Transitioning?

Hi all,

I am new here. I have tried to become vegan once before and it did not work. I am thinking of implementing a 5-month transition plan. First month I give up red meat/pork, then seafood, then chicken, then eggs, and finally dairy.

What do y’all think?

What has everyone found to be the most successful way TO make the transition and make it a successful one?

I appreciate any and all input.

In gratitude,

Gina.

I think it’s wonderful you’re considering going vegan again. My advice is - don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I know many will disagree with what I’m about to say, but we all have our unique experiences, and I believe it’s much more difficult for some, than others.

Doing it gradually is a great way to start, and baby steps may help you carry on being vegan.

Why not start by reducing your animal product intake. While you’re still eating it though, switch to free range and organic. There’s a product called Quorn, made in the UK, but available in a limited selection in the U.S. It’s meat substitute (not vegan because they use free range eggs), but quite good. Try using one of their products instead of meat. They have a lot of good recipes on their website.

There are great faux leather clothes, purses and shoes out there, and beauty and household products not tested on animals, and in fact vegan.

These are all small steps you can start doing right now. Good luck, and I hope this helps.

I took about a year to become vegan from vegetarian. and even after that for about 6 mo. I ate honey, not yet understanding what the problem with it was.

Originally I tried to eat only french fries, because I didn’t know how to cook, and it made me very sick, hence the long transition from vegetarian to vegan, rather than straight vegan.

In fact, I would say this is the biggest hurdle, cooking. You will fail hard if you try to junk food diet it, at least at first. There are so many recipes on the web, and great books like the Veganomicon, Simply Vegan, etc. Perhaps it didn’t work last time because of that. (Or was it the allure of dairy? That tends to make things rough too.)

So try to experiment. Try making seitan, buying tempeh, and use tofu in various dishes. If need be, you can have a non-vegan or even non-vegetarian day for awhile.

By the way, the two books I mentioned are great. The Veganomicon has an awesome seitan recipe, and a divine pot pie recipe. Simply Vegan has great, cheap meals.

But definitely, I realised pretty early on that you have to learn to cook to be vegan. Less so now, but you’ll spend a fortune otherwise.

Substitutes that might help you: Honey=agave nectar; eggs (for binding in meals) =egg replacer by Ener-G or Bob’s Red Mill, or 1 tblsp ground flax seeds (you’ll need a coffee grinder, they are cheap,) 3 tblsps water, or 1 banana, or applesauce (I forget the amount per egg);cheese=tofutti for slices, vegourmet for block (and is great grated, but struggles to melt in the oven. Melts well in the microwave), daiya for shredded (melts really well, but I like the taste of vegourmet better); there’s even buttermilk replacements you can look up involving lemon juice and soy milk. Though I have never tried this. I never use buttermilk.

Good luck! Even if you can’t become vegan, remember, even lessening the amount of meat/eggs/dairy/etc in your diet is a step in the right direction.

when ever people ask me how i did it or ask me the best way i always tell them the same thing…start out with the fruits, veggies, and recipes you know you already like then once your taste buds get adjusted to the new super sweet awsome foods you start to experiment with all the other vegan/vegetarian foods and recipes that you might not know about yet…good luck!