- Eat meat and dairy. Seriously. Now I mean no disrespect against people who can go 100%, cold-turkey, animal product free. But there are some big risks with that approach:
Rules and Regulations Burnout, where you get so tired of all the work that you give up and go back to eating whatever the heck you feel like.
Becoming an ass, where you start turning your nose up at people for being Less Holy Of Veganosity Than Thou.
Becoming a weirdo, where people are completely baffled by your eating habits and sharing food with them–one of the most powerful forms of vegan outreach–becomes impossible.Start with what you can. Vegan-before-dinner. Vegan-at-home. Vegan-on-Sunday. Vegan-except-for-uncle-barry’s-lasagna-oh-my-god-its-delicious.
- Eat good meat and dairy. If you don’t seek out ethically produced meat and dairy, when you start seriously craving that stuff, you’ll end up eating ice cream made from cows who have their eyes burnt out and live in swimming pools of their own shit. Or whatever it is they’re doing to cows these days. If you seek out ethically produced stuff, you’ll have a sensible outlet for those cravings, instead of shoveling money at In ‘N Out, because you don’t know where else to go.
- Avoid fake stuff. There are lots of foods that are naturally pretty vegan: spaghetti, veggie chili, fruit, falafel, chana masala, pad thai, peanut butter & jelly, salad, and so-on. Not only do they tend to be less processed and healthier than that “chik’n” cordon bleu you got at Whole Foods, they are less likely to give you disturbing parallel universe nightmares while eating.
- Nutritional Yeast. Develop a taste for it. Not only is it one of our only vegan sources of B-12, it will be your strongest ally in the fight against creaminess cravings.
- Raw “ice cream”. 1) Peel some bananas and freeze them. 2) Throw a couple in the blender with a dollop of tahini (or peanut butter if you don’t like the slight bitterness), and add some water and few spoonfuls of cocoa powder (or a splash of vanilla). Use as little water as possible. 3) Blend. 4) Marvel in the deliciousness and cheapness of your tasty treat. Ice cream cravings: defeated! (Thx Emily for this life changing recipe)
- Earth Balance. Buy it. Eat it. Watch as you forget what butter even tastes like.
- Pot lucks. And general carousing with other vegans. This is critical. There are about 500 little tips you need to learn to kick animal products from your diet completely, and the only way to learn them is to cavort with chefs more experienced than you.
- Rice ‘n Beans. You might as well call them Bread and Butter, because that’s the role they should serve in your diet. Together they make a complete protein. They are the cheapest way to provide a good protein/complex carb base for your diet.
- Stop cooking. Stop cutting. Stop doing anything at all with your food. See that delicious fresh organic cucumber from the farmer’s market? Wash it, and take a bite out of it. Savor the cucumberyness like you’ve never savored cucumberyness before. When you’re vegan, everything is harder and you need to save cooking time everywhere you can. So don’t cook.
- Don’t beat yourself up. At the end of the day, you need to eat, and veganism, while important, is not the only important thing you could be applying your energy to. If ordering a pizza frees you up to say hello to your neighbors or read a good book, then DO IT! And feel good about it.
Veganism is not about adhering rigorously to some crazy rules. Veganism is about making a small contribution every day to getting all of us off animal products. And the only way you can contribute daily to anything is if you make damn sure your contribution is of a manageable size. Do what you can, and no more. It’s enough.
