I haven’t shared an interview post with you guys in a while, so today I am extremely excited to share my interview with the beautiful inside and out Sarah from wildgypsycaravan.com.
Sarah and I initially connected on instagram and I immediately knew I had to interview her for the blog as she is such a genuinely kind person with an abundance of plant-based knowledge to share. Sarah is raising a beautiful vegan family and documents their compassionate lifestyle on her blog and instagram in an incredibly authentic and relatable way. Her lovely little family has also embraced a life of minimalism, something which I find so fascinating and inspiring! I am so glad I got to know Sarah better through this interview; I’m sure you are all going to love her story as much as I do ▷►▹▸
Q: How did your vegan journey start, what were your main inspirations and influences?
A: As a child I was always strange around meat and was on and off vegetarian all throughout my childhood. When I was in college I watched the documentary Food Inc., and never touched white meat (the only thing I was still consuming) ever again. I was vegetarian for about 7 years and continuously wanted to make the leap to veganism but was having a hard time letting go of the cheese, the only animal product still in my diet. I was always looking for a reason to dislike it. I began to research animal treatment and welfare, as well as health related problems caused by animal products. My first step towards veganism came after I watched “Forks Over Knives.” I was still having trouble letting go of the cheese, mostly because I could never do it for myself (being vegan for health). One day in a small local bookstore in a seaport town I came across a book called “The Lucky Ones” by Jenny Brown who owns Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. It gave me all the reasons I needed and more to swear off dairy for good and turned me into an ethical vegan. When it comes from an ethical place, being vegan is never difficult for me. That was 2 years ago!
Q: It’s so great you’re raising a beautiful vegan daughter, tell us about how you and your partner came to raise a vegan family?
A: My husband (Jim) and I are both vegan, and I am so grateful for that. We’ve both found so much joy and inspiration from being vegan and we wouldn’t change that for the world. We’ve been together since we were 15 years old and have grown together as individuals and as a couple. We both came from non-vegan families, but with each others support we have found and embraced this lifestyle. We lived in San Diego for a time after college and that is where we began our path into veganism. I was already not eating meat and after researching animal products, Jim followed after me and became vegetarian. He immediately began dropping weight and after we both went vegan together, he lost 70lbs and cured his chronic psoriasis which would often overtake parts of his body throughout his teenage years. That’s all the proof we needed to never look back. When we became pregnant we knew that we would never raise our daughter any other way. We want her to grow up being kind and compassionate to all living beings, have the opportunity to be in glowing beautiful health her whole life, and to hopefully inspire others to do the same.
Q: Have you got any tips for someone planning on raising a vegan family?
A: Be certain in your decision to raise your family vegan, regardless of what other family members or society thinks. I know that this is different to a lot of people but I also feel extremely enlightened by veganism. Children are born with a desire to be kind and to love. They do not want to harm living beings. This makes the most sense to us and I only hope to inspire others to leave the animals off their plates and to find a more compassionate way of existing. A lot of people are fearful of their child being different, but I feel in my heart that when a child is raised that way from birth, and have an understanding of right and wrong, they will always do the right thing and encourage others to. Being educated on nutrition and animal welfare is the best thing you can do as a parent so you can radiate confidence in your choices.
Q: I love when you share pictures of your gorgeous little doggy on your insta (crazy dog lady here!) does he follow a veggie diet too?
A: Our fur baby Lavender is 100% vegan and thriving off of it. There are so many back and forths about companion animals being vegan but I fully support one for doggies. We’re totally obsessed with her and want her to have the longest, healthiest life possible. I’ve seen too many people feeding their dogs hamburgers and other animals products, only to have them suffer in the end. She’s so happy and so healthy and when we take her to get her hair cut, we hear nothing but how she has the best, shiniest coat around…yep- it’s all the veggies, fruit and lentils she eats! She eats a more rounded diet than most toddlers (ha!). Lavender loves blueberries, carrots, apples, and oatmeal :).
Q: It’s great that you share your compassionate lifestyle on your blog and instagram in such an authentic and relatable way. Tell us about the inspiration behind your blog and insta.
A: I love connecting with other people who are so passionate about living a healthy, kind lifestyle and I get so much joy from writing my blog, Wild Gypsy Caravan and curating my Instagram. It’s really all too fun! I’ve always had a passion for creating…I feel most in my “zone” when i’m doing something with my hands or making beautiful visuals. I fell into blogging in college for something completely unrelated and since then it has totally evolved. I love sharing my lifestyle so I can inspire others to live wildly authentic, enjoy every moment of their lives, and to do so while being kind to this earth and the beings we share it with. I have met so many wonderful people via my instagram and blog and I hope to continue to as we ride this crazy adventure called life. Wild Gypsy Caravan is quite literally our home, a 200 square foot renovated FEMA trailer. It’s stories and inspiration from inside our home and from wherever we make our home. We’re a traveling family seeking beauty and happiness in the every day.
Q: In addition to being vegan, your family has embraced minimalism, tell us more about this.
A: Our family found minimalism about a year and a half ago. We were drowning in debt and couldn’t figure out why. We both had Master’s degrees, jobs, and we kept upgrading our life along with it. Apartment to condo to BIG house. It seemed like all the right things we “should” be doing. Then we realized, why? Why are we on this endless path to working far too many hours only to retire? We wanted to spend our time together now. As silly as this sounds, Jim and I are madly in love and want to be with each other…all the time (crazy, right?). So we figured out how we could. By having and desiring less, we get more time in return. When our time isn’t spent making money to consume things that only bring temporary enjoyment, we get our lives back. We need less money now to live a fulfilled life and we make that money by doing things we like to do. This is still a process and we hope that in a years time we’ll be able to hit the road and live untethered full time. We want our daughter to experience having both her parents around all the time and us having wild adventures together.
Q: All of your recipes look incredibly delicious. If you could eat only one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A: Oh my goodness! This is SO hard. I have a total obsession with mangoes and I could eat boat loads of them. I would probably choose those over most things! As far as a prepared dish it’s a toss up between chocolate peanut butter “nice cream” or the not-so-healthy path of BBQ pulled Jackfruit sandwich with pickles! ::drool:: Oh man…I also LOVE fresh bread and olives. See, this was too hard for me. 😹
Q: Since going vegan I have experienced so many amazing health benefits; what positive effects has adopting the vegan diet had on you?
A: I have struggled with weight my entire life and since becoming vegan I have completely changed my relationship with food. I overeat less often and I have stopped that awful cycle of eat, guilt, eat, guilt. It has redefined what food means to me and I am more grateful and in control of it than I have ever been before. I continue to lose weight (50lbs or so) while eating vegan and by sticking to whole foods from the earth rather than anything processed. I have noticed my skin is always clear and my energy levels are always good, even after a meal. My husband healed his psoriasis and lost a ton of weight (70lbs).
Q: Describe a day in the life of Sarah & Jim.
A: Wake up, stretch, drink some lemon water, make a big breakfast loaded with fruit. These days we usually run out to our tiny house to work on it (we’re super anxious to move in!). If it’s the weekend we plan some crazy adventure like a day trip somewhere new or have a picnic. Eat a bunch of mangoes for lunch (or sub any fruit!). Have playtime with Stella and Lavender, work on our Etsy shop, make a warm meal for dinner, sit and and sip tea on our porch under our amber lights on the Wild Gypsy Caravan. Snuggle and read Stella a book. Fall asleep talking to each other. Rinse, repeat.
Q: Do you have a favourite inspirational quote to leave us with?
A: “Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson. I created a piece of art to this quote about a year ago and it hangs over our bed. It reminds me to live fearless and with intention and adventure every day. It inspires me to live differently- rather that be veganism, minimalism or to live outside the box.
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Thank you so much Sarah for sharing your story. Be sure to check out Sarah’s awesome blog at: wildgypsycaravan.com to follow her family’s beautiful journey ♥
jadegreenvegan.com 