My best friend in school was a vegan, I was, too, for about half a year. But it was difficult back then (and the winters were colder, too!
) There were actually no sweets around but dark chocolate, but we didn't eat chocolate either, so. Sometimes we got carob chocolate and spread from English friends (I remember that there always has been quite a range of vegan products in Great Britain, shoes and the like, too.)
We had to travel to the next big city to a wholefood store to get things like agave syrup (because we were told white sugar was whitened by animal charcoal. I don't know if this was actually true, now it's supposed to be vegan anyways.) Awfully expensive.
Now it's so easy, it's amazing. (I wouldn't have tried again if my life was a constant hunt for food.)
About the steps. Well, I became a vegetarian when I was about 11 years old, I didn't eat meat, no poultry, no gelatine, no fish, and no eggs either, I did eat milk products though. The reason was mostly peer pressure (hey, straight edge was blooming!) When I was about 14 I was slightly better informed, and started the vegan experiment, I gave up at age 15 because it was just impossible living with my parents. When I was 20 I think I started eating eggs and products containing eggs because the "egg is meat" indoctrination started wearing off and I didn't really care anymore. I would have eaten meat if I had wanted to, but I was used to being vegetarian and didn't remember how meat tasted anyway. I bought a second hand pair of leather shoes though. I ate less milk because it didn't agree with me very well. Three years later I was becoming a vegan step by step, cutting out eggs, milk, honey, all the hidden things, like shellac - that is I stopped eating overly processed food more and more. It came kind of naturally, I never signed a 100% vegan contract with myself, but I was trying to make constant steps forward. Let's say once I stopped buying eggs by cage kept chicken, I couldn't go back, then I only bought organic eggs, then I ate less and less of those, then I stopped buying products containing eggs but still eating them when they were leftover at work.
cold_sun: Maybe you should start throwing out all the things you don't care about anyway. Look for the egg-free cookies, buy a good(!) vegan margarine instead of butter the next time, vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, look for different brands of soya yoghurts, oat milk, almond milk &c, try making pancakes with soya flour instead of eggs &c. Most things are easily replaced and you won't know the difference. If you think you can't live with hot chocolate made with milk on a cold winter day or without you favourite cheese or milk chocolate, think of it like a treat, eat it if it's really worth it. I think it already makes a difference everytime you don't buy fish. Next step get some good vegan cook books or browse the internet for good recipes, start discovering new food, look out for interesting looking things on farmers' markets, whole food stores, vegan online shops, little delis (turkish, greek, polish, indian, italian, portugiese... whatever) The more vegan dishes become your favourites the less you'll miss what you were used to eat I guess. So you don't have to stand there "I won't eat anymore meat, eggs or milk products - but what will I eat now?!
You'll probably think "ummmm, I'll have the falafel with hummus first, then the fennel-lemon-risotto, after that the beluga lentils, than the Brazil nut pastry and oooh [...]" (I'm merely speculating of course
)
)it would be a waste not to use it. Though of course you shouldn't feel obligated to eat it yourself if that bothers you, someone else could have it.
I just made banana chestnut muffins.
