How to Get Started with a Plant-Based Diet

Getting started is the hardest part, as the old adage goes. If you're at the beginning of your journey into plant-based eating, here's one guy's perspective on how to get rolling and stay in motion.

Why Plant-Based?

Going vegan is a different choice for everyone. Unless, we're born into it, we all come to it in our own way, whether it's for personal, cultural or social reasons. For me, it was health. My family has a history of high-cholesterol. In my early twenties, I got a slightly high LDL ("bad" cholesterol) reading. I didn't want to go the traditional route of aging into the health problems and diet of pharmaceutical medications that this would bring, so I took the simplest path: drop all food containing cholesterol.

In Good Health

I call this the selfish vegan reason. A bit tongue-in-cheek, yes, but it accurately describes my entry into this world. I decided to drop meat for my own health, so I could set myself up for the best life possible and reduce my risk of heart disease and medical intervention later in life. This is the same reason why I love to exercise; it makes me feel good, and I want to feel my best, everyday, for as long as possible.

Today, the dominant rhetoric among those who are interesting in exploring a diet free of dairy, eggs and meat, is largely centered on personal wellbeing.

The Environmental Argument

Others come to veganism to help save the planet. This is the argument that Pat Brown, founder of Impossible Foods and Kite Hill, uses to convince people to eat his plant patties instead of cow flesh. The way he tells it, animals raised for meat are no more and no less than inefficient production mechanisms.

They're expensive to maintain, drain our water resources and churn and burn through farmland (plus, the harmful effects of methane gas cow farts). Though of course there are other environmental concerns with the production of vegan meat alternatives, eating plant-based reduces the human population's reliance on industrial cattle farming.

For the Love of the Lamb

This is the one that gives vegans a bad rep. Historically, before environmental science and wellness became trendy—before the marketing overlords invented the term "plant-based"—the vegan stereotype was that of the animal lover, desperate to protect our voiceless pig, cow and hen friends from a life of enslavement and inevitable slaughter. Think PETA and their campaigns in the aughts, tossing red paint on celebrities rocking chinchilla furs.

Today, the dominant rhetoric among those who are interesting in exploring a diet free of dairy, eggs and meat, is largely centered on personal wellbeing. Popular media like "The Game Changers" documentary (which features questionable science) and notable athletes (Tom Brady, Chis Paul) have pushed this health narrative, while more big corporations have invested in getting vegan products onto supermarket shelves. Once you know what to look for, you'll be surprised what you can find at your mainstream grocer.

Starting a Plant-Based Diet

I'll admit, I had a headstart here. My wife, who does most of the cooking in our house, was raised vegetarian and never ate meat through childhood or adulthood, though I'm told she used to crush McDonald's burgers as a toddler. No shame in that game. When I made the decision to go vegan, we started out with lots of curries and stews for dinner and veggie burgers and wraps for lunch. I cycle through phases of life pretty quickly (don't check my LinkedIn), so she thought I would quit and go back to eating meat within a month.

Around the same time, I had rediscovered my love for vigorous exercise and, together with intermittent fasting, I was seeing a significant transformation in my body. In the year before I started these changes, I had packed on somewhere from 10 to 15 pounds of unwanted weight. In my first job after college, I worked at a desk from 9 AM to 7 PM, and commuted an hour sitting on the NYC subway before and after that. We also had our first kid then, and I was an enthusiastically empathetic partner in satisfying my wife's pregnancy cravings (a pint of Ben & Jerry's a night, straight from the carton, two spoons baby). I still hit the gym for weightlifting and occasional HIIT cardio, but the sedentary lifestyle won out.

I felt great in the first months of the new eating style, and, somewhat narcissistically, I loved seeing the changes in the mirror.

How to Eat Vegan and Not Hate It

Once we got past the first month or so, it was clear that I was sticking with the vegan diet. It was also clear that I wasn't going to subsist on bean patties, avocado toast and zucchini wraps for the rest of my life. I'm a relatively big guy and like to chow down. She still makes fun of me for when I said that "burgers are my culture" in my meat eating days (I still defend this point with an Impossible burger in hand). With that, I needed to find an eating pattern that would work for me.

From my own experiences, I know that how and what we eat are intensely personal choices. My (super non-medical) advice here may or not be particularly helpful, but I'll throw out some dietary platitudes anyway in the hope that something resonates with you in your own journey.

1. Find What Works for You

This is most important, above all else. Ask yourself three questions: What are my goals? What are my preferences? What tastes good to me? For me personally, I like burgers and ice cream, so in the early stages of adopting a vegan diet, I ate lots of processed, fake meat (still do) and almond, coconut or oat-based ice cream. (We also made our own, healthier "nice cream"). I'm no Tom Brady, and it was important for me to eat some junk food alongside some more of the healthy stuff, most of which also tasted good to me.

2. Pick Your Spots

Fire up DoorDash and identify a few restaurants in your area that deliver vegan food. To make this successful, it needs to be easy. At the end of a long-day, when you don't want to cook or think about what to eat, keep it simple and order from one of those pre-researched spots. Similarly, check out the grocery stores in your area and see which ones stock the vegan staples you like. Whole Foods will have most everything you'd want to try, but regional chains will also have a decent selection. In North Carolina, for example, I know that I can find Field Roast vegan sausage at Publix and Tofurky ones at Harris Teeter. Walmart has all the Impossible products. Everyone sells hummus.

3. Keep It Simple, Silly

KISS: I don't like acronyms, but this is a useful one, and it's a good rule, generally, for how I like to live my life. In terms of eating, this means in our house we keep a few simple staples on hand at home that we know we can reach for whenever we're hungry. For me, it's sourdough bagels from the farmer's market and Kite Hill cream cheese. For my wife, it's lots of hummus, plus dates and peanut butter. She also plans out our dinners and posts the menu of the week on the fridge, so come dinnertime there are no decisions we need to make (it's nice not to stress over that question, "what should we have for dinner tonight?"). That one has been especially helpful with a hyper toddler and newborn baby in the house.

Who Got This? You Got This

In my own experience, I've found that flipping a switch dedicating myself single-mindedly to something is most effective in accomplishing a goal. As my wife says, I operate in black and white, so that's what works for me. Find your own pattern, lean into your strengths and preferences, and you'll be best-positioned to make this life change, or any others, successful and fulfilling.

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