Vegetarian Lifestyle

Remember Your Why

What are the reasons you are changing your lifestyle to vegetarianism? It is important to remember this as you process through your journey. Particularly in the early stages, there may be challenges or hurdles that you experience – this can include cravings, peer pressure, fear of ‘lacking’ etc.

Be clear about your reasons, and even write these down.  If you do happen to experience difficult times (such as cravings), a good idea is to journal these thoughts/emotions. As you’re writing this down, be mindful of your surroundings or environment to determine what triggered this craving. Over time you will start to see patterns which will be more easily identifiable and you will then be able to handle the situation with more ease and clarity.

Vegetarian Pantry

A great plan for success is to stock up your pantry with your vegetarian staples. These are basics that will come in handy to create simple and nutritional meals at home. Think about your favourite herbs, spices, condiments, nuts and seeds etc. Stock your fridge with in-season fresh fruit and vegetables. If you are looking for soy protein, then having a block of tofu in the fridge will never go astray!

Eating Out

Scope out your local cafes and restaurants to find the ones that cater well for vegetarians and provide you with good options. Make a note of these so it is easy to suggest these restaurants when it comes time to organizing a night out with family and friends.

Also be mindful of communicating with your friends and family when it comes time to either hosting a dinner party, or attending a dinner party hosted by someone else. Be open in your communication and be sure to tell the host you have dietary requirements. This does not need to be a difficult or awkward conversation – essentially just explain your requirement, and even offer to bring a yummy vegetarian dish for others to share to help ease any burden the host may feel for creating additional dishes for you.

Transition Slowly

If you have been a meat eater for a particularly long time, then this transition may be more difficult to someone that hasn’t generally included a lot of meat in their diet. Everyone is different and will find the whole process more or less difficult that others (or not at all!).

To assist with a smooth transition, you may want to consider slowly weaning yourself from meat:

• Cut back the amount of meat you include in your meals
• Cut out red meat first before white meat
• Look for alternatives such as soy-based protein, nuts or beans