New Year’s Resolution
We have 9 days left until Christmas🎅🏼 and 16 days left until the new year🍾 so your mind may already be planning what you want to do and achieve next year, I know some people don’t even make resolutions if they’re going to break them…so..
If going Vegan is on your resolutions list for 2017, I have written some tips on how to achieve this goal…
Tips on how to go vegan…
First tip is …
- don’t put a timeline on when you are meant to be a full fledged Vegan, just slowly introduce it to yourself so you can learn and not begrudge the change.
- Go Vegetarian first, start with quitting meat and then quit the dairy.
- Start by trying some vegan versions of your favourite meals, there are a lot of great faux meats and cheeses out there!🍔🍟🍎🍗🌮🍜🍝🍷
- Watch documentaries and read about the industry and the health benefits of the lifestyle to keep you encouraged. (Vegucated is the perfect one to help transition, minimal gory content and you watch 3 carnivores start from scratch and take on this lifestyle)
- Go out and dine in the Vegan restaurants etc. in your city and make it a social thing.
- Keep track of your health records, or pay attention to your energy levels before and after introducing a Vegan or Vegetarian diet. It’s great you want help the animals and environment; but if you are not doing it right and getting all you need, without your own health in check you are no good for yourself or the cause.
- Make your own rules. I always think about the article I read with Carrie Underwood saying she was a practical vegan. She said on a trip to Italy that she found cheese hard to avoid so she was a bit more vegetarian on that trip, wait what? *gasp* -blasphemy! No, no, no ..it’s fine! If you have a trip planned or you’re pregnant, or you are struggling for a small portion of your life to be a perfect vegan, does that mean you should write it off completely and forget that you ever cared? NO! just do what you can, when you can. 🙂
- Don’t announce it at every party or social event you go to, sometimes your friends or family will do this for you 🙄 it’s fine, just accept what will happen next …”Oh! What do you eat then?” “How do you get your protein?” “hmm..would that wine be vegan?” – at a party you really don’t want to be ruling off a list of reasons as to why you are vegan, because majority of the reasons are horrifying! And you don’t want to be the buzz kill of the party. You will get some people with such an innocent, genuine interest, but some people want to ask you a bunch of questions or watch what you are eating very closely to stump you ….these can also be fellow Vegans sometimes…
- …don’t be that vegan #haters
- Know where to get your protein, vitamins and minerals that you may lack in this lifestyle.
- Focus on complete proteins…quinoa, buckwheat, rice and beans, oats and nuts etc contain the essential amino acids, look at what you need to combine to have this in your daily intake.
- Have a good plant based protein powder as a staple in your pantry.
- B12 -the most vital vitamin supplement in a vegan diet. B12 is the only vitamin that you can’t get from eating dairy or meat, even as a vegetarian I would advise you to take it ..most other supplements I feel are personal to what you may need, so trust how you feel or see a doctor about it.
- Don’t let others tell you veganism is impractical and that they don’t need to take vitamins, because they probably do! Vitamins and minerals aren’t as strong are due to depletion in the soil that produce grows in these days. Some people count tomato sauce as their vegetable and chicken nuggets as their protein-so you’re doing OK!
- Know that calcium and iron can come from dark leafy greens, not just milk and steak.
- Know that you will never stop learning. So many things aren’t vegan, which is why being a perfect vegan is NOT on this list. Gelatine is something you avoid even as a vegetarian -you find it in sweets and jellies …I found out earlier this year even batteries have this in it and I overheard a sales assistant at a vegan accessories store telling a customer that some synthetic shoes and bags actually have it to, so they are not vegan as people think. Just do the best you can😊
- If you own lots of leather or fur, don’t feel like you need to throw it all away immediately and buy new …because that’s expensive💸💰(although if you own fur you probably can afford to buy a new wardrobe) Slowly transition your wardrobe to a vegan friendlier one as you can and as you accumulate new things, give away the old to charity.
- NEVER be the vegan who throws red paint on someone wearing fur. Let me make sense of this, so you are upset that this animal has lost its life to give its fur coat away to be worn by a pretentious human being, so you throw paint at this human being, yes, human being and on their coat so it can never be worn again so the animals legacy is now even more worthless? Give your fur coats to charity, homeless people, people who will genuinely need it.
- Don’t scare others into being vegan. Like the fur coat scenario you are not encouraging people to want to take on this lifestyle. We’re all only human and doing our best in life and some people genuinely have no idea about this industry, at all, so don’t attack them for what they wear or eat.
- Vegetarian is more of a diet and Vegan is a lifestyle. When I went vegetarian I quit meat, make up tested on animals, leather, gelatine, pet shops..some vegetarians only go as far as the meat. I kept learning and realised the environmental issues these industries caused and realise the animals lives are just where the issue begins and started avoiding dairy, eggs, cruelty free cosmetics, palm oil, animals in captivity…the list goes on…..it’s most definitely a lifestyle.
- You are probably not the person who is going to introduce Veganism to your friends and family. I remember listening to a podcast with Pete Holmes and Elizabeth Gilbert and them saying, you can be enlightened and have your life changed by something, but telling others how incredible it is usually won’t change them. I have experienced this since going vegetarian back in 2008, I still find myself listening to my friends and family tell me about makeup products they use, that are most definitely not the cruelty free ones I have always advised they buy instead, along with other things. If they want to find this information and make these changes, they will find this themselves and on their own journey and almost never take it from you. You may say something that will peak their interest and send them down the path, but don’t expect to preach and have them turn around and be a changed person.
- Don’t beat yourself up if you cheat…like I said before how Carrie Underwood is a practical vegan, it’s OK to slip up sometimes and remember, you are doing more than most people! The only thing I have cheated with since being vegan is chocolate and it’s usually at Christmas time when my mum has bought the tins, I don’t eat half as much as I used to because I feel sick after ward, but I’ve been known to cheat, and enjoy it in the moment. I justify it by saying the chocolate is already bought and I didn’t support the dairy industry buying it, not the best excuse, but it’s the only thing I’ve cheated with and I am 1 year, 5 months into my transition from vegetarian to vegan and still working on this. **cue the #haters to throw egg replacer at me!**
(but honestly, it does feel better when you don’t cheat; physically, and for your soul, you feel so much healthier and happier -also have you tried Vego bars? -amazing!! ..I just wish they were easier to get a hold of! Vegan is a whole other level to Vegetarian and it feels sooooo much better, so if you are at the point of being vegan then really stick to it as much as you can and a cheat is really, an occasional cheat)
..and last but not least…
- Enjoy it! Don’t think being vegan is going raw and only ever eating salad and chickpeas (it can be, if you want it to). But you can also eat pizza🍕vegan cheese isn’t even bad for you and tastes just as good! There are so many fun vegan recipes and cute clothes that fall into a vegan lifestyle, it is just a more mindful way of living your life💃🏼
🤗Happy New Year 🍰🍷2017🍸🍫
Love and Resolutions,
Michaela 🍾🎉 xxx
Photo Credits: Google images – When Harry met Sally, Vegucated, What to expect when you’re expecting, Hannah Montana, Friends, New Years Eve, Full House, quote
Luxury vegan 