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While going vegan is good for your health, animals, and the environment, it’s not an easy transition for some people to make. There is a lot to learn about veganism, especially in terms of how to prepare meals for health and nutrition while, at the same time, understanding the important role vegans can play in saving animals and the environment.
Realizing that change can be hard, some organizations have designed vegan pledges and offer free vegan challenges to help beginner vegans. If you are interested in transitioning away from meat and dairy but aren’t yet fully committed to a vegan lifestyle, accepting a challenge to go vegan for a week or a month can be a good first step. Here are some vegan resources to help beginners get started on the personal journey of going vegan.
Seasonal pledges are a good start for beginner vegans
- Veganuary (UK/US/AUS) takes place the full month of January, beginning January 1 each year. Veganuary supports people and businesses in moving to a plant-based diet as a way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering, and improving the health of millions of people. Sign up for the pledge to receive daily emails with recipes, meal plans, and helpful tips, such as where to get essential nutrients and how to stock your kitchen cupboards. You will also receive information about the effect diet has on health, animals, and the environment and links to local vegan groups.
- GoVegan.org (UK) has a 30-day vegan pledge that takes place each June for those who want to adopt a plant-based diet for the summer. Sign-up is required.
Going vegan for beginners can be as easy as taking a short pledge of 30 days or less
- Compassion Over Killing (US) VegWeek encourages people to try going vegan for a week. Sign-up is required for a free 20-page vegan starter guide. The guide includes nutritional information, facts about farmed animals, and details about the environmental impact of our dietary choices, along with easy recipes, meal ideas, tips, and more.
- The Plant-Based Health Professionals (UK) has a 21-day challenge that helps beginner vegans transition to a plant-based diet, become healthier, and feel more energetic. Sign up is required to receive recipes and nutrition advice.
- The Animals Now (Israel) Challenge 22 program is a free online framework that helps people try veganism for 22 days. The interactive program combines group support and personal mentoring. Sign-up includes recipes, tips, videos, and personal guidance through email and a private Facebook group.
- The Dyrenes Alliance (Denmark) VeganerUdfordringen program offers a 22-day vegan challenge with recipes, tips, and help from experienced vegan coaches. Sign-up is required.
- The Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (India) offers a 21 Day Compassion Challenge starter kit that includes information on veganism, lists of substitution options, a guide to reading labels, and meal plans. Sign-up is required.
- The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine has a 21-Day Vegan Kickstart program that offers meal plans, recipes, grocery lists, daily videos, nutrition tips, cooking demonstrations, and advice from nutrition experts. The program focuses on a short-term immersion experience that inspires long-term changes. There is also a Spanish language version: Kickstart vegano de 21 días.
- The Animal Equality (US/UK) Love Veg focuses on going vegan for beginners. It has a free one-week meal plan for new vegans and custom meal planner subscriptions for purchase. The site provides a stepwise approach to adopting a vegan diet, as well as tips, information, and recipes.
Where to look if you are a beginner vegan looking for a challenge of 30 days or longer
- Vegan Outreach offers a free 10 Weeks to Vegan challenge. Sign-up is required for weekly emails with tips and resources to help you make the switch to eating vegan. The emails contain easy and filling recipes, helpful hints, and nutrition information from a registered dietitian.
- ProVeg (The Netherlands) has a 30-day VeggieChallenge that encourages people to eat vegan for their bodies, the planet, and the animals. Those who sign up receive free tips, recipes, and support.
- The 30-Day Vegan Easy Challenge helps people who sign-up transition to a kinder, healthier way of living through daily emails that provide a dietitian-approved meal plan, help and advice from experienced mentors, and extensive resources.
- Go vegan in a month with the Vegan Society 30 Day Vegan Challenge. By signing up, you will receive advice on all aspects of a vegan diet and lifestyle. There’s also a free VeGuide app, which provides daily videos and tracks progress over the 30 days.
- The Vegan Living Program has a free month-long series of educational and social events to assist and support participants as they transition to lifelong vegan living and build a community to provide sustained support.
- Million Dollar Vegan engages with world leaders, institutions, and individuals to inspire positive dietary change. Participants who sign up with an email address receive daily newsletters, a vegan starter kit, plant-based recipes, and a comprehensive Health & Nutrition Guide.
- The Peace Advocacy Network Vegan Pledge is a free program that guides people through 30 days of being vegan. Five weekly virtual meetings include cooking demonstrations, speakers addressing environmental, ethical, health, and practical issues, a personal mentor, and optional social events.
- PETA Asia participants sign the pledge to explore a vegan diet for at least 30 days and receive an email with recipes and tips for making the transition.
Ethnic pledges can help beginner vegans find a niche
- JewishVeg encourages and helps people embrace plant-based diets as an expression of Jewish values. Participants receive the Jewish themed Veg Starter Guide Plant Pathways.
- The African American Vegan Starter Guide by best-selling author, award-winning public health nutritionist, and long-time vegan Tracye McQuirter shares step-by-step guidance for African Americans to make going vegan easy, healthy, affordable, and delicious.
- Descubrir La Comida, Animal Equality (Mexico) has a free app with recipes and tips.
- Io Scelgo Veg, Essere Animali (Italy) invites Italians to change the world, starting at the table. Email sign-up allows you to download the guide to better choices for health, the environment, and animals.
- AgireOra Edizioni (Italy) is an extensive yet easy-to-read PDF starter kit that answers common questions and covers vegan shopping, health, recipes, and clothing. Sign-up is required.
- Rather than offer a download, Questão Animal, VEDDAS (Brazil) is a starter guide itself, with information about veganism, tips, ideas for food substitution in recipes, and more.
Simple websites can make it easy for beginners to go vegan
- The Vegan Starter Kit website has a simple design to help beginner vegans find resources on various aspects of vegan living, including why and how to become vegan, as well as eating, wearing, using, and thinking vegan. It’s a good primer for beginner vegans.
- The Humane League (US) has a simple site with a 10-minute video about the realities of animal farming and a starter guide that is free to download without signing up for emails.
Vegan Bootcamp guides beginners step-by-step toward a vegan diet and lifestyle
For the vegan beginner who is serious about taking a challenge for long-term gain, Vegan Bootcamp guides you through lessons in more than 25 subjects such as philosophy, health, climate change, and cosmetics. Each course includes reading material, videos, and quizzes, along with occasional documentaries and events. Courses are self-paced and designed to slowly remove and replace foods in your diet so you reach your goal of veganism.
As you complete challenges, you earn stars that you can use to get real world discounts at participating vegan stores and organizations. The site also includes mentor and dietician support.
Pledges for life attract people who are committed to the vegan lifestyle
The following pledges are for new or veteran vegans who are fully committed to the vegan lifestyle and want to take the vegan pledge for life.
- The Liberation Pledge empowers people to make veganism an active stance against violence. People who take the pledge act as the animals would, if they could, and challenge ‘speciesism’ in their everyday life. Sign-up is required and a level of activism is expected.
- One Step Closer for Animals is a simple site that has a 2-minute video and guide to helping animals. No sign-up is required.
- PETA (US) has a step-by-step guide on How to Go Vegan, including information on what to buy at the grocery store, how to plan your meals, and where/how to order vegan at restaurants.
- PETA’s Kids’ Guide to Going Vegan is full of helpful information on ways children and youth can live compassionately all year long. Sign-up is required for the free Kids’ Guide to Helping Animals Magazine.
- The educational website How Do I Go Vegan provides a mentorship program, Fast Meal Plan, and other resources that make it easy for beginner vegans to stay vegan for life. You can sign-up to receive mentoring.
Health and Disease are nothing but the consequence of our actions – lifestyle and food habits. Every day, every hour, every minute we are making lifestyle and food choices. The goodness of our choices will determine whether we are moving towards health, or away from it.
Read health-based blogs by Nutrivolution to learn more about a healthy vegan diet.
