Hello!

I just started The Kind Diet and would love to start transitioning into this lifestyle. I rarely eat meat as is (more from laziness since I'm not a great cook but after reading, i am happy that because that laziness has prevented a lot of upset both emotional and physical!). However, I'm not sure how to transition from dairy and sugar. Also, I most want to make sure I'm getting all the nutrients I need because I live an active life (who doesn't?!)

How did you transition? What were the staples you bought? I look at my fridge and think I can't make any dishes from what's there. It would be a huge help to know what baby steps you took and the important purchases you made! Thank you so much! :)

Hi Jess, welcome! 

Two key words: whole grains. These will make your whole life easy. At one point of the book, Alicia talks about how she looks to create a meal from a menu by first finding a whole grain, then veggies/fruits and moves on from there. Look at your meals that way too. Get yourself some whole grains and veggies and fruits and have some fun! Take some whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, etc.) and add some veggies (let's say some kale, carrots, etc.). Mix it up! 

Also, as far as nutrients...if you actually work to eat a balanced, healthy diet (vegan or not), you'll have most if not all of your needed nutrients. However, if you default to just eating pre-packaged soy products all the time and salads, you'll be missing out big time.

The biggest thing that gets me through is planning. For example, I spend a portion of today making some rice and the adzuki beans and squash stew in the book for lunches this week. Tonight, I'll leave some black beans soaking that I'll use to make into burgers tomorrow night, have over rice the next night, fry into fritters the next night and slip in a tortilla the following night. 5 -10 minutes of cooking each day because I stuck some stew on the burner this morning.  

Well... I had gone back and forth about dairy for a long time but when I cut it out... I lost weight and feel SO MUCH better and less bloated. I use Silk Soy Creamer for my coffee, I blend frozen bananas for my ice cream (this work sosososos good, you must try it!) but if I really need sweet there are lots of vegan ice cream options. I hated ALL soy yogurts until recently.... try the So Good Coconut Milk ones... much better. As far and subbing vegan sour cream and vegan cheese... eh. They are really processed (the soy creamer is too but I love my cup of moring coffee) and not that good. So... I just kinda cut those out. After a bit, I promise you won't miss them very much and, in fact, cheese starts to smell pretty gross. On the sugar front... sub Agave and Maple syrup as much as possible.

Thank you so much! This is really helpful :) I'm going to be heading to the local health food store to pick up some of the things Alicia lists in the Flirting chapter.

I really have ever only used milk for my cereal, so I don't believe that will be too hard to cut out but I will need to read a lot of labels to avoid milk as well.

Cheese, of couse, will be difficult! Haha I'm slowly cutting back how much and often I use it.

Cheese was HARD for me to kick.  I never was really a dairy milk drinker (I always preferred rick or coconut milk, if anything) but cheese threw me for a loop.  But, I found that when I really stuck to avoiding it after a few weeks I really didn't miss it.

Dairy free cheeses helped a little in that transition (I really like Teese but I'm sure others can recommend some they like) but be sure to avoid "cheeses" with caesin in it as it is a milk product and found in a lot of soy cheeses.  Also, the vegan sour creams and cheeses have tons of chemicals and after a while I found I really didn't even want the vegan stuff.

It was all about progressing slowly.  As I committed more to the lifestyle I found that what I wanted and needed changed as I was actually listening to my body instead of running on autopilot.