So. Going vegan…

Easy? No.

Worth it? A resounding YES!

I went from eating meat most meals to cutting it out entirely, over the course of about a week. (I don’t recommend this by the way, I recommend a gradual process which you can read more of in Going Vegan In 2020 – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners).

Like anything though, there’s an easier way and a harder way to go about switching to a vegan plant-based diet.

I want to share with you the pitfalls I accidentally stumbled into, in the hope that you can just merrily hop over them without the same stumbling blocks.

#1 – Grow Your Armpit Hair Or Burn Sage Around Your House

I mean, if you want to grow your armpit hair out until it grows into little ringlets under there, then you absolutely can.

(I’m not opposed to anyone who likes to have long armpit hair by the way.)

But, just because you decide to eat a vegan plant-based diet, it doesn’t mean you have to fit into the old-school stereotype.

There’s a ton of misconceptions around eating vegan foods, one is that you’re a hippy who gives up preening your personal appearance and starts burning sage. But they are just that, misconceptions about the vegan diet. So take all of the ’side’ stuff which a pinch of sage. Urgh, I mean pinch of salt.

#2 – Eat Boring Food

If you eat peanut butter sandwiches every single day, as good as they might be, you’re going to be bored and ‘over it’ pretty rapidly. Eating anything over and over will have the same effect.

By making your new vegan diet delicious, with a VARIETY of plant-based foods, you’ll find your plant-based happy place much sooner! The more you experiment and try new yummy foods, the more fun it will be!

Many report after switching to a plant-based diet that the biggest surprise for them was how much MORE they are enjoying their food. I can vouch for this too!

#3 – Miss These Sneaky Animal Products

Some items are blatantly obvious that they are animal products, like picking up a steak from the shelf in the supermarket.

But for some other items, not so much.

Companies may disguise the animal products.

Here are some of the worst offenders to look out for:

Candies: A lot of candies may have ‘glaze, shellac, natural glaze or pure food glaze’ listed. These are resins that insects secrete and end up in your food.

Gelatine: It’s an odorless substance found in jello, candies and some other products. It’s made from the prolonged boiling of skin, cartilage and bones of animals.

Honey: This one is often used as a sweetener in a variety of products, including some teas. It’s made by worker bees in hives, which is taken from them so is not classed as vegan I’m afraid.

Milk powder, casein or other milk byproducts: I don’t know how derivatives of dairy milk got into SO MANY foods, I just know that it did. Often they call it casein, but this has come from milk. This is the one that caught me out a few times. Even my favorite chips have milk powder in them (sad face).

Whey: It’s common in protein powders and other foods such as bread and candies. It’s a byproduct of the cheese curdling process.

Isinglass: It’s an ingredient sometimes used when making wine or brewing beer. It’s a derivative of fish bladders. Often you won’t find a list of ingredients directly on these drinks, but if you look at the product websites, often these will list the ingredients.

#4 – Tell People

Changing to this new amazing way of eating is a super exciting time. I have been there! But people’s diets are unique to them, there’s a sensitivity around it. It can make some feel threatened and/or weird about the fact that you longer eat meat and dairy.

Plus, questions about your protein levels will arise FREQUENTLY.

If you do decide to share your dietary choices, then it’s definitely a good idea not to be preachy about it. Unless I’m asked, or I’m about to attend a social situation with food, I don’t tend to mention that I only eat plant-based.

Here’s the thing though, whether we like it or not, it DOES prompt conversations. Once it does come up, it’s unavoidable and the fascination begins. Your friends and family will start telling you what they like to eat and why.

If I do get asked why, I just breeze over it by saying that I eat plant-based whole foods because it’s better for the animals, better for the environment and good for my health. If I sometimes start giving stats, then I find people don’t really know what to say. So, to play it safe and not make anyone feel uncomfortable, I steer them towards the What The Health and Game Changer’s documentaries on Netflix for more detailed info. Some have gone and watched them and then come back to me, they’ve ended up eating more plant-based foods which is great.

If I get asked specific questions, I answer them and try to help. But other than that, I mostly try to keep it VAGUE.

I LAUGH ALONG with any vegan jokes.

This has been my amour.

It can be a tricky conversation to navigate, but once you’ve done it a few times, it gets much easier.

#5 – Forgetting to take B12

Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause nasty side effects such as anaemia, nerve damage, heart disease or pregnancy complications.

B12 was formally naturally found in soil. Unfortunately, humans have over-sanitized and stripped the soil, with the use of pesticides.

Animals foods have B12 in them because the animals are supplemented themselves.

It’s best to take a B12 supplement and cut out the middle man. Many vegans do this and have perfectly normal vitamin B12 levels.

#6 – Eating junk food

Sometimes, we all just want an easy life. One with no cooking, no hassle. One with convenience. I have been a city girl previously in London, UK, burning the midnight oil in corporate office jobs and enjoying city life.

And guess what?

I lacked in time, so I was much more of a ‘grab-and-go’ kind of girl. It’s SO EASY to slip into the habit of eating junk food.

Every day, it feels like there is new kind vegan junk food to show up on the market. I’m not complaining, I think this is a good thing. After all, vegans need treat day too, right?

I know I do.

But, where the trap lies, is eating junk food ALL of the time. If you want to feel like a beacon health, inside and out, then the healthiest diet a human can consume is one of predominately plant-based whole foods. That’s one where you eat food in it’s natural form, as it has come out of the ground.

As you figure out all of the joys of eating plants, (similar to when eating animal products), it’s best to keep the junk food in moderation. Otherwise you risk missing out on one of the best things about being vegan, and that’s THRIVING from eating plant-based foods.

#7 – Look At It As A Restrictive Diet

Before you went vegan, you might well have said at some point, ‘I could never never be vegan.’ I know I did.

I thought it and I said it because I thought being vegan was heavily restrictive. I thought I NEEDED meat and dairy because vegans really don’t eat much variety.

Oh how wrong I was, nothing could be further from the truth.

I try and experiment and find new (easy-ish) recipes frequently and the pay-off for the family is HUGE. They LOVE it!

#8 – Overspend

Okay, I’ll admit the cost for eating a new kind of food can easily be costly. We all need to pay eat and pay for food. Eating whole foods plant-based vegan has a misconception for being expensive.

But that’s all it is, a misconception.

Eating plant-based foods isn’t expensive, meat is expensive.

Here’s the thing. It is entirely possible to buy vegan foods on a budget. By steering clear of processed foods, shopping around and a few other easy tactical money-moves, it’s easy not to overspend.

If you want to learn more about eating vegan on the cheap, then I’ve got you covered, check out How to Go Vegan On A Budget And Save $$$! to for more info on how to slash your vegan grocery bills!

#9 – Forget Your Snacks, EVER

Wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, I carry snacks with me.

Sometimes it’s so easy for the day to runaway with you. Work to get finished, errands to run, kids to get from school. Life is BUSY.

So I ensure to have snack stash floating around in my bag.

Some snackspiration for you could be to carry nuts, fruit or maybe a protein bar. All are yum and all will make life easier when the hunger pangs hit.

#10 – Forget Your Reasons Why

After a while it can be easy to become complacent about your diet. You can start to forget why you ever made the switch in the first place. Reading all of the labels and having to ’think’ about what you’re going to eat can feel like real work.

Motivations are different for many and that’s totally okay, but whatever it was that made you switch to plant-based foods, it must have been a big deal to you because switching up your diet is no easy task.

It must have been close to your heart and how you want to live. So remember the reasons and keep reminding yourself.

You can also binge watch Netflix vegan documentaries if you need reinforcement.

#11 – Under Or Over Eat Your Calories

This one gets a special mention as I have seen it first hand.

When my lovely husband decided he wanted to eat a plant-based diet too, he started to cut out meat and dairy and the next thing we knew, he was losing weight. He’s an active guy, LOVES his sports and has a physical day job too.

He started to drop weight and was looking quite slight. Everyone was mentioning it, with genuine concern. Obviously friends and family were attributing it to his diet change. I knew instantly it was because he wasn’t eating enough calories. I did a TON research on plant-based calories and portions to feel like I could be Phd-level qualified to fix the issue.

My initial diagnoses was bang-on. My prescription was that he needs double the calories per day that I do. I increased his food intake significantly, ensured he was also having high-calorie foods such as nuts and seeds everyday. He’s addicted to peanut butter anyway, so that helped.

This story has a happy ending. It only took a month and he was back to his usual weight. He has said to me that he’s really happy with the weight he’s at now. Plus it’s steady. I personally think he looks great.

It’s worth mentioning that I have also seen around in the online communities about people putting on weight, this can be easily done if you over-eat the high calorie foods. There’s a lot of fiber in plant-based foods, so this should negate at weight piling on in most cases.

But, that being said.

I’m not a fan of calorie counting, but perhaps it would serve a purpose for educating around the numbers while initially learning the calories of new foods. MyFitnessPal is free and easy to use.

If you do want to avoid putting weight, or you’re switching to shift some pounds, then check out 15 Tips On How To Lose Weight On A Plant-Based Vegan Diet ….And Then Keep It Off! for some extra tips to help.

#12 – Ignore The Food Labels

Everyone who’s not a vegan thinks that being vegan is basically just eating salad and some drinking special herbal teas.

The reality is that, being vegan actually means reading food labels on everything you buy and checking the ingredients.

Food labels will become your best friend. Many times you’ll read them and feel pleasantly surprised that the contain no animal products. But then many times you’ll read them and it’ll say ‘gelatine’ or ‘milk powder’ and you’ll say ‘WTF’ in your head and put the food item back down on the shelf and walk away.

That’s just life as a plant-based vegan I’m afraid.

The good news is that packaging and labelling is evolving, yay. If something’s vegan, as time goes on it says it’s vegan on the front to make it nice and easy for you.

But if you can’t see that, then always read the back, as food manufacturers can be very sneaky.

#13 – Forget About Protein

News just in – you CAN get enough protein from plants!

Did you know there is at least some protein in just about everything you eat?

The biggest switch up when eating more plants is replacing where your protein comes from. Meat and fish may formally have been your protein sources on your plate, so that’s why, when omitting these, it does require careful consideration on what the best sources of plant-based protein are.

You can get ample protein, that’s rich in vitamins and minerals and also fiber from plants. There is a plethora of plant-protein sources including chickpeas, lentils, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds.

Delicious protein-packed lentil bolognese anyone?

#14 – Throw A Pity Party Over Old Foods

If you’re new to eating vegan foods, like everything, there is a small downside. As you’ve been eating meat for such a long-time, your body is going to be craving your old favorite foods.

This is entirely normal.

I did throw myself a tiny pity party in my head, mostly for my favorite comfort foods like beef spaghetti bolognese or eggs on toast. I realised after a while, that even if I did eat these, lets say for a one-off treat, then I probably wouldn’t enjoy them anymore because I’d read too much on the reasons to go vegan. At that point, I realised, it was kind of out of my hands and those old favorites were dead in the water anyway. They would never be what they were previously to me. (Yes I am playing my little violin right now as I sob).

I did also have cravings, it probably lasted around 3 months or so from when I quit animal products. But, I can now honestly say that four years later, I no longer have any meat or dairy cravings at all.

Overall, switching to eating a whole foods plant-based vegan diet is fun because it’s a journey of discovery of eating new foods. You might lose some old classics of your diet, but you’ll also GAIN so many new foods and dishes. You’ll eat foods you’ve never even thought of and you’ll LOVE them.

So instead of throwing a pity party, see it as a celebration of your new delicious, colorful, healthy diet! Yay.

#15 – Expect It To Be A Breeze

The thing about switching a whole new type of foods is that it does become an extra ’thing’ in your life to manage. It does take researching, reading food labels, buying different foods and cooking new recipes.

• All of these may help you on your journey and to speed things up:
  Going Vegan In 2020 – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners
  Where Plant Based Vegans Get Their Protein From
  5 Quick Tips To Eating A Nutritious Vegan Diet
  Delicious recipe ideas

Making a big life change is never easy, but the benefits with this will far out way the cons.

But at the end of any personal journey of discovery, soon enough, it does all start to feel like second nature. You run on AUTOPILOT after a while, just like when you try anything new.

It’s not all a breeze at the start, but soon enough it’ll feel like one if you stick with it.

#16 – Go Solo

Trying to do anything on your own can feel like a lonely mission. It can feel more daunting or overwhelming.

I was lucky, I went plant-based at the same time as my close friend Emma when we were living together in London. We would practically RUSH HOME after work, just so that we could grab the duvets and put on sweat pants and hit the sofa to watch our favorite Netflix shows. We used to cook each other yummy vegan foods and try new recipes out together, like nut roasts or vegan protein pancakes. We called this amazing time ’sofa club.’

The benefit of this was that I never felt like I was making the switch alone. It felt nice and made it more fun to share the experience with Emma.

If you happen to know someone that you can make the switch with, then they could be your new plant-based bestie. Alternatively there are a TON of online communities you can join. Facebook has SO MANY groups dedicated to going vegan. There’s also a plethora of insta influencers and a buzz of activity around it on twitter too!

#17 – Go Too Heavy On The Gassy Foods

Urgh nobody enjoys bloating.

Beans, beans, good for the heart, the more you eat, the more you…

Do you remember that silly childhood rhyme. It’s stayed with me forever. But there may be a little truth to it.

Many eating a diet based on animal products might not be hitting the recommended fiber levels per day.

If you overnight switch to fiber-rich foods, your tummy might start freaking out on you. That’s on of the reasons I recommend switching to plant foods gradually in Going Vegan In 2020 – The Ultimate Guide for Beginners.

Chickpeas, beans and lentils are fantastic nutritionally, but it could be a good idea SLOWLY increase your daily quantities as your tummy adjusts.

Also, *secret tip alert*, I LOVE the taste of falafel. But be warned, those deep fried chickpeas of deliciousness are like little GAS BOMBS in your stomach. So now and again, I eat them with caution and not too many at once. I nearly had to leave the work office once because my tummy ballooned out and I was in agony. I’ve known many others to have issues too.

#18 – Fail To Plan

It’s a lot harder to ‘wing-it’ while eating a vegan diet. Some restaurants still aren’t ’there’ yet and don’t have any options. When I know I’m eating out in advance, I will ALWAYS check the menu on their website before I go. As soon as I hear the restaurant name, I’ll look it up the first chance I get. It’s am ingrained habit now.

It sounds over top, but if it’s not a dedicated vegan restaurant then before I walk in the door I probably know what I’m going to order. Because I know the importance of researching beforehand.

If there are no vegan options on the menu, then you can either switch restaurants or even call and ASK them. Often restaurants may have a veggie or plant-based menu, but it’s just available on request. Most places will also be able to adapt a couple of things on the menu to make them vegan. But if you pre-call in advance you’ll be able to ask without the whole table listening.

#19 – Eat Out All The Time

I love eating out. I love going somewhere with a good food scene. I love trying new foods, that I haven’t had to cook.

BUT, if you eat ALL of the time, you might miss out on some of the most amazing parts of being plant-based.

Being able to eat cheaply, making things with YOUR favorite ingredients and cooking plant-based foods for others are just some of the self-care wins you can get from not eating out all of the time.

#20 – Turn Away From All The New Foods

Did you know that there is over 20,000 types of edible plant species out there? That’s a lot of different tastes and combinations to try!

You might see lots of random ingredients you have never heard of before.

“A jackfruit pulled pork sandwich, sounds interesting, what’s that?”

EMBRACE the new options. Yes okay, it will be slightly hit and miss for if you like them or not.

But I’ll let you into a little secret.

You’re going to LOVE so many of the new foods you try. You’re going to just be so happy you found them and tried them!

#21 – Underestimate The Power Of Plants

Switching to a vegan plant-based diet is one of the most ridiculously powerful things you can ever do for your health alone. It is also beneficial to the environment and a compassionate way to eat for animals.

When you first start eating plants, it’s difficult to know the level of fulfilment you take from it in the long run.

But, everyone who I have ever spoken to who now eats a vegan whole foods plant-based diet days that it’s one of the best things they have ever done and their only regret is not making the switch sooner.

You’ll feel a spring in your step mentally and physically, it’s so much MORE than just a way of eating. This one is hard to put into words, but when you’ve been eating a plant-based vegan diet for a while, you’ll TOTALLY get what I mean.

The Bottom Line

Enjoy the journey. And it really is a journey. One that leads to a healthy, compassionate, ethical way of eating.

You’re bound to hit a few speed bumps along the way, but that’s all natural and part of it. The above guide is for overcoming the pitfalls and letting you know what to watch out for, straight from someone who has been there, done that and got the (ethically sourced) t-shirt.

Eating a vegan diet is not about being perfect, it’s about just doing what you can and what’s right for you.

If you have a whoopsie and slip back into old habits. That’s totally not a big deal. You can try and reset again afterwards, there is no harm done.

I hope you have found these tips useful for your vegan plant-based switch. If you so, please sign up to receive handy lifestyle tips or delicious vegan recipes straight to your inbox below.

Sign up to receive delicious plant-based recipes and handy lifestyle tips straight to your inbox!

 YES PLEASE! SIGN ME UP