Why It’s Ok If You Can’t Go Vegan Overnight

Going vegan is the most significant single positive transformations one can make for the benefit of non-human life, one’s health, and the environment we all share. 

Yet with so many advantages, why is it that some struggle to make their vegan transformation overnight?

TWENTY QUESTIONS

Vegans generally have to deal with a lot of inquiries from others. Puzzled looks coupled with questions about lions, teeth-shape, desert-islands, protein, and post-nuclear holocaust suburban living are popular recurring themes from the curious through to the down-right derogatory.

There is though one question that many vegans often have to ponder. And no, it’s not from inquiring colleagues at the works’ pot-luck, asking just how you can get by without “real hot-dogs” (which of course, there are a whole lot of problems with, in many different senses of the word “whole”…), or concerned elderly relatives who want to know why you can’t have the occasional ham sandwich “to get all of your vitamins” as long as you don’t tell anybody?

No, the question in question is actually asked by vegans to themselves:

“Why didn’t I go vegan earlier?”

Back to top.

DOING WHAT’S RIGHT CAN TAKE TIME

I only ever had to fall in the thorn-bush at my parents’ house just the once (well, maybe two or three times) before it sank in that I should avoid playing football in its proximity.

Our parents offer their wisdom, their cautionary tales from experience, and, crucially, more often than not, their standards and cultural norm were handed down to them by their individual parents. 

Add to that external societal norms and cultural influencing, and one sees how the hard-wiring of a young adult as they move into a life of decision-making, responsibility, and societal contribution (or burden) is extensive.

As we become adults, we like to think that we have been well equipped to deal with the realities of the world.

Similarly, as adults, we like to think that we get most of our decisions right. Or at least try and get those decisions right.

However, deep-down in that hard-wiring, some of those decisions are already pre-determined for us by those factors that fed us we grew up.

The vast majority of vegans, including many of you reading this article right now, may have eaten meat and animal products when we were younger.

It was only just the way things were done. Both for adults and children, that was “normal” even though now, we know that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Consequently, making the change to something as fundamentally seismic as going vegan is, for a lot of people, harder than it may first seem and not a simple “wake up the next day vegan” transformation.

That’s because there can be a lot of baggage to overcome what we previously accepted without question.

Back to top.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

The location is very well spoiled and cooed over by converging tourists. We were no different in that before we ate at the nearby restaurant, we would feed and photograph the ducks.

Half an hour later, as we tucked into our Sunday lunches, my eleven-year-old self had a sudden outburst of self-evident and instrumental innocent logic - the kind that makes adults immediately drop whatever they are doing, run up a white flag and head for the hills.

My father (who I hasten to add I still love very much) had chosen duck from the menu one particular Sunday. Confused, I put it to him: “Dad, why did you feed the ducks earlier, but you’re eating one now?”

Cue lots of adult reddening from the neck up, inter-parental sideways glances and clearing of the throat, all the while why I, oblivious to the cognitive dissonance I had just rained down upon my unsuspecting father, quickly had my attention drawn away by the passing dessert trolley.

Now the vegan point that I, the eleven-year-old non-vegan, had made, I still didn’t think that through to its natural conclusion.

Sure, I was eleven years old at the time. Again, that logical short-circuiting is something I carried on into my adult life as do so many others.

For years afterward, I carried on eating meat, dairy, and eggs. It wasn’t until my thirties that I started to change that. Even then, I went vegetarian in 2004 and didn’t move to veganism until 2012.

So, what do I now, of course, ask myself:

“Why didn’t I go vegan earlier?”

I’m just glad I eventually did.

Back to top.

ROBERT THE BRUCE’S EIGHT-LEGGED INSPIRATION

Moral of the story? First, spiders are cool and do cool stuff? Yes, absolutely! But second, it really is a case of try, try and try again for those trying to make any transformation based on fundamental change.

Likewise for those struggling to make a vegan change overnight, it really is a case of persistence and never losing sight of that ultimate goal.

Often times, we know what the right thing to do is. That nagging voice inside our heads that never really takes a break from pestering us ensures that we make the transformation, sooner or later.

Some, a few, will have the will-power, the resources, and support-structures around them to make the change overnight. And that should be applauded, absolutely. Many, though, will not.

So, better to try something and fail, then not to try at all. The analogies about this are abundant, spiders aside – Rome not built in a day, learning to ride a bike, and so on.

Back to top.

SLIP-UPS CAN HAPPEN

It’s almost an occupational hazard of veganism. So, when those inadvertent slips occur, do vegans wish that hadn’t happened? Of course.

Do they then cry “Failed!” drop everything they ever believed in and head out for a Big Mac? Absolutely not.

Likewise with those trying to go vegan for the first time. There likely will be slips that need to be worked through until vegan awareness and knowledge get stronger and more established.

Ideal? No. To be expected? Likely.

It’s all good.

Back to top.

HELPING HANDS HELP OUT

If one is trying to go vegan, but falling short, these resources offer a vast support network that twenty years or so ago did not exist. There now to be taken advantage of in full? Oh yes!

Sharing personal experiences, including vegan successes and failures, is a great way to compare notes with others and keep inspiration levels high. 

If you are trying to go vegan, but you haven’t quite got there, don’t give up. Anything worthwhile takes effort, perseverance, and yes, learning from past slips and mistakes. 

Once you make it, your vegan-self will be forever grateful that you hung on in there.