Going Vegan for Beginners – How To Get Started!

pinkoddy

3 years ago

Going Vegan isn’t about a change of diet it is about a change of lifestyle. A lot of vegans find it easy just to go cold turkey but others find it more difficult. Personally I am still on a journey to make the change and so am looking up as much information as I can. You may recall that I previously wrote about Going Vegan as a Family.

Approaches to Going Vegan

Some people just don’t like the animal cruelty and so this motivation alone is enough to just wake up vegan. For others it isn’t as easy, especially after years of the same routine. Plus society makes it much easier for non-vegans, but hopefully things are changing.

You may wish to approach going vegan in smaller steps. Either armed with information and plenty of planning, or a bit at a time. You may wish to become vegetarian first; just try Veganuary; be Vegan one day a week; or make simple changes in your lifestyle towards an overall change. For instance I now have coconut milk when I go out for coffee, and we use vegan Flora at home.

Going Vegan: Some Helpful Resources

As I say going Vegan isn’t about a change of diet. If you wish to cut out meat, dairy and eggs then you may want to look into a plant-based diet. There is a wealth of blogs, websites and people on social media all willing to help with your vegan journey. Plus there are many things to watch to help inform yourself about reasons to go vegan; here are some suggestions:

Dominion – YouTube
Cowspiracy – Film
Earthlings – Documentary Film
Bitesizevegan – YouTube
Joey Carbstrong – YouTube
Earthling Ed – YouTube
What the Health – Documentary

Things That You May Find Hard About Going Vegan and Some Solutions

Things that Vegans have expressed that they found hard were:

Giving Up Foods They Love

Not being able to eat the things they love. This is particularly dairy, convenience foods, breakfast items and white coffee.
- The solutions vary between people with some suggesting alternatives, whilst others say to embrace the new lifestyle discovering new things that you love. For alternatives you can actually Google the things you love and put “Vegan” in front and will find most things. Letting go of what you are used to is a big part of it though – with examples of cauliflower based pizza for breakfast!

Time Consuming

Another problem is that they found it time consuming. Knowing what to cook and cooking it. This can be the same with any meals though – and I know we are stuck in a rut with a restricted diet because of this.
- There’s actually a real wealth of ideas online. This is somewhere you could slowly incorporate being Vegan in your life by trying them maybe once a week. Or even just taking out the non-vegan items from your meals (such as in a stir fry). Alternatively more and more supermarkets are providing vegan convenience foods. Plus a lot of foods are accidentally vegan – so you may find that you won’t be as restricted as you thought you would be.
Cooking for Non-Vegans in the Family. This can be because they don’t believe in the slaughter of animals for food or it could be the practicality of it. Again maybe convenience foods could help with this.

Eating Correctly

A lot of people may worry about getting the right calories or having a balanced diet. The thing is you can get all you need from a vegan diet. It is best to consult with a nutritionist if you are worried though. Vegan as I say is a lifestyle choice, not necessarily a better diet.

Eating Out

Eating out can be a problem as there’s limited options. This is becoming less so, especially with more people going vegan. But let’s face it, eating out isn’t good for you anyway.