Carnivore to Demi-Vegetarian to Vegetarian and Arriving at Vegan
Clean Eating has always been a passion of mine, but it wasn’t until my daughter turned 13 and choose to be a demi-vegetarian that my eating habits would go from smothered pork chops to roasted vegetables with wild rice and candied carrots.
The first step we took was speaking with our primary doctors. Before any major lifestyle change, it is best to have a routine physical and ensure your iron and Vitamin D levels are normal. Next, we read and did our research on all the different types of vegetarianism there are. Our go-to guide was the Vegetarian Bible and Afro-Vegan for cooking and knowledge. Finally, we did the last supper. We purged our fridge by cooking a grand meal full of burgers, cheese, ice cream and of course fried chicken.
After a terrible meat hangover, we were ready to clean our bodies and begin our journey. We started off slow by becoming demi-vegetarians. Demi’s are a blend of ovotarian and pescatarian. We still ate seafood and dairy but no meat. Our favorite meal became tofu and black bean enchiladas. After about six months we began graduating to completing vegetarian dinners once a week. This is where those cookbooks came in handy. We loved a delicious but simple meal of artichokes and spring vegetable salads. Our next leap was to go full vegan. We always go to the farmer’s market but found when cooking vegan meals, the farmer’s market is the go-to destination.
We made simple meals of roasted corn, salsa, corn tortillas, garbanzo beans with cilantro and limes. The transition to full vegan took us a year as a family but we learned a lot along the way. No matter if you substitute meat once a week or all the time. Ensuring your food is responsibly sourced, fresh, healthy and delicious are the keys to Clean Eating.
Steps to Transitioning from Carnivore to Demi-Vegetarian to Vegetarian and Arriving at Vegan
- Get a physical
- Educate yourself on your new dietary desires
- Purge your kitchen
- Test simple demi-vegetarian meals
- Grow into cooking diverse vegetarian meals
- Graduate into farm to table vegan meals
