Plant Based Transition Aide

Over the years I've been plant based, I get asked quite a lot about how I transitioned. I know vegan challenge videos have been a thing off and on, however, they aren't always a good introduction into the vegan diet. When you grow up eating meat your body has to basically reset itself, so cold turkey for a week usually leaves you not feeling so hot and can possibly turn you off from the diet change.
With that in mind I decided to make kind of a short list to keep in mind and hopefully help transition.

 I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist and I don't have any health problems other than food allergies, so please understand that you have to tailor things to your body and lifestyle. Also keep in mind doctors aren't necessarily going to be familiar with animal products in medicine so unless you're allergic, you should just suck it up and take the medicine if there's no alternative. [i.e. gel capsules are made with gelatin and xanax has lactose]  Also eating healthier doesn't mean it's okay to lay around all day. I'm going to make a few suggestions, some recommendations and you may do with it as you will.

*I strongly suggest learning to cook if you don't already know how, it's more cost effective.

-I've found that Asian style cooking lends itself well to making vegan food.

• When eating out ween yourself from heavier meats to lighter meats [i.e. pork to fish] and then no meat
• Finish off or re-home all the animal products in your house and don't buy more
• Check the labels at the store (there's dairy in a lot of random things)
• Check restaurant menus before eating out
• Make sure you have fruits and veggies in the house (you'll feel it if your body's low on them)
• If you have the time starting a garden is also a great option

Everyone should be taking a multi vitamin but as a vegan it's widely spread that at the very least B12 supplements are a must. I recommend after being vegan for awhile have your doctor run your blood work so they can tell you if anything is low. Also don't ignore your body, you might need extra supplements or need to diversify your meals. Nuts are really good, personally I only eat nuts in yogurt and vise versa aside from pistachios and I avoid coconut which I'm sensitive to but I'd still avoid if I wasn't.

There's always a way to get around taste preferences, there are tons of food alternatives. Some alternatives are more regional but most brands have store locators and there are a good amount of delivery services you can use. Also keep in mind a lot of vegan products aren't specifically labeled vegan simply because certification is expensive, same with organic.

The most common brands you'll see for meat substitutes are Field Roast, Gardein and Beyond Meats. If you're Celiac like me Gardein and Beyond Meats will be your go to. I recommend Gardein's beef crumbles, Beyond Meats are fine but they're thicker and dry out fast, however, field roast  is the brand I recommend getting cheese. It's called Chao, my favorite is the tomato cayenne.
There are plenty of dairy alternatives, so it's pretty much matching your taste buds. Unless you go to a specialty store the most common brand you'll see is Almond Breeze, Silk and So Delicious for most things like milk, yogurt, ice cream, egg nog. So Delicious make most of their products with almond, soy, coconut and/or cashew milk version. (For egg nog I'd go with the soy milk version)

I don't think it's necessary to make mention of the importance of the fruit and vegetable section of the grocery store but if you don't know about kimchi you should try it. You might have to try it more than once to enjoy it (my dad says it tastes better than it smells) but it's great for you especially if you're sick. Traditional kimchi isn't vegan but there's been a a surge of vegan kimchi recently. I learned about kimchi from Mommy Tang and recently she mentioned finding vegan kimchi at the Asian market but you can find it at non specialty stores I made a list of some vegan kimchi here.

If you're looking for protein powders and such, currently I use Vega (not every single product) and have yet to try anything else but I definitely plan to. There are a good few high level athletes that are vegan and I doubt they all use the same thing so you'll just have to experiment.


If you want to actually see people cooking, testing, etc. I recommend these YouTube channels

• Sarah'sVeganKitchen - Vegan food blogger, records taste tests, what I eat in a day
• CheapLazyVegan - Vegan food blogger, Records muckbangs, recipe testing, meal prep etc ,  Co-Owns a vegan cafe (Made an E-Cookbooks, another's on the way)
• MommyTang - Vegan Mukbanger, she makes the recipes in the video before eating
• Avantgardevegan - Vegan Chef, puts out recipe videos (Made Two Cookbooks) 

Please, leave your feedback, questions and or extra tips in the comments!