How To Turn Vegan: 8 Simple Tips For Easy Transition
If you’ve decided to adopt a vegan lifestyle, then first off, here’s a very warm welcome to you! You’re joining a rapidly growing global community of people devoted to making healthier, ethical, and environmentally sustainable choices in their daily lives.
Like with any major lifestyle change, you may feel a little overwhelmed at first. With the amount of information out there, it could be hard to know where to begin. But don’t worry - with a few simple tips in mind, this transition can be quite an easy and smooth one.
We’ve put together this easy guide to help you turn vegan with 8 simple tricks. From plant-based diet tips, research advice to mental preparation, we’ve shared all the insider info here. So without further ado, let’s scroll down and help you start off your journey!
1. Find Your Motivation
Veganism is far deeper than simply changing your diet - it’s a way of life that has humane, animal-friendly, and eco-conscious values at its core. This is why it is crucial to introspect and find the inner motivation for why you want to go vegan. Learning about the immense health benefits, cruelty-free, and eco-friendly effects of veganism can go a long way in helping you truly understand why it matters.
Once you’re aware of your reasons, it will instill a resolve that goes deeper than just cutting out certain foods from your diet.
2. Do Your Research
The next step is to learn as much as possible. Find out the stores and restaurants around you that stock cruelty-free makeup, clothing, and plant-based foods. This is where apps like Forthgreen can really come in handy, by helping you discover brands and products that are pre-vetted to be 100% vegan and sustainable.
You can also learn about nutrition in plant-based foods like legumes, veggies, whole grains, and beans. This will help you understand what foods will help you hit your daily protein, energy, and overall nutrient goals.
Of course, you don’t have to learn it all in one go - this is a wonderful journey of lifelong learning that grows with time.
3. Transition At A Comfortable Pace
Some people find going vegan overnight quite easy, but others may find it to be a difficult transition at first. What’s crucial is that you do it at a pace that’s comfortable for you, so a gradual transition may turn out to be far easier for many.
Before cutting out animal-based foods, you could perhaps start off by incorporating more plant-based foods into your daily diet. This will ensure that you’re already familiar with enjoying a diverse variety of plant-based foods.
Then, you can start off by slowly eliminate eggs on week 1, dairy on week 2, meat the next week, and so on. You can even set a personal 30-day window for yourself if that would help.
4. Find Vegan Food Substitutes For Cravings & Snacks
Some people may find it hard to eliminate indulgent foods like ice-creams and cheese at first. But with a vibrant variety of dairy-free desserts, meat-free vegan substitutes available, you’ll be able to easily satiate your cravings even on a plant-based diet.
It’s also a good idea to stock up on healthy vegan snacks like dried fruits, nuts, beetroot chips, dates, and more before making the switch. This way, you won’t be deviating from your diet even when you crave something indulgent and snack-y.
5. Keep Easy Vegan Recipes Handy
Instead of starting off with elaborate, time-consuming, and complicated vegan recipes, we recommend keeping it simple at first. Focus on cooking and eating whole, unprocessed foods like fresh veggies, legumes, beans, fruits, nuts, as well as grains like quinoa, rice, and oats.
There are plenty of easy and delicious recipes that you can whip up with these simple ingredients. Once you’ve mastered the staple recipes, then you can easily move onto the fancier stuff with vegan substitutes for cheese, milk, and meat.
6. Learn To Read Food Labels
As a vegan, it’s important to start reading food labels and know which ingredients are animal-based. You’ll be shocked to find animal-based ingredients in the unlikeliest places like beer, potato chips, and even fruit juice in some cases. Look out for non-vegan ingredients such as albumin (egg whites), gelatin, lactose, casein, whey powder, among others.
7. Be Kind To Yourself
Nobody is perfect, and any big change takes time to fully sink in. So remember to treat yourself kindly, and don’t punish yourself in case of slip-ups. Instead, learn from them and move on forward in your journey. If your motivation and heart are in the right place, then we’re absolutely sure that you will slowly but surely embrace this lifestyle and all its wonderful aspects.
8. Connect With The Vegan Community
At times, you may find that your new lifestyle is at odds with those of your family or friends. In some cases, this could cause friction and make you feel isolated. But you’re not alone - in fact, you have a loving, vibrant, and inspiring vegan community rooting for you!
There are several online and offline vegan communities that can not only offer guidance, but also some much-needed encouragement and support. You could start off by joining Facebook groups for vegans and exchange notes on your progress, recipes, thoughts - anything you like.
There are also several inspiring vegan influencers and fitness enthusiasts on Instagram that share daily tips, recipes, and motivation to make you feel supported and included.
Final thoughts
As you can see, with a little preparation, the transition to veganism can be an easy and joyful one. Remember to keep it simple - focus on easy recipes, research on stores that offer vegan products, and remind yourself every now and then why a cruelty-free lifestyle matters to you. We hope that these tips help you embrace this lifestyle as much as it helped us!