hey everyone, I've been a l/o vegetarian for a bit over a year now and I've decided it's time I become a vegan (yay!:vebo: ). I just have a few questions. First of all do you have any tips on transitioning to veganism? When I became a vegetarian I just dropped meat overnight but I dont think I can do this with eggs and dairy. I've been a vegan-wannabe for awhile now and when ever I consider it, I don't even know where to get started. Did any of you have particular methods of weaning off of eggs and dairy that worked well? Also are there any books I should read first? So far I've read Food Revolution and am reading the China Study. Lastly, my mother is mainly supportive of my choice, but says she is not willing to read labels. I'm only 14 and my mom usually shops while I'm at school so I can't really go with her to help, any ideas how to solve this? Thank you!

First of all congrats on your choice:sunny: Since your mom does most of the shopping while you are at school, you will have to come up with a plan that you both are ok with. I am gathering your mom is not a veg*n, so you will have to inform her of your food choices. I would not try to transition everything at once, I would do things gradually. try one day not to eat eggs. Then if that goes well, the next week try two days. If that goes well then the next week three days. Do that until you are completely free of eggs. Then do the same for milk. You can look check the net and local food stores for great substitutes for both. As for milk, my personal fave is the Enhanced Silk Soy milk. It has extra vitamins and it tastes great. If I can help you out any further.... please let me know:hamster:

good luck!

First off, good for you for actualizing what you believe in! :)
Starting slow is the best advice I think, and also being open minded to new flavors and textures. It's not hard to give up the "big" dairy/egg foods (I.E. glasses of milk, mac & cheese, yogurt, scrambled eggs) once you set your mind to it. It can be more tricky and annoying to try avoiding all those stupid little byproducts, so focus on the main ones for now.
You will miss those foods at first I'm sure and it may seem pretty tough (depending on how obsessed you are with your dairy, lol) but I think most everyone can agree that your taste buds start craving different flavors once you open up to different foods. Like if you're not a big fan of veggies or soy milk right now, you can totally train yourself to love them just by exposing yourself to them. Hope that makes sense. lol. I've had tons of luck with this. When I took my first sip of soy milk way back when I HATED it, so I took some time to ween myself off real milk, let the flavors leave my system in a sense, and then tried the soy milk again. It tasted a lot better then because I wasn't expecting it to taste like the real thing. Keep an open mind to all new foods you try, including plain 'ol fruits and veggies. Variety is the key!
Trade normal milk for soy milk (which shouldn't be hard for you since it's so yummy!), use Silk creamer in your coffee instead of cream, eat pizza with no cheese, etc.
I can't remember what books I've read about becoming vegan off hand, but if you're interested in a great vegan cookbook I strongly recommend "How It All Vegan"...it has the yummiest and easiest recipes! :)

Congrats on your decision to go vegan. I think gradual is a good idea. Gives you a chance to slowly adjust and find products that you like. Some great advice there from Maliaka.

On transitioning to vegan – drop a little at a time, like try no milk for a week, and then no milk and butter the next. And then no milk, butter or eggs the next. That’s how I did it, I think my body became better accustomed to it.

What I found made the switch to veganism easy for me was staying emotionally connected to the reasons I had for wanting to be vegan.

Personally, my reasons for becoming vegan were ethical, so if I felt at all tempted by dairy, for example, I could just remind myself of the awful truths I had learned about slaughterhouses and dairy farms, and it wouldn't be at all hard for me to resist buying a grilled cheese sandwich. And the more I learned, I actually went from remembering those foods fondly and almost missing them to quickly finding them kind of repulsive. Now it's like I don't even consider it food at all.

I'm 14 years old too and trying to be a vegan as well! How awesome. I totally understand what your trying to go through, because it's the same for me as well. I have to make my own dinners now (my family is not vegan at all) and reading food labels isnt as hard as it seems. At first I thought it was way difficult but now I have TONS of food...I don't even know what to do with it all :]

I don't even miss any of the dairy products and egg products, you can eat the same things...there's always replacements.
Oh, word of advice: Don't let your mom get the 'Veggie' cheese (you can get this at walmart and publix, I think) it's not vegan...it has casein.
My mom got it for me when she went shopping. Er, she didn't read the label. :mad: Oh well, I threw it away :sealed:

Sure and slow is the way to go. :up:

Everyone else has really good suggestions about moving towards vegan so I won't add to that. Instead, I'll tackle the shopping end since your mum does the shop while you're at school.

If you can, try to get your mum to shop for your whole foods like whole grains, veggies, fruit, nuts/seeds and beans. You know, the stuff that your family might use anyway. For any specialised shopping, try to arrange a time for you and your mum to go together. If you can't do that, then make out your list with the exact brand and as much detail as you can on the item you want, i.e. "I want Super-Duper Yummy-Yum-Yum Soymilk brand soymilk that has a blue, green and orange lable on it and in the upper right corner, there's a farmer that's hugging a bean stalk and the bean stalk is doing a thumbs up" (ficticious product discription). That will help her find what you want easily without her having to stress over what's an animal ingredient and what's not. Belive me, omnis and especially omni mothers don't have time or patience with lables because they're always so pressed for time anyway. They might be frustrated with the lable reading, then get tempted to get "oh, whatever" and that's when you might find you have "vegan" cheese that has casesin in it (for example).

thanks, this stuff helps. I've already been working on slowly weaning myself off dairy. I'll have to try some of your advice.

Im 16 and just recently decided to become a Vegan. 3 and a half days and counting. I quit on all dairy cold turkey. Its been okay so far. I crave certain things but then I grab a fruit or something and the cravings go away.
Its not hard because its what I believe is right.

Mmm... Glad to see another convert.

;)

One of the obnoxious things I've found is that a lot of commercially made breads contain a foaming agent, "Sodium Steroyl-2-Lactylate," which is a milk derivative. There are still some brands that don't use it, but it's something to watch for. Another one that surprised me was whey powder in a lot of margarine (including things like Becel)... It just seemed counterintuitive to me that an alternative to a milk product would contain a milk product.

:confused:

If you or your family members make your own baked goods, keep an eye out for Earth Balance margarine and/or Ener-G egg replacer. Really versatile products that are vegan and healthy (non-hydrogenated) and can fool any omni when used in baked goods (or anywhere, in the case of the margarine).

And I'm sure you already know, as a vegetarian, but taking in some Vitamin C with iron or calcium sources is always a good idea. And avoid eating calcium-rich foods with iron-rich foods as they tend to cancel each other out (calcium and iron are friends... they like to hug onto each other... the brats).

;)

Rock on, starting vegan!

:up:

(I remembered a few more things.)

One of the things I hated most when I was starting out was soy milk. I was only using one brand and it was driving me nuts. It took me a little while to realize that different brands tasted different (Durr... <Forehead smack.> I know, I'm a genius).

I splurged one day and bought something like nine different types of milk substitute to find what I liked. I tried soy, rice, and potato milks. In the end, I found that I liked potato maltodextrin based drinks the most. They taste uncannily like skim milk. I really don't know what kind of selection you've got in Connecticut (sp? Sorry, dunno state names, Canadian ;) ) but the brands that I've tried are all locally produced (Tayo and English Bay are the names, if by some stroke of luck you've got them there).

Anyways, keep an eye out for potato milk...

;)