First, good for you, I am happy and excited for you and for all the animals you are saving by not eating animal products! But, now, your journey begins, and when I say journey I mean, get ready to educate yourself.
If I may, before sharing my 2 cents of wisdom, for the readers who are not familiar with what vegan means, vegan life style is living 100% plant based lifestyle, avoiding: meat, chicken, fish, dairy, honey, basically, avoiding anything that has any animal ingredient in it.
You see, shifting from one lifestyle to another may seem easy at first, but without learning and switching from one mindset to another, it will be hard to maintain. So first thing I will recommend, forget everything you think you know about food and restart from blank. For example; Proteins. One of the most common question I got when I switched to vegan lifestyle many moons ago, was; “but where do you get your proteins?” All of the sudden everyone around me was an expert on protein deprivation. I had to rethink what I thought was the only protein source we have.
Obviously there are many sources of proteins besides chicken, cows, dairy or fish. Did you know that legumes, greens (such as spinach, kale, collard etc) nuts, seeds, contain high level of protein? So start educating yourself on what plant based sources will work with you and your body.
Next, shopping list, most people when going vegan, are going crazy, first stop they go is the grocery store and are immediately going to the health section looking for the vegan stamp. Hold on, no rush anywhere, before going there, how about checking your own pantry and fridge, you will be surprise how many vegan items you already have, start there, than, if you really must to make the transition easier for yourself, look for the substitute you believe you will miss the most. If you like your dairy yogurt, there are plenty of options out there which are plant based, nut based, soy based, coconut based and so on, so start testing and look for the one you like.
Great, now let’s look at vegan lifestyle as a healthy choice. when I went vegan, I chose going vegan for the animals, I remember learning about the horrific life those innocent creature has and I told to myself, Holly F*** this is killing me. Let me tell you, as someone who was already active and living healthy, going vegan was a challenge since all I eat was chicken or fish with veggies. I was doing a lot of weight lifting so protein for me where my number one must have in every meal. So the first few months going vegan where not the best feeling. I felt really the opposite of what I thought I would feel, and since I am not an advocate of process food, most of the plant based substitute for meet i tried where not to my liking from a health point of view.
So I reached out to an acquaintance of mine over sea to ask for her advice, she is a vegan naturopathic, we used to work together as spinning instructors back in the days. Any way, we chatted a bit and she recommended to add sprouts to my menu, needless to say that I barley knew anything about sprouts but she gave me enough input to simply and by been sprouts, which I used to love regardless. But I started doing some lots of reading and discovered a whole world of sprouts which I had no clue existed. When I saw the difference I felt in no time, I realized: “Going Vegan, is not about eating plant based only, going vegan healthy is about educating myself” so, till this day, I still do the best I can to read more, try and test as much as i can to maintain the life I chose many moons ago.
With Love & Gratitude
Ilan Halfon
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