Veganuary is over, now what?

Veganuary is over, what’s next? Whether you’ve decided to stay on a plant-based diet or are not ready yet to make it a permanent lifestyle, here are some practical, post-Veganuary tips.

What to do after Veganuary?

Reflect on your experience

Be honest with yourself. Did you enjoy it? What did you find the most challenging? Do you want to carry on fully plant-based or reintroduce some animal products and be more flexible with your diet?

Also, please be proud of yourself. By eating vegan for a month, you have saved 30 animal lives, 620 pounds of harmful carbon dioxide emissions, over 900 square feet of forest, and over 33,000 gallons of water.

You can input the length of your vegan diet in this vegan calculator to find out how all the good you’ve done :)

What’s next for you?

If you decide to continue your plant-based journey, that’s awesome! Just make sure it’s sustainable in your current lifestyle and that you truly enjoy the process.

If you are reintroducing animal products, I hope that you’ve still benefited from your Veganuary experience and that you will maintain your favourite plant-based swaps!

I would like to remind you that if you’re not able to continue eating 100% vegan, it’s ok. The world needs a lot of people eating less animal products, not just a minority of perfect vegans.

Life after Veganuary: practical tips

These tips are mainly for people who are reintroducing flexibility in their diet, including eating animal products BUT still want to carry on eating more plants than before.

You don’t have to put a label on your diet

Labels can put a lot of pressure and encourage unhealthy perfectionism. My point is, you can eat a lot of vegan foods without being 100% vegan. It’s not all or nothing.

You don’t have to label yourself as anything in order to help the planet and the animals :) What matters is that you make a conscious effort to eat more plants.

Maintain your favourite plant-based swaps

Did you discover that you love almond milk? Did you make awesome vegan pancakes? Are vegan curries your new favourite meal? Keep your favourite plant-based swaps and meals on the menu!

Keep your meat consumption to the minimum

From an environmental perspective, one of the best things you can do is stop eating meat, beef in particular. So if you can completely remove meat from your diet, you are massively reducing your carbon footprint.

Have plant-based days

You could challenge yourself to maintain one or more 100% plant-based days during the week. These can be an opportunity to try new recipes.

Keep yourself informed

I can only encourage you to keep an open mind and keep reading articles / watching documentaries about the environmental challenges we face and animal suffering. We may not all be able to go vegan but it is important to acknowledge what is happening and think of small, positive changes we can make.