I wanted to share with you the experiences I had when I began my vegan journey. It is important to talk to you about my personal biggest mistakes first, hoping that you will not make them too. My hope with this week’s Lifestyle Lift is to make your transition to a healthier vegan lifestyle easier.
Here are the 3 biggest mistakes I made when I went vegan:
Not Eating Enough
This may come as no surprise to many of us who are already vegan, but for those who are just starting it is very easy to under eat and not realize it!
Since a lot of the food I ate at the beginning were fruits & veggies, I would feel full really quick and then I would feel bad for being hungry after just 2 hrs. The thing is though, these foods are high in water content and fiber. That means they can be very filling, but we digest them extremely fast. So I would just wait for my next meal thinking I should only eat 3 times a day.
Doing this was definitely a mistake that I quickly changed, because I realized that I needed a higher amount of calories because the food I was eating was so easy to digest, wasn’t calorie dense and sped up my metabolism.
If you start out, I would recommend eating with very little restrictions. I think it’s better to over eat and slowly learn what the amounts of food are the right ones for you, than under eat, because you can get deficient in vitamins and sick. Also If you don’t eat enough you can feel real tired.
Eating Boring “Health Food”
Like most of us mortals, I looked at the vegan diet like a diet and not a lifestyle, so I naturally assumed I should only eat plain foods like salads ALL DAY. Eating salads everyday got super boring within the first 3 days.
Little did I know there are a MILLION different vegan foods you can eat that are delicious and flavorful.
Foods that are satisfying and that resemble most of what I used to eat but better *Cough *Cough *Vegan tacos* exist out there my friends!
Try and look up recipes. You will find tons of them on the internet. From cakes, to lasagna, noodles, etc. There is absolutely nothing you can’t veganize. Don’t think that just because you are no longer eating animal products you are now a rabbit of some sort.
It’s easier now than ever to have comfort vegan food so don’t limit yourself to boring “health foods” all the time.
Keeping Non-Vegan Products Around the House
I became vegan from one day to the other so there were obviously non-vegan items in my kitchen that were accessible to me, and it was complete torture because I had this desire for the foods that were familiar to me and I could easily just grab it if I wanted to.
If your plan is to stick to being vegan you have to get rid of all things that aren’t vegan that could seem like an easy indulgence, because it’s going to become easy to cheat and you are definitely going to fall off the wagon.
If you feel too guilty throwing everything away you can either donate it to people who don’t have much money to buy food or you could just finish it all, but try and give it away if you can; it’s always nice to share food with others.
I hope this information helped you at least a little bit on you journey to becoming the best version of yourself!
Lifestyle Lift has new posts every Monday.
