My Family Has Decided to Become “Directionally Vegan”. Here’s How We’re Doing It.

This isn’t propaganda to convert you to veganism. This is a story about a significant life change.

*Disclaimer: This story was not authored by a professional with a medical or nutrition background. The advice submitted in this story does not constitute medical advice. You should always seek counsel from your doctor when making a significant lifestyle change.

It’s estimated that 2% of Americans are vegan, with over 12 million consuming vegan products every year. If you’re not familiar with the term “vegan”, at the highest level it means living a plant-based life, one that doesn’t rely on food, clothing, and other goods that are animal-based. For many vegans it also means not eating honey, as they believe the honey industry exploits bees.

“Directionally vegan” is a term I coined in the last 24 hours. I have no idea if this term is real (I didn’t look), but it’s an accurate depiction of what’s happening in my household.

What it means is my family and I are converting to veganism over a period of time. It might take months, it might take years. We’re taking this seriously, so we’re going to do it at our pace to ensure we make this a permanent, lifestyle change. So while we may not be “vegan” right off the bat, we’re going to move in that direction in the hopes of being fully vegan one day.

Why are we going vegan?

I’m not going to go into detail here because the goal of this story is not to turn this into propaganda. You do you. We’ll do us. I’m not here to judge your life choices, and I hope you can respect mine as well.

Our reasons for the change boil down to 3 reasons and in this order:

We don’t agree with the practices of the American meat, fish, dairy, animal clothing, etc. industries
We care about the environment
We want to be more healthy

If you’re curious about researching veganism, there are a TON of resources out there, many of which are free. If you have a subscription to Netflix, there are a handful of documentaries rotating on it at all times that you can watch to learn more.

The life we had before

Let me be clear right now.

Converting to veganism is a significant life change for us.

My husband and I are middle-aged. We’ve been meat eaters nearly our entire lives. The only thing that makes this somewhat easier is we don’t have children, so that’s fewer people in this household who are going through this transition.

Any omnivore who’s tried to go vegan before and failed (*raises hand enthusiastically*) understands that:

this change isn’t easy…like, at all and
this is an overhaul of essential life habits and choices

I’m not doing it primarily for health reasons, so it’s not a “diet”. It’s an overhaul in mentality, consumption, consumerism, eating, and more.

To give you an idea of where we’re coming from and why this is going to be an uphill battle, my family is composed of foodies. We plan our travel around food (and usually meat). Half of our streaming time is spent on food documentaries, food reality shows, and travel food YouTube channels. Both of our extended families eat meat and, while they’ll give someone a pat on the back for trying an “alternative diet”, they don’t fully support non-meat eaters. None of our friends are vegan, although a couple are vegetarian.

We’ll be the “black sheep” in our social circles. Knowing this, we’re still moving full steam ahead because we feel strongly about our beliefs.

So how are we going to do this?

How we’re going to do this

From my initial investigation, it sounds like the “go all in” approach fails more often than not. Therefore, we’re not doing that. When we tried out the vegan lifestyle years ago, we attempted the “all or nothing” path…and subsequently quit after day 1.

Many websites recommend starting small. If we’re going to mean it this time, we’ll have to make slow changes over time. Some of these changes are easier than others. Some are considered to be deal breakers.

Give up dairy ice cream and cookies? I don’t care about removing beef, pork, and chicken, but asking me to give up my favorite desserts seems like a shackled life.

Instead, we’re going to attack the “low-hanging fruit” by incorporating the easiest changes. Once we become accustomed to those, we’ll take each new step slowly.

What is the low-hanging fruit?

The low-hanging fruit approach

Low-hanging fruit step one: take stock of what we normally eat and find the vegan connections. This was an easy first step and we were surprised at the results.

Here is what our normal weeknight dinner looks like right now:

One meat (usually chicken or fish)
A salad with no meat. But sometimes with cheese.
Sometimes a vegetable side dish
Sometimes a sourdough bread (note: the basic sourdough bread is naturally vegan – people often forget or don’t know that little tidbit of trivia)
If we eat dessert, it’s usually in the form of ice cream or cookies

For lunch, I have the privilege of working from home so I fully control this meal. I usually eat a vegetarian lunch by nature. This involves eggs/egg whites, a whey protein shake, sometimes a slice of sourdough bread, and sometimes a vegetable if I opt for an egg scramble instead of plain egg whites. But sometimes I eat a tinned fish (tuna or sardine) salad on sourdough bread.

Neither my husband nor I eat breakfast, so that’s an easy one to cross off the list. We don’t plan to start eating breakfast, either unless the new vegan diet requires it due to nutritional issues.

Looking at the above, you can see where vegan food already crosses over. For lunch, I can nix the eggs once I’ve gone through our supply. We have tons of tinned fish, however, so I’ll need to go through that as well. I’ll have to replace eggs/tinned fish with another vegan protein, which will be a huge change for me since I don’t eat most vegan proteins (tofu, beans, tempeh, seitan, etc.). But, I am willing to research and test out new recipes for this cause.

Dinner will require a more significant evolution. Based on my research, going vegan is not as simple as replacing meat with vegan meat. Plant-based food is composed of nutrients in different proportions. The recommended “food pyramid” for vegans doesn’t look like the one recommended for omnivores.

A quick educational lesson on meat nutrition… In general, meat contains the amino acids required for the human body and in the correct proportions. When you switch to a plant-based diet, there isn’t a single plant that contains all of these in the right proportions. You must combine multiple plant-based foods in order to replicate that same aspect of meat. If you’re wondering right now “Well then why not just eat meat and nix this entire plan”? While meat does contain the necessary amino acids and high levels of protein, it comes laced with significant health disadvantages — high amounts of fat and cholesterol, for instance.

Cholesterol and increased levels of the wrong kind of fat are health issues both my husband and I are currently facing. My husband is on medication for treatment. According to my doctor, I’ll be joining him in ~1 year if I don’t change my diet and exercise routine.

Going back, displacing our protein source requires a radical change for us.

First, in the new vegan world, we’ll need to eat more since healthy plant-based foods contain fewer calories (again, in general) than meat. The vegan food pyramid roughly requires 2–4 cups of vegetables, 2–3 cups of protein (beans, seeds, dairy substitutes like nut milk and nut butter), 3–5 cups of whole grains, and 1–2 cups of fruit in a single day. Per person.

Uh, that’s a lot of food to span over only 2 meals a day.

Second, I’m not a fan of most recommended vegan proteins, as mentioned before. The last things I eat in life right now are beans, lentils, nuts, and soy.

So transforming dinner over time requires a lot of recipe testing and additional education to ensure we’re supplying the proper nutrients for our body.

However, the one thing I really *love* about this part of the change is the food variety. We’ll be forced to eat a wide assortment of dishes. Before, dinner could fit on a single plate. In the future, we’ll be eating plates of food to supplement. This will require more work and time, but it will also tap into our foodie inner selves and allow us to consume a greater range of tastes and foods.

Low-hanging fruit step two: don’t waste what we’ve already bought. This is the main reason why we can’t just flip the switch and call ourselves “vegan.” We have a bunch of animal-based food products in our pantry, freezer, and fridge right now. First, we don’t want to waste that money when money isn’t abundant. Second, animals have already died for these goods. We’re not going to allow their lives to be thrown away.

Low-hanging fruit step three: educate ourselves on the labeling of animal products. How do we read labels in this new world? Once we understand the terms commonly used on labels, we’ll know what to look for when we grocery shop. Which leads us to the next step.

Low-hanging fruit step four: stop buying new animal-based products. Think more intentionally about how we shop and what we buy. While we have a lot of existing animal product-based foods and goods to wade through, not buying any more will move us towards where we want to be.

Low-hanging fruit step five: slowly incorporate more vegetables into our diet. This shouldn’t be hard. I’ll add a vegetable side dish for lunch and add in 1+ for dinner.

Finally: the last step in the “low-hanging fruit” process is to start eating meatless each week. “Meatless Monday.” “Tofu Tuesday/Thursday.” This isn’t so difficult. We’ll opt for a tofu and/or bean-based dinner instead. And over time (i.e. past the low-hanging fruit phase), we’ll increase that frequency to twice a week, three times a week, and eventually, every night.

So how are we going to do this? It’s one step at a time, Baby.

Other considerations

Converting to veganism is not just a dietary change. When you move to a plant-based life, it’s a revolution of everything you do. The local grocery store ads that come via mail that we use to shop for sales have meat on their front page. I just looked at the ones that arrived today. It’s only meat sales on the first page. This country is built to push meat. We used to shop for meat sales when we went grocery shopping. The way we shop and prioritize grocery items has to change.

In addition, I have a large supply of leather tote bags and other goods. What do I do with it all? I might end up keeping it, but I will most likely donate or resell it. I won’t destroy it, because, you know, an animal died to supply that and that’s a silly waste. But from now on, my family will be more intentional about what we buy. Again, “directionally vegan.”

But it’s not just food and clothing, either. We take a number of vitamin supplements and pills. The gelatin used in pill caps comes from animals. The whey protein powder I use for my workout shakes comes from animal by-products. Even some of the makeup I use has animal ingredients in them. All of the things in my life need to be reevaluated and now bought with intention. And this is why the term “directionally vegan” comes into play. Because it’s a process. Our lives are evolving permanently.

Finally, we have pets. Pets are a completely different species and their diets are composed mostly of meat and vegetables. How does that figure into the equation? I don’t have all the answers today, but I know I’ll get there. With millions of people being vegan in this country, I have faith they’ve figured it out. My family can, too.

Summary thoughts

I’ve been pescatarian (seafood only), vegetarian (eggs and dairy only), and vegan (plant-based only), although for only one day, in my life. Opting for the most extreme choice now might seem laughable, but the truth is we’re moving through each of these stages on the way to 100% veganism.

Pescatarian: We have a ton of tinned fish and frozen fish, so fish will be the last meat to be consumed as we fully eat through our chicken and beef reserves. At that point, we’ll become pescatarian.

Vegetarian: Once we finish off our seafood reserves, we’ll be vegetarian (note: we love eggs, so that’s one of the “dealbreaker” items that we’re leaving to wean off of last). We have tons of cheese to go through, too. And protein whey, vitamins, and other goods.

This isn’t going to be easy. But we feel pretty good about what we’re doing and we’re not going to lose sight of our reasons as we move through this journey.

Are you vegan or vegetarian? How has your journey been? Any advice or tips for my family?