A gentle guide
How to begin — ten steps that actually stick.
No transformation stories. No perfection. Just ten small, boring things that add up to a diet you can hold onto.
- 01
Start with a swap, not a rule.
Replace milk with soy or oat. Replace mince with lentils. One swap per week — that's it.
- 02
Keep three plant proteins in the house.
Beans (canned or dry), tofu or tempeh, and lentils. From these you can build almost any cuisine.
- 03
Learn five weeknight meals cold.
A pasta, a stew, a rice bowl, a soup, a curry. Repeat until they're muscle memory.
- 04
Read one label a day.
Milk in the pastries, fish in the sauces, eggs in the pasta. Awareness compounds fast.
- 05
Say ‘I'm eating mostly plants right now’.
It's honest, it's easy, it defuses defensiveness. Nobody argues with a fact.
- 06
Take a B12 supplement.
It's a bacterial vitamin, not a moral test. Any brand, 1,000 mcg, once or twice a week.
- 07
Bookmark two go-to recipe sites.
One for weeknights, one for a Sunday project. You don't need thirty; you need seven.
- 08
Give it four weeks before deciding.
Your palate genuinely re-tunes. What tastes ‘empty’ in week one tastes normal by week four.
- 09
Find one plant-based restaurant near you.
Or one restaurant with a solid plant-based option. Going out shouldn't feel like a chore.
- 10
Aim for progress, not purity.
Every plant-based meal counts. Every one. The math is on your side.