

Vegan Celebs Who Will Inspire You To Jumpstart Your Meat- & Dairy-Free Lifestyle Journey
Making healthy eating choices isn't just a trend in the Black community, issa lifestyle—one saving lives that's snatching the waists of women across the country.
While many nutritionists and wellness gurus have been on the vegan wave for decades, innovative recipes and an increased amount of time at home have encouraged women to challenge their dietary choices and leveling up their lives by experimenting with plant-based meal planning options, and we love to see it.
According to the internet, eliminating foods like dairy and incorporating more fruits and vegetables in your diet can improve the condition of your skin, your gut, and your overall health so I guess the real question is, why not switch to a vegan lifestyle?
Because we like chicken nuggets. That's why.
Luckily, xoNecole has all the tips from celebs like Taraji P. Henson, who began her vegan journey only two years ago, to Erykah Badu, who has been about this vegan life for two whole decades, who will give you all the motivation you need to ditch GMOs and jumpstart your meat- and dairy-free lifestyle journey ASAP.
Scroll below for more!
Jhene Aiko
Parisa Michelle / Shutterstock.com
Ava DuVernay
DFree / Shutterstock.com
Taraji P. Henson
In an interview with InStyle, Taraji shared:
"It took a doctor in Macon, Georgia, to say, 'If you don't change what you're doing, you're going to get stomach cancer.' ...So I switched everything up out of necessity. I want to live. Thank God, because I feel so much better."
Mya
Mya/Instagram
"It is a lifestyle for me and outside of just food, I'm practicing fashion and making sure I'm not wearing leather shoes and I have not worn furs since a long time ago. I have to be very conscious when I'm making decisions and saying I'm vegan because I have to be about it all the way and now that has given me some thought into creating certain things like home décor."
Dewanda Wise
Getty
Erykah Badu
Getty
According to Erykah Badu, she's not new to the vegan life, she's true to it. In an interview with People, the 49-year-old singer revealed that she's been on a vegan diet since 1997:
"It's just what's best for my body. If I was a Lamborghini I would want to put the best gas in it."
Chloe x Halle
Chloe explained in a 2017 interview with Complex:
"Eggs and dairy never sat well with me … so it was easy. When we moved to L.A., it really became easy. So many vegan restaurants and vegan aisles in the grocery store are like heaven for us!"
"Number one secret to keeping our voices in shape? God. Two, we're vegan, so we're not consuming dairy and it's not that extra mucus buildup all the time. We hydrate a lot more before performances. We were really on a roll of drinking gallon jugs of water, and that made us feel better mentally and physically."
Lizzo
"I used to eat a lot of hot Cheetos, but that wasn't good for my acid-reflux. These are Cheeto-alternative I love that's vegan and I dip them in hummus. Badda-boom badda-snack!"
"As a new vegan, I'm enjoying exploring flavors from plants and plant-based proteins! Every journey is personal and deserves to be celebrated."
Featured image by Parisa Michelle / Shutterstock.com
Taylor "Pretty" Honore is a spiritually centered and equally provocative rapper from Baton Rouge, Louisiana with a love for people and storytelling. You can probably find me planting herbs in your local community garden, blasting "Back That Thang Up" from my mini speaker. Let's get to know each other: @prettyhonore.
Black women are not a monolith. We all are deserving of healing and wholeness despite what we've been through, how much money we have in the bank, or what we look like. Most importantly, we are enough—even when we are not working, earning, or serving.
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TW: some depictions of intrusive thoughts may be disturbing for readers.
Have you ever caught your mind drifting off to entertain the most disturbing scenarios imaginable? Maybe you can’t stop thinking of all the ways a loved one could pass away or worrying that you left every candle lit in your apartment to which you’d return to a home in ruins. If distressing ruminations like these have crossed your mind, you may be experiencing an intrusive thought.
What Are Intrusive Thoughts?
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted or distressing thoughts, images, or impulses that pop into your mind without your control or consent. These thoughts can be repetitive, unsettling, or even violent in nature, and can cause anxiety and frustration for those who experience them.
“Generally they're unwanted thoughts that come up in our head that interrupt what we're doing or thinking, and can feel very foreign,” says Adia Gooden, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist and host of the Unconditionally Worthy podcast. “It’s any thought that intrudes or interrupts what you are doing. They can be distressing and upsetting for us because it feels like we are not in control of them, and they're coming up out of nowhere and aren’t in line with how you normally think.”
What Causes Intrusive Thoughts?
Certain trauma or stress can contribute to the development of intrusive thoughts, so having a challenging experience from the past or current life situations may trigger them to form. “An intrusive thought could come in the form of a flashback, image, or a thought about something that's happened to you,” Dr. Gooden tells xoNecole. “When it gets to the point where you feel like you can't function or make clear decisions, that's when intrusive thoughts become really challenging.”
While some of the 1 billion videos found under the #intrusivethoughts hashtag on TikTok would lead you to believe that these thoughts are nothing more than casual displays of our imagination going untamed. Intrusive thoughts are more than sticking your hand in a soap dispenser, wanting to cut all your hair off at 3 a.m., or having a random impulse to eat fake bread in public.
The Anxiety & Depression Association of America reports that approximately six million individuals, equating to roughly two percent of the American population, encounter intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts are often linked with obsessive-compulsive disorders, but they can also manifest in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety.
Examples of Common Intrusive Thoughts
Because of the explicit nature of intrusive thoughts, they tend to cause shame and internal conflict in those who experience them. Although these thoughts can differ from person to person, these ideation can consist of:
- Violent or aggressive thoughts towards oneself or others, such as harming or killing someone;
- Sexual thoughts that are unwanted or inappropriate;
- Repetitive thoughts, such as a song or a phrase that keeps repeating in your mind;
- Contamination or germ-related thoughts or the fear of contamination and getting sick;
- Religious or blasphemous thoughts, such as questioning one's faith or having thoughts that go against religious beliefs;
- Doubts or uncertainty about one's own actions or decisions, such as fear of making a mistake or fear of not doing something right.
Intrusive Thoughts and OCD
That’s why Dr. Gooden encourages everyone to understand the difference between our fleeting thoughts and impulses and true, intrusive thoughts. “What level of distress does it cause and is it something you would never consider,” she says. “If you're finding that these thoughts are getting in the way of you living your life and that you're controlled by the thoughts, those are some signs that it would be good to get some support in navigating it.”
She also emphasizes the importance of understanding that while we may not always have control over our thoughts, we can control our behavior. “On TikTok, people are sort of blaming intrusive thoughts on their behavior, and our behavior is always a choice,” she says. “If we are in our right mind and we're not having a psychotic episode, our behavior is our choice — we are not obligated to follow any given thought that we have.”
Are Intrusive Thoughts Normal?
With intrusive thoughts, it’s natural to question whether these thoughts are “normal” to have. However, these thoughts are not meant to define who you are as a person but simply indicate that you have a functioning human mind with automated thoughts that you, or any of us, can’t control. These thoughts may come, but they don’t have to be acted upon, nor do they define who you are.
“I've worked with clients in the past who say, ‘Why am I thinking these things? What's wrong with me?’ But if you're not acting on the thought, then it's probably not a huge issue,” Dr. Gooden says. “If you are thinking a harmful thought towards yourself or someone else and you are making plans to act on that thought, then yes, we need to do something about it.”
How To Manage Intrusive Thoughts
If you are struggling with managing unwanted thoughts, Dr. Aida suggests taking these tips to help manage your mindset when they occur:
- "Recognize that it's a thought and thoughts are just thoughts. We often put a little bit too much weight on our thoughts, and that can create a lot of distress. But remember that thoughts are not facts."
- "Having a thought that's disturbing or upsetting doesn't make you a bad person, and it doesn't mean that you are suffering from a mental illness."
- "Sometimes the best thing you can do is say, 'Huh, that was an interesting thought. I'm going to let that go. That thought is not helpful for me right now."
- "Ask yourself: is this helpful? Is it helpful for me to buy into this thought and believe this thought? Asking that question can be really helpful because we are not at the mercy of our thoughts. If it's not helpful, you can let it go."
Intrusive thoughts can feel bizarre and foreign when they come up, but they aren't inherently "bad." Our minds can sometimes be filled with random and inappropriate thoughts, but that's what our stream of consciousness does: it thinks. Fortunately, we can release those thoughts at any moment; you don't have to follow through with them.
And ultimately, not every TikTok diagnosis is one that we should label ourselves with.
"It's important for people to acknowledge what they're experiencing but not run too quickly to diagnose themselves with some mental illness or disorder," Dr. Gooden advises. "It ends with confusion, and we miss the opportunity to understand the people who really do have that mental health challenge."
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