From inews.co.uk By Henry Firth, Ian Theasby
The first one is telling everybody. No one likes being lectured
If you are someone who ate a “normal” diet which included meat, dairy, fish and eggs your whole life, you would probably find going completely vegan in one day incredibly difficult. We know this, because we used to eat meat every day ourselves.
Ian went vegan as part of a new year’s resolution that was supposed to last a month. Eight years later, he looks back at photographs of himself from that time and is reminded he didn’t approach vegan nutrition properly; he got skinny, very quickly. Henry adopted a plant-based diet six weeks after Ian. He watched the documentary Cowspiracy and made the change overnight. Without the staple meaty dishes in his collection of recipes, he was at a loss for what to cook for dinner. A lot of falafel wraps were bought during that time!
Most new vegans have to completely rethink the way that they cook, especially if they are serious about having a nutritious diet. That is just the truth of it. Even though there is an abundance of information online, a lot of people still make mistakes. The biggest mistake of all, like with so many things in life, is not planning properly. The old adage is true; fail to plan, plan to fail.
If you are going out for dinner with friends to a non-vegan restaurant, call ahead to make sure there is something for you to eat. If you are going to the supermarket for your weekly shop, plan your meals and write a list. If you are heading to a relative’s house for dinner, let them know your dietary requirements; it might feel like a bit of a faff but most people, especially your nearest and dearest, will be very accommodating.
The best way to go vegan is to take a slow, measured approach. If you eat meat seven days a week, eat it six days a week for a fortnight. After a fortnight, eat meat five days a week for the next fortnight and carry on until you are eating 100 per cent plant-based. Be the tortoise, not the hare.
The “slowly-slowly” approach will allow you enough time to plan. You will gradually build up a decent recipe repertoire, find a host of plant-based influencers to follow on social media and give yourself time to learn about what you need to do and why you are doing it. If you get just one per cent better every day, you will be 100 per cent better in 100 days (just over three months), which really is not that long.
Although veganism is getting more and more popular, meat eaters are still seen as the norm. So of course, you will slip up now and again. You will probably accidentally order chips cooked in beef dripping, or get given a muffin with eggs in it, or eat a bag of crisps that have whey powder on the ingredient list. Do not get too wound up about the occasional mishap. If you fall off, get up and go again. The best way to avoid slip ups is cooking from scratch at home. For us, weekday dinners are usually quick and easy bowls of healthy greens and grains. On weekends, when we have a little more time, we will pull one of our cookbooks out and rustle up something delicious.
One mistake new vegans make is to tell everybody. They tell everyone why they changed their diet, and lecture others too. Remember that no one really likes being told what to do. This is especially true when it is something you have only just started doing yourself.
However, it is likely that if you do decide to start eating plant-based, people will ask you why. There is your chance to share what you are learning. You might convince someone else to cut out meat too. When we first went vegan most of our friends and family asked us “why,” but eventually they started asking us “how.” Now, most of our friends and family have drastically cut down on the amount of meat they eat.
Another thing a lot of vegans do not realise is that it is not just about what you eat and drink. It is what you wear, the products you use on your skin, what you use to clean your house, or even what you decorate your body with (most tattoo ink is not vegan).
But new vegans should take their time with it and learn gradually. Use up the products you already have and replace them with new vegan-friendly products as you go.
Henry Firth and Ian Theasby run a plant-based online channel. You can find them on social media @bosh.tv
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/mistakes-new-vegans-make-we-made-them-2216587
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