Below is a little list of 10 things I wish I knew before I went vegan almost 3 years ago. This is just for fun so try not to get triggered….

1. Everything Has Milk in it!

This is one of the most surprising and frustrating things you find when you first go vegan.

Crisps have milk powder in them, random drinks have milk powder in them, noodles have milk in them. You name it someone’s probably put some sort of milk powder or product in it.

This is probably due to it being a cheap bulking agent but is highly annoying when trying to find out which snacks you can have when you embrace a vegan diet.

2. People Become Opinionated about your food choice.

Before going vegan no-one seemed to care much about what I was eating. More and more people like to have an opinion on vegan food especially in the media at the moment its everywhere. Whether they love it or hate it, people will let you know. When meeting new people I usually avoid bringing the subject up because so many people seem intrigued to meet ‘vegans’ in real life.

3. Eating out Becomes a mission.

Gone are the days when I can stroll round a city and drop into any restaurant and find something that caters for my calorie needs.

Planning is pretty much essential when eating out to make sure you have something more than chips and a side salad for dinner.

Things are getting better with more places catering for vegans and more veggie restaurants opening up on the regular hopefully soon it may be less of a task.

This ain’t so bad, most people would plan / book ahead for going for a meal nowadays anyways, check the reviews and pictures of the menu. So I guess this ain’t too out of the norm.

4. You don’t die of Protein deficiency.

You do however get sick of people asking where you get your protein from…

Not getting enough protein seems to be one myth of going vegan. I still work out and gain muscle.

As long as you are eating a balanced diet you get more than enough protein to not just live but thrive. The whole mass hysteria on ‘enough protein’ seems like a marketing campaign gone wrong, with “High in Protein” written on everything to sell it to you as a health food. But that is a story for another day.

5. Eating vegan is Not expensive.

If it is your doing it wrong. Yes vegan alternatives to stuff are either more expensive or comparable to their non vegan counterparts eg. Cakes But these are usually things you wouldn’t / shouldn’t be having on the regs anyway if you wanted to be eating healthily.

Vegetables, pulses, legumes, grains ain’t super expensive and batch cooking can make things even cheaper.

6.You will probably need to eat more than you used to.

Usually animal products are more calorie dense so this means to get the same amount of calories as before you may find that you need to increase your volume of food that you are eating.

For some this is a good thing, others a nuisance but, hey it is what it is.

7. You can live happily without meat and cheese

One of the most common phrases people say when I tell them I am vegan is “I couldn’t live without cheese” you know what I bet you could. If I can you can. If not your probably addicted.

8. Weight doesn’t just fall off when you turn vegan.

Just cos you start eating plant based foods doesn’t mean you will instantly loose weight. If you eat too many calories compared to your calories burned you will put on weight that’s just simple. Doesn’t matter what you eat if you eat too much you won’t loose weight you more than likely will gain it.

9. So many people have no idea what vegan means.

Still this baffles me, but yeah there are people that don’t know what I mean by eating vegan. But I guess people only know what’s in their circle so it’s hard to be annoyed at someone for not knowing.

10. It’s much easier than you think.

This is one of the most suprising things about going Vegan for me. Other people’s experiences in the media and online etc. Would suggest it’s a monumental shift in life but if I’m honest it’s been the easiest diet to stick to that I have ever found. I won’t say changing a diet is easy, but it’s easier than people make it out to be. A healthy diet with the added benefits of reducing our impact on animals and the world. It makes itself easy to stick to.