From my own experience, trying to vegan cold turkey is difficult and results in failure and demotivation. I have instead significantly cut down my meat, poultry, and dairy consumption; I plan on continuing this trend for another month or so, until I feel comfortable becoming a full blown vegetarian. I feel compelled to write about some of the changes one may experience during the transition from an omnivorous diet filled with meat and dairy, to a more vegetarian one.

When you get accustomed to a particular diet, you get accustomed to a particular cooking style. In my case, my typical lunch would be chicken and rice with a salad. The chicken was always poached, with the occasional baked chicken, and the rice was always boiled; the salad was simple, consisting of only cilantro, lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes with olive oil, lemon, and salt for dressing. When I decided to cut my meat consumption that meant that I would need to find other foods to fill in the protein gap, left after the chicken. Normally I do this with tofu, lentils, and various beans, and unfortunately these foods typically are not poached the same way a chicken is. I found myself employing and experimenting with different cooking techniques in order to make my meal enjoyable. Frying, sautéing, and roasting my beans and tofu allowed me to gain and hone these skills. I became more comfortable with these cooking styles and could now employ these techniques with my occasional chicken. It gave me confidence to try other styles as well, I am particularly addicted to steaming my rice rather than boiling them; I even have a traditional bamboo steamer for the job.

Shopping trips get longer, and more difficult, after cutting meats and dairy. Usually I would just go to one grocery store to pick up all of my necessities, but now I find myself going to two-sometimes three stores-in order to finish my shopping list. In my case I started to visit markets that I would usually visit once or twice a month, weekly instead. As a result one’s pallet may expand, going to new markets means being exposed to new ingredients and foods that may not have been in the usual stores typically visited. As I stated, I would go to new markets in an attempt to stock up on the foods that I needed and these new markets would have new foods I had never seen before. I remember my first time entering Zerbo’s, I visited to pick up miso paste for my salad dressing and was greeted with ube sweet potatoes, aloe, fresh lemon grass, dragon fruit, and various other vegetables and fruits I had never seen. I picked up some aloe in the hopes of making an aloe drink, a recipe I had quickly googled in store.

Your days will be more planned out, and this comes naturally. I would’ve loved for my family to join me on my change, but unfortunately I stand alone in this effort. My family will eat one dish while I will eat a different one, and because our kitchen is not big enough this means I have to schedule when I begin to prepare my meals. This means I have to wake up at an earlier time to make my breakfast, so that I do not occupy the kitchen while my family wants to prepare their breakfast. This leads me to plan when I eat my lunch and dinner so that I can get enough sleep to wake up early in the morning the next day in order to repeat the cycle. I find myself using a planner more frequently than before.

I can see now that my change in diet did not only result in that, but also a change of lifestyle; although small. I hope that as I continue my positive transition, so too will my habits and styles result in a positive transition.