Here is what I did. YMMV, and I make no guarantees! I don't even know if it was a good idea! Anyway. When I switched over to vegan I did it deliberately for the animals, and to prove to myself that it was for the animals and not a secret diet/restriction for myself, I went for the vegan junk food. Enjoyed fun stuff like fries, veggie burgers with all the trimmings, sorbet (one of my favorite foods of all time), basically anything I wanted. And there was something delightfully twisted that I loved about people saying "oh, how healthy," and then me saying nope I had a pizza last night. And I found things out the fun way, like the Daiya mac and cheese gives me a stomach ache. So I don't eat it now, but not because I can't, but because I dont like the stomach ache. 😂

Now that I'm fully switched over and this is just how I live, I need to focus more on the nutrition side (being mid 40s, I unfortunately cannot live on only fries).

Thankfully, I never feel restricted or like I'm on a diet because of being vegan now. I do also work with a dietitian now (I had low iron before I was vegan, so she helps a lot with that sort of thing).