Edge Towards Veg
Seven Tips to Help You Edge Towards a Vegetarian or Vegan Diet
Eat from an abundance of delicious vegan foods.
1. Make yourself a promise. Set a date within the next year to become vegetarian by and start making gradual changes towards your goal now. Changing a life-long habit may take time. You will need to find new recipes and learn the skills of eating out as a vegetarian. Patience and persistence is what will make you successful.
2. Get friends and family behind you. Ask all those people who are closest to you for their support in helping you to make this transition. Tell them that this is important to you, and you would appreciate any help they can give you.
3. Start by making your Mondays meatless. This will allow you to immediately start exploring vegetarian foods and incorporating more of them into your life. As your recipes expand, you can have more days of the week be meatless. You can find great vegetarian recipes and tips for veganizing your favorite recipes at ChooseVeg.com, TryVeg.org, and GoVeg.com. The typical person’s diet consists of roughly 10 main meals, so if you find 10 vegetarian meals you enjoy, you will be very close to becoming vegetarian.
4. Eat out at vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Thai, Ethiopian, Chinese, Mexican, Indian, Middle Eastern and other ethnic restaurants often carry a great selection of vegetarian entrees. You can find a listing of your local vegetarian-friendly restaurants at HappyCow.net.
5. Make some vegetarian friends. They can serve as a mentor and support for you. See if you have a local EarthSave chapter, Vegetarian Society, or vegetarian Meetup group where you can meet local vegetarians. These groups often have potlucks and restaurant dine-outs where you can enjoy new and delicious vegetarian foods while making new friends who will help you on your path.
6. Stay informed. Watch the documentary “Meet Your Meat” and the various other farm investigations. Subscribe to Animals Voice or VegNews magazines and join Mercy for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Farm Sanctuary, or other animal protection groups. Our society is set up to help us deny the suffering animals endure, making it is all too easy to forget. Staying informed will help you counteract this and reinforce your commitment.
7. Get your Vitamin B-12 and Omega 3 fatty acids. As you complete your transition, make sure you have a dietary source of vitamin B-12 and Omega 3 fatty acids. Have multiple sources of Vitamin B-12 in your diet, such as fortified soy or rice milks, Red Star nutritional yeast (used to make vegan “cheese” sauces), and fortified cereals. Or take a vegetarian B-12 supplement to be on the safe side. Flax seed is full of healthy Omega-3s, so sprinkle ground flax seeds into your oatmeal, soy yogurt, smoothies, or other dishes.
Follow these 7 steps and voila! You are dining with grace and compassion for all life. 
This text was written in 2007 by Freeman Wicklund of FreemanWicklund.org, and it may be freely reprinted or distributed in any e-zine, e-mail, newsletter or blog as long as this sentence and Web link are included.