Yesterday, I discussed some steps that helped me make the transition from just making the BIG DECISION to start CR to living a CR lifestyle. Going and staying VEGAN is another big commitment that is a step by step transition from excited newbie to seasoned pro.

When I made my first vegan commitment, I was living in the Deep South of the USA. Down there, not only had no one ever even heard the term “vegan”, but not eating ANY animal products was just inconceivable. When I told my friends and family I was going vegan, not only did I have to tell them what vegan was, but I might as well told them I was going to eat wilted iceburg salad for the rest of my life (because that is what most people in the south think of salad, unless you are talking about chicken salad, egg salad, or pasta salad).

I was a NEW DECIDED VEGAN that had NO knowledge of nutrition, could barely cook, and the grocery stores down there make Wegmans look like the grocery store of paradise. That’s why I love Wegmans so damn much. I grew up with nothing like it.

Here are some steps that helped me as a new vegan, and some steps that helped me as a recommitted vegan. If you have already made the decision, or maybe are just thinking about going vegan one day, or even just wanting to eat more plant food, these steps will hopefully help you some.

If you have made the commitment, or are thinking about it, you probably have your reasons. I’m not going to go into reasons FOR veganism today, but rather just some steps to help you be successful at it.

#1 Is That Vegan? For many new vegans, this is often a very eye opening and shocking first step. Usually after the BIG DECISION, the new vegan wants to know what is now “off limits”. I remember learning about all the unsuspecting food that contained animal products and being a bit overwhelmed. You are going to have to learn to read ingredient labels. This may seem like a pain at first, but I promise you will pick it up quickly. The hardest part is being able to pick out the not so obvious animal ingredients. Not everything is obvious like “milk, eggs, beef broth, etc”. Some ingredients that are not usually recognized as animal in origin are gelatin (in jello, some gummie candy, and other desserts), L-Cysteine (often seen in bakery products), and Lactic Acid (which can be from plant or animal sources, some products will actually distinguish).  Here are a couple of  great websites to get you through this period.

List of Animal Ingredients
Accidentally Vegan

Note that these are PETA links. By linking to PETA, I do not necessarily condone everything they do…..

#2 Recipes, Recipes, Recipes! More than likely, you have been eating nothing close to a vegan diet. Or, maybe you have, but you have been eating your main meals with animal products. One of the easiest ways to get discouraged as a new vegan is to get bored with your food. Find several new recipes for each main meal. Learn to cook if you don’t know how – start with easy things or desserts to motivate you..Ha. This is especially important if you live in a non-vegan friendly area of the country. You are going to have to take more responsibly for feeding yourself, not just in the selection of you food, but in the satisfaction you get from it too.

#3 Nutrition! Being vegan can be one of the healthiest diet choices. However, there are such things as “Junk Food Vegans”. If you don’t take your nutrition seriously, not only do YOU stand to suffer consequences (as you would with ANY diet), but other people will try to blame your poor health on your veganism – it won’t matter if they have heart disease and diabetes from eating fast food for 20 years. Take your nutrition seriously for you own sake, and when others ask about this you will be able to give them educated answers.

#4 Support! If you already know some vegan friends, you’re ahead of the curve. Not only did I not even know a vegetarian when I decided to go vegan, but I’ve still never met a vegan in real life. Find a forum you feel comfortable on, find blogs you like, and try to find a group of people (even if they are only online), that you can connect with. I seriously doubt I would have relapsed with my veganism if I had had some support. I know better now. I was a lone warrior back then, and after a while even a lone warrior runs out of energy.

#5 Coming Out! While this can sometimes coincide with finding support, this is often not the case. Support may come from a few friends, or more likely online contacts or social areas, but coming out to people in your life who are not vegan is also important. This does not have to be done in a self righteous way, but for your own confidence it is important to tell family or other non-vegan friends about your decision. Especially people  you will be eating around.  Let them know your decision, and if they want to know more or have a conversation then go ahead – but don’t push them, they will question more as time goes on. Not everyone will react positivity, be prepared for this, but let them know that you are not attacking them personally and if you take the moral high ground, you will have more leverage to talk vegan points later on after they have cooled off.

Remember, you have nothing to apologize for for standing up for something you believe in. Just be firm, be consistent, and be confident.

#6 Should I Keep My Leather Shoes? What to do about all your non-vegan clothes and shoes often becomes more of a conundrum that food because food is replaced so easily. The answer to this questions is really “only if you want to”. My personal thought is that you should wear your old clothes and shoes until it is time to buy more, then replace them with vegan wear. I still have an old leather jacket my Mom bought me in 1997. I don’t want to spend the money to replace it, and it’s perfectly fine, so I haven’t gotten rid of it. Other vegans what a “clean slate” so to say, and give their non-vegan apparel to second hand stores. The choice is up to you.

#7 Non-Vegan Cravings? Some vegans never have problems craving animal products. I was like this the first time. All animal products *instantly* became non-food. Before I was able to make my DECISION to fully commit a few days ago, I had problems with this. The best thing you can do for cravings is to find a replacement or just find something different but better. Some things prove especially hard for people, like cheese. But most foods are foods that can be veganized. Veganism is more popular now too, so even if you live some where without vegan amenities, you can order something online to scratch an itch if necessary.

This concept really applies to just healthy eating in general. Someone wanting to eat a healthier diet is going to have to find replacements for their non-healthy foods. The one thing NOT TO DO when trying to find replacements is to focus too much on what you can’t have.

Don’t get stuck in brain loops of all the things that are now “off limits”. If you just find replacements, and move on, you will notice after a while that you have really completely forgotten about this food you thought you depended on. People are creatures of habit, and our comfort foods are a habit too. Find new, vegan comfort foods, and you will eventually forget about your old ones. Heck, I think my new foods are BETTER than my old ones. However, the transition was still difficult.  Old habits die hard.

#8 Vegan Perfectionism. As some of your more argumentative non-vegan friends may have already pointed out to you, it’s impossible to be 100% vegan in today’s world. Do you drive a car with tires? Do you want to keep those tires? Ok…. Now, I’m not about to go calling you a bad vegan for driving a car with tires, or eating peanut butter with traces of roaches, etc. Don’t get lost in the details you really can’t control. The vegan goal IS the big picture. And if you accidentally eat something non-vegan, this doesn’t suddenly revoke your vegan card. As with any mishap, just learn and move on.

#9 Learn How to Eat Out. Eating out will never be as simple as it was pre-vegan. More thought has to go into what you pick, and if it can be altered. You will need to learn how to question the waitstaff on ingredients of dishes, and understand that in most areas of the country your eating out options will be limited compared to before. Many Chain-restaurants with websites also publish their ingredients online now, so you can just look before you go out. And sometimes, you have to do the best you can and understand it may not be 100% perfect if you are also in a restaurant that serves animal products (this doesn’t mean ordering something obviously non-vegan, just realizing the limitations of the kitchen).

If you are fortunate to live near an area with lots of vegan restaurants and conveniences, consider yourself a lucky vegan. Your life is much easier than those in the rural places of the USA.

#10 Books, Blogs, Forums. The best thing you can to is to keep learning about the reasons why you are vegan. Learn about other vegans. Learn about ways to eat vegan. Interact with other vegans. It’s good to get different perspectives from people in different areas. So, just expand your mind. Read all sorts of vegan and animal rights books. Read the blogs of vegans living different vegan lifestyles. And interact with other vegans on forums to get a feeling on connectedness over something you feel passionate about.

#11 Medicine and Vitamins. For those of us who have to take medicines or take vitamins, it may not be possible to make perfect choices here if we even have a choice at all. In this area, be smart, take medicines or reasonable supplements, don’t suffer yourself.

All these things are steps I have done during my vegan journey, and I feel like they could help others on their vegan journey or journey to veganism. It took me a while to feel confident enough to make the commitment the second time about because I have a lot more life experience and wisdom, and I understand the seriousness of such a bold vocal commitment more so than I did when I was younger.

I don’t expect to have all the answers, but I know that I can stand behind the vegan way for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. And for that, I will not be ashamed or apologize. I have proudly recommitted as a vegan. I’ve walked down many different dietary roads on my vegan hiatus, so I am not about to judge anyone because I have likely been there. In a way, I am glad I went though my humbling non-vegan days because of the wisdom I have gained.

My goal now (well one of them) is to show that one can live a CR vegan lifestyle. :-) If any of you have any questions about CR, veganism, or anything else….ask away.

Food for November 7 2010.

————————————-
Brazil Nut (22)
Hempilicious Berry Sorbet (330)
* 120g Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
* 240g Unsweetened Vanilla Hemp Milk
* 240g Strawberries, Frozen
* 120g Blueberries, Frozen
* 15g Hemp Protein Powder
* 5.5g Flax Oil
* Stevia
Beet Lemon Carrot Kale Juice (163)
Thai Red Curry & Vegetables (254)
6oz GT’s Kombucha – Plain (45)
Seasoned Scrambled Tofu (337)
+ 30g Diaya Cheese (Ok, but not awesome, won’t add again)
Peach & Pumpkin Chia Pudding (234)

Supplements:
3 Bone-Up Capsules
5000IU Vit D
1/8 Tablet Vit B5
500mg each L-Carnosine/Tyrosine (I alternate these each day)

===========================================
Nutrition Summary for November 7, 2010
Report generated by CRON-o-Meter v0.9.7
===========================================

General (88%)
===========================================
Energy               |  1390.6 kcal   104%
Protein              |    54.1 g       95%
Carbs                |   180.0 g       92%
Fiber              |    47.5 g      190%
Starch             |     4.3 g       29%
Sugars             |    75.9 g      152%
Fat                  |    54.5 g      116%

Vitamins (100%)
===========================================
Vitamin A            | 80941.7 IU    1619%
Lutein+Zeaxanthin  | 35373.9 µg     707%
Folate               |   513.4 µg     285%
B1 (Thiamine)        |     1.7 mg     153%
B2 (Riboflavin)      |     2.2 mg     170%
B3 (Niacin)          |    19.2 mg     128%
B5 (Pantothenic Acid)|    16.9 mg     338%
B6 (Pyridoxine)      |     2.7 mg     169%
B12 (Cyanocobalamin) |    52.3 µg    2614%
Vitamin C            |   528.6 mg     881%
Vitamin D            |  3711.5 IU    1856%
Vitamin E            |    19.5 mg     162%
Vitamin K            |   832.1 µg     925%

Minerals (100%)
===========================================
Calcium              |  1838.7 mg     184%
Copper               |     2.0 mg     102%
Iron                 |    14.3 mg      95%
Magnesium            |   650.0 mg     203%
Manganese            |     5.2 mg     131%
Phosphorus           |  1093.1 mg     156%
Potassium            |  3756.5 mg     107%
Selenium             |    93.8 µg     170%
Sodium               |  1225.1 mg     245%
Zinc                 |    13.1 mg     109%

Amino Acids (100%)
===========================================
CYS                  |     0.7 g      301%
ILE                  |     2.4 g      206%
LEU                  |     3.7 g      167%
LYS                  |     2.7 g      160%
MET                  |     0.7 g      118%
PHE                  |     2.4 g      252%
THR                  |     2.6 g      304%
TRP                  |     0.8 g      330%
TYR                  |     1.7 g      371%
VAL                  |     2.6 g      152%

Lipids (62%)
===========================================
Saturated            |    14.9 g       74%
Monounsaturated      |     6.5 g       26%
Polyunsaturated      |    22.7 g       91%
Omega-3            |     8.6 g      783%
Omega-6            |     8.8 g       80%
Cholesterol          |     0.0 mg       0%