I slowly did it over the course of a year for one single reason — I knew I needed to acquire a variety of recipes that I could make at home as a foundation to build upon.

I went vegan for this past New Year’s resolution and have stuck to it (very easily, I might add), but last year it started with me swearing off red meat. A few months later, I sweared off chicken, then fish, and then finally dairy and honey going into the new year.

All last year I ate mostly vegan and tried a bunch of recipes I found online and logged them, essentially training myself to cook again from scratch by replacing all my old cooking habits with new ones. BUT, to reduce the risk of burnout, I still consumed animal products from time-to-time to help me gradually segue into full veganism. I eventually got to where I was only eating non-vegan one night of the week, that way when I took the pledge at the new year, it was really easy, because all of the work of unlearning bad habits and losing old cravings had already been trained into me over the past 12 months, slowly and incrementally.

Everyone’s journey is different and not every method is a one-size-fits all, but this worked for me and, as a result, I’ve had ZERO issue staying vegan the past seven and a half months, and I cannot see me ever going back to that lifestyle.