My top tips for going Vegan!

If you follow me on either Instagram or Twitter you may know that I have recently gone Vegan. I decided to take this step for many reasons. One, of course, being the mistreatment of animals in the meat and dairy industry and the other being for the health benefits. There's a tonne of research out there that proves eating a plant based vegan diet can help reduce effects of fatigue, cholesterol, many degenerative diseases (including vascular heart disease, diabetes and even cancer!) and can all around improve your general health and well being.

However, with all that being said, switching to a plant based vegan diet 'cold turkey', if you like, can be extremely difficult. I have recently hit the 3 week mark and have therefore decided to share with you my top tips and things that I generally found very helpful right at the beginning.  

1) Educate yourself: There are some really great documentaries out there which can really open your eyes. I recommend; Earthlings, Forks over knives and Cowspiracy (both of which can be found on Netflix). Youtube is also a great place to find information on all sorts of things, a couple of really good channels to follow are That Vegan Couple and Erin Janus. You are more likely to stick with it if you have a driving force.

2) Find alternatives: If you're anything like me, cutting out milk, chocolate and cheese altogether is just not an option so finding alternatives to the things you love is super important. There are so many options out there for vegans but you have to find the ones that are right for you. Personally, I love almond milk, Violife soya cheese and pure soya spread, all of which can be found in Asda, Tesco etc.

3) Find a good recipe book/blog/channel: Switching to a Vegan diet is extremely hard if you have no idea what you can eat. Most days I just eat 'normal food' e.g. spaghetti bolognese with vegan mince & vegan cheese - really simple and tasty! But I do like to experiment with proper vegan recipes with loads of grains and veg in. When I first switched to Vegan I was recommended a book called Thug Kitchen which is all about eating proper food!

4) Take snacks everywhere!: There is nothing worse than being stuck in public with nothing to eat. Especially as a Vegan there is a very limited selection of what you can buy regarding convenience food. Fruit pot anyone? Find your favourite Vegan snacks and stock up like crazy. I also recommend investing in some small Tupperware so you can take nuts, crisp and fruit with you for your day. 

Check out this list of accidentally Vegan snacks!

5) Don't judge other people: Not everyone wants to be Vegan and that's okay. Pushing your views on other people is not okay. Let people do whatever they want and you do you!

6) Don't beat yourself up for messing up: It happens, you pick things up that you think are vegan when they're not or you get drunk and accidentally eat a slice of pizza. It's not the end of the world, you're doing your best and that's all that matters. That being said, if you're cheating regularly then you should re-think whether this is actually for you!

I hope these tips help if you're a newbie vegan or are considering swapping your diet. Let me know if you have any top tips of your own!

Thanks for reading!