A Compassion for Animals Vegan Lifestyle the Easy Way

beginner's guide to becoming vegan

Part of my organic produce haul for the week

By now it is becoming apparent to many people why they should become vegan. The horrors of factory farming – which is where 99% of our meat and dairy and eggs comes from – are becoming better known. Vegans live longer. A well-rounded vegan diet eliminates or reduces many widespread health problems such as heart disease and diabetes. And a vegan diet is easier on the environment, as animal agriculture is putting a huge burden on our rainforests and oceans. The benefits to ourselves and the planet of going vegan are indisputable – and it’s a very long list of benefits.

Many people are unaware of the mental health benefits of going vegan. Meat really is murder, and thus it gives rise to unconscious guilt. Unconscious guilt leads to unconscious self-punishment. Here are a few questions for you:

* Are you one of those people who never can seem to lose those extra few pounds?

* Find yourself engaged in self-sabotaging behavior on a regular basis?

* Are you one of the millions and millions of people on this planet “covering up” your feelings with anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, self-medicating, and other “band-aids”?

Consider the possibility that deep down you know eating meat is wrong and are hurting yourself because you know you are hurting others. Sound far-fetched? It’s not. Your subconscious mind is so powerful it’s even capable of killing you so becoming aware of these deep-seated unconscious patterns is literally a matter of life or death.

So why isn’t everyone going vegan yet? Well, it’s a complex mix of being numbed out and indifferent, being imprisoned in cultural conditioning, not knowing how, and not having high enough self-esteem to do what’s in our own best interests.

Here are some of the benefits I have noticed from going first vegetarian and then vegan, although please be aware that I have combined these lifestyle changes with a daily Holistic Belief Reprogramming practice so the benefits have been obtained holistically:

ErikaHotTub1. Much clearer skin
2. More energy
3. Simpler lifestyle (for more simplicity go to http://tapsmarter.com/simplify)
4. Lost those “last few extra pounds” that I couldn’t lose since junior high (http://tapsmarter.com/losing-weight)
5. Feel better
6. Clearer conscience knowing you are no longer participating in the torture and murder of innocent animals (inner peace – please see more at https://erikaawakening.com/peace)

For those who sincerely want to go vegan and are not sure how to do it, this article is for you. This is not a comprehensive guide. It will get you started.

“I just don’t have the willpower to make this change.”

Hmmm, the fact that willpower is even being summoned here suggests the wrong frame of mind … I suggest a re-frame for this. Instead of thinking of the “sacrifice” you think you are making by eating meat, consider the very real sacrifice you are making by eating meat. Meat and processed foods crowd out of our diet all the wonderful organic produce that we could be eating. When I was still eating meat, there was barely any room in my diet for amazingly delicious foods like homemade raw pesto, homemade hummus, homemade mushroom gravy, and abundant fruit/nut/veggie smoothies that have now become staples for me. When I started eating these nutrient-dense foods instead of meat, I noticed a big and immediate improvement in my energy levels.

Giving up meat is not a sacrifice. Think of it as letting go of a burden. Meat is expensive, spoils easily, is difficult to digest, rarely tastes good unless it is heavily seasoned, and in general is a totally unnatural thing for humans to eat. So think of it as releasing yourself from a huge ball and chain. Your body, the animals, and the environment will thank you for this huge gift of liberation to yourself and everyone else.

Look, let me be very blunt here … if you don’t have the willpower to stop murdering, how are you going to make any other real changes in your life? This is where there simply is no replacement for my advanced version of EFT tapping. We have a lot of free videos here for you to get started: https://erikaawakening.com/start-here

“But eating meat is in my genes or my blood type.”

Baloney. If you need to release limiting beliefs, learn how to tap starting right now. Even if you believe in “evolution,” you are descended from vegetarian primates and were never designed to eat meat. Modern-day meat is even worse as most of it is full of antibiotics, disease, chemicals, hormones, and other crap that is slowly killing you. Modern-day meat is associated with a host of health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. You’re going to be healthier without it.

eft tapping for weight loss“I won’t be strong enough without meat.”

Baloney. If you need to release limiting beliefs, learn how to tap starting right now. Since I gave up meat, my body looks and feels healthier and stronger. I certainly was not getting these effortless muscle tone improvements before tapping and a non-meat diet. There are even a large number of highly successful vegan body-builders. So stop with the excuses and start loading up your grocery cart with organic produce – fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. Then just see how much more easily the fitness comes to you.

Worried about getting enough protein?  Don’t be.  You can get plenty from plant-based foods.  Learn how to source protein from legumes and nuts and whole grains.  Soy is another option but not actually necessary for those who don’t like soy.  If you do use soy, be sure it is GMO-free and organic or God knows what you’re actually eating.

Also please do not underestimate how much your strength is being depleted by the guilt of eating meat, dairy, eggs, and non-organic foods.  All that death you’re contributing to is going to create unconscious guilt, and that is going to be horrible for your health.  Choose life, for yourself and our fellow beings on this planet, and be surprised how much stronger you feel.

“I won’t have high enough energy without meat.”

Again, baloney. Now if you stop eating meat and continue eating a depleted processed typical American diet, then yes you may indeed suffer a lack of energy. It has nothing to do with not eating meat, it’s the result of a holistically unbalanced lifestyle and crappy diet.

If you’re not eating meat, be sure you get enough iron, B vitamins, vitamin D, zinc, and other nutrients. If need be, you can include some supplements in your diet. I personally love this Floradix supplement (Iron + Herbs, 17 fl oz liquid), and this nutritional yeast (Nutritional Yeast Flakes) is loaded with protein and B vitamins including B12. Nutritional yeast can be used in a variety of foods for example cashew cream “cheese,” as a “cheesy” topping for popcorn, and in pesto to replace parmesan or other cheese.

Vitamin D can be obtained naturally through exposure to sunlight, or by eating mushrooms. I have heard you can even “super charge” the vitamin D content of your mushrooms by laying them gills up in the sunshine for a few hours before eating.

“I can’t afford good food.”

Look, this is more baloney. Given the disastrous health consequences of eating a crappy, unethical diet, I would suggest this be re-framed to “I can’t afford to eat anything except organic whole foods.” Do you want to invest in good health now or in catastrophic medical bills and disability later??? That’s the choice we are making here. If money is an issue, for goodness sakes How to Attract Money with EFT Tapping. It has created abundance for lots and lots of people by changing their subconscious beliefs and it happens now for a limited time to be on a sale – get it here – How to Attract Money with EFT Tapping

tapping for weight loss“How will I eat in restaurants?”

Well, most likely you’ll be eating a lot less in restaurants. Truth is, eating in restaurants is highly problematic because we do not really know what they are putting in our food. Invite people over for dinner. Start creating organic whole foods at home. This past week, I made vegan pesto, vegan mushroom gravy, vegan hummus, vegan banana whole-grain pancakes with organic maple butter, abundant smoothies, and vegan falafel with hummus and hot sauce on whole grain bread with greens. My weight is stable at about 109-110 pounds. All those health and fitness goals you had that never came true? This is the secret. Organic vegan lifestyle through home cooking, combined with my advanced version of EFT tapping.  Nothing else worked for me.  I tried everything under the sun.  This works.  And it’s effortless and delicious.

And if you must eat in restaurants, start talking to the staff. Asking the waiters and chefs what their organic vegan options are. The more of us who do this, the more these restaurants are going to get the message that they need to change their ways and start providing only wholesome ethical food on the menu.

“I’m emotionally attached to my favorite foods.”

Look, I get it.  I was a cheese-aholic and had sentimental attachment to turkey dinner for Thanksgiving and all the rest of it.  These attachments are not healthy.  They are killing you.  Again, there simply is no substitute for my advanced version of EFT tapping.  It helps to release us from unhealthy attachments.  And again, it’s easy to create new “comfort foods” so you won’t feel deprived.  I am amazed how much the non-dairy cream cheese tastes exactly like the dairy version.  I am blown away by the fact that I don’t miss cheese.  Now when I make a black bean burrito, I smear it with homemade hummus instead of cheese.  If anything it has more flavor and nutrition than it did before.

“How will I get enough calcium?”

There is more and more data out there suggesting that calcium from animal milk was never really good for us anyway.  Calcium from leafy greens like kale is more easily absorbed by the body anyway, so add kale generously to pesto and smoothies, salads and burritos.  Make sure to get enough vitamin D from mushrooms and sunlight.  And if you’re still concerned about it, stock up on vegan supplements like these from Amazon (Deva Vegan Vitamins). If I’m not sure I’m getting enough, I might throw a few tablets in my smoothie so it gets ground up with all the organic produce and is easier to swallow and digest.

“I don’t know what recipes to use”

Need inspiration? This is easy. Either use your Google search and run searches for “vegan ______” such as “vegan pesto.” Or invest in a couple of highly-rated vegan cookbooks on Amazon.  Or both.  I got these two vegan cookbooks and am very happy with them: Crazy Sexy (150 Plant-Empowered Recipes to Ignite a Mouthwatering Revolution) and Raw Vegan (400 Raw, Vegan and Gluten-Free Recipes). Not only will the cookbooks give you recipes, they will also let you know what nutrients to be aware of and which staples to stock up on in order to make cooking easy and fun.

“Cooking for myself is too time-consuming”

Yep I hear you. This one kept my eating options limited for quite a while. Then I finally got it. The key is getting a few key cooking tools and using them every single day. The first one I invested in was a blender (absolutely love this one – Breville Hemisphere Control Blender). The one I resisted forever was a really good food processor. I cannot recommend highly enough becoming friends with a good food processor ASAP. It opens up the world of homemade pesto, hummus, falafel, and much more … I only wish I’d done it sooner. I have one very similar to this and love it: Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor, Brushed Stainless Steel.

Believe it or not, by stocking your vegan kitchen with staples such as canned and/or dried garbanzo beans, sesame seeds, tahini, spices, and so forth, and learning a few simple recipes, you’ll actually find that you spend less money and time dealing with food and have more time and energy to focus on other pursuits … It’s true.

(By the way, yes the Amazon links are affiliate links, and I only recommend products that I use and love.  My total lifetime commissions on Amazon so far are $1.90 lol.  By purchasing through my links you can help to support the writing of future articles like this one – so please use the links with my thanks :) ).

Well, that’s enough myth busting to get us started here.  If you have questions or requests for further articles and information, please leave them in the comments section of this blog post.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go feast on homemade organic buckwheat pancakes with organic pumpkin, pecans, and maple butter :)

Please do not miss these additional resources:

The 30-Day World Peace Challenge at https://erikaawakening.com/peace … it’s free and will help you become more congruent with becoming vegan

The 30-Day Eternal Youth Challenge for reinforcing life-serving beliefs at http://tapsmarter.com/eternal

The 30-Day Health & Fitness Challenge at http://tapsmarter.com/health for enhancing health, losing weight, and turning on your “health intuition” to make better choices for yourself and your body

End Guilt & Self Punishment with Our 30-Day Challenge at http://tapsmarter.com/guilt

Love,

Erika Awakening, Teaching People How to Create Everyday Miracles at TAPsmarter

Erika Awakening is one of the world’s foremost experts on eradicating limiting beliefs and living life on your own terms.