How to go vegan

I want to go vegan, but I don’t know how to start.

Is that how you feel? Here’s the deal: You go vegan by starting to go vegan. There are a lot of options, and I’m going to lay one out here for you now.

How to go vegan: Start with the animals

When you want to go vegan, first you meet the animals that you used to consider food.

Even though the reality is terrible, really examine it. The purpose of learning about the lives of farmed animals is not to traumatize yourself. It’s to connect the changes you are making in your life to the specific reasons why you are making them.

For example, dairy cows are artificially inseminated. They perpetually have babies and make milk so humans can drink lattes and eat cheese. On the day they are born, calves are taken away. The female orphans are kept in solitary hutches until they are able to repeat their mothers’ fate. If they are male, they are sold into the cattle industry to suffer the torment of feedlots.

If baby chicks in the egg industry are born male, they are macerated in a grinder. Selective breeding of chickens used for meat creates painful Frankenstein body proportions. They are packed into wire cages stacked on top of each other and get ammonia burns from the urine raining down on them.

Pigs: Mothers are locked in steel-barred gestation crates, unable to even stand up or turn around. Piglets grow up in crammed barren pens inside industrial-scale facilities with no fresh air or sunlight but toxic levels of waste. Without anesthesia, their tails are cut off, they are castrated and their teeth are ground down.

And then there is transport. And slaughter.

Don’t try to research all these horrors at once. Take it one species at a time and take time to process each one. You will be waking up to things you can’t unknow and seeing things you can’t unsee. This builds a why – why you have chosen to go vegan – that will sustain you when going vegan gets hard – and it can, sometimes.

How to go vegan: Learn to feed yourself

Next, when you want to go vegan, you learn to feed yourself without using animals.

This is where most “how to go vegan” content starts. However, I think that if you’ve researched the animals first, and you know the reality of how each of them becomes food, you’ll be more successful here.

You learn to feed yourself without using animals in the same way you learned about the lives of animals that are used for food: by doing the research. The difference is that this part is genuinely fun for most people.

It’s a misconception that vegan eating is all about substitution, like swapping a Big Mac for an Impossible Burger. It’s fine as a starting point because it makes the change easier. For me, a better goal is to learn to make food from whole plants so you can feed yourself in a good way nutritionally and practically. It’s actually cheaper, more flexible, more nourishing and more sustainable.

Start with the protein thing because everyone always does. How many “But where do you get your protein from?” memes have you seen? My answer to them is always:

I get it from:

Legumes

• Lentils (red, green, brown, black)

• Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

• Black beans

• Kidney beans

• Pinto beans

• Navy beans

• White beans

• Cannellini beans

• Great Northern beans

• Fava beans

• Lima beans

• Adzuki beans

• Mung beans

• Split peas

• Black-eyed peas

• Soybeans (edamame)

Soy-Based Proteins

• Tofu

• Tempeh

• Edamame

• Soy milk

• Textured vegetable protein

• Soy curls

• Miso

• Natto

Whole Grains

• Quinoa

• Farro

• Kamut

• Teff

• Amaranth

• Buckwheat

• Oats

• Barley

• Brown rice

• Wild rice

• Spelt

• Wheat berries

Nuts

• Almonds

• Peanuts

• Cashews

• Pistachios

• Walnuts

• Pecans

• Brazil nuts

• Hazelnuts

• Macadamia nuts

• Pine nuts

Seeds

• Hemp seeds

• Chia seeds

• Flaxseeds

• Pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

• Sunflower seeds

• Sesame seeds

• Poppy seeds

Nut & Seed Butters

• Peanut butter

• Almond butter

• Cashew butter

• Sunflower seed butter

• Tahini

• Mixed nut butters

Vegetables

• Green peas

• Spinach

• Kale

• Broccoli

• Brussels sprouts

• Asparagus

• Artichokes

• Mushrooms

• Sweet corn

Vegan Meat Alternatives

• Seitan

• Plant-based burgers

• Vegan sausages

• Vegan deli slices

• Vegan chicken-style products

• Vegan crumbles

Protein Powders

• Pea protein

• Soy protein

• Rice protein

• Hemp protein

• Pumpkin seed protein

• Mixed plant protein blends

Bonus: Complete-Proteins

(Contain all essential amino acids)

• Soy foods (tofu, tempeh, edamame)

• Quinoa

• Amaranth

• Buckwheat

• Hemp seeds

• Chia seeds

• Nutritional yeast

That list usually shuts them up.

You’re going to find that when it comes to eating, variety is both the spice and meaning of life. Eating a rainbow (it’s the different phytonutrients we’re after in those gorgeous colors) is vital. Supplementing vitamin B12 is not optional, and a few others may be necessary for you. And you’re going to be feeding your microbiome – yes, a couple trillion gut guests.

You’re going to consult experts, online or in real life.

You’re going to develop your label-reading skills, not only for nutrition facts but also because in processed foods, “plant-based” doesn’t mean vegan. “Natural flavor” can come from animal sources. Some ingredients, like glycerin, are derived from both plants and animals. I don’t love the term “vegan food.” Food is just food – “just” as in fair, and “just” as in only. Everything else is just friends.

You are going to dance with joy around your kitchen and also cry in the sink. I mean, omnivorous cooks do this, too. Sometimes what you make tastes great, and sometimes not so much. But you don’t need special skills or tools. There are only a million gazillion vegan recipes online, and half of them come with demonstration videos.

How to go vegan: Beyond the plate

Then, when you want to go vegan, you understand that veganism is not just about food.

You look at your bathroom shelves now, start reading labels on your toothpaste, body wash, lotions, hair care, makeup. Ugh, ingredients derived from animals are everywhere!

You open your closet. Is there anything without leather, wool, cashmere or silk? How about shoes? You look around the room. Is that a down comforter? A wool rug? A leather chair?

The beauty, fashion and textile industries exploit animals for products in the same way animal agriculture exploits them for food.

Rather than toss all your self-care products, you might use them up but replace each as needed with vegan ones. Since your clothes and furniture will obviously be around for a while, you might slowly offer pieces to a friend or donate them to a thrift store. If you find you can’t bear to wear them (or put the lotion on your face, etc.) and have the means to get new stuff, happy vegan birthday shopping!

How to go vegan: Into the world

At some point, when you want to go vegan, you go deeper than your shopping carts.

You are now operating as a minority, a vegan living in an often inhospitable nonvegan culture. The majority of people don’t share your belief that animals are not ours to use and we should avoid – as much as possible – all forms of exploitation and cruelty to all species.

And you are going to take your new values into your existing relationships and everyday experiences. The good news is that you are in control, and you get to make your own choices about when and whether you want to explain your new beliefs or advocate for your needs and desires.

Food situations are going to come up everywhere you go. Like, do you want to attend a barbecue with friends? If you went, would you bring your own food? Will you accept a piece of your niece’s birthday cake – held out lovingly to you by your niece? Would you ask your server for vegan options on a dinner date? In what way would you tell your friends about going vegan? What might it sound and feel like to share the news with your family? Would you feel empowered requesting vegan options in a restaurant? Would it be important to you to date only vegans? You see where this is going?

Though not always easy, it’s always helpful to anticipate relational and practical issues and have a plan.

Keep going

You will begin to assess everything about sentient beings and your relationships with them. You might stop eating animals, stop wearing them, stop supporting companies that test on them.

Then you might stop using them for entertainment and avoid zoos or rodeos. You might stop riding horses at all – that was a tough one for me because I was a rider all my life, even professionally. You might question what you feed your companion animals. You might question if you should have companion animals.

You might begin to feel that your going vegan is the bare minimum, and now you want to advocate for this beautiful lifestyle yourself. Your advocacy could gently inform people around you and create a community social club. Your advocacy could turn into activism that targets policy makers and corporations or directly rescues animals from factory farms. I love all of that!

So I’ve provided the framework for one way to go vegan. Was it helpful?

If you want more help, you are welcome to try Ready, Set, Vegan! It’s a fully supported 21-day exploration of a vegan lifestyle. Each day you learn something, do something and hear back from me. The challenge builds in the order I shared here. On the last day, you go as vegan as you can. In preparation, you plan your meals and snacks, go shopping if you need to. Lay out clothes that are animal-free. Consider any challenges you might face and make a plan. And I help you all the way through it. It’s free. Find it HERE.

Additionally, there’s Dear Allie, my version of an advice column in which you can confidentially ask a vegan anything. Try it! Find me HERE.

P.S. Now that you know how to start, do you know when to start? Now. You start right now. Hooray!