In my previous article, I told you a bit more about my past relationship with food and why I became vegan. So now it’s time to answer another question that I get ask frequently. How did I adapt a vegan diet?

My transformation to a whole-food plant-based diet

Usually I am very strict, direct and in some people’s eyes extreme in my decision making and especially in following through. However, my journey to transform to a 100% vegan diet was different in that way. Usually, I would have done the following steps:

1. Research, research, research about vegan diet, the pros and cons, how to adapt it, what I need to be mindful of, etc.

2. Decision time: Sitting down, getting deep within me and find out if this is something I’d like to try out. If yes, what’s the real why behind it. The answer to the question ‘Why is absolutely key because this will always remind me of the reasons I am doing this and will keep me on track.

3. Creating an action plan: Note down a few short-, medium- and long-term goals and concrete steps that I’m going to take to achieve them.

4. Execute: Start time NOW. Not tomorrow, not next week, not after the next holiday or Veganuary. NOW. Done deal.

This is my usual approach to anything really. In the case of transforming to a vegan diet, I thought in the beginning that I’ll just switch and make the radical change right away - as I always do. But during my research and while creating my action plan, I quickly found that this won’t for me this time because of the following reasons:

• I still had dairy products in my fridge and cupboard. Throwing away food is an absolute no go for me. So I wanted to eat the remaining non-vegan food instead of wasting it.

• It actually takes time to research new plant-based recipes and create a new shopping list. I felt a bit overwhelmed by the thought of having to have a new meal plan ready right away. Especially in the beginning, it was crucial for me to have a meal plan for the upcoming days or week so I could make sure I know what I’m going to buy, prepare and cook. If I hadn’t had this in place before my switch, I’d probably wouldn’t have followed it through in the first few days.

• If you’ve been following me a while, you’ll know by now that my training and diet is my lifestyle. So I needed to make sure that I find healthy, delicious and suitable new pre- and post-workout meals with the right ratio of macros. As you can imagine that took a while too. It was a trial & error phase and sometimes still is, to be honest. I love trying out new things and learn from my experiences.

• Another reason why I wanted to make this longer but smooth transition to a plant-based diet is because our taste buds take about 6 weeks to reset and change. So in order to give a vegan diet a real go, I needed to have patience and let my taste buds reset so I can really taste how the new foods actually taste. I can’t even describe how incredible this taste of all the new foods, spices and flavours was.

• Last but not least: This was not only a diet change for me, it was actually a lifestyle improvement and this takes time, commitment and consistency.

After realizing that switching to a vegan diet won’t be the usual change for in order to make it a sustainable improvement to my lifestyle, I needed to admit that this is actually going to take me much longer than I thought.

The switch and concrete examples

All in all the transformation to a fully plant-based diet took me about 9 months. Here’s how I approached it:

• I gradually changed my shopping list and bought new vegetables, spices, herbs, tempeh, seitan, tofu and beans.

• I added a few new foods to every meal while I was emptying my fridge and cupboard with the non-vegan food.

• Hands-down: I didn’t like all the new plant-based alternatives. That’s also a reason why it took me quite a while to fully adapt the vegan diet. But that’s the case with every new meal we try out. You simply prefer the yogurt or cheese from one brand over the other and that’s obviously also the case with vegan products.
  Here are a few concrete examples:

  • Instead of having my usual dairy greek yogurt, I fell in love with yogurts from Alpro and Sojade.

  • I also use Alpro and Sojade for my milk alternatives.

  • Instead of egg white, I eat the ‘Breakfast Scramble’ by Bonsan.

  • Instead of butter, I fell in love with the plant-based spread by Vitalite. - absolutely delicious!

• Once I found the dairy and meat alternatives that I liked, I’d use them going forwards and replaced them with the non-vegan options. One food group at a time. I loved cheese and eggs and butter so these were the last foods I replaced. Because I waited until I found alternatives that I really loved, the exchange wasn’t hard at all and I didn’t miss the non-vegan options.

• I clearly remember that one morning when I noticed that I’ve been eating 100% plant-based for the past two weeks without even thinking about it! This was my point to say: YES! I actually made the transition to a healthy and delicious vegan diet and I’m loving it. Actually, I’m thriving on it! Most importantly, I was living in alignment with my core values.

As you can see, it takes time, patience and commitment in order to make a sustainable and healthy lifestyle change. I can say with 100% honesty that I haven’t regretted to become vegan for a single second in my life. All the benefits that I’ve been experiencing since then, which I listed in my previous article on about why I became vegan, outweigh the challenges I face. Yes, there are some challenges such as facing a lot of prejudice from others and preparing my meals for traveling but it’s all worth it to me. Stay tuned for my upcoming article about how I tackle these challenges.

PS: If you’re intrigued to gain more knowledge about a healthy vegan diet and would like to give it a go, get in touch and book a free consultation call with me.