Veganuary becomes more popular every year, and it’s never been easier to try it! Pretty much every leading supermarket brings out new veggie and vegan meals just for their Veganuary campaign, and market it across social media platforms. Veganuary, was originally an annual challenge run by a UK non-profit organisation, promoting the vegan lifestyle. But in recent years it has become more of a trend and a saying as such, used to refer to the diet change you make in the month of January, whether that be a Pescatarian (only fish, no meat), Vegetarian (no meat), or Vegan (no animal products) diet. At the end of the day, all these diets are a step towards being more environmentally conscious, healthier (if done correctly), safer, and can lead to the ultimate plant-based diet…or not. All of these diets are an achievement, with fast food chains filled with processed meats being the most accessible and affordable ever, it is hard to resist! Whichever diet you have chosen to follow this January, and whether you’ve enjoyed it, or not, take the time to acknowledge how far you’ve come in this short period of time! If you’re determined to carry on your streak, or interested in learning more about sustaining a plant-based diet, stay tuned for some tips to help you on your journey!
First let me share with you my journey. I decided to go pescatarian for the first time in 2020 for various reasons, but mainly as a challenge to myself, and I didn’t find it too hard. I carried on following this diet for the rest of the year, and then the following year I followed a vegetarian diet for Veganuary and I have been veggie ever since! In more recent years, I have tried my best to stick to a Vegan diet, focussing mainly on my own cooking at my home being vegan. I have loved my journey, and I am grateful for the opportunity, and I hope you are too, so let me help you with some tips!
- take it slow at the start
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Don’t put heaps of pressure on yourself to automatically start eating and cooking like a vegan chef. Take your time and learn some key meals and groceries you like. Enjoy the learning process and remember that practice makes perfect!
- go shopping and exploring
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Explore your local supermarkets and look at all the options to get a gauge for meals. Don’t just buy everything you see! Have a look, think of a meal with what you can see, and then go again sometime soon after and repeat but with new products. Over time, this will let you learn the new products you can incorporate in different meals.
- don’t just take the meat out of your meal
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The number of times I’ve heard of people trying a veggie diet but falling ill from it is so sad (and I don’t mean the people with medical conditions that cause this). If you do this, you will get ill, or feel faint, so don’t bother, it’s not worth getting ill over. It’s so important to do things slowly and incorporate different products, so you can think of easy meals. This leads me to my next point:
- do a little research
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It is worth popping into google about what your diet might make you deficient in. For example, if you are now not eating fish, you need to make sure you still get your omega-3 intake, this could be by putting chia seeds in your smoothie. Search up some easy alternatives! A little research can go a long way – this is something I didn’t do at the start, but I really wish I had!
- ‘fake’ meat is okay!
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This one for me is a no-brainer, but the amount of people who question the point of meat alternatives is so annoying. At the end of the day, I grew up eating meat, which I loved as I never knew any different, but then I wanted to change my diet. At the start of my diet change, the easiest option was to substitute meat in my normal meals with fake meat, and it’s helped me loads on my journey.
- be organised
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This is an important one for me, as I normally like to leave cooking until I’m too hungry to cook, and at that point I will eat whatever is available. I really urge you to try not to do this! I now try and meal prep, so I always keep dinners in the freezer for when needed.
- snacks and lunches
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This is where I find it more difficult, as lunch is when I’m most likely to eat out. If this is the case for you, make sure wherever you want to buy from has veggie/vegan options. Alternatively, plan to prepare lunch before going to school or work
- fast food
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We all love fast food when we can’t be bothered for life to cook – it happens to most of us! If you’re a sucker for a pizza night, then make sure you have options in your kitchen for this time! This will let you control your cravings, as you will eat what you’ve got, whether that’s a margherita pizza, Quorn nuggets and chips or fake kebab meat. This might prevent you going to the shop and giving into a pepperoni pizza!
- remember why you did this
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Why did you decide to do this? A challenge, health reasons, healthier diet, safer food? If you were passionate at the start, then keep hold of that passion. I do this by watching documentaries about my diet, it’s so motivating, and you learn so many new things!
- don’t listen to people who won’t try it
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People can be so negative when you are changing for the better and they are not. Many, in my case, do not “understand” why I would do such a thing, yet they don’t want to learn about the reasons. Don’t rise to arguments and debates too often, it can be draining, and the people often are just there to stir the pot. On a more positive note, keep those like-minded veggie friends around you and motivate each other – if you don’t have any, join a group chat or follow an Instagram page, we’re all in this together!