Veganuary Meal Plan: 7 Ways to Stay on Track

Yen Goo, Owner of Vegan and Upcycling fashion brand Paguro, has put together some actionable tips and ways to stay on track with your veganuary meal plan and stick to your new year goal.

1. Have visual targets

If you write down your goals, you’re more likely to succeed – and if you can see them daily, that’s even better. There’s a reason we let out a silent cheer when we hit 10,000 steps on our Fitbit’s. Write down what you want to achieve, stick notes on the fridge, have a calendar where you can tick the days off and see your percentage rise, or even put your words of motivation on a sticky note at work.

2. Don’t punish yourself over setbacks

It can take, on average, between 21 and 66 days to fully change our behaviour cycles and turn them into natural habits. Slipping up is part of human nature, especially when you’re trying something new. The important thing is to get back on the saddle and continue. Remember – it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

3. Keep it Fun

If you’re finding it hard to stick to a new way of eating and living, why not ask your friends to take part with you? They don’t have to change their entire diet, but it’s always more fun when you’re together – there’s a reason people suggest having an accountability buddy.

Invite them round to attempt a vegan version of a cult classic – make it a meat-free Monday. That’s not to say social occasions aren’t hard – but see this as an opportunity for self-reliance and to prove to yourself that you can achieve this.

Bring your own food with you to dinner parties or wine nights. If you’re heading out for dinner, make sure to check the menu before. Many restaurants are offering more plant-based meals than ever before. But you can also ask the waiter if they can swap out certain ingredients in vegetarian dishes to make it vegan-friendly. If a dish comes with cream, ask if it can be changed to coconut milk, or if something can be fried in coconut oil – if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

4. Get Creative With Recipes

Whatever you do, do not stick to the same three recipes day in, day out. You’ll only make yourself sick of them.

Take a look on Instagram and search the abundance of vegan recipes there are on there for inspiration. From #Vegan, #VeganInspo, #VeganFood, #VeganRecipes, you’ll be spoilt for choice. Why not invest in a new piece of kitchen equipment to mark the occasion?

Whether it’s tofu, seitan or tempeh, the vegan market has a lot to offer. Going vegan doesn’t have to be a challenge, with so many online tools and blogs, finding new food and fun recipes has never been easier.

5. Cook in Bulk

There are so many new plant-based items out there and recipes and cookbooks, but creating three meals a day with hefty amounts of cooking time can be hard to plan, especially if most of your meals were meat-based in December.

Cooking in bulk is perfect for anyone, not just vegans. Whether you’re wanting to meet your macronutrients, cut down spending pennies on lunches or cut out the time every day of cooking, having a freezer full of meals ready for the week is super satisfying, and you’re more likely to stick to it. You don’t have to worry about marinating tofu every night or having enough vegetables in when you get home from work – you just need to spend one evening a week cooking up a storm.

6. Consider the other side of veganuary

While the core focus of veganuary is to change your diet by cutting out any animal by-products and meat, it’s also good to consider cutting out other products that harm animals.

There are heaps of non-food products on the market that are made in unethical ways and use animal products. Identifying and taking the steps to stop using certain products is a big part of the vegan life.

Many tattoos aren’t vegan, as some include animal byproducts. Toiletries, makeup and household products are often tested on animals before reaching the shelves. By going vegan, you can help reduce the number of animals that are exposed to this kind of treatment. Certain beers, some makeup brushes and candles are also not vegan. There are, however vegan alternatives.

7. Remember why you did it in the first place

What was the reason you decided to ditch meat? Were you concerned about animal welfare? Do you feel passionately about sustainability? Are you concerned about climate change and the current state of the environment?

If you feel yourself struggling remember why you did it in the first place – and look back at your motivational notes to yourself.

It’s interesting to see the shift towards more lifestyle-based resolutions in 2020. Make sure not to compare your vegan choices and journey to anybody else’s. Just like everything else in life, we take on changes at different paces and in our own way. This is an exciting time, and with stats revealing that a veganuary meal plan 2020 can save the CO2 equivalent of 450,000 flights and a million animals, completing this month is a win for your health and the planet.