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Vegetarians Going All The Way
Becoming A Vegan Family
By Melanie Wilson
to eat and buy." Following are some practical suggestion for beginning your journey.
First and foremost, set your mind right.
This doesn't have to be an all or nothing venture right from the start. Gentle World, the producers of Incredibly Delicious: The Vegan Paradigm Cookbook, advise that you go easy on yourself and try not to think of the transition as forever, if that's too much for you. Tell your children you want to give this new lifestyle a try; that you're going to take it slowly and give them a finite amount of time to begin with. You can extend that time later. Set whatever time goal feels achievable to you. As the old saying goes, take it one day at a time. Start out simply.
Ask yourself: What are the easiest things to change in our diet and wardrobe? The items with obvious substitutes should go first. Use butter instead of margarine. Try switching soy, rice, oat or almond milk for cow's milk; first in your baking, then for drinking. If your family is really addicted to the taste of dairy milk, mix it at a 25/75 ratio and gradually increase the vegan milk until they like the taste. Remember how hard it was to switch from whole milk to 2 percent or from 2 percent to skim? This is much the same -- you do get used to it. Buy an egg replacer (Ener-G is a good choice), a powdered substance that works wonders in baking. Buy maple syrup instead of honey. As for your wardrobe, take the less-expensive and easily replaceable items to Goodwill and pledge to replace the more expensive leather shoes, belts, etc. with vegan alternatives when they wear out. These are changes that probably won't upset the balance too much, and you can make family projects out of cleaning out the closets and visiting the health food store with new goals in mind. 
