We had an amazing weekend, and the highlight of it all was that we had the opportunity to talk to a wonderful, engaged, and inspiring audience at the fantabulous Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. This is the VegFest to end all VegFests, with a huge room full of terrific vendors and a packed house of thousands of veg-heads and veg-head wannabes. What an experience! (By the way, in case you couldn’t tell, we are having an ongoing love affair with VegFests, as is evidenced in the “VegFest Mash-Up” video we recently made for VegNews TV).
Here we are presenting at the Boston VegFest (Mariann on right, Jasmin on left).
Our talk, which was entitled, “Shifting to a Plant-Based Diet: Techniques and Tips for Your Walk on the Green Side,” consisted of our top 10 tips for making this life-saving and life-expanding shift. We thought we would take the opportunity to share a brief recap of those tips on today’s blog entry. Since Tip #1 has to do with finding great resources, reposting our tips is also an opportunity to share the links to those resources.
We’re sure that most of you have additional tips to share (any list, including ours, inevitably is only a starting point). We would love it if you added your tips to the comments section on the blog. As a thank you for commenting, we will randomly select one of you to receive a free copy of Dr. Michael Greger’s newest DVD, “Latest in Clinical Nutrition: Volume 6“ (we reviewed Volume 5 on a recent podcast). Leave a comment with your tips between now and Nov. 7 at midnight EST, include your email address when submitting the comment, and we’ll let you know before Nov. 15 if you’ve won. (And be sure to catch Dr. Greger on our current podcast episode — your mind will be blown!)
But we digress.
Here we go with our Top 10 Tips for Shifting to a Plant-Based Diet:
10.Understand All the Reasons.
Whether you are primarily motivated by your health, by environmental and food sustainability issues, or by your compassion for animals, learn everything you can about all these issues, and how they intertwine in a way that is so powerful that it demonstrates that, without a doubt, shifting to a plant-based diet is our evolutionary destiny.
9. Understand Why Individual Action is so Important
It’s so easy to think that this problem is so big — and I am just one small person — so it doesn’t matter what I do. NO! That is false thinking. When you change your behavior, you influence so many more people than you realize. You need to choose: Do you want to be part of the problem, or part of the solution?
8. Find and Use “Transition” Foods
You don’t have to give up anything you don’t want to give up! There is a cruelty-free alternative to every animal product you can possibly think of. Find foods that are reminiscent of the ones you love, and relish a delicious marriage of your most precious food memories and your healthy, compassionate future.
Jasmin and her jazz hands.
7. Learn How to Get a Decent Meal at a Non-Vegan Restaurant
Never never never settle for a green salad and french fries. Check the menu, call ahead, and hang in there until you get something yummy!
6. Learn How to Add Vegetables to Your Diet*
Vegetables are actually delicious (!) and so good for you that it’s impossible to quantify, and impossible to replicate in a supplement. If fresh are too much trouble, use frozen, but no matter what, eat your veggies, and then eat some more. Once again, your Mom was right. Vegetables are where it’s at. (*This is Mariann’s favorite tip.)
5. Find and Foster Community*
Meet-Ups, vegan drinks, on-line circles, pen pals. However you do it, make new vegan friends. You may think you are the only vegan in town, but we promise you, you are not. We’re everywhere, our community is growing every day, and you want to get on board. (*This is Jasmin’s favorite tip.)
4. Learn How to Handle “Humane” Meat Questions
Sure, one reason you’re vegan is because you don’t want to take someone’s life just to satisfy your appetite, no matter how so-called “humanely” they were treated. But when this issue comes up, don’t forget to explore some of the other issues. Be compassionate, but don’t let someone who brings this up walk away without gently asking them about what their standards really are and how they know they are being followed?, whether they boycott factory farming?, what about land use issues?, do they know that milk and eggs, regardless of how small the farm is, are rooted in the exploitation of reproduction?, etc., etc., etc.
Mariann singing the National Anthem. (Kidding — she’s just presenting…)
3. Plan Ahead for Holidays and Family Get-Togethers.
‘Tis the Season. Bring good food and bring enough, ’cause everyone is going to want some. As Mariann likes to say, the single most effective thing you can do for animals is provide delicious vegan food.
2. Don’t Feel the Need to be a Spokesperson
Thanks to Carol J. Adams for this one. Being an advocate for compassionate eating is wonderful, but you can do it on your own terms and when you think people are really open to hearing your answers. If they are just using you as a way to dissipate their own anxiety about their destructive eating habits and aren’t actually interested in hearing you, you don’t have to engage. Just let them know that you are happy with the way you are eating. Period.
1. Find the Best Resources
Here are a few we fancy:
Top Book on Transitioning — The 30-Day Vegan Challenge by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
Top Health Film — Forks Over Knives (now streaming on Netflix!)
Top Issues Film — Vegucated
Top Helpful Website — Vegan at Heart
Top Nutrition Website — Nutrition Facts
Top Project — Vegan Buddies
Top Vegan News Source — Vegan.com
Top Health Book — Vegan for Life by Jack Norris and Virginia Messina
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All in all, the Boston VegFest was a huge success, and we were honored to be a part of it. Be sure to also read the thorough recap of the Fest in the Tie Dye Files (and a super special thanks to Kaitlyn for the flattering words). And also check out the rad article about the Fest on the popular blog for the Boston Globe, Boston.com (we were interviewed!).
And there you have our Top 10 Tips for Shifting to a Plant-Based Diet. What are some of your tips?