I’m celebrating my 7th vegan year this month.
Every year I’ve thought of sitting down and reflecting and writing about all the things that being vegan has meant to my heart. And, as in so many things that are important to our hearts, I’ve been scared every year.
I never wanted to come off as forceful. Nor did I want to come off as judge-y. I never wanted to speak up too loud about why. And I never wanted to be one of “those” vegans who are loud about it (and yet, I’m grateful for you knowing your loudness paved the way for my quietude).
I just want to be happy. At peace. In love. And kind to animals.
I wanted to write this post, as both an article written by a Holistic Nutritionist and a vegan. I’ve heard that some vegan role models have pulled out of our beautiful diet as of late, and I also wanted to help anyone curious or leaping into our bright, planty way of eating with my experiences and with helpful nutritional pointers, too.
I hope to be honest about my experiences, and share the light this diet makes my heart emanate. If you have any questions along the way, please share them in the comments at the bottom of this post, so that I can revise and add, making this post even more helpful as time goes on.
How going vegan started for me…
In 2010 I watched Food Inc. That movie wrecked my heart and soul, and that night I gave up meat (fish, chicken, red, etc.) completely, “cold turkey” and went vegetarian.
To my heart, seeing animals die was exposing. Of course I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that was what was happening for the steak or chicken on my plate, but even watching the organic farmer in the movie break little necks “cleanly” was so, so upsetting. I have tears in my eyes just writing this and re-picturing it. That’s how deeply my specific calling was for not supporting it anymore.
A few years later (and still vegetarian since that night), I was becoming a Holistic Nutritionist. My drive as a Nutritionist was to make any way of eating work for future clients. Whatever people I would help wanted to eat, I wanted to make sure they could, AND feel great. That was important to me.
So, being the try-it-on-myself-first-so-I-can-help-others-best Nutritionist I’m still proud to be, I leaped in!
A good, vegan friend at the time and fellow Holistic Nutritionist student had given me a VegNews magazine with vegan brie recipes, vegan Swiss cheese recipes, and so much more. And after trying the brie (cheese plate “picnics” on our apartment floor with a bottle of beautiful wine were always my favourite date nights, so I NEEDED cheese substitutes), I knew I could do it.
As a perfect coincidence in timing, I was *just* starting to have energy for LIFE again (the reason I was becoming a Holistic Nutritionist. You can read more about that here). And I committed to training for and running a marathon, vegan.
I wanted to see if I could do it. I wanted to see if I could stay balanced while eating in a way where most people are concerned about not enough protein. And I wanted to make sure I could help any future client on any diet that mattered to them, so they could feel optimal and energized so much so, that they could say “YES!” to the dreams in their hearts (even if those dreams were a huge race).
I ran the marathon in October of 2012 and when I crossed the finish line, I was filled with absolute pride and joy and accomplishment and excitement and passion!
Staying vegan…
I stayed vegan after running the marathon because I felt happier about it.
I’d been back and forth emotionally about cheese before going vegan and training for the marathon. I’d tried to only buy organic and what I thought at the time was “happy cow” cheese, but I still didn’t feel great about it deep down. And eating some cheese to me meant occasionally opening the door to a “tiny bit” of what was for sure factory farmed cheese from restaurants, which also hurt my heart.
Vegan Cheese:
I think it’s a little funny: I had no problems giving up milk. Ice cream substitutes were easy. Using Earth Balance in place of butter was no problem. I always found eggs too slimy for me, and in baking I got used to flax eggs from the second I started using them as replacements. But the cheese! That was my utmost concern, “How can I LIVE without CHEESE?!”. ?
For anyone also in that boat, Miyoko Schinner is how you live without cheese. She has a book called Artisan Vegan Cheese. And if you don’t have it already, just get it, make everything and devour them all. Scrumptious!
(Or if you’re in the United States, find her cheeses in any of the 10,000+ grocery stores around you. Also I feel fit to add in here, I’m not an affiliate. Just a super-creepy stalker fan obsessed with what they do, and how much they were able to help me!)
Early Vegan Problems…
Eye rolls are allowed for what I’m about to say. Heck, if I hadn’t lived through it, I’d probably think it sounded stupid, too.
About a year or so into being fully vegan, I started to feel too calm.
I can’t really describe it. It wasn’t lethargic. It was just, detached. Or watery? I know it sounds weird. But maybe you’ll understand if you’re there and looking for fixes.
I tend to be a pretty driven, focused, perhaps fiery person. I like feeling that way. As I continued on my journey, I really missed that feeling.
What I found my way into as a Holistic Nutritionist was some of the more energetic components of food, coming from Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine and colour theories.
I started eating Tofurkey sausages (the spicy Italian ones) at that time, and cooking them until grill marks were really blackened onto them. That helped a TON.
I do think that it can take your body a hot minute to adjust from eating in one way for your whole life, to changing COMPLETELY all the sources of food you were originally getting certain nutrients from.
So I think with their fortified hit of iron, B12 and protein all in one spicy, BBQ-able item, they brought back balance to my otherwise alkaline diet.
I should also note here, that because I was becoming a Holistic Nutritionist at the time that I went vegan, I ate entirely whole foods up to the Tofurkey moments, was near-completely organic and ate a measureable f*ckload of vegetables and fruits each day.
That’s kind of what your diet will look like for a bit when you start learning that everything is some kind of toxic. ?
Vegan Nutrition…
Proper nutrition is SO important if you want to feel good, strong and happy.
My goal is always to get people feeling great enough that they can start saying “YES!” to the big dreams in their hearts.
And for that – meat-eating or not – you need to take care of some things!
As a base foundation of nutrition, making sure that a fair amount of each plate of food you eat is a fruit or vegetable is a great, energizing start. I often teach clients to ask themselves, “How can I add a veggie to this?” as they’re cooking or thinking about meals. It’s a simple habit, but it can make a big difference.
Once that’s covered, it’s time to focus on protein. Lentils are awesome and pack *such* a punch of protein. I don’t worry about completing proteins unless a client is vegan and grain-free, since it’s likely that by the end of every day you’ll have eaten a grain, a piece of toast, a protein powder, veggies, an English muffin, nuts, or something that provides additional amino acids.
Tempeh and nutritional yeast are the only two sources I rely on for Vitamin B12. Algae may have B12, or it may have B12 analogues, so I do eat some of it, but I don’t rely on it for B12.
Lentils and most beans are pretty high in iron, and we throw spinach in some of our smoothies, so all of those things help with iron.
And then I take vegan supplements which sometimes requires reaching out to companies just to ensure everything was sourced from plants, based on how I’m feeling at the moment, and what symptoms are popping up for me.
Overall, the foundations of the diet are pretty similar just to a healthy diet.
If you have more specific questions about the vegan diet, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll add some more specific pointers for you.
What to do about insults and side-comments:
The part of going vegan I wasn’t expecting was that it might ruffle other people’s feathers.
It was such a deeply personal decision that came fully from my heart and soul that I was surprised anyone else would notice, care, or take seemingly deep personal offense.
What I will say if you’re going through this, is to just stay strong. Just keep doing you. Just keep coming from your heart. Eventually you’ll be “the vegan” and it’ll be accepted.
I still go to parties with a certain level of emotional strength, because even 7 years in there are vegan jokes made.
What I can say is an interesting theme I’ve witnessed, though, that might have given me a little solace back in the day, was that the people who were most genuinely mad at my decision, started eating less and less meat years in.
So you’ll likely be a trigger to some people who are struggling within themselves.
But where do you get your protein?
And lastly, when the questions come, and they do, about where I get my protein, I’ve found that most people are genuinely curious. So I just respond:
“A lot from lentils. Some from beans. Sometimes I eat soy. And some occasional mock meats. I like a really good protein powder in my morning smoothies. It’s cool actually, even some veggies have protein, like broccoli.”
I know it’s a joke to us that people ask that. And I know that some people like to come up with snide comments back, but I also know that cooking vegan was a HUGE change for me!
And when we’re all fed info about dairy and meat being the only sources of protein out there and we’ll die without them, I think it’s actually a genuine question some people have actually never considered.
“How do I get started with vegan meals?”
My best advice to getting started with eating vegan is to transition meals that you already love.
I loved cheese plate nights. So I started making vegan brie.
I loved cheesy pierogi’s, so I converted a recipe to make those (find them here – yum!).
It’s funny because when I think back, my meals before going vegan were boring. Chicken with x vegetable. Rosemary lemon chicken with x vegetables.
I gained weight if I ate what I really wanted. So my cooking was “fancy marinade on meat, boring vegetables to “get down” so I can be healthy.”.
What I got to do that was different as a vegan, was to think about what I actually LOVED eating. The meals that bring me JOY! What flavours make my mouth water!
Then I got to have fun with recipe creating to make what I loved, possible. And the best part was: I actually lost a ton of weight.
Now my diet is pretty Mediterranean-vegan. I LOVE olives. We eat a lot of pasta. We eat a fair number of awesome pizza’s.
I like to dabble in really beautiful food for parties (I most recently made smoked carrot lox croustades for my Mum’s 60th surprise party topped with fresh herbed v cream cheese, fresh dill and capers – yum!).
Then there’s a sauerkraut salad I ADORE.
We do lots of smoothies for breakfasts because they’re so fast when you prep bags or containers of ingredients ahead of time so you can wake up, dump the container into a blender and add water/almond milk.
Let me know in the comments what recipes you’d love to be able to veganize (what foods you already love eating now), and I’ll help out with links and ideas and resources for you.
The Vegan awakening…
Something my heart LEAPS to see is more and more vegan options at restaurants, fast food places, grocery stores, in purse aisles, shoe aisles and even gas stations!
It’s really beautiful and I always feel so much love and excitement. Great job, community! We’ve all requested it, and it’s growing. ?
On that note: ALWAYS fill out a contact form on companies you’d LOVE to see create something vegan. We’re stronger together, and when they hear it a million times, we help to create the change we want to see!
Every year I send Cadbury an email to please release vegan mini eggs. I’ve contacted some high-end purse and shoe stores. I wrote to our local pizzeria.
Tell them it matters to you. You LOVE them and admire them and that’s why you’re asking, and BOOM. There are so many new options for us ALL the time now!
(Still waiting on you, Cadbury for my once a year, trash ingredients but is at least vegan mini eggs.)
Vegan-friendly Resources:
Lastly, I just wanted to share some of the people who really helped me along the way, so that if you’re doing something big as a vegan, you might be able to find some great help.
Me – Everything on Glow Nutritional Consulting is vegan-friendly, including all my videos on Facebook and YouTube. And every blog post here. I’ve helped myself a ton to stay balanced and feel great as a vegan, and I think it’s really important to have a healthcare practitioner you at least know about who understands how important veganism is for your heart and soul, so that they can help you with anything that might come up in your health. (And even just someone whose first fix for anything isn’t going to be: “eat meat”.)
Brendan Brazier – wrote some of the first books I’d ever heard of that were specific to sports training while vegan. His original recipes left much to be desired, but he’s teamed up with some pretty cool vegan restaurants for recipes in the more recent of his books that I own. His original sports drink recipes, though, in the original Thrive Diet book were and still are top-notch and I reference them whenever I’m working out heavily/training for something.
Sun Warrior – is my #1 protein powder. I love their chocolate warrior blend the best.
Blue Zones research – really continues to inspire me whenever I’ve doubted being vegan or wondered if it can really work, or wondered if it is still the healthiest diet. If you’re online, the paleo people can yell and scream (though I’ve either filtered them, stopped caring or they’re getting quieter, so that’s nice) and occasionally make you doubt your path (not that your heart would let you stray). I like reading that the longest living, healthiest cultures currently on the planet have super-low meat and dairy consumption. It reminds me I’m on the right path.
HappyCow – Oh my gosh for any traveling vegan HappyCow is a Godsend. No matter what tiny ass village we’ve ended up in late at night, totally jetlagged, HappyCow has pointed us in the (angels singing!) direction of awesome vegan food. Thank goodness!
MooShoes – Thank you for being the first vegan shoe store I found. I just wanted pretty stiletto’s! Also thank you for feeling like the only place in New York City that was calm for a minute.
VEERAH – thank you for actually making the most beautiful vegan shoes. I’m always so scared to buy clothes or shoes online because I tend to fit shoes between sizes. But I just so appreciate that there are BEAUTIFUL veeg shoes now in the world! ?????
Makeup – I went toxic ingredient-free when I went vegan, so I wanted to send out love and share my favourite brands as I’d found a LOT of trial and error to find sets I loved to work with! Pure Ananda (tinted moisturizer), Zuzu (mascara) and Pacifica (cheeks, eyes, highlight, bronze/contour – YES).
There are probably a million more awesome resources I’ve missed. So please let me know your favourites in the comments. And if you’re looking to do or get something specific, let me know and maybe I’ll have another resource to share.
Thank you so much for reading. I hope something in here helped you out incredibly.
XO,
Nathalie from Glow
CNP, NNCP – Holistic Nutritionist
