How To Be Vegan
The purpose of this article is to give out all of the knowledge I have received from being vegan myself, and watching many other vegans and people that have chosen to live a life free of animal products.
First and foremost, there must be no struggle.
If your mind is constantly wanting to eat meat and always desiring animal products, leather, fur etc… It is better to do these things and bring consciousness to them then to suppress the desire.
How to we get to a state where there is no struggle?
We do it through consciousness.
As you bring consciousness to your life and to all of your actions, and as you bring consciousness to the eating of meat, and using of animal products, and the life and feelings of that animal, and how it is not even remotely necessary for you to take part in this, your desires will change.
When you have reached a point where you simply have no desire to take part in this part of society, just like you would have no desire to rape or kill someone, then you are truly ready for this amazing journey.
For in truth, it is not a journey of “inaction” but a wonderful discovery of new action and possibilities.
If you think going vegan takes great “discipline” or is “limiting”, change your mindset now. It takes no discipline to eat amazing food free of the torture of animals.
One would only think it takes discipline if you thought the food was not amazing, no one has a problem eating amazing food.
One would think it takes discipline if one is unconscious of the lives of the animals people call food.
The only discipline’s is overcoming the conditioning you have toward what many consider food. This is seriously easily overcome by simply thinking of the animal and its life either while you are eating or when it is before you. This is not out of “guilt” but simply bringing consciousness and making choices.
You would only think the lifestyle is limiting if you thought it held you back from some bit of happiness. Hopefully this will help you learn that this lifestyle helps bring about deeper happiness by taking actions with consciousness as well as eating incredibly delicious food.
LIBERATE YOURSELF (you might even enjoy it)
In my experience, the first month of this lifestyle transformation requires the most amount of added time. When you put just a bit of added time and a few changes of actions into place, you will begin to discover a whole new set of choices that have always been there, but you may not have realized it.
Liberate yourself to spend this extra time. You have to actually budget the extra time into your life. How can you have anything in life if you do not liberate yourself to obtain it?
How does this extra time get spent? Well for one, you will probably spend a few hours seriously reading all of the labels of everything that strikes your fancy in the grocery store. This may include Asian, Indian, South American, European, North American, African, whatever stores. This will be far more interesting than it sounds. You will learn a ton in the process. I’m still learning!
This extra time can also take the form of research, talking to other vegans, participating in forums to get your questions answered etc. Liberate yourself to spend this time. You will be well paid for it and the majority of it is a one time “fee.”
Hell, Liberate yourself to visit some farmers markets, or some other ethnic supermarket or restaurant that might be just out of your daily routine… god forbid you might even enjoy the change.
In the beginning, liberate yourself to spend some extra cash.
The reality of the situation is, my food bills have never been cheaper (I will expand on this in future articles) and I eat a crazy wide variety of food from all over the world. Not only that, but I eat but a small fraction of the actual vegan food choices that exist. There is seriously so much! There is a total abundance of food choices so much so that if I ask another vegan what they eat… a good percentage of it may very well be different from what I eat! Holy crap! (I eat a pretty huge variety of food by the way)
In the beginning however, to enjoy the transition even more, and to explore a whole new range of food choices and possibilities, liberate yourself to spend some extra money. Lets even say, liberate yourself to spend up to $200 more (than your usual cost of living) in the first month just on exploring new possibilities.
This number in fact is probably much more than you will actually spend, but it is good to liberate yourself to do this anyways. If you really really wanted something in your life, 200 dollars is not an unfordable amount for many people to really really live it up and make a perfectly smooth transition into a new lifestyle. Don’t forget, this is $200 more than what you would usually spend to live, so any savings just on being vegan does not cut into that budget.
Use this extra budget to purchase extra convenience food in the grocery store, these are usually convenient preprepared meals or analogous meat substitutes that can usually help someone in that first month of transition. Thankfully you will get sick of them after a short while if you rely on eating them too much (just like anything else in this world)! They will then take their rightful place, not too much, but convenient if needed.
Also use this extra budget to maybe eat out at a few restaurants to try various vegan meals or to get ideas of what you like. It does not have to be specifically “vegan” restaurants. I fairly rarely eat at specifically vegan restaurants (however there are several really really good ones). You will enjoy going to more local places anyways.
The extra cash may also partially go into new spices etc..
So in the end, lets say you liberated 20 full hours of time and $200 extra dollars in the first month. Almost all of the time and all of the cash is seriously a one time investment into this. Is this the nightmare of time and money you were so afraid of?
Seeing your fears for what they really are is one of the best ways to overcome them.
BUT DON’T I HAVE TO TOTALLY PLAN OUT WHAT I EAT IN ORDER TO GET EVERYTHING I NEED!?!?!
To put it simply. No.
I never think “I need to eat tofu or beans to get protein”, “I need to eat spinach or Broccoli to get iron”.”B12 blah blah blah” People go crazy overboard with this.
Here is the one ultimate piece of advice: Surround yourself with a wide variety of (vegan) food choices and ask your body what it wants. Your Body knows what it wants to eat! Just look at all of the choices and listen to your body.
Also… Don’t Just eat salad. The only times I have ever seen people having problems with the vegan diet is when quite frankly, they either just eat salad or some other ridiculously small set of food choices.
If you did that with hamburgers or hot dogs you would feel like shit too.
The only other times I have seen things go wrong is when people make veganism their identity of the week. Veganism is not an identity (ha ha ha coming from the vegan black metal chef). Seriously, if you make this or anything else in your life your identity and seek ultimate fulfillment in it, its just as much of an empty cup as any other thing in this world.
Veganism does not grant entrance to paradise, make you a better person, lead to the one and only way of existence, give you the right to judge others and think you are superior to them, etc…
Saying this however, I still feel that it is the easiest single action one can do that can bring untold incredible benefits upon the world. Yourself too…don’t forget, you are part of the world.