Best way to become vegan?

Question

I really want to become vegan, but I have tried and have never really have seemed to be able to stick to it. I'm 14, and my parents are DEFINITELY not vegan, and I can't exactly say they support me in this...got any suggestions?

Answer 1

I'm so happy you wanna be vegan! :) :)

Can I assume you're not a vegetarian, either? I'm gonna give some advice riding on the assumption that you eat meat now. Sorry if I'm wrong about that!

Anyway, the best way is to slowly cut things out of your diet. For example, tell yourself that you won't eat beef anymore. Then for a week, you can still eat chicken, pork, eggs, etc, just not beef.

Then the next week, tell yourself you won't eat pork anymore. Then you will have cut out beef AND pork! You can still eat chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, milk, gelatin, honey, whatever! As long as it's not chicken and pork.

The next week, add chicken to the list of foods you don't eat. The week after that, turkey. Then fish, then eggs, then milk, until all animal products are out of your diet! Of course it doesn't have to be in that order, but whatever's better for you! That way, your body will have a chance to slowly get used to what you're feeding it, and you'll be able to better cleanse your system of all that nasty dead animal stuff.

The harder part about going vegan is cutting out the "hidden" things from your diet. You can start replacing meat with supplements (fake meat, lol), which is REALLY GOOD! lol. Then after you cut out eggs and milk, you'll have to cut out things that are MADE with eggs and milk. Cookies, cakes, cheese, yogurt, etc. But don't worry! There are vegan alternatives to this stuff if you think you're gonna miss it. If you use soy milk and egg replacer in a cookie recipe, it'll taste just like the non-vegan original. You also gotta be careful for other hidden ingredients (I gave you a link to a site with animal ingredients). You'd be surprised at the kind of stuff animal products end up in! Who wants to eat boiled ligaments anyway? Eww ...

Well I know this is long, but I always get excited and talk too much when I know people want to go vegetarian or vegan. Woohoo for you! lol. If you have any questions or just wanna talk, e-mail me! It's [e-mail]. Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

Answer 2

I have to say that I admire your interest in becoming vegan, but I also believe that if you are having trouble sticking to it that this may not be the right time for you to adopt this diet. I have been a vegetarian for 11 years now, but prior to that I ate meat and had few qualms about it. I think there is a natural process that vegetarians and vegans go through before they stop eating meat and animal products. If you find yourself craving meat (or cheese, milk, ice cream, etc) then try not to be too hard on yourself. People who eat these things are not bad people, they just have different views on what they think is acceptable to eat. Try to allow yourself to come to veganism naturally, if you do so at all. If your parents are not supporting you, talk to them and let them know how you feel about food and what is important to you. One last thing, if you do continue to eat animals or animal products, you may feel better about it if you are able to eat foods that are gathered and produced in a more humane way (such as cage-free eggs and organic products). Good luck and good eating!

Answer 3

I did, but I was counting calories and TRYING to lose wieght....Whenever I stop dieting I stay the same weight so Im pretty sure you wont lose any as long you get proper calories and nutrition. If you want to really make sure you dont lose weight fry veggies in olive oil! makes me gain weight! I lost weight because I was I was 60 pounds overwieght...around 200 pounds and im 5"5'! I lost 30 pounds from dieting. also I was a vegetarian before for 8 years...I decided to be a vegan after finding out the vegetarians dont help with animals suffering as much as vegans, so i went all the way and found out that its easier to diet when your not eating a lot of staurated fats and processed food! I would not have lost any weight at all if I wasnt trying to, so your mom should just make sure you get proper nutrition and as long as your eating enough calories you will be fine =D

Answer 4

I am not a vegan myself, but I am a vegetarian. Since you are 14 years old I would recommend you to work out something with your parents. However, if they are not willing to compromise anything you have to respect their wishes. Since you are still living with your parents and not old enough to be independent.

Personally I would not recommend you to become a vegan, because of health reasons. Being a vegan for say 6 weeks is great. It really helps cleans the body, but instead I would recommend you to consider becoming a vegetarian first. It will be much easier than being a vegan and maybe your parents will find it easier to accept you being a vegetarian than a vegan.

Whatever decision you make I wish you the best.

Answer 5

Being vegan is pretty hard! I did it for about 3 months. It takes a lot of planning ahead - there's a lot of restaurants and foods that
you won't be able to enjoy w/ your family. You'll have to make sure food doesn't contain milk, butter, eggs--So most sald dressings are out, anything w/ butter/bread-some breads have eggs/ butter-...... however you can buy Vegan butter, toffutti (vegan cream cheese), Ener-g to supplement eggs for baking. Vegenaiase(vegan mayo) You'll need to take your lunch to school and take snacks w/ you when hanging out w/ friends.

I suggest you got to your local library and check out some vegan books and do some of the recipes and see if this is something you can do. Also a great teen book about being vegan and a teenager is called "Vegan Virgin Valentine" by Carolyn Mackler.
i read it and love it.

Also check into your community for support groups/clubs and find vegan restaurants. I live in the DC area and we have one of the best vegan bakeries I must say

http://www.stickyfingersbakery.com/

We also have a lot of vegan eating places-check to see if you have places to eat and shop near you!!

Answer 6

FIrst, you need to make this conversion slowly. And before you begin making that conversion, you need to make certain that you know how to do this properly, so that you are getting all of the nutrients that you need.

There is an excellent set of books that will help anyone to figure this part out for themselves. I'll give you the titles, and the names of the authors. You should be able to find them in your local library.

By first educating yourself, you can begin to allay your parents fears for you. As well, they will be able to read these books for themselves. That could well be the key to their support or at least their non-interference.

Look for these two books, written by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis. These women are both registered dieticians.

Becoming Vegetarian
Becoming Vegan

Read them in that order.

The companion book to these is a cookbook, written by Vesanto Melina and Joseph Forest. Mr. Forest is a chef.

Cooking Vegetarian

By the way, if you were even a bit younger than you are, my advice to you would be wait a couple of years, but ask your parents to educate themselves, and I would suggest the same books. The only reason that I would do that is because I firmly believe that these are dramatic changes to make to your diet, even if done slowly, and you need to understand how to make those changes safely. Obviously, some even a bit younger than yourself would be unlikely to understand how to do this safely.

Oh, and if you don't cook, you must learn to do so, and as soon as is possible. That's because you may have to cook for yourself, perhaps even on a daily basis.

Answer 7

well u should start by finding all the foods u like that dont contain meat and make sure u can make them and learn how to prepare tofu it really helps when ur family isnt vegan becauce that way u kno what to eat and how to prepare things ur family doesnt have around the house u should also kinda have ur own groceries becauce im sure the family meals revolve around meat

Answer 8

read the book: The Pig Who Sang To The Moon -

After you read this you will not want to ever eat meat again

look on amazon and buy a used one for 99 cents!

Answer 9

do it very slowly. if your a vegetarian you are already off to a good start. first, cut out plain eggs, like omletes and scrambled eggs. then cut out plain milk and replace it with soy or rice milk. keep cutting things out of your diet and soon you will be a vegan. remeber, the dairy and eggs you cant see are the hardest to cut out, like in bread, so cut those things out slowly.

good luck.

Answer 10

I admire your ambition. I have entertained thoughts of giving up animal products (well, mostly meat) but haven't been entirely successful.