How to Get Started Being Vegan-ish

So, you’ve decided to try this easy vegan-ish thing out, but you just don’t know where to begin.  Today’s post is all about step one.  You don’t have to throw out everything and start today.  We’re going to move through step-by-step process that will make the transition easy. All next week, eat normally.  But, when it comes time to replace the imitation maple syrup or the PopTarts or the Pizza Rolls, don’t.  You have a whole week to think of other vegan choices.

And thinking is the key.  Rid your mind of the idea that dinner has to be a meat and 2 vegetables.  Banish the thoughts that carbs are the bad guys.  Dismiss the notion that vegetables are boring.  Don’t worry about high calorie foods like nuts and avocadoes.  We’re going to use the next 6 weeks to get your mind on target to being a fit, vegan-ish hottie the easy way.

This week you have 2 goals.  You are going to start finding the vegan options as they exist in your kitchen today and start phasing out fake food. You might not have to change as much as you think.  After all, you’ve been watching what you eat for forever.  So, look around.  Do you have a can of minestrone?  Frozen vegetables?  Box of ginger snaps?  You have vegan food.  Pasta with tomato sauce, baked potatoes with salsa, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, almonds—they are all vegan.  Forget your diet head trash about food.  If it’s real and it’s vegan, eat it.

But being vegan is half the battle. We’re going to keep vegan easy by simply eating real food.  No artificial stuff.  Eat food that was made in a kitchen and not in a laboratory.  Did it take a team of researchers to make your coffee creamer?  Then it’s not natural.  Take a look at the ingredients list on your cereal?  If it has high fructose corn syrup (or its secret identity name Corn Sugar) in the ingredient list, it’s not natural.  Is half the contents of your cabinets fat free or sugar free?  Was it that way in nature?  If not, it’s not natural. You don’t have to toss it. (Money doesn’t grow on trees, you know.  There are starving children in Africa that would love to eat your fake cereal.)  But, resolve that you’re not going to buy more of it either.

It’s going to be natural from now on.  The highest quality food you can afford.  Forget your diet head trash about food.  If it’s real and it’s vegan, eat it.

If you start to lose motivation, read The China Study by T. Colin Campbell.  I had decided to be vegan before I even finished the introduction.  Don’t worry about your friends that say you won’t get enough protein or calcium.  Don’t listen to the nonsense that your body will go into starvation mode and you’ll lose muscle mass.  Bullhockey!

Think of these two things when your friends challenge you:

1.  If eating protein helps you stay thin then the USA should be the thinnest country in the world because we eat more than anyone.  But, of course, we’re not.  We’re fat and getting fatter (even though we diet constantly).

2.  Cows, whales, giraffes, rhinoceroses, hippos, antelope, deer–they’re vegan and they are plenty muscular.  They eat nothing but plants and somehow they still manage to grow and have muscle.

Next week we’ll start working on introducing new food!