New Year's Resolutions

Hello, we hope everyone had a great holiday period and 2012 has started well...

 The start of a new year brings with it the desire to change things, make this year better than the last and do things we had put off doing last year. However so many people start with grand, admirable but perhaps a tad unrealistic resolutions,such as "I won't eat anything that's not healthy until i'm x(usually 3 stone lighter than they are) weight" or I'll exercise every day this year" or to bring it back to veganism "I'll convince all my friends to go vegan".

  Unrealistic resolutions tend to lead to failure and make you feel worse than when you started. Lets be realistic here, if your diet consists of mainly junk food and you never cook because you hate it then making a new years resolution that says you'll eat perfectly,never touch crisps again and cook three meals a days is not realistic. It doesn't take into consideration that a)you may not know how to cook b) you're human and not suddenly perfect c) how you are going to achieve this? d) why do you want to do this? You would be better making 12 small step resolutions (one for each month) that work towards your overall achievement. For this example you could start by writing down what you normally eat for a few days, look at what you would like to alter.  Month one's resolution could be to cut down the number of packets of crisps you eat from seven a week to one. That doesn't have to be overnight either, week one you could go from seven to five, week two from five to three, week three from three to two and week four from 2 to 1.  Having an idea of what you'll eat instead or when you might have a craving is a good precaution to take.

If you're trying to lose weight then replace them with some fruit or raw veg (carrot sticks, broccoli, celery the list goes on). If you're just doing it for health then how about some nuts (preferably without oil and salt on). A good book with healthy recipes and minimal fat (although remember folks fat is not the enemy and you need some to be healthy) is Forks over Knives.

  If you don't usually cook but want to then there are some great beginners vegan cookbooks out there, we've listed some links to them at the bottom of this page. 

If you're an omnivore who has decided to go vegan this year, great! We know people who have made the change in different ways. You can go cold tofurky and go from omnivore to vegan overnight but I would suggest having read  a little around the nutritional aspects as you don't want to end up six months down the line saying "It was too hard,I couldn't eat anything,I didn't feel well" as this wont do you, the animals or those you're contact with any good. Go to the vegan society's website there they have good well researched nutritional information that shows how you needn't be a junk food vegan. You are a walking billboard for veganism, if you are fit and healthy people will be much more interested in the message you are giving as they can see that you can be healthy and vegan.

 The alternative and the way we progressed to veganism is to do it gradually. Most people take this to mean go vegetarian then vegan. As we've said in many blog posts we do not think that there is any moral/environmental improvement to being a vegetarian as opposed to an omnivore. Dairy cows are directly linked to the veal industry and it is said that there is often more suffering in a glass of milk than in a pound of steak. What we would do is when you finish the milk in the fridge is go out and buy a selection of alternative milks, a few brands of soya milk (they all taste different), almond milk, hemp milk, oat milk etc and try them all and decide on which one you like. Then when you next need to get more mince then replace it with vegan mince, which can be found in the freezer section of most supermarkets.  Continue until you're replaced all animal products. This way you not only make the change gradual and less scary but also avoid wastage.  

Finally with making resolutions that involve you changing others,others will only change if THEY want to. You can give people all the knowledge and logical arguments they need to make the change but unless they're ready they won't. Pushing people often makes them resentful. I would suggest doing things like getting them copies of your favourite vegan cookbook, bringing vegan food when you visit them, cook a vegan meal together, watch/give them a copy of Forks over Knives. Offer to let them borrow them any animal rights books you have (Gary Francione's books are good). Most importantly be there to openly,kindly and honestly answer any and all questions they have no matter how silly/easy they may seem.

Remember we're here to help, you can leave a comment under here, go onto our facebook groups or email us at veganoutreacheastmidlands@gmail.com

Easy vegan cooking- "Students Go Vegan"
Easy vegan cooking - "30 Minute Vegan"
Dummies Guide to Veganism
Vegan on The Cheap
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