What Do You Need To Start Buying?
The first step to becoming a vegan is overhauling your kitchen.
If you’re someone who eats lots of meat, it might be worth starting out with a few mock meats to help you ease off the flesh. Most grocery stores have a natural or health food section where you can find these types of products. It’s typically kept near breakfast foods or even in the produce section. In this section, you will find products like vegan burgers, veggie meatloaf, veggie ground beef, quinoa burgers, meatless meatballs, etc…
If you’re struggling to find this section, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask a store clerk for some help.
Start Meal Planning To Stay On Track
Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. That’s what vegan champion Mike Tyson once said. My remixed version of this quote is that everyone has a plan to be vegan until someone throws a bit of cheese in their face.
Meal planning is one of the best ways to ensure that you’re not going to go off track. Meal planning is when you take the time to plan nutritious and delicious vegan meals and snacks for a specified time period. It’s a vital part of eating a healthy vegan diet and ensuring that you’re not constantly throwing back vegan dogs and vegan pizzas.
Meal planning is a personal process that can be enjoyable, efficient and effective if you embrace it. The way you meal plan will differ depending on how you keep yourself organized and structured. The idea behind meal planning is really just a system that helps you stay on track and might not be something you NEED but it could definitely help. For me, my meal planning consists of the following 8 simple habits:
- Save Recipes On A Regular: Whether it’s on Pinterest, Instagram or just being bookmarked in my browser, I collect recipes on the regular that I can come back to when it’s time to plan my meals.
- Talk To Your Partner: I have a private Facebook group with my partner where we share interesting links and recipes that we find over the course of our week. It’s a great way to collaborate on meal planning.
- Use A Calendar: I live and die by my calendar. It’s the calendar that is native in the iPhone and it works great for me. I type in the calendar what meals I’ll be eating and stick to it.
- Try Themed Nights: Once in a while you’ve gotta spice things up! That’s why I come up with themes like Spice Night, which is a night dedicated to trying new spices. Or Greek night, Lebanese night, Persian night, Soul Food Night, etc…
- Monitor What’s On Sale: This isn’t something that I’m good at but there are great apps like Flippa that can help you stay in the loop on different produce sales. Stay in the loop on price drops. It can help your pocket.
- Plan For Leftover Food: One of the best parts of cooking your own food is adding a couple extra batches to the mix so you have left overs the next day. My personal favorite – Leftover vegan indian dishes. The spices are so good after a day sitting in the fridge.
- Go On Prepping Binges: After visiting the grocery store, I usually spend another hour in the kitchen. I spend this time chopping up veggies for future meals, making soups that will be frozen for the week and any other tasks that can be tackled now vs. later. Trust me, the future you will be grateful you did it.
- Keep A Well Stocked Pantry: Beans, Noodles, Lentils, Tempeh & Spices. Four things that I always need to have on-hand. If I have these things on hand, I can always figure out a way to create something that is semi-delicious. Keep your pantry stocked with your own favorites.
Surround Yourself With Supportive People
You don’t want to surround yourself with people who send you memes about bacon.
You want to surround yourself with people who will see an article like this:
And quickly share it with you.
The people you surround yourself with as you take on this journey towards eating no meat is a key part of making this a success. It’s not always easy if you’re still living at home with parents or relatives who don’t support you. In those cases, we recommend that you find people who you can use as a supportive cast outside of your home or even better…
Find A Vegan Support Group Online
Why do you think we’re here?
We want to help spread the word about veganism while also helping people get closer to achieving success.
Eating Vegan While On The Road
I know a lot of people who are vegan while home and non-vegan while on the road.
Too each their own! Every little bit helps.
For me, the best way to reduce the chances of a slip up are investigating the place I’ll be travelling to beforehand. The best resource that I’ve come across for finding vegan restaurants is TripAdvisor:
Simply type in the place you’re visiting along with the word vegan and you’ll be met with a handful of options.