Veganism Tips for Beginners

As it’s January and more and more people are using Veganuary as the start of their journey towards veganism I thought it might be helpful to put together a few tips that I would have found useful when I first changed my diet. I hope you find value in them and remember it isn’t a competition and there is no right or wrong way to transition your diet and lifestyle.

1. It’s not easy

People will say being vegan is super easy but in my experience, it’s not. You will likely need to learn a whole new way of cooking and shopping. Chances are most of your old favourite recipes are no longer meals you can eat and eating out or at friends’ houses gets a bit more complicated. I love being vegan and am super glad I made the change but I honestly wish I’d known how much time it would take to ‘learn’ to be vegan; it took me 2-3 months before I was comfortably cooking every day without stress.

2. Eat more

I have so many friends who tried being vegan but stopped because they were always hungry. I firmly believe that this was because they were still trying to eat three meals a day, without snacks. We were hungry for the first few weeks and eating toast late at night but once we started eating five meals a day we found ourselves much happier. When you are eating a plant-based diet you need more food as there are fewer calories involved (generally speaking, you can now get some pretty unhealthy pre-packaged options). We have breakfast at 7.30am, second breakfast at 10am, lunch at 1pm, smoothies at around 3pm and tea at 5.30pm (roughly), and this is how we stay full.

3. Learn three or four key meals

Find three or four key evening meals that you love so that you aren’t experimenting every night of the week, as this gets very exhausting. For me, for breakfasts, it was granola and overnight oats, and for dinners, it was chilli, nachos and risottos. Making enough for leftovers is a great idea so you always have food if one of your new creations doesn’t go according to plan.

4. A vegan diet isn’t necessarily healthy

If you don’t cook your food from scratch and create balanced meals that include all of the necessary vitamins and minerals and instead eat mostly processed vegan food, you probably won’t find yourself any happier, healthier or fitter. Not to say don’t get any processed foods (we like to have sausages occasionally and cheese on pizza every Friday) but try to use them sparingly.

5. Meal plan

I think if you want to make being vegan easier then you should meal plan before you go to the shops so you have a list of what you can cook and which ingredients you need. It doesn’t have to be a rigged plan of ‘this meal on this day’ but a list of four or five breakfast, lunch and tea ideas will be beneficial – you don’t want to be halfway through making a meal and then find you don’t have a key ingredient (been there!). I find that planning what you will have ahead of time also stops impulse buys and saves you money in the long run.

6. Decide if you are vegan or plant-based

Plant-based means that you eat a vegan diet, but the term vegan actually encompasses so much more than food. If you are vegan then you will need to look into the whole lifestyle. I started with the food and then moved on to cosmetics, clothes, day trips, etc. There is lots of advice out there to help you, and you can always do what we did and start off on one section and then move on to another when you feel confident. It’s a big change to overhaul your whole life overnight and takes some practice and getting used to. Don’t feel like you have to do it in one go or let others feel like you aren’t doing enough. Do your best and trust that that is enough.

I hope that some of these tips are useful to anyone starting their vegan journey, and best of luck to you! If you have any questions or tips of your own please do pop them in the comment section below.

Livvy and Summer