Let me start by saying that there is no right or wrong way to become Vegan. We are all unique individuals and we all go about our life in our own special little ways. Transitioning from being a carnivore to a herbivore is no different. The important thing to remember is that we all have the same end goal; to live a more conscious and healthy plant based lifestyle. It doesn’t matter whether you want to be vegan for life, or vegan for one day a week or even one meal a week. What matters is that you can see that there is an injustice going on and you want to do something about it.
EDUCATION
One of the most important things about becoming Vegan is educating yourself. Take the time out to research, watch some documentaries (I recommend What The Health on Netflix), read some books. Question everything! One of the main reasons Veganism is such a hard concept for many people to grasp is because it makes you question everything you have believed to be true and we as humans hate to be wrong. My initial motivation was for my health but as I looked into it I soon realised that everything was interconnected. It is now for my health, for the animals, and for my planet. Most world issues that you think you care about more than being Vegan has some sort of connection to the exploitation of animals. Did you know that the amount of grains we grow to feed the livestock that we kill is enough to end human starvation worldwide? Let that one sink in!
Here’s two interesting articles about the effects of agriculture and how reducing meat can help feed our future population of 9 billion people: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/feeding-9-billion/ http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/world-hunger-population-growth-ditching-meat/
MY STEPS
Some people can go cold turkey and turn Vegan overnight. I was not that person. My process of turning Vegetarian to Vegan was a year in the making and it was full of ups and downs and lots of doubt. My process went a little more like this…
- Cut out milk in my coffee (the only thing I had milk in really)
- Cut out meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb etc)
- Cut out cheese (I knew it was the same as milk but I clung onto this still)
- Cut out eggs and anything containing dairy
- Cut out seafood (I’m Asian. This is the hardest thing to do I promise you)
CUTTING OUT MEAT
Surprisingly cutting out meat was the easiest for me to do. What I realised was that our body craves for the flavours of a meat dish, but not the meat itself. If you take away all the spices and seasonings from meat all you really have is a raw chunk of meat and who really craves that? This would be one of the biggest tips I have for anyone trying to reduce meat in their diet. Simply cook your favourite dishes and substitute the meat with something else! For e.g. mushrooms, eggplant, and tofu normally go really well with any meat based recipe! Fake meats is a no brainer as well but I like to keep this intake low as most of it is made out of pure gluten. Luckily there is an emerging new company in New Zealand called Sunfed Meats who have made “chicken” out of pea protein with minimal processing so it’s completely gluten free, tastes freakishly like wild chunks of meat and is so good for you! Yay for the future of vegan products!
BUT WHY DO YOU STILL WANT TO EAT FAKE MEATS?
I’m sure anyone Vegan has been asked this question before. Why do you not want to eat meat but eat fake processed meats? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Well, no. My purpose is not to eat anything made with animal products. It doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy meat dishes prior, I just decided to not be selfish and prioritise my needs over every other species. We take soy, flour, pea protein and spices and turn it into sausages, bacon and chicken nuggets instead of taking live animals, murdering them, skinning them, and grinding up their body to make sausages, bacon and chicken nuggets. Do you get my point here? None of it is healthy when compared to whole foods but at least one of it is still better for the planet and for your conscience.
QUITTING CHEESE
Did you know eating cheese triggers the part of your brain related to addiction? Read more about that here! Cutting out milk in my coffee was so easy as my favourite soy milk Bonsoy tasted even better! Plus, have you seen what milk is like before it's processed? I'm not going to put the picture in here because it's off putting and doesn't match the theme of my foods but click here if you're interested! Cutting out cheese though was a different story. I loved pretty much any type of cheese and I was so so addicted to it. I read somewhere that it takes 3 weeks to get rid of your cravings for something. I kind of did this one unintentionally but I discovered an amazing creator on Instagram who made vegan cheese for a living and she shared a lot of her recipes which I spent ages recreating. Here's her blog if anyone is interested! I was making baked garlic and rosemary camembert and garlic chive cream cheeses and it was so amazing and healthy I forgot about real cheese. I was addicted to making cheese that wasn’t cheese just to see everyone’s reaction. 3 weeks later I realised I hadn’t touched cheese and I had no craving for it whatsoever. NONE! I was beside myself! If you’re on the fence about whether or not you’ll be able to give something up, give yourself a 3 week challenge first and see how you feel afterwards! Short term goals lead to long term gains!
GIVING UP SEAFOOD
Seafood was the hardest thing for me to let go of and that’s because my typical Asian diet was based around seafood and pretty much all my favourite dishes contain fish sauce or oyster sauce. I was okay when I found out that most packets of chips contained milk but discovering sauces and condiments containing fish broke my heart. FYI: Kimchi, Thai curries, Pad Thai, Worcestershire sauce all contain fish sauce so be weary eating out! Somehow I convinced myself that fish didn’t have feelings or a sign of intellect as other animals did and that’s how I justified eating it for so long (as most people do). Cody's currently reading a book by Johnathon Balcombe that argues otherwise and it's so thought provoking so check it! It's called What A Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousin. Cody was ready to go Vegan and I was still on the fence simply because I was clinging onto my fish sauce. Luckily I was too lazy to cook two seperate meals for us so I’ve been Vegan for 3 months now and there’s no going back once that’s happened!
COULD YOU GO BACK TO EATING MEAT?
I always get asked if I could ever go back to eating meat and I always give the same response: No. I honestly believe that once you open your mind and awaken it to the reality of the corruption and deceit of the meat and dairy industry you can’t go back! You can’t un-see the torture, you can’t un-learn the cold hard facts, you can’t un-feel the dulling effects that these animal products had on your body. It is truly eye opening and I invite you to test it out to see what it does for your own body and mind!
Don’t believe me? I challenge you to this...
Eat a pizza with cheese and meat on it and note how you feel afterwards. Do you feel sluggish? Are you bloated? Do you feel good? On a different day eat a pizza with no cheese or meat on it and note how you feel afterwards. For me, pizza was not a pizza without cheese on it and it was probably one of the last things I ever dared to eat Vegan. It was also one of the biggest things that made me realise how cheese makes you feel and that it was the source of all that greasy oil! After eating pizza I normally feel sluggish and guilty for what I just did to my body but once I removed the cheese I felt great! Now don’t go doing this challenge half assed and coming back to me saying it was bullshit. Make sure the pizza has a variety of toppings with flavour! My favourite is adding garlic, pineapple, jalapeños and BBQ sauce with all my favourite veggies! Give it a go and let me know how it went!
xx Ana
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