tips for transitioning to a vegan diet

I've been following a vegan diet for several years now, a lot of people ask me about it, so I thought I'd dedicate a blog post sharing my tips, to help those who want to change their diet entirely vegan or simply towards a more plant based diet :)   

have fun!

try making your journey to becoming plant based as fun as possible! try new foods, go to new restaurants, attend vegan cooking classes, go on a vegan cruise (yes they seriously have vegan cruises and retreats!)...

in recipes
switch real eggs
​for an egg replacer

eggs are an ingredient in many recipes, so thankfully they are easy to replace. use an egg replacer such as, neategg or make your own using chia or flax seeds in substitute of eggs. this is super easy to do and you will hardly notice a difference :) 

slowly cut down on dairy

for many people dairy products (especially cheese!), are the hardest thing to eliminate when switching to a vegan diet. If you struggle with eliminating dairy, start slowly by making small changes, for example instead of having "real" milk in your cereal opt for a plant based milk such as cashew or soy milk. 

find vegan
​friendly restaurants

you will probably have cravings for non vegan foods, finding a restaurant that can help you through those cravings is literally priceless, haha! 
some of my favorite vegan restaurants are: 
by CHLOE (NYC + other large cities) 
Terri (New York, NY) 
Graze (Nashville, TN) 
Kahiau's Cafe (Virginia Beach, VA)

create a support group

if you have questions or face challenges during this journey feel free to reach out to online vegan support groups and communities! Search to see if there is any vegan meetups or festivals in your area (vegfest is one of my favorites!). 

remind yourself of why your doing this

why are you switching to a vegan diet? want to live a longer and healthier life? don't want to support animal cruelty? want to help protect our environment? eliminate world hunger? find your reason and remind yourself of it often :)

be gentle with yourself. 

its okay if you "mess up", it's okay if you accidentally put a non vegan ingredient in something, its okay if you decided to eat something that is non vegan. the point is your trying your best and you should be proud, not judgemental or frustrated at yourself :) be easy on yourself and hang in there! 

visit me on instagram: @jordanartistry

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you found this post helpful, if you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to comment below or reach out to me on instagram! I know that this transition can be difficult, but I am here to support and root you on! 

Much love, 
-Jordan 

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