Six Tips to Help You Transition Into More Plant-Based Eating
Everyday, more and more people are looking to make changes in their lifestyle, from using more eco-friendly products (see my list of favourites here), to changing their diets to help not only the planet, but our dear animal friends. Given that it’s the time of the year for changes - making new goals, like hitting the gym more, or eating better, I’m sure some people are trying to reduce their consumption of animals & animal by-products too! Well, I’m here today to give you six tips that helped me comfortably and easily transition into a more plant-based diet, and could help you too*!
* Disclaimer: I’m absolutely not a doctor, so please take everything I say as a suggestion for what worked for me. When making these changes, talk with your doctor about what is best for you, and your body!
1. Take Your Time
The key thing when you are transitioning your diet is to start slowly. It’s kind of like when someone tries and quits smoking - most people can’t just stop, and that’s it, they’re no longer a smoker. The same thing goes for a drastic change in your diet! One thing that really helped me in my transition from eating meat to becoming vegetarian was cutting out one “group” of meat at a time. I started with cutting out red meat, aka, beef & pork, and instead, chose to switch out most things that I would normally use pork or beef in, with turkey & chicken. After about 3 or 4 months of replacing my regular burgers with turkey burgers, I made the switch to cutting out all meat and going entirely vegetarian. It’s a process that you not only physically have to get used to, but you also mentally have to adjust as well - it took me, and my family some time to remember that I no longer can just grab some deli meat to make a sandwich anymore, or to use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock in a soup. It’s a habit that you have to slowly break!
2. Don’t Be Afraid to Try Different Things
I honestly cannot emphasize this one enough, but you need to not be afraid to try new things, and experiment with what you like! Just because one person says a certain plant-based product is the best they’ve ever tried, of course does not mean that you’re going to feel the same way about it. As the plant-based community grows, so are the options at the grocery store for plant-based alternatives, so don’t be afraid to try five or six different kinds of veggie burgers to find the one you really like the best.
Another thing that is fun to try out is making a meal with no meat replacement at all! For example, I’m someone who never really gravitated towards a lot of meat replacements, so I choose to eat a lot of veggie-only meals, like chili without a ground “beef”, or stir fry without “chicken”, and it’s gotten to the point that when I add in those meat replacements, that I really just don’t enjoy the meal as much - you’d be amazed how your body can find those things very heavy, and I’ve now gotten used to eating “lighter” meals like that!
3. Invest in some Plant-Based Cookbooks
So you’ve decided you’re interested in switching up your diet, and incorporating more plant-based meals into your life, but you’re not really 100% sure where to start? Of course, you can go to Pinterest, and there’s going to be countless recipes, but I find myself, that a lot of them feel like the same recipe over and over again. So one thing that I love doing is going to Indigo, and looking through the plant-based cookbooks to get an idea of which cookbook seems to have recipes that I think I’d enjoy, and then I’ll purchase a few. Getting these cookbooks not only can help you discover old dishes that you loved with meat in them, but with a plant-based approach, but it can also bring you new ideas that you had no idea you could make vegetarian or vegan, or even some recipes that you’ve never heard of before.
4. Meal Plan, Meal Plan, Meal Plan!
When you’re on the journey to incorporating more plants, and less meat into your diet, it can be really hard to come up with an idea for dinner when you’re on your way home from work - believe me, I experience this every day, and I’ve been a vegetarian for five years now, so I know how hard this can be. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to plan your meals for the week. When you have no idea what to make, it’s easy to resort to whatever meals you know best, which sometimes can mean you end up cooking a dish with meat because making it is muscle memory for you, or you may resort to a meal that doesn’t give you all of the nutrients your body needs. However, if you take some time and plan your meals out, it will take all of the guesswork out of what you’re going to be eating for that meal. I promise it doesn’t take longer than twenty minutes, so just take your time, sit down on a Sunday morning with your coffee & decide what your meals are going to look like for the week. It’s also a lot easier on your grocery bill when you plan this way too! Lastly - this of course doesn’t just apply to people trying to eat more plant-based, but even if you want to do a meatless Monday, or a couple of meals a week without meat in it!
5. Buy From a Local Farmer
If you find yourself struggling to completely cut out meat, I promise you are not alone. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people tell me “I just couldn’t go vegetarian, I like steak too much!” or “I could never be vegan because I just couldn’t give up cheese”, and I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to give up anything you don’t want to. We’re lucky that we live in a world right now where the labels of “I'm vegan, I’m a vegetarian”, and so on, are not as strict anymore, and people are much more open to the idea of eating plant-based most of the time, or even sometimes. My thoughts on it is if you are trying, you are doing a whole lot more than a lot of people are - so always remember that, especially if you’re feeling discouraged, or wondering why you’re even doing this. If you find yourself struggling with cutting out meat entirely, my suggestion would be to opt to buy your meat from a local farmer instead of from the grocery store. It is definitely a bit more money up front, but you can feel better knowing the meat you are eating came from an animal that lived a much happier life than the ones on factory farms do. Depending on how often you are eating meat, there may not be a huge difference in price week-to-week as well. For example, if you’re someone who eats meat for every meal, but you’ve switched to only eating it 3 times a week, you probably won’t see a huge difference in your overall grocery bill by purchasing your meat from a local farmer!
6. Stop Putting Pressure on Yourself to be Perfect
Lastly, the best thing you can do for yourself while on this journey is not to put pressure on yourself to be perfect overnight, or really, perfect ever. A lot of people seem like they’re perfect vegans, perfect vegetarians, and so on, but I promise you absolutely nobody is perfect, and everyone who is now well established in their plant-based journey started somewhere, and probably still has more learning and changing to do. Me, for example - at this point, I’ve been a vegetarian for five years, I use completely cruelty-free cosmetics, skin care and shower products, but it took me well over 3+ years to get to the point where I found products that not only were kind to animals, but also worked for me and my lifestyle. That being said, I’ve accidentally eaten a cream soup with a chicken stock base without knowing until I asked what the ingredients were, I’ve also used products that are tested on animals because it worked for me until I found something that was cruelty-free & worked for me. The point is, please be kind to yourself while on this journey, remember you are doing more than tons of people are and that these changes are not easy and doesn't happen overnight. You have a lifetime to figure it out, so stay positive and keep educating yourself!
I hope these tips help you along in your plant-based journey, and maybe inspired some people who weren’t considering it before, to consider making some changes now. Not only is eating plant-based good for animals, and our health, but also the planet! If you’re interested in some cruelty-free makeup products, check out my blog post on all of my favourite items here. Until next time! Xo.
