1) Take baby steps. Especially if you are someone who eats meat, dairy, eggs, and honey on a regular basis. I would start out by cutting one vice per week.
I quit eggs and red meat first because I rarely ever ate them anyway. Then I cut the rest of the meat out. Dairy and processed foods that contain eggs, honey, and dairy were the last for me to stop eating, because I was hooked on those foods.
Whenever you feel that you are ready for veganism, just start it. It's like quitting anything else that you enjoy but is bad for you: At first it's tough. At first, you think about it all of the time, and it's a struggle. But, eventually it's just how your life is. And now I don't even have to think about what I eat, it's just my new normal.
2) Don't beat yourself up if you make a mistake. Like I said, it's a new habit to form. If you were used to grabbing a piece of chocolate from the office candy bowl every day, you may accidentally eat one on your first day/week/month as a vegan before you think "Oh, there's milk or gelatin in that...oops."
Just remember that you are new at this, and remind yourself next time that you don't eat that candy anymore. Which brings me to my next tip...
3) Substitutions!!! If you weren't born and raised vegan (or even vegetarian) then chances are you are used to eating and drinking animal products. There is no shame in wanting to eat something that tastes like meat or dairy as a vegan. Don't let anyone make you believe that.
"If you are eating fakin' bacon, then you may as well eat the REAL THING because you know that meat tastes good, otherwise you wouldn't be eating that soy crap." Ummm... yeah, I didn't stop eating meat because it tastes bad. I was used to the salty, rich flavors of meat.
As a new vegan, I ate a lot of fake meat. I eat a lot less of it now, but I definately recommend eating the fake stuff, especially if it helps you to stay away from the real stuff. :-)
And if you need to order some vegan chocolates to keep you away from the office candy bowl milk chocolates, then DO IT. Anything that will help you stay on the vegan path is a great idea.
4) Read ingredients. This one is pretty obvious, but it took a lot of getting used to as a new vegan. I used to read nutrition only, and was shocked to find out that a lot of my favorite processed foods were not vegan. Read those labels! As a shortcut, you can read the allergy warnings at the end, which will almost always warn people of milk and eggs.
The allergy warning won't warn against gelatin though, and this is a newbie mistake that I made with poptarts. I was pretty upset when I realized that all frosted poptarts have gelatin! But the good news is that the unfrosted kinds are vegan, so if I ever really need a toaster pastry, I do have an option.
Bread is another tricky subject for vegans: I spent an hour in the bread aisle once, trying to find a vegan bread that was also point-friendly. I use sandwich thins now, but I'm still on the lookout for a light vegan bread (one that would be 1 or 2 points for 2 slices...does it exist for vegans?)
5) Read as much about veganism as possible. Check out books, blogs, websites, everything. Really figure out your reasons for going vegan, and refer to your sources often. Here are my favorite "go vegan" books:
- Skinny Bitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Bardoin. There are mixed reviews out there, but this is the first vegan book that I bought and read. It convinced me to try veganism for awhile, but it didn't stick the first time around. So this is a great book for a beginner, because they use scare tactics and humor to convince everyone to try veganism. But for me, it wasn't enough to make it stick. I still recommend it though, because it's very informative and fun.
- The Kind Diet, by Alicia Silverstone. Duh, of course I'm going to recommend this one! This is THE BOOK that made me go vegan. She explains in detail how to transition to veganism, which is what was missing from Skinny Bitch. There was not a cold turkey approach in TKD, it was a transition. Personally, I loved the first part, and could take or leave the recipes section. I focus on the "vegan" section of the book. It's really about transitioning to macrobiotic veganism ("superhero") but for me that is just too extreme. Maybe at some point I'll try being a Superhero again, but I'm in no rush.
- PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, by Starza Kolman and Marta Holmberg. It doesn't get any easier than this. Soups, snacks, sandwiches, dips, ramen, peanut butter, potatoes, salads, desserts... it has ridiculously easy recipes for all of these. Please pick this up, especially if you are new to both veganism and cooking.
