Making the Transition to Veganism

I get a lot of email from people who have questions about veganism, and one of the most common things they ask is how they can make the transition from an omnivorous diet to a vegan one. I do my best to answer but, to be honest, it's been a long time since I became vegan and even longer since I became vegetarian, and my memory is just not that good. I remember intending to transition slowly into vegetarianism but then becoming inspired and just throwing away all of the meat in my kitchen. I had one vegetarian cookbook and no internet, so it's amazing to me now that I managed to keep my resolve to stop eating meat. The details of how I did that are lost somewhere in the haze of the last 20 years, so I'm not much help to those of you who need specifics.

But I've just discovered that Erik Marcus, author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, has a series of short audio podcasts that do a great job of explaining how to make the transition to veganism "as easily, healthfully, and gracefully as possible." Aimed at people following Oprah's 21-Day Vegan Cleanse, the 21 podcasts provide information about getting adequate nutrition, setting up your kitchen, and avoiding animal ingredients, as well as offer plenty of answers to the common question, "What do I eat?" As Erik says, it's not about discipline and cutting things out: "Rather than cut out foods, crowd them out. Your main job will be to try as many vegan foods as possible....The more foods you try, the more sensational options you'll discover."

Though Oprah's cleanse is over, I know that there are a lot of people reading this blog who are in the transitional stages of becoming vegetarian or vegan, and I think you'll get a lot out of this podcast series. Each podcast is about 8 to 12 minutes long, the perfect length to listen to as you check your email in the morning.

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The Veg Blog Search Engine

I wanted to let you all know that I've finally succeeded in putting my Vegetarian Blog Search Engine on its own web page: vegblogsearch.com. This is the same search engine I've linked to for years on my Blogs I Like page, but now it's on its own, easy-to-find domain. Putting it together has been a labor of love for me because I think vegetarian blogs are a valuable source of recipes and information, and finding that information should be as easy as possible. I added each of the over 400 blogs by hand, carefully checking that they are really vegetarian or vegan, and still I continue to find new vegetarian blogs every day. (If you search for your blog's title and it doesn't appear, email me and I'll add you.)

The site is in its beta stage right now, with "placeholder" graphics until I can find a graphic artist who will really give it some personality. I've made the little widget above available to anyone who would like to use it. Click on the graphic to go to the page where you can copy the code; then open your blog's template and paste the code where you'd like it to appear on your blog. Your readers can then use the search engine directly from your blog. I hope you find it as big a help as I do!