Vegan Practically

On this second day of the year it’s a good day to start Veganuary. Going vegan for one month offers a wonderful nudge that could carry you into a year of being kinder to animals and the planet. Veganuary is a great way to show yourself that it’s not nearly as difficult as you might think to avoid animal products.

What is Veganuary exactly? It’s a one-month challenge that you can do any month of the year. But what better time than January to try something new? As they say on the front page of their extremely informative website:

“Veganuary has inspired and supported millions of people to try vegan since 2014 – with participants from almost every country in the world. We have worked with businesses to drive up vegan options in shops and restaurants, and have made veganism more visible and accessible through our work with national and international media.”

What I love about Veganuary, besides that it encourages people to try veganism for a month in the hopes that it will stick, is that it offers information, resources, encouragement.

When you sign up to try it, you get to choose your start date. For free, you get their Celebrity Cookbook, the Veganuary Plant Protein Cookbook with 17 high protein recipes from athletes and nutritionists, a super helpful 36-page vegan starter kit that will answer pretty much all of your questions and give suggestions for meal-planning that covers all the nutritional bases, and an email each day of the month.

The two cookbooks give you enough recipes to make a good go of it. Try Crispy Tofu Nuggets and Sweet Hummus Truffles (in the protein cookbook). Or Venus Williams’ Trio of Smoothies to Bella Ramsey’s Pesto Pastry Spirals and Alicia Silverstone’s Radicchio Pizza with Truffle Oil. Once you have the cookbooks and the starter kit in hand, you’re all set to give Veganuary a try (whether you start today, next week, or next month).

I can’t say enough postive things about Veganuary and the way they support “people and businesses alike to move to a plant-based diet as a way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering, and improving the health of millions of people.” They are a worthy non-profit with a five-year plan for advancing their project of making a vegan world the norm rather than the exception.

If you’re not sure why giving this a try is a good thing, revisit my January 2024 post “Ten reasons to try more vegan living in 2024.” All the reasons still apply.

Happy New Year and all the best to all of us for making positive changes in 2026.