#1

everything is hard until it’s normal

I find that people (myself included) tend to give up on new things because they are hard. But that’s the thing. Everytime you try something new it’s going to be hard. Remember learning to ride a bike, snowboard, or drive a manual car? It was scary and difficult but after some practice, you could do it without thinking about it too much. 

Changing your diet will be hard and scary at first. I mean you’ve been eating this way your whole life- it’s going to take a lot of effort to change it!  You will feel like you are failing at times, but the important part is that you keep trying. Take a moment to recall the last new skill you learned and keep in mind that changing to a plant-based lifestyle is no different. 

#2

it’s okay to take it slow

Some people can go plant-based overnight, but I was not one oft those people (all the props to you if you can!). It took me a year from hearing about the plant-based diet to making the full transition. It took me way more years of trying to go gluten-free, but eventually it stuck. The key to success was to keep on trying. The more knowledge I gained on the subject, the easier it was to make the change. For now, start small, think about changing up one meal of your day or making one substitute (like from milk to plant milk) and eventually switch over more meals until you have full plant-based days. Keep educating yourself. Watch documentaries, follow plant-based bloggers, try new recipes, watch youtube, read books! The more you learn the more encouraged you will be on your path. Small changes add up! One day you’ll find yourself effortlessly whipping up a fine vegan breakfast and thinking about how plant-based eating is just your new norm.

#3

anyone can make great tasting meals

When I first started looking into cooking healthy food, I found that recipes scared me. I would look in the cupboard and be missing so many ingredients. I would give up before I even started. Eventually, after much experimentation, I learned how to cook all sorts of food and mix things together to make tasty meals.

I had this thought that all those recipe makers out there just made their meals up from their head. So why couldn’t I do that? Turns out we can and you can too!

Cooking doesn’t have to be hard and you don’t have to make a five-star meal for something to taste good. You can be your own chef ! You don’t need to make food as fancy as those amazing vegan bloggers out on the net (or make them look pretty on your plate). You just need to make something that’s nutritious and tastes good. You may feel lost right now but once you learn the building blocks it will be SO much easier.

I figure you have to eat your whole life so might as well learn to cook food that tastes good, is good for the planet, good for the animals and helps you thrive 🙂

#4

you have to fix yourself before you can concentrate on other things

If I’ve learned anything in life, it’s that it is really really hard to accomplish anything when you are in bad health. When your brain is foggy and you are uncomfortable, in pain, chronically fatigued, worrying about what to eat, worrying about if your skin is going to break out,  worrying about if your guts are going to go haywire and you’re going to have to run for the exit- IT IS EXTREMELY HARD to do anything productive.

Being in bad health takes up so much mental space. Your whole life ends up revolving around the way you feel, you are thinking about your symptoms, you’re spending all your time trying to see doctors, or scour the internet for information or read every book you can get your hands on. It is so time-consuming.  Even if you’re not trying to fix them, you feel horrible so even the tiniest thing like doing laundry seems hard.

You need to focus on fixing your health first and foremost so you can feel good ! Then you can worry about speaking up for the animals, advocating for sustainable practices and giving back. Once you’re happy and healthy you’ll have so much mental space to think about the awesome things you are going to do in life and so much energy to do them!  It’s like they say in the airplane, put on your mask first before helping others because if you don’t you basically might run out of air and you’ll be no help to anyone.

It’s okay to focus on you. To stand up for yourself. To take action on your health. Don’t give in to social pressures to go out to party or eat junk food just because you’re friends are urging you to- decide to make a change for you!  Once you regain your health you will be a better, sister, parent, mother, employee, boss- whatever you are, you’ll be happier, healthier and more productive and everyone will thank you for it, especially yourself!