The answer, generally, is “no,” but of course there are many circumstances to account for.
We’ll go over a few factors worth considering.
What’s important, is doing the best you can without causing yourself unnecessary stress, anxiety, or disappointment.
It’s a learning experience, so make sure to enjoy the process.
Do You Have Easy Access to a Variety of Plant Foods?
As we’ve mentioned elsewhere, a plant-based (PB) diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, microgreens, sprouts, tubers, legumes, non-wheat gluten-free ancient grains and pseudocereals; nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, unrefined oils, and unrefined salts.
The majority of what you eat on a PB diet should be minimally processed and unrefined.
Unfortunately, not everyone lives in areas where rich supply of fresh, affordable produce is easy to find.
In this case, could get creative.
You can look into:
- growing certain fruits, leafy greens, sprouts, microgreens and herbs at home
- order produce online to be delivered to your door
- volunteer a few hours a week at a local farm or farmers market in exchange for fresh produce
Growing Your Own Food
Growing your own food isn’t difficult, and you can start small, for example by growing some sprouts, microgreens and herbs, then eventually graduate to simple fruits and vegetables.
It doesn’t matter if you live in the countryside with a yard, or live in an apartment, you can still grow your own food.
There are plenty of learning resources available online. For instance, we like:
- John Kohler’s Learning Organic Gardening YouTube channel
- Grow For More (learn how to grow microgreens)
- Sproutpeople (all things sprouts and microgreens)
Order Produce Online
Many of us shop online to save time and find good deals, it’s just so convenient.
Dried or canned food commodities like fruit, nuts, seeds, grains, pseudocereals, and legumes are easy to purchase online.
And there are even services that specialize in home delivery of fresh produce. These include:
- Farmbox Direct (learn more)
- Farm Fresh To You (learn more)
- Imperfect produce (learn more)
- Misfits Market (learn more)
- Amazon Fresh (learn more)
Services like these and local farms are popping up all over to bring you fresh, quality produce and combat food waste, by selling you produce that doesn’t meet some retailers’ demands and gets discarded.
This enables you to get excellent deals on mixed and sometimes organic produce.
Get Creative in the Kitchen and Try New Things
If you think a PB diet is only about dull and tasteless salads, think again!
If you aren’t used to eating plenty of different plant foods, it’s important to try new recipes, ingredients, and different ways of preparing the same foods.
We make recipe roundups to entice you with awesome, culinary inspiration.
When your diet makes you feel satisfied, you also won’t run into a whole bunch of cravings.
You May Have to Get Your Meals and Health in Check
Some people experience gastrointestinal issues such as gas, bloating and discomfort when they switch to a diet rich in fiber and certain plant foods.
Improperly prepared grains and legumes are often to blame. Corn, and cruciferous veggies can also cause problems.
Albeit not everyone agrees on this practice, soaking and sprouting grains and legumes, before cooking them, can increase digestibility.
If there’s a vegetable you don’t tolerate well raw, try consuming it cooked instead.
Having a Support Network
A support network, for many, is crucial. However, there’s a chance you’re adopting this lifestyle on your own without support or encouragement from family, a partner, or, in the worst case scenario, even friends.
While that’s demotivating, the Internet may just be enough to save your day as it gives you access to:
- support groups and forums
- a mass of educational material
- potentially thousands of hours of YouTube videos from people in the same predicament
- yours truly, VegByte
You can also search for meetup groups and potlucks happening in your vicinity.
Having the Right Mindset
Ultimately, mindset can make or break your success on a PB lifestyle.
If someone forced you onto this path—or if for any other reason you feel deprived of choice—you almost can’t help but think of reasons and excuses to stop and go back.
When you start this lifestyle, do it only because:
- it makes sense to you
- you feel compelled and ready for it
- you’re willing to put in effort to make it work
With those conditions in place and a mindset to succeed, you’re bound to find this an educational and transformative way of life.