New Vegan Advice
We asked the thousands of members of UK Vegan group on Facebook to share their own advice to new vegans that would have helped them.
Here is some of the great advice received.
You can join our group for free at www.facebook.com/groups/ukvegan and get help at any time.
We also have our UK VEGAN CLUB discount club giving a range of great discounts for just £1 a month – see www.facebook.com/ukveganclub for more info.
Remember why you are going vegan to keep you motivated.
Don’t be too critical of yourself if you relapse at the beginning. You can get back on track easily.
Go easy on yourself, it can be a big learning curve so don’t beat yourself up if you trip up. Join groups like this for advice and support. Education…learn all you can about the different aspects of being vegan, not only will it give you motivation but great to be able to back yourself up when you get all the weird and wonderful questions and comments from non-vegans.
Animals life is worth more than your taste buds. You CAN survive without eating our friends, it’s all about how you look at it.
Use an app such as cronometer for the first week or so, so you can keep an eye on your calorie and nutrient intake. I was really shocked by how few calories I was consuming overall, and was able to make adjustments to my diet to ensure I was going about it in a healthy way.
If you have any favourite eating out spots or favourite meals to cook (especially if done socially) then find vegan options or veganise these early on so you don’t feel pressurised into making non vegan choices when at friend’s houses or out at a restaurant.
A lot of new vegan accidentally make mistakes with food items, thinking something is vegan when it may contain something like beeswax, but only gives an E number so they don’t realise. I would say to them not to beat themselves up about it or worry, we all make mistakes sometimes, even us longterm vegans, so just pick yourself up and carry on, and use it as learning experience.
My biggest advice would be that when using “meat replacements”, try not to think of it as “fake” something. It puts you immediately on the back foot because you’re imagining it tasting like something which it isn’t. Treat every food as a totally different and unique food in it’s own right. Don’t think of it as “fake chicken” or “fake beef mince”. Think of it as tofu/soya/seitan/pea mince etc. If you don’t think of them as “fake chicken” etc, you can taste it with an open mind x.
Do your research first. Veganise the food you would normally eat.
I always recommend that people join challenge22.com because it’s a brilliant resource, completely free where you’ll get all the help you need from mentors & registered dietitians. No question is too small or silly, it’s a completely non-judgemental place. I’m a mentor myself & honestly it’s fantastic.
If you like cheese don’t try to replace it instantly you need a break first. Vegan cheese tastes awful until you wean yourself off dairy completely. After that it suddenly becomes nice.
Don’t instinctively reach for meat alternatives for every meal out of habit and instead, get creative with your veggies! Meat alternatives are delicious but they can get a bit uninteresting and uninspiring. There’s a whole rainbow of veggies to colour with! I think this would be particularly helpful for people transitioning straight from omni to vegan.
I can only say
Don’t be hard on your self
Find what works for you
There is so many vegan options out now
V taste cheese slices from Morrisons no after taste
Tesco plant chef foods are lovely
Aldi’s sweet popcorn
Tesco bourbon creams
The list goes on oh bells vegan scotch pie
It’s about finding what works for you
I watched earthlings I was vegetarian most my life but when I watched that I went vegan that night
Am not saying to tell people to watch it
But I looked at my dog and said I could not eat you so why other animals
Try to find a list of vegan foods
Now vegans have the best food ever and healthiest foods. But people battle with cheese milk chocolate etc but now we have great alternative s out there xx.
Try new foods and herbs and spices so that vegetables pulses rice etc.
are not boring, and one of the best help I had was joining a few vegan groups such as this, you learn a lot from others. I hope you succeed in turning more people vegan. Best of luck.
Practice a ratio of 80-90% legumes, pulses, grains, fruit&veg and the remaining 10-20% to try out meat substitutes.
Focus on a whole foods to gain the full health benefits of a plant based diet. Don’t leave out your supplements B12 OMEGA 3 & of course add some VIT D. Enjoy the process & if need be approach the journey in manageable stages, doesn’t have to be cold turkey.
I would say eat more than you usually would – i was def hungry for the few first weeks. Also hummus and all sort of pates are your best friends for a quick and healthy snack.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Try being vegan at home first of all, so you don’t panic when out. Do the best you can at first, don’t be too strict then when you are more used to it you will naturally become more veganised!
Make friends with a vegan so you can fire stupid questions without judgement
Dont feel pressured by other vegans. There are so many shades and interpretations of vegan
Cook, learn to love cooking. Buy random veg and cook. Cram as many vegs into a dish as you can.
I started using FEEL multivit as a just in case
Learn where calcium etc comes from so you don’t wonder if you are getting enough
You don’t have to watch animal death to understand it. Its your choice. You can still get the point
Biscoff biscoff biscoff
Sheese sheese sheese
The farts will settle….they are also good for keeping annoying people away
Yeast extract in everything
Your taste will come back and your cooking will be much more diverse. In last 6 months i’ve never tried more new foods.
Dont get upset or preach to anyone questioning you…….just answer them with facts in a nice way. It gets better results.
Good luck. Benefits, green bmi, less stressed, better recovery time for running and better cook, better understanding of food industry chucking meat products into things
Candy kittens
Monty bojangles
Free from fellows sweets, mallow bites
Good luck
Bosh recipe books, flora buttery and oatly barristta.
Don’t make yourself miss out on your favourite things, otherwise you’ll just want to go back. If you like lasagna, make a vegan version, if you like burgers, try a vegan version. Experiment and try new things and enjoy food! Don’t force yourself to eat things you don’t like.
I started doing one day a week.
Don’t worry, enjoy lots of different vegetables raw or steamed. Drink water, chew well. Intend to be well and safe.
Maybe a fun list of accidental vegan foods? Or stuff you can’t believe is vegan because it really changes your mindset when you realise vegan food isn’t just vegetables and weird plastic alternatives with herbs on it.
Try a probiotic to help your gut transition and be aware that your tastes definitely change and adapt so patience is key. There’s a reason why Veganuary lasts a whole month, you need time for your body and mindset to adjust.
Learn to like Brazil nuts. Selenium is essential.
Also iodine. I sprinkle a little vegan kelp flakes/salt onto my dinner x2 a week. Otherwise eat seaweed. Equally important. Quite a few people forget this.
It won’t be like you imagine. You are only giving up animal foods there is so much more to eat that you have ever thought.
Go slowly. Changing to a vegan product when a non vegan product runs out.
Reading labels will get easier so shopping won’t take as long . Don’t just read the bold ingredients.
Don’t beat yourself up if you have a slip up, knowingly or unknowingly.
Empowered yourself with research, helps to keep you focused on your choice.
Don’t be angry when others don’t understand. Education is key. Point them towards a program maybe they could watch. And if they try to catch you out with questions just response with Google it for yourself.
Stay strong it will be one of the best moves you ever made.
100% for me the number one thing is to follow loads of vegan pages an join groups, it gives so many meal ideas and lots of inspiration to keep going if it gets tough. Veganism is a steep learning curve so exposing yourself to lots of it quickly is so helpful.
Beans and legumes are your friends ❤️ just start eating then gradually
That first shopping trip is going to take an age, so make sure you’ve got some time aside. But it gets so much quicker very quick!
Don’t expect the substitutes to taste identical. Think of them as alternatives in a recipe, rather than direct replacements.
Realising that a lot of food you actually eat already can be made vegan easily you don’t need to go out and find wild recipes (although do if you would like to) or eat just salad (although do if you would like to) quite as simple as searching on google “vegan Shepard’s pie” “vegan spaghetti bolognese” 😊.
There are nice branded alternatives, and some pretty disgusting ones. Don’t be put off, that some don’t taste so good. Just keep experimenting until you find what you like.
I would say try experimenting with new foods and not replacements to start with. The foods you would have never tried before. That just shows the variety of fruits, vegetables, lentils and cereals out there. Looking at the animals you eat having a personality is a definite deterrent to eating them. It feels so wrong when you hit that realisation.
Black salt can make anything taste like eggs. Watch plenty of videos showing what animals are going through and you’ll never look at animal products the same way again.
Don’t replace meat and dairy with carbs or you will need to then learn how to diet on a plant based diet too 🙈 and chickpeas and lentils are magic, add them to almost everything to fill you up for longer and give you lots of energy.
There are some great Instagram accounts to follow. Like vegan_food_uk and accidentally vegan uk
Which are up on supermarket finds and New products launching.
Take away any idea that it is difficult being vegan it is so easy nowadays and be thankful to yourself for doing it and proud of yourself for making a difference to the aninals and planet.