Читать книгу Vegans Save the World - Alice Alvrez - Страница 6

How to Get Started

You’ve read about what being a vegan means and you’re ready to take the plunge. It can be a daunting process so here are the first few steps to help you get going.

Do Your Research: You’ve already done some reading, but do you really know what being vegan is all about? Obviously, this book is a fantastic step to introduce you to the ins and outs of veganism. You probably shouldn’t make a huge life change after reading just one book. Read a few, along with magazine articles and online blogs.

Take it Slow: Some people say that stopping all animal products in one fell swoop is the way to go (going cold turkey, if you’ll forgive the phrase). But it can be really hard when you consider the huge range of things you are suddenly going to have to cut out of your diet and your life.

A good first step is to get rid of meat. Once you’ve started to master cooking vegetarian meals, start to let go of eggs and dairy. After that, you can start to really examine labels and ferret out all the hidden animal ingredients in your food. Even if it takes months to get to a real vegan place, it will be worth it.

Learn to Cook: If you don’t already have great cooking skills, now’s the time to learn. So many conventional and processed foods are non-vegan that you’ll almost certainly have to start doing a lot more home-cooking to make it work.

Try New Foods: It’s not just about what you take out of your diet. Make up a batch of quinoa, do a stir fry with tempeh or grill up a black bean burger. Experimentation will open up so many new doors that you won’t even realize that some things are gone. Try at least one new food a week.

You’re Not Perfect: Once you start to notice all the animal products in so many things around you, it can be pretty overwhelming. Don’t throw your hands up and quit because you find your hand lotion has some glycerin in it. Being as vegan as possible is better than just giving up.

The specifics of how you get started aren’t that important. What matters is that you do it.