Veganuary: 6 ways to ace Veganuary

 

If you're reading this then you're probably either doing Veganuary or are intrested in learning more about it, and either way, welcome! 

Veganuary is when someone goes vegan for the month of January. This means no meat products (including fish), no dairy products, no eggs, and no other animal products (e.g. beeswax, honey, gelatine, wool). This sounds restrictive but it really isn't - if anything, when you go vegan you end up trying so many new foods you never would have thought to before!

If it sounds a little intimidating, don't worry! Everyone slips up sometimes, and cutting any animal products out of your diet will help animals and the planet and maybe even your health. It can be a little hard to navigate at first, so below I've written some tips that definitely helped me make the change, so I hope they can help you too!

Even KFC now do a vegan burger!

1. Find comfort foods that you enjoy

Being vegan doesn't mean you have to just eat vegetables all the time! Sometimes you'll just have a craving for something that isn't vegan, so it's important to find a food that satisfies both your cravings and your dietary requirements. There are vegan alternatives for the majority of foods now - pizza, burgers, kebabs, chocolate - you name it, there's probably a vegan version. If you're not sure where to start, try asking on a vegan Facebook group - they're usually full of lovely people ready to point you in the right direction!

There's also a lot of accidentally vegan foods - foods that aren't marketed as vegan (so are often cheaper) but have vegan ingredients! I made a list of some here if you're looking for ideas.

Some of Costa's vegan options

2. Have some quick foods available

Some days you just don't have the energy to make a fancy meal, and that's ok! If you have the space, try batch cooking meals and freezing them for another day. The freezer isles in supermarkets are now full of quick vegan oven foods that are really convinient to pop in the oven when you need to. Just make sure they don't have milk or cheese in! 

Wicked by Tesco do lots of tasty, quick and veg packed meals!

3. Don't be scared to try other milks if you don't like the one you try

There are so many plant milks these days that if you ask someone their favourite, it's probably different to the last person you asked. There's soya, almond, oat, coconut, tigernut, rice, hemp, cashew - the list is massive! My personal favourite is oat milk as it's creamy and similar to cow's milk, but shop around to find the best one for you. 

A fab vegan milkshake from Got No Beef in Cardiff

4. Let your tastebuds adjust

This might contradict point 1 a little, but don't expect to love everything straight away. If you try vegan cheese expecting it to be identical to real cheese, you'll probably be disappointed. Take your time and try different things, and don't be afraid to try them again later on in case your tastebuds have changed. Before you know it, vegan things will satisfy your cravings for the 'original' foods!

There's vegan substitutes for almost everything, even pick 'n' mix! (Vegummies)

5. Look out for hidden ingredients

E-numbers can be an absolute pain to work out. The vegan society have a useful list of ones to look out for. A lot of it is just remembering which ones to avoid, though some can be dubious, so if you're not sure ask a vegan group on social media or email the manufacturer if it's unknown. 

Lush are pretty good at labelling their products, most are vegan and ALL are cruelty free!

6. Cruelty free is not always vegan

Being vegan means you also avoid using animal products as well as eating them. A lot of companies will market their products as 'cruelty free', but they still contain animal products such as milk, honey or silk. Others will market their products as 'vegan', meaning they do not contain animal products, but the company will tests their products on animals. I've written a couple of posts about this, including hair products and makeup. 

Superdrug has also written a really useful article about what to avoid and also have a filter on their site to sort products by vegan!

I hope this was useful. Have you got any other advice for people doing Veganuary this year? Why not leave it in the comments? 😊

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