Tips on Transitioning to Vegan

Educate yourself.

It's so much easier to be vegan when you know what you're doing and why. Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives, and Earthlings [TW: I thought this one was a little graphic] are common documentary recommendations. I prefer books, though, and these are the books I recommend.

• The Sexual Politics of Meat - Carol J. Adams
• Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran Foer
• Beyond Beef - Jeremy Rifkin
• The Ethics of What We Eat - Peter Singer, Jim Mason

Now that we've covered the 'why?' part, let's move on to what you're doing. This is a lifestyle overhaul. You will likely need recipes. There are tons of lovely recipes availble on the world of the Internet (including this blog) but if you are in search of vegan cookbooks:

• Forks Over Knives the Cookbook
• Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook

I don't use cookbooks often but they do come in handy when I need something new. Here are few other books that might be helpful.

• Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World
• Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism

And I can't not include my favorite of all vegan resources, Bite Size Vegan.

Take one day at a time. No, one meal at a time.

"These are the list of things you won't eat and you will never eat them, ever again!" Sounds pretty terrifying, if you ask me. However it doesn't have to feel that way. Maybe cutting out all animal products altogether may seem drastic coming from a society where it is perfectly normal to consume meat, dairy and cheese, but you can definitely eat vegan pasta instead of steak for dinner today. For just one meal you can make a vegan choice, it's not that hard. You can pick up more vegetables instead of meat on this grocery shopping trip. You can drink fruit juice instead of chocolate milk for today's snack. You can pass on that buttery cake this one time. If you keep making these tiny changes each and every time, then voila! You are vegan.

Connect with other vegans.

Becoming a vegan used to be unfathomable to me. Then I saw dozens of other girls my age on the Internet who are successful vegans. That made it so real. Something that I could do, since other people just like me are doing it. Also, you can share information and support each other! Utilize social media and the Internet in general to find other vegans and communicate with them. I'm always available at my Instagram @livingafiction (shameless self-promotion) and this blog is open for anyone as well.

Decide where to draw the lines.

Being vegan is pretty straightforward for the most part, but there are obstacles and grey areas, and at some point you will have to compromises. If you already own leather items, do you throw them out? Do you throw out non-vegan foods in your pantry? Do you have to take medicine? In most countries they're tested on animals so they're guaranteed not to be vegan. The Vegan Society, who coined the term 'vegan', defines veganism as "Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose." so if not taking medicine is not possible or practicable for you, do what you need to do. While some contend that using non-vegan items you already have 'normalize' use of animal products, not everyone can afford to replace them and I've kept my non-vegan items myself. Bottom line is, try your absolute best not to cause any more avoidable suffering.

Learn from your mistakes.

You will make mistakes. At first I made a ton of mistakes, too. Eating something thinking it's vegan and then it turns out it's not vegan, buying something without scrutinizing the label, things like that. Just learn from your mistakes, vegan police will not take your vegan badge away :P