"We’ve all seen those images people share on Facebook of distressed animals and hastily continued scrolling..."
2018 is over and Veganuary is upon us and seeing as I have been battling my v-curiosity for a while I thought it the perfect opportunity to kill many birds with one stone, (of course not literally, that would be very un-vegan of me), and explore my curiosities while saving animals and the planet at the same time. While vegans have often been portrayed in the media as hippy-dippy tree-huggers, things are changing. It is now one of the most talked about crazes and everyone from celebrities to your mum’s book-club friends are talking about it. Veganism is now mainstream, even big food chains are picking up on the trend and amending their menus to include vegan options. Greggs have even done a vegan version of their beloved sausage roll, and Piers Morgan hated it, so even more reason to give it a try if you ask me. While I generally get annoyed by people jumping on bandwagons just because everyone else is liking it, this is a wagon that I will be climbing aboard and hoping that others will jump on too.
You don’t need me to tell you all of the reasons we should take a leaf out of a vegans cookbook, we’ve all seen those images people share on Facebook of distressed animals and hastily continued scrolling, and we all know the terrible impact humans are making on the world, with the BBC even now acknowledging it. I’m also not going to preach to you about plant-based diets and how easy they are as, one— I have only been doing it for a week so far, and two— you will probably stop reading if I did.
I am, however, finding it easier than the limited, bland, hungry journey I pictured in my head before I began — in fact I’ve actually been...enjoying it.
Some tips from a vegan rookie:
Plan ahead; have a think about the meals you want to head ahead of time and maybe more importantly, the snacks.
Do it with a friend or family; especially if you live with them it makes it so much easier to have someone eating the same food as you, and it’s fun to talk about it and not annoy your carnivorous friends.
Only have vegan food in the cupboards; then you can’t be tempted or accidentally slip up, especially when you’re raiding the cupboards at 2am having drank too much vegan wine (FYI, some alcoholic beverage are filtered through fish swim bladders, so check!)
Do a bit of research; it’s so easy to find information about vegan food nowadays, there are loads of blogs dedicated to it telling you all the foods that you eat already that are actually vegan, like oreos, chocolate chip hobnobs and prawn cocktail crisps! And of course what to avoid, like the aforementioned fish bladder wine.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself; if you don’t think you can commit to never eating meat or guzzling milk again then just do Veganary, or just do a week, or one day a week, and if you mess up and eat something non-vegan, remember: its ok!
Following these tips will hopefully make you feel less like a fish out of water, and keep more fish in the water. I know it is easier said than done but you’ll never really know unless you give it a go. Go on, I dare you. Eating meat is so last year.
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