Welcome to our 13 Steps To Go Vegan‘s challenge number 2: Making an easy vegan choice.
If you are following along with our steps to go vegan you will know that the first step was making your breakfast vegan.
We hope you have become proficient at this before tackling this second step.
If you are not familiar with what ‘Steps to Go Vegan’ is, you can click here to find out more about it.
If you are not interested in completing all these steps sequentially to go vegan, you are still very welcome to try this strategy to make more vegan choices in your life. Read on!
What is Making an Easy Vegan Choice?
There are often feelings of dread that come with making the decision to go vegan. Among these are just how much WORK it is going to be. Some of these perceptions about being vegan might include:
- Always obsessively checking ingredients on products at the store.
- Constantly asking questions of a server to find out if a dish is vegan.
- Spending a long time Googling to find out if a product is tested on animals.
- Researching the best restaurant to go to for vegan food and always having to negotiate with friends and family
In this step, the idea is to simply make a vegan choice if it is easy to do so.
When we say easy to do so, we mean REALLY easy.
Examples of making a REALLY easy vegan choice are:
- Asking for non-dairy milk in your coffee.
- Grabbing a pint of vegan ice cream instead of the dairy one.
- Asking for vegan cheese on your pizza instead of dairy cheese (even if it still has meat on it)
- Choosing an item on a menu that looks as good as the item you would normally order.
- Making a choice at a restaurant even if you are not sure it is vegan, it just looks like it might be according to the dish description.
Examples of a vegan choice that is NOT REALLY easy might be:
- Choosing an item on the menu that is just not appealing at all just because it is vegan.
- Going miles out of your way to find the perfect vegan restaurant .
- Deep diving on Google to find a well-reviewed vegan leather jacket.
- Trying to convince friends to check out a new vegan restaurant even though you normally always go to a steakhouse.
Why master this step?
The purpose of this step is to challenge and change your mindset. If you have the belief that veganism is so much hard work, then we want to help you realize that actually, most of the time decisions vegan make don’t require work, hard conversations, and social isolation. Remember, you are still only at the start of your journey. It makes sense that there are more challenges now, but noticing just how many choices are actually easy to make may change your mindset and set you up for success as you transition.
Our rules for making an easy vegan choice
Rule number 1:
The easy choice must result in something that is as satisfying or ALMOST as satisfying as your non-vegan choice.
Rule number 2:
You should not have to go physically far out of your way to make the easy vegan choice.
Rule number 3:
You should not have to ask questions or make difficult requests of anyone to make the easy vegan choice.
Rule number 3:
If it requires planning or research, it’s not an easy choice.
Rule number 5:
Reflect every day over the easy vegan choices you made and ask yourself how easy they were and congratulate yourself on any victory you made. Do not berate yourself for any mistakes.
Rule number 6:
Keep practicing this step until making the easy vegan choice is no longer just easy, it’s automatic. This will probably take some weeks or months.
Rule number 7:
Understand that vegan choices that are hard to make now, might become easier in the future with practice.
Examples of easy vegan choices:
Here’s a nice long list of easy vegan choices suggestions based on the situation or cuisine. Please note, that if there is something I have suggested that is NOT an easy vegan choice for you, then feel free to disregard it. This is not a comprehensive list but will give you some ideas.
At the store:
Choosing the vegan meats that are right in the meat aisle.
Strolling down the health food aisle (which is where you’ll find a lot of vegan products) and see if any look appealing. Don’t even check the ingredients if you don’t want to or don’t have time.
Walk to the next refrigerator to where the non-dairy milk or yogurts are kept. The same goes with the freezer for ice cream, ready meals, etc.
At the deli or sandwich shop:
Choose a vegan deli slice or a vegan cheese if it is on the menu board.
Choose vegan cream cheese at your favorite bagel place.
Get the vegan sandwich if there’s one on the menu
At a Mexican restaurant:
Choose refried beans and vegetables in your burrito.
Have extra guacamole to make up for no meat.
Choose black bean soup
Request no cheese in your burrito and replace it with extra guac.
Choose a marked vegan option if it looks good.
At a cafe:
Ask for oat or soy milk in your coffee or frappuccino.
Grab a vegan muffin or pastry if there is one available.
At an Italian restaurant:
Choose vegan cheese for your pizza.
Choose the bean soup and don’t worry if it has a bit of parmesan on top.
Make your normal choice and say ‘no cheese’.
Pile up the vegetables on your pizza.
Choose a marked vegan option if it looks good.
Save your favorite vegan order on your pizza delivery app, so choosing it is straightforward.
At an Indian restaurant:
Look at the vegetarian section.
Ask for any kind of dal or chickpea curry.
Get lots of poppadoms and pakoras
Ask for soy milk in your masala chai.
At Thai Restaurants:
Substitute tofu for the meat in curries and Pad Thai.
Say no egg on your Pad Thai.
Look at the vegetarian section: most of these will probably be vegan.
Choose a marked vegan option.
At a Vietnamese Restaurant:
Substitute tofu for meat in pho, or any dishes when you can.
Choose Bang Xeo/
Casually ask for no fish sauce (on whatever you eat).
At a steakhouse:
Choose the vegetarian option if you can and veganise it if it is very easy to do so.
Scan the menu for the most vegan-looking thing on the menu and don’t worry if it is not.
Look at the sides part of the menu.
At a BBQ with friends:
Bring a few veggie sausages to contribute to the meal.
At Middle Eastern Restaurants
Choose a fattoush salad.
There is often a vegan or near-vegan platter.
Falafel, tabouli, and hummus is nearly always an easy vegan choice at a middle eastern restaurant.
source: Saha Eatery
At Japanese restaurants:
Get the vegetarian ramen.
Get the vegetarian sushi.
Order one of the following dishes, but don’t worry about any dashi or bonito flakes.
Eggplant Nasu, seaweed salad, vegetable tempura, or Agedashi Tofu.
When you have mastered making easy choices, head on over to Step 3: Finding Your Favorite Vegan Bloggers, Youtubers and Influencers.
Let’s Discuss!
We’d love to hear from you! Do you have any questions? Let us know in the comments below!
