Melissa Bastian Breedlove

38; vegan 10 years; hometown New Orleans, LA

 

“I’m doing a lot of reading and a lot of walking. I have a physical disability but I’m determined to walk a 5k for juvenile justice in October. Excitingly, last night I did it. I walked 5 kilometers. It took me 80 minutes but I did it. I figure if I keep training until October I might be able to do it in an hour. That’s a major accomplishment for me given the body I live in. I tried to set a schedule and it just doesn’t work because my body needs change every day and my body’s needs change every day, so I just listen to it and do what I can. I have fibromyalgia which is part of why I went vegan to start with. I  got sick when I was really young and doctors just want to give you pills. By the time I was 21, they wanted me on nine different prescriptions and none of them helped, they just all hugged other problems that they wanted to give me prescriptions for. It seemed, even as a very young person, it seemed crazy. That can’t be a sustainable answer for something that I’ll have for the rest of my life, and that’s why I started looking into food and nutrition. And that’s when, you know, you barely scratch the surface and it opens this huge can of worms that is the food industry. That’s what started me on my path.”

 

Photo by Holly Feral