The best thing I’ve ever done is to go vegan. And, I’ve done a lot of great things. I love vegan food. I love knowing that I’m standing up for animals and not contributing to their pain. And, I love the fact that I’m doing something to make my footprint a little lighter. Being vegan rocks. And, I challenge you to go vegan for at least a month and experience life without dairy or meat. You will find a lot of different rules when it comes to being vegan, but I think it’s important to focus on your diet first and get a sense of how rewarding eating this way feels.
5 Reasons To Take The Go Vegan Challenge
1. Vegan Food Is Really Good
When you are not using fat from animals and dairy, you get to use combinations of flavors and spices that are downright delicious. It’s amazing at how some food combinations work together to create something amazing.
Challenging yourself to go vegan will help you realize that vegan food is not bland and boring and give you a whole new awareness around food without dairy and animal.
2. Discover If Any Ailments Are Caused By Meat Or Dairy
After a week of being vegan, I was surprised when the pain in my hands went away. The dairy was obviously causing inflammation in me. I had other ailments go away too, such as a hard stomach and feeling sick after eating.
If you have any issues, even small issues, going vegan may help you knock them out. It’s worth a try to change your diet for at least a small period of time just to see if what you are eating is hurting you in some way.
3. Your Friends Will Recognize Your Strength
Most people I know eat meat and dairy and say things like, “I could never give up my meat and dairy! What would I do without cheese?”
When you go vegan, you not only realize how amazing you are, other people will be in awe of you.
Yes, you are going to get some jabs and jokes and maybe even a few eye rolls from people who believe that eating meat and dairy is the only way to live. But, many people are going to secretly wish they had the strength you have to challenge yourself this way. And, breaking tradition, going against the norm, and standing out does take strength.
4. Feel Good About Your Environmental Efforts
If you are someone who cares about your environmental footprint, going vegan will make you feel good. According to this article, going vegan is the biggest way you can reduce your impact on Earth.
Imagine if you inspire one other person to take the challenge to go vegan and they inspire another person and so on. Some of those people are going to make the switch for good and inspire other people on a whole new level.
The potential impact you could have on the environment, in a positive way, is mind-boggling.
5. The Animals
I won’t get into the horror of what goes on before that piece of animal ends up on your plate or glass of milk ends up on your table. You can research that for yourself if you are interested.
But, let me say that being vegan adds a voice for animal abuse that animals don’t have. If you love animals, then you will feel good about being that voice.
What To Do Before You Take On This Challenge
If you just pick tomorrow to start eating a vegan diet, you will probably fail. You need to do a few things beforehand to get you in the right mindset to make it through this challenge.
1. Find A Good Reason To Support You During This Vegan Challenge
Your mind really needs a reason to go vegan before you will do it. You may want to go vegan, but if you don’t have a strong enough reason to challenge yourself to do it, then you won’t be likely to complete the challenge.
Knowledge is the power behind our actions. We when we learn something and incorporate it into our beliefs, it’s easy to get behind whatever our beliefs tell us to do.
A good reason is the way animals are treated. But, it may be too hard for many people to watch the videos or documentaries on how animals are treated in the meat and dairy industry. I get that.
Therefore, I highly suggest you start by watching something like What The Health. It’s a really good documentary focused on diet and health, which is something all of us have a vested interest in. It gives you some good thought-provoking information that will help you think about eating vegan and how it may impact your health. In fact, it’s ultimately what helped me transition to vegan permanently.
Here’s the trailer for it:
You can watch it on Netflix. Or, you can watch it here for free on Watch Documentaries.
2. Find Some Good Recipes
If you normally eat breakfast, lunch, and supper, then you need to find some good recipes for all three of those meals so that you have something to draw from. If you don’t know what to cook, you may get fed up and eat what you always have eaten and fail the challenge.
I found it easier to eat stuff that was comforting in the beginning. And there are plenty of vegan recipes sites out there that can help you do that, including:
Hot For Food – Lauren Toyota has a ton of vegan recipes that can help you eat in a way you are used to. You will need some different ingredients than you may be used to, but you’ll see that different ingredients can taste amazing!
Thug Kitchen – The first vegan cookbook I bought (Eat Like You Give A F*ck) was from this blog. Lots of swearing on this blog, but also lots of good vegan recipes.
Edgy Veg – This is a great site that helps you turn those dishes you ate with meat and dairy into vegan dishes. I think I first found this blog through the Taco Bell Crunch Wrap recipe.
3. Grab Some B12
Lastly, grab some vitamin B12. If you eat a varied diet, you will likely get all the nutrition that you need, but unless you are eating foods that are fortified with B12, you will need to supplement.
There are plenty of options to choose from. We have read that sublingual tablets absorb best, so that’s what we get. After just over a year of being vegan, our B12 levels are perfect, so it works for us.
Challenge Yourself To Go Vegan For At Least 30 Days
Once you got a good reason, some recipes (or a good restaurant), and some B12, go vegan! Try it out for at least 30 days because that will give you the time to get into a groove of cooking vegan food that you like.
The first week or two will be about learning and discovering. But, after that, you can really take in the experience of being vegan and decide if it’s for you or not.
