Transitioning to vegan

[BeckyBarley]

Hi! I'm Becky, new in here.
I want to go vegan.
Over the last few weeks around half of my meals have been vegan and I feel like in the next couple of weeks I'll be ready to switch over fully. However I'm not sure about the timescale - is it sensible/ok to just suddenly switch or is it better to continue to eat more and more vegan meals over the course of a few more weeks until my diet is completely vegan?
Also I'm just interested to know what you all did with other non-vegan items like shoes, clothes, toiletries etc? Did you use them up/wear them out? Or get rid straight away? (Just interested, I genuinely don't think there's a right or wrong to this!)
x

 

[Scorpius]

I don't see a problem in switching to all vegan, as long as you are comfortable with it and plan accordingly (planning well helps avoid slip-ups, too!). You sound like you've been making the switch gradually by making about half of your meals vegan over the past few weeks. This is how I did it, too.

As for non-vegan items, it really depended on the situation. If you have new-ish/still in decent condition leather shoes and clothing, I would say donate them to a thrift store or something, that is if you can afford to buy all new shoes and clothing. I would replace toiletries as I run out of them. It's all about practicality, in my opinion. Good luck!!

 

[BeckyBarley]

Thanks!
I can't really afford to buy new stuff all in one go so my plan is to use it up or wear it out and just replace everything gradually with vegan stuff.
We've still got our meals planned and food bought for the next week or so, we eat a lot of vegetarian meals anyway so I think I'll get through that and when we next do a big food shop I can plan out what I'm going to eat and make sure I've got LOADS of fruit and veggies too.
I'm quite excited! I know I can make it work at home, I'm just slightly apprehensive about social situations/eating out but my friends and family are all a supportive bunch so I'm sure it will be fine!

 

[Andy_T]

Hi Becky,

Welcome - again - to the forum

I would say the best way is to fully transition - use up the stuff that you already have, but not buy new nonvegan stuff (especially food).

Regarding clothing, shoes, etc, if you throw away leather shoes you have already, this does not really help the animals that were killed to produce them.

So my suggestion would be to wear those out but buy vegan ones when you shop for new stuff.

Best regards,
Andy

 

[Calliegirl]

I did it slowly, removing one thing at a time (vegetarian to vegan), eggs were first to go and milk chocolate candy was the last. I used up non-vegan products, and while vegetarian, I gave away the only leather item I had since it was brand new, a suede jacket. I bought it not realizing suede was leather (hey, I was a teenager).

 

[Andy_T]

I'm on the other side of the spectrum.

Some 25 years ago, I saw a documentary about the eating habits of people in my home country, showing the way from the cow to the steak and from the pig to the cutlet, including all stations on the way.

Just out of curiosity, I wanted to find out myself how long I could do without eating meat again, (was hard in the beginning, but I just remembered the pictures from the documentary), but after a month I found out that I was not craving meat any more. So I stopped to eat it.

5 years ago, I found out about the dark side of eggs and dairy, and stopped to consume those within the same week.

I think, had I stopped in "baby steps", reduce the number of non-vegetarian (and later non-vegan) meals, then I might not have been able to break through this dependency. When I first stopped to eat meat, I did not truly think I could go vegetarian. Yes, I thought it would be better, but I could not picture myself stopping to eat tasty meat. After a month, I was really surprised I did not crave it any more, and actually found the smell of raw and cooking meat quite disgusting.

So my suggestion would be to transition fully, right now.

Best regards,
Andy