think they are few and far between. You’ll find that most vegans are very understanding of people who are trying to make the transition. We’ve all been there! In fact, I think most vegans are excited to hear that others are trying to make the change. And just so you know, I still cheat on occasion. I don’t do it often, but it happens. I don’t beat myself up over this. I’m only human for gosh sakes!
Congrats on your desire to go vegan and keep heart, it really does get easier! And even if you never make a full vegan transition, you’re still very welcome here. There are actually a lot of non-vegans who read my blog.
Celeste 🙂
PS – Watching plant-based and vegan movies a lot really helped me to make the change. My favorites are Forks Over Knives and Vegucated.
The biggest influencer for me was a book I read in January called The China Study. Since then, I’ve been able to mostly keep meat consumption down to a few times a week. That a big difference from having meat at almost every meal! Honestly, my biggest hurdle is my awesome job. They buy me lunch almost every day and are very old fashioned. No meat at a meal is almost sacrilegious to them. Also, I can’t go without eating. I know vegetarians who will skip a meal to avoid eating meat. I just can’t handle that. I’ve been working on bringing my own meal every day just in case. For now, my goal is vegetarian. I’ll think about vegan once I got that down.
P.s. are those movies on Netflix?
The China Study is pretty darn motivating! They talk about that in Forks Over Knives, which I believe is available on Netflix (I think Vegucated is too). I hear you about your job. It would be tough to resist all that yummy food when it’s right in front of your face everyday. The times when I cheat are typically when I’m at an event, like a wedding, and all this non-vegan food is right there for the taking. Although it’s challenging, you’re doing an amazing job in resisting. You’ve cut back a lot, so pat yourself on the back for that!
If you keep at it, I know you’ll continue to not only resist even more, but will start to love eating healthier. You’ll look and feel so much better and you’ll find that eating veg is really delicious. It is sooooo hard in the beginning, however; that you’ll need lots of motivation. What my husband and I did that helped us to be more consistent with the diet was to watch movies like Forks Over Knives again and again. Not just once, but again and again and again. Yea, it’s boring, but its also really motivating. And it only takes a few weeks of this before you’re totally over meat.
Congrats on your progress keep it up! Celeste 🙂
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Hi Celeste, I just came across your blog. I look forward to following!
Hi! I don’t know if you remember this, but a while back I asked you some questions via email to out together into an interview post. Thanks again, it was so great and tour views are so interesting. Well, I finally compiled the questions into a post! You can see it here: http://myveganvalentine.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/chatcelestedimilla/
Hello Celeste! I would be so happy if you could comment on my new post which YOU inspired when you asked me to write about my beauty routine, I’m posting it tomorrow! 🙂
❤ carmen