Here is quick list of responses to some of the most frequent questions I get asked as a vegan:
What do you eat?
My diet is completely plant-based. I eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains. No meat, fish, dairy, eggs, or any animal products.
Is is hard?
People have the misconception veganism is just a diet. It's not, it's a lifestyle change. Once you take on the mentality that you are changing your life for the better, all the dietary stuff is easy to adopt.
Also, do not expect the make the change overnight. Very few people can successfully instantly give up meat and dairy. It took me a few months to go vegetarian, mainly because it is a re-learning process. It takes time to learn totally new habits, dietary or otherwise. I did go vegan instantly, but only because I had done research before hand and had been slowly cutting out more and more processed foods (which happens to include dairy) in the first place. With patience and understanding, it's not that scary!
What about eating out?
Yes, eating out can be difficult but that does not mean you never can go out with your friends or have a romantic date again. Do some research beforehand if you can. See if the restaurant posts their menu online and so you know before you sit down if they have vegan-friendly food. Either at home or at the table, just take your time and read the menu carefully. If something has meat or cheese in it, ask if they can prepare it without it. Majority of the time this is no problem. Like it's that hard to not put the parmesan on your pasta or to leave out the chicken from a bean burrito.
There was only one restaurant where there was nothing I could eat, a steak house in South Carolina. The salads were all pre-made with bacon in the dressing and even the bread was slathered in butter right after they baked it in the morning. But it was not the end of the world. I know I am the different one, therefore it is unreasonable for me to demand that the world accommodate me every time. I drank my sweet tea and chatted with my company, and afterwards I got a salad from the nearby grocery store. No one will like you if you never let them eat at places they like too. Or they just wont invite you. Sad day.
How can you eat tofu?
If you had a bad tofu experience, I am truly sorry. Properly prepared tofu is amazing. Is plain, undercooked chicken good? No. So why would plain, unprepared tofu be? It will take on the flavor of what ever you cook it in and there are many preparation techniques to give it a more "meaty" texture. And it's so versatile that everyone should keep some in the house.
As useful and tasty as it is, you shouldn't eat it everyday. It is a processed food, so be careful about what brands you buy to avoid unhealthy fillers and chemicals. And every diet should be varied so it's not good to eat any food in large quantities repeatedly.
