As we have all seen over the year, vegetarian and vegan diets have exploded in popularity. Almost everyone seems to be trying vegan this, or veggie that, and impossible burger whatever. Everywhere you turn, there seems to be something to do with plant-based food. 

This is for a few reasons. For some people, it’s for the animals, for some it’s the environment, and others simply for their health. No matter which route you come from you end up at the same result: cutting down on, cutting out completely on animal products.

It’s a big change, and for a lot of people it’s quite intimidating, and that’s okay! For most people meat, eggs, and dairy are all they’ve known. Words like vegan and vegetarian have only become popular in the last 5-10 years, before that they were said in hushed whispers before and after yoga classes. Now they’ve become more popular, and curiosity has increased about them too, which is great.

They are so many now veggies or vegans that said, “I could never do it” (myself included!) but have since managed to make the change. Once you get past the scary part of deciding “I am going to do this” it gets a lot easier. Like most worries, it’s almost always worse in theory than in practice, and when you make the decision it’s very empowering.

To help people try veganism out in particular one charity, back in 2014, had the idea to come up with Veganuary. It’s all based on the idea that you give a vegan diet a go for January. After Christmas and all the extra mince pies, and turkey sandwiches people like to try something different, and healthy in the new year, so why not veganism? 

For a lot of people though, the idea of trying vegan food even for a month is big, and that’s okay. So, I’m going to broaden it out, just for you! Why not try a vegan orvegetarian diet this January? For some people, it really just isn’t practical to jump head first into being vegan—it didn’t work for me, I was a veggie for the three years first. 

Or simply make it work for you! You could eat vegan at home and vegetarian out, or vegetarian at home and vegan out, especially if you’ve got a family to keep happy. There are no iron clad rules, it’s what works best for you!

What makes things a little easier, is so many local business get on board with veganuary now because year on year it gets more popular. That means there are amazing vegan dishes on dishes just for this January so it’s never been easier to dip your toe into the plant-based pond on vegan food.

If you need any help, or advice please comment below and I would love to answer any questions you have on veganuary, veganism or vegan food!