How to Transition to a Plant Based Diet

What’s your secret??  And can you share it with me??… The DM’s have spoken, you guys want the inside scoop.  Welllll you won’t be surprised that the woman you see today is the result of making dietary lifestyle adjustments over the last decade. It was a process, but one that I felt and continue to feel would give me long-lasting vitality. The purpose of this blog is to provide you with a step-by-step breakdown of how I made my transition to a plant based diet.

I should emphasize that it was a slow and gradual process. As a child my parents fed us everything: Pork, beef, chicken, seafood, diary, eggs, cheese pretty much a typical American diet.  Little T did NOT like meat even then. But you know how it is, “you better eat what I put in front of you or else!!” It wasn’t until my young adult years that I started my journey towards plant based eating.

Transitioning to a Plant Based Diet

Here are the steps that I took to transition to a plant based diet:

1) In my early 20’s, the first thing to go was pork and red meat. I did eat chicken, turkey, seafood, eggs, and dairy products. Since I didn’t really enjoy pork and red meat, this was a relatively easy transition.

2) Age 31 I became a vegetarian: I stopped eating poultry.  I did this step cold turkey. I was a vegetarian for approximately 3 or 4 years.

VEGETARIAN BREAKFAST examples:

• • Scrambled Egg whites with veggies inside like spinach, tomatoes & mushrooms
  • Boiled eggs with side of avocado
  • Yogurt with berries

VEGETARIAN LUNCH examples:

1. • Apples with peanut butter 
   • Spinach Salad
   • Hummus and raw veggies

VEGETARIAN DINNER examples:

1. • Stuffed red bell peppers
   • Thai style stir fry bell peppers w/ onions and jasmine rice
   • Spinach Salad w/ avocado

3) Age 35, after doing a juicing detox I began incorporating freshly made juices into my daily routine, while still eating eggs and cheese occasionally. 

• • Beet juice – beets/carrots/ginger/cucumber/ginger
  • Green juice – Kale/celery/cucumber/ apple/lemon/ginger
  • Carrot juice – carrots/apples/ginger

The detox taught me how to add detoxifying plant based foods into my diet.  By this point I was eating less and less meat by-products. Basically, I no longer felt like I needed or wanted them anymore. Some of my go-to detoxifying foods are:

• • Steamed veggies – mushrooms, broccoli, radish, bok choy
  • Miso soup
  • Brown rice
  • Wheatgrass & spirulina
  • Quinoa 
  • Turmeric seasoned foods
  • Avocado
  • Bee products like bee pollen & raw honey

4) At age 36 I stopped eating eggs and cheese and all dairy products on a day to day basis. On a rare occasion I may still have a baked good that’s non-vegan. Some other key changes I made are:

• • Substituted almond milk for dairy milk
  • Began eating oatmeal or smoothies for breakfast in place of eggs
  • Pizza w/ no cheese
  • Dark chocolate for something sweet

5) Age 41, Present Day

I still incorporate all the above plant based foods into my daily life.  This helped me establish a lasting foundation and love for eating veggies.  Some of my current favorite go-to plant based meals are:

• • Vegan tacos
  • Falafel
  • Quinoa “fried rice”
  • Tofu spring rolls  
  • Spiralized zucchini w/ tomato sauce