Best advice for being vegan?

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cee134
cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What is the best advice you have or have gotten for becoming vegan or sticking to a vegan diet?

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  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
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    One thing that has helped me so far is: Don't shop for one meal at a grocery store, shop for multiple meals.
  • tennileb
    tennileb Posts: 265 Member
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    Start small, you don't have to change everything at once. There is no award for best vegan ;)

    most recipes can be adapted to be vegan. if you have a few fav foods you can't live without it is ok to include them even if they are not vegan, it is also ok to adapt them to make them vegan. it is not about perfection

    and the best thing I have figured out so far....when cooking for an omnivore don't call it vegan x,y or z, remember it is just food, you don't need to advertise what is not in it.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    1. Find a good B12 supplement, take it regularly.
    2. Challenge yourself to cook something new each week -- you'll find out what works for you and what doesn't and you'll soon have a collection of new favorite recipes. Pinterest is a great source for vegan recipes and I also love the cookbooks of Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Donna Klein, and Bryant Terry. There are vegan cookbooks for almost every cuisine and style of cooking, including low calorie, comfort food, Latin American foods, soul food, Caribbean food, and whole foods (just choosing some from random on my bookshelf).
    3. Don't be discouraged by the learning curve. The first few months of learning how to read labels are the toughest. After that, it's pretty much auto-pilot.
    4. If something goes wrong, figure out what it was and how you can avoid it in the future. Depending on the situation, there may be an opportunity for you to plan better or explain better or research better. Whatever it is, dwell on the solution for the future, not what went wrong.
  • distinctlybeautiful
    distinctlybeautiful Posts: 1,041 Member
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    Make sure you know exactly why you're doing it and that you're fully committed to that/those reason/s. I found it was too restrictive to stick to when the only reason was I wanted to try it.
  • cincysue
    cincysue Posts: 9 Member
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    My best advice is to plan ahead. There are often no vegan options when you are out and about (especially for high carb low fat vegan which for me excludes most nuts which are a great snack food). The night before I plan out meals and snacks and will pack fruit or a potato I can microwave etc. to tie me over. For me, if I stay full- I stay on track!
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,643 Member
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    I'd suggest slowly taking the time to learn about nutrient deficiencies common to a vegan diet. They are all easily enough avoided, but without attention, can cause problems further down the road.

    Give this page a read: (take your time, though... it's a lot to digest)

    http://www.veganhealth.org/

    It's got some pretty good info regarding nutrient intake and the needs of a vegan diet.
  • cee134
    cee134 Posts: 33,711 Member
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    Here's one I just learned. Don't stick alot of broccoli down the disposal.
  • queenofpuppies
    queenofpuppies Posts: 189 Member
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    pack snacks! Plantain chips and almonds are both great. I found myself eating an insane volume of produce when I was vegan, like I could just eat a whole head of broccoli like it was NBD. Apple sauce and the liquid from chick peas can both be used in place of eggs when baking, so make yourself some brownies.
  • Wicked_Seraph
    Wicked_Seraph Posts: 388 Member
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    It's okay not to be perfect. If you wanna have the cookie, or froyo, then have it. Just make sure to truly enjoy it. I'm not a very "good" vegan. I will accept dairy or egg if refusing it would be rude or very inconvenient to those around me (tbh the only thing I'm an *kitten* about is meat - I refuse to eat meat), and I do love me some Halo Top and pizza every so often... ultimately, the only person I need to account to is myself.

    Adapting foods to be vegan-friendly is so easy, especially with the dearth of meat alternatives out there. Even if you can't find one, things like stir fry, soups, congee, curries - all of them are infinitely customizable! Instead of relying on pre-packaged vegan meals, shop with future meals in mind!

  • jeebieheebies
    jeebieheebies Posts: 68 Member
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    -- Immerse yourself in vegan media. Subscribe to vegan recipe blogs, vegan youtubers you like, reddit.com/r/vegan, vegan facebooks pages, etc. The message will constantly be there as a reminder.
    -- Tell people in real life. Then you won't want to eat non-vegan stuff in front of them because it would be shameful.
    -- Make sure you watch Earthlings if you feel tempted. Or read about factory farming. Then seeing "nonfat milk powder" as an ingredient will make you put the delicious-looking cookies back immediately, because that nonfat milk powder comes from a place of abuse, torture, and pain.
    -- Remember that you WILL get used to it. The non-vegan items will stop being food to you. Stick it out while you can.
    -- Spend some time relearning how to cook. You've spent your life preparing omni meals, it makes sense you wouldn't know how to correctly season or cook veg dishes. So learn new methods, new ingredients (eg: nutritional yeast, soaked cashews, hemp seeds, flax eggs, chia eggs, mashed bananas, frozen bananas, tempeh, etc). Be happy to mess up and realize it's not the food's fault, it's because you aren't used to preparing it! And the more practice you get, the better you'll become. And you'll be able to make yummy dishes without recipes and very quickly.
    -- Spend time at grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores, etc, reading labels. Get a feel for which products contain milk and egg ingredients so you don't have to bother looking at the packaging. Learn which junk foods are accidentally vegan (oreos, fritos, clif bars, pretzels, etc -- depends where you live) so that you always know what to grab when hungry.
    -- If you can, find a friend in real life or online that is vegan. You can ask them about substitutes, list off ingredients you have and say "what can I make for lunch in 20 mins with this?!", ask for new recipes, ask about restaurants, ask if honey/lactic acid/whey/gelatin/lanolin/lecithin and other 'weird' ingredients are vegan or not, etc. I'd be really happy to be this person if anyone needs a buddy! But it really helps when things are soo confusing at the beginning. And also to message to say "I turned down these free cookies, that are my favorite kind, and they were free, but I still said no!!" or to message about the new cheesecake you tried that tastes JUST LIKE dairy cheesecake and you're soo excited.
    -- Make it a FUN thing of discovery of new fun foods, new ways of eating, learning intensely about the subject, feeling superior because you're finally living in a more moral way and become more aware of other injustices (eg, slave labor to make clothes), and just feel like a better person overall.
    -- Also be excited because you get to be part of a really welcoming community. Since I've become vegan, somehow, by weird chance, all the friends I have made since are vegan as well -- we've just clicked better (even before finding out!!! It is definitely a Thing). You tend to have more similar views about the world, and it's an automatic conversation topic with people you've just met, which is fun!


    I hope this helps someone out there! I feel really passionately about veganism ^_^

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