The New Vegan

As new Vegans there are many changes we observe in our body. During the initial months one of the changes may be a feeling of trembling weakness if the diet is not balanced. In such a situation the first thought that automatically comes to mind is that this new diet is faulty. That all the hoopla about veganism is a lie! Going along these lines we may end up reverting to our original diets thinking that it kept our body strong (assuming the trembling is due to weakness) and that all the people following that diet cannot be wrong! But how wrong they really are, has already been proved in higher incidence of disease etc...!! Those who consistently persist with their new diet soon find that the weakness is temporary. We must remember that the body changes gradually. If we do not meddle with the system and give it enough time, then we will see the desired changes. Some changes take more time than the others. For example if one has been out in the sun for a long time and goes into an ill-lit room, vision almost blacks out – that does not mean we have lost 90% of our vision. It simply means our body is taking time to adapt to its current situation. Until such time we have to bear the inconvenient symptoms. Similarly when we go vegan we need to give the body a couple of months to adapt to the new diet while taking care to have a balanced diet.

Go Vegan

How to turn Vegan u ask?

Many people try the vegan diet on a short term basis to start with - perhaps you could start on a one-month trial basis. Decide to stay off dairy products completely for one whole month during which there should be no exceptions of "just this once" kind... If you could also get organic produce, nothing like it...but if not then nothing to worry about...still go ahead with what is available.

Make sure that you exclude dairy in all forms...there are many unnoticed routes that the dairy takes into our system. In order to successfully restrict dairy consumption you first need to know the foods through which you consume dairy. Apart from the usual milk, tea, coffee, curd, ghee, cheese, paneer, there are other foods like biscuits, cakes, pastries, ice creams, mithais, chocolates, ready made coconut milk powder, ready made peanut butter, even instant noodles and packaged potato chips and many more through which you consume dairy ... so get into the habit of reading labels before you actually start off. And then there are hotel preparations like dal makhani, channa bhatura, all butter masala preparations, mix veg (generally contains paneer), and some others which may not really indicate the presence of dairy in a dish - so the best practice to adopt is to check the ingredients of what you want to order. I have found that the hotel staff is quite helpful and even check with the chef in case they are not aware. Even a yellow dal can have a tadka of ghee! So eating out is still very much in - if at all anything changes it only makes you a much more aware person from what you were earlier.

So once you have decided to go vegan just do it...and then stick to it...for a month - and keep a close watch on your health and the surprises you get. Do remember that initially your body may go through a cleansing process...which may include symptoms like colds and diarrhoea. But this should subside in a few days time and then you begin to get your surprises...eg. I had no disease as such but then got rid of my occasional insomnia, stiffness of joints, fatigue, breathlessness and climbing stairs became much more easy and got many more benefits... We actually begin to live with a lot of discomfort without even realizing that we are not comfortable, which is why when it reverses we get pleasantly surprised to know that these discomforts are really not age-related but diet-related.

So wish you a happy transformation...& write in if you need any particular information on this. Also would love it if you share your experience on turning vegan.