How to go vegan?

If you’ve got the willpower and your mind’s made up, you could just decide to go vegan overnight, and manage to stick to your new diet, just like that (which is pretty impressive).

However, changing your diet, which for some can mean rethinking what you’ve always eating for many years, is a bit of a major change that takes dedication, time and perseverance to a) make happen and b) really commit to.

Fortunately, the team at Veganuary have come up with some practical pointers for helping people get started with going vegan for a month, and potentially longer.

They include:

Plan what you are going to eat (before you eat)

The best way to stick to any new eating regime is to pre-plan your meals beforehand.

What are you going to have for breakfast, dinner and tea and snacks, and do you have all of the ingredients you need or are you missing some?

Weekly meal planners are really useful for mapping out what you are going to eat, what you need to make those dishes and giving you enough time to get the ingredients you need to rustle them up.

Do it bit by bit

If the idea of going vegan seems like too much of a massive change for you, but you really want to give it a try, then ease yourself into it.

Still eat non-vegan meals, and have a few vegan alternatives every now and then.

Gradually increase how much vegan food you’re eating vs. non-vegan food at your own pace.

Give your favourite dishes a vegan twist

Going vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you have to stop eating everything you’d normally eat.

It’s possible to eat your favourite dishes, but make them using vegan ingredients instead.

For instance, you can whip up a mean lasagne, using soya mince and plant milk for the bechamel.

Or you can have a vegan bacon or sausage sandwich, or jacket potato and vegan cheese.

Stock up on vegan snacks

When you’re out and about, and happen to be somewhere that doesn’t have vegan food options on the menu, it can be easy to fall off the vegan bandwagon.

One easy way you can avoid this is by taking some vegan snacks out with you – a pre-prepared sandwich, some fruit or a bag of nuts maybe.

Shop around for vegan alternatives

There are lots of vegan food alternatives, and the good news is, the ranges in most supermarkets are growing by the day.

You may have tried one brand of almond milk, but not quite liked it, or a block of vegan cheese, and wasn’t sure about the texture.

Don’t give up, there are lots of different vegan alternatives out there – e.g. almond, oat, hemp, coconut and soya milk – so keep trying them, and hopefully you’ll find something that you like.

Tap into the support that’s out there

There’s a whole load of useful tips, support and guidance on the Veganuary website.

There are also lots of other wider resources to tap into too.

The HappyCow app will show you where all of your local vegan-friendly restaurants, cafes and shops are, while there are also loads of local vegan enthusiast groups on social and online.⁸

How to go vegan?

Plan what you are going to eat (before you eat)

Do it bit by bit

Give your favourite dishes a vegan twist

Stock up on vegan snacks

Shop around for vegan alternatives

Tap into the support that’s out there

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