Are you thinking about going on a vegan diet? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Going vegan has many benefits for your health and wellness. However, where do you start if you’ve never followed such a specific diet before?
Fortunately, plenty of ready-made meals in British Columbia are vegan. Yet, if you’re thinking of doing a hard reset and changing the way you eat, what you eat, and how much you eat – vegan style, then check out these 12 ways to make eating vegan easy.
1. Get Organized
Before diving into a vegan diet, you need to look at what’s already in your kitchen, especially your fridge and cupboards. First, throw out expired foods in your fridge and make room for your new vegan staples.
2. Find Out the Essential Nutrients
When you start a vegan-based diet, you’ll cut out red meat containing vitamin B12, iron, and zinc.
You’ll need to get creative when finding vegan-based foods that contain those three nutrients. Along with vitamin B12, iron, and zinc, essential nutrients like omega-3s, iodine, calcium, and vitamin C are necessary for a vegan diet.
3. Start Slow
Like starting on any diet, we recommend going slow when you become vegan. It’s a gradual process that you will have to adjust to. So give yourself 4-6 weeks to get used to changing your eating habits and food preferences.
In the first month or so, allow yourself a cheat day on the weekend, where you can enjoy something non-vegan and not feel guilty. The key here is to treat yourself while getting accustomed to a vegan diet.
As you adjust to your new habits, you can take the pressure off cooking with ready-made meals in British Columbia that you will enjoy. After passing the 6-week mark, you’ll feel much more confident about your vegan diet.
4. Get Support
Going vegan doesn’t have to be a singular act. You can reach out to family and friends and ask them if any of them have gone vegan.
If you hit a dead end, go on Facebook and search vegan support groups. You’ll see many public vegan groups that can offer support, like The Vegan Food Enthusiast.
Getting support from like-minded people going through the same vegan adjustments as you can make things easier and even fun when you know you can ask a question about what foods to eat and get instant suggestions on where to buy ready-made meals in British Columbia.
5. Stop Eating Junk Food
Make a considerable effort to stop eating junk food. It will probably be the most challenging food habit to break because junk food is readily available to munch on everywhere you go.
So what is considered junk food? You might not even know it, but white bread is the most common junk food people eat. Anything that contains a large amount of sugar, like cakes, chocolate, and candy, is considered junk food. Avoid burgers, bacon, pizzas, chips, and alcoholic and soft drinks.
6. Try New Vegan Options at Restaurants
If your friends call you up and want to go out and eat, you can still go out to dinner with them despite going vegan. Nowadays, you’d be surprised at how many restaurants have vegan options on their menus.
If you want to know beforehand, you can check out the restaurant’s menus online and examine their vegan options before going to the restaurant.
7. Learn Easy Vegan Recipes
Believe it or not, switching to a vegan diet doesn’t mean you need to become a professional chef. The meals you ate before going vegan might need some tweaking, or you could learn three to four easy vegan recipes.
For instance, whip up a creamy broccoli vegan pasta if you’re a pasta lover. Love Mexican food? Try veggie fajitas. For a quick dinner, have a roasted veggie rice bowl. As you can see, it’s easy to cook something vegan all you need are the basic ingredients.
8. Incorporate Vegan Snacks
Besides learning a few easy vegan recipes, you can switch things up at snack time. Instead of munching on potato chips, you can have vegetable chips, popcorn, or mini carrot sticks.
If you have a sweet tooth and crave a chocolate bar, you can indulge in dark chocolate instead. Also, fresh fruits like blueberries and bananas go well with some healthy trail mix.
9. Use Vegan-Friendly Substitutions
The next time you go grocery shopping, pick out vegan versions of your staple groceries, like, instead of milk, get almond milk, soy milk, or oat milk. If you plan to do some baking, replace eggs with flaxseed.
This staple is vegan-friendly and rich in omega-3s, protein, and fibre. Once you stock your fridge and cupboards, you’ll find it easier to adjust to going vegan.
10. Build Your Meal Plan
Once you learn new recipes and find new vegan meals and snacks you love, start building them on a weekly meal plan. Start with approximately 1 to 2 breakfasts, 3 to 4 lunches, 4 to 6 snacks, and 4 to 6 dinners per week.
You can even incorporate ready-made British Columbia meals into your meal plan.
11. Eat More Greens
Your mother was right when she told you to eat vegetables as a kid because eating vegan means eating more greens. Leafy greens like spinach, arugula, and kale are all nutritious and don’t only need to be served in a salad.
You can put them in smoothies, soups, and sauces and sautee them with olive oil and garlic for a delicious side dish.
12. Subscribe to a Vegan Meal Delivery Service
The best thing about subscribing to meal delivery service is that they serve many options with ready-made meals in British Columbia. When you want to give yourself a week or two off from cooking, it’s very convenient to have healthy and nutritious chef-prepared vegan meals that are tasty, ready to go, and good to eat in the fridge.
All you need to do is warm them up and enjoy!
Get in Touch with Citizens Table for Ready-Made Meals in British Columbia
Are you in British Columbia and interested in our ready-made meals? Want to know if our vegan meals are a good option for you?
If you have any questions about our meal plans, contact us at hello@citizens-table.ca or call 604-330-0708. You can even send us a message here, and we’ll get back to you within 24 – 48 hours!