I’ve given my best tips on how to stay vegan, and I stand by them. They are tried and true ways to help you avoid going back to eating meat or dairy. But, since I wrote that article, one of my best friends – who I never thought would go vegan – has gone vegan, and watching her go through the process, I’ve got some extra tips that may also help you stay vegan for good.
1. Share To Friends And Family That You Are Going Vegan
My friend lives in a small town where the word vegan isn’t in the dictionary. In fact, I used to visit her when I was vegetarian, and the people in her town could not conceptualize what that was, never mind what vegan meant. But she’s changing things there.
Her ability to share with me that she was going vegan was a big motivator for her to stay vegan. Trying something out in secret doesn’t really motivate you to keep up appearances, but telling other people what you are doing and then showing them what you are doing is a huge motivator.
She even posts her recipes on her private Instagram page for her friends and family – who most definitely are not vegan. I love that she’s showing them that vegan can be really, really good.
2. Embrace Your Creativity
Sometimes being vegan is about being creative. You need to do things a little bit differently in order to replace one of your pre-vegan meals or create something new with the right flavors and food combinations.
My friend is an artist who loves to cook, so it makes sense that she’s loving the creative process of being vegan.
If you can embrace and enjoy the creative process of cooking vegan, then you will have a much easier time playing around in the kitchen and seeing what works for you and what doesn’t.
3. Plan, Plan, And Plan
My friend lives in a very small town and has to drive 1 1/2 hours to get the majority of her food. This means that when she goes on a grocery trip, she plans. She usually has a meal planner on her fridge for at least a month’s worth of meals.
Before going vegan, she bought herself Fuss-Free Vegan by Sam Turnbull. She picked out the recipes she wanted to try and bought the food she needed. This meant that most of the food in her house was food that matched the recipes she wanted to try, and so she has been cooking pretty much from Sam Turnbull’s book!
She also bought some things to veganize some of her favorite non-vegan foods and that’s working out great for her. She knows what she wants to make, what she needs, and then she goes for it!
4. Be Open To Trying New Things
My friend is pretty open to trying new things. She’s has had me as a vegetarian friend since we were young. And, we’ve gone out and tried vegan restaurants together.
But, when she told me she was planning to go vegan, she said that she didn’t want to cook with anything too different, such as tofu or cashews. She just wanted basic ingredients and basic recipes that she’s used to.
That’s why when I made the vegan baked feta pasta, I was surprised when she made the same thing but with tofu! I thought she wasn’t going to buy tofu!
Then the other day, she posted a tofu scramble to her Instagram.
She also bought herself a vegan roast and made it for Easter.
Both she and her husband have been enjoying the vegan foods she’s been making, even though they use ingredients that she swore she would never cook with.
Personally, I’m more shocked that her husband, who is a part-time guide for hunting moose, is embracing vegan food. She says he’s loving the food, has lost 15 pounds and is surprised that he is so satisfied after each meal. I have my fingers crossed that it leads to more awareness and possibly a new career.
