Vegan 101: How to share your passion with compassion

We’re back with another, fantastic, Vegan 101 post! This post is really worth the wait.  I started reading Lisa’s blog Vegan Cookbook Critic very early on in my vegan days.  It was the perfect place to read cookbook reviews before making a purchase. But Lisa went a step further and she made numerous recipes from the books she reviewed. She is a talented chef and photographer so her reviews were very enticing!  This really helped me determine if it was “my kind” of cookbook.  Her blog evolved and is now vegan culinary crusade, which really says it all.  Lisa is a quiet crusader. Simply leading by example she influences her readers (and her family) that eating vegan is healthy, nutritious and easy.  I approached Lisa and asked her to consider writing a Vegan 101 piece about her experience of being a very long-term vegan.  She did so. Beautifully.

Meet Lisa.

What I learned about planting seeds from eating plants for 32 years…

I’ve been vegan for a very long time. For over two decades I’ve been living exclusively on plants. Although being vegan feels perfectly normal to me, I still meet people all the time who hear that I’m vegan and stare at me in total confusion. The bewildered look is usually followed by, “but where do you get your protein”, or “what DO you eat”, or “but you don’t look vegan”. After many repeat performances it would be easy for me to discount these questions and roll my eyes in frustration but I have realized that for many of my new friends I am the first vegan they’ve ever met in the flesh.

Being the unexpected representative of veganism can seem daunting but it is also a great opportunity to change people’s perceptions of what living a consciously compassionate life really means. Through my own adventures I’ve found a few simple reminders that work for me, keep me smiling and open to exploring important issues with curious people.

1. Embrace your enthusiasm
Share your excitement for the things you love. A great discovery is a great discovery, don’t apologize because your finds don’t involve exploiting animals. When you make an amazing batch of cookies, energy balls, or muffins, share them. My friends drink almond milk, make bean burritos and use mashed bananas instead of eggs in their muffins. They don’t make these choices because they are vegan but because I’ve shared these simple and delicious switches, veganism seems less extreme, less different. I am quite joyous about my life. I eat my meals with gratitude and gusto! Enthusiasm is very attractive. If you love what you’re doing and how you feel other people will notice.

2. Proudly potluck
When I was in grad school, my professor said “the best way to create community is with food”. Feeding friends is a wonderful way to express how much you care about them. Hosting a potluck or bringing vegan offerings to other events is also a great way to take the “weird-factor” out of the vegan equation. If people want to make dishes you can enjoy, offer up recipes, cookbooks or simple ways to have the animal ingredients as optional additions on the side. Remind people of all the great dishes vegans can eat: falafel, fruit trays, hummus, sweet potato fries, and coconut milk ice cream.

3. Create celebrations
Get involved in creating events in your city or online that encourage people to learn about the power of food and their consumption choices while having fun. When I moved to Toronto I started the Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off and on my blog I host raw vegan recipe challenges. These events get people talking about what veganism is and why it matters while they are busy enjoying amazing eats and all the event excitement. Everyone I know is willing to come out to sample the sweets at the bake-off. It may seem like they’re just enjoying the treats but it is also an introduction to issues, people and options that they may never have considered.

4. Research resources
Once people know you’re vegan, you may quickly become “the” vegan. I’ve long been known as theveganlisa. You don’t need to know everything about nutrition, veg-restaurants, and vegan celebrities but you’ll probably be asked about it all. There are great cookbooks, online resources and inspiring experts where you can turn to get informed. Helping others to find answers to critical questions may be the support they need to give veganism a try.

5. Be curious and compassionate
When people ask you questions – it is not about you. It is about them. Be curious about why they want the information. Put yourself in their shoes. Although to you they may seem like someone who could never really be vegan, you just never know.

Before someone is vegan, they’re not.

I strongly believe that everyone wants to live their best life and leave the world a better place than when they arrived. That doesn’t mean everyone wants to live what you might consider to be their best life, so be empathetic to who they are and what they need. Support them and have faith that they are compassionate, beautiful people, you’ll be quite amazed by the effect your genuine compassion can have.

You just never know…my mom and my brother went vegan six years ago and then just last week my niece (who is six-years old) told me that her family (my brother, his wife and their four kids) are now following a plant-based diet.

When you plant seeds you have to feed and nourish them, wait and watch them grow. Pulling on the roots only destroys the beautiful potential that was just about to blossom.

xoVeganLisa

–Lisa, a long-time vegan and certified raw food chef, shares her passion to create a healthier and more peaceful world by hosting outreach events, co-hosting cooking demonstrations with local chefs, and by posting recipes on her blog veganculinarycrusade.com. She holds a Masters in Social Work and has focused her career on social change, policy research, youth development, and community engagement.

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Such a lovely and inspiring post, Lisa! Thank you for being such a humble force of nature.  You are my role model on this vegan journey.

Vegan readers, how do you plant seeds among your friends and family? 
Non-vegan readers, do you have questions for Lisa?