By Angela Crawford

Many amazing transformations can unfold when you nourish your mind, body, and spirit with wholesome plant foods. A plant-powered lifestyle has the power to nurture holistic well-being, including physical healing, improved energy, greater peace, and authentic fulfilment.

As you consider all the reasons for a plant-based diet, perhaps you’re all in and ready to go. Or maybe you have some concerns – for example, how will you handle the obstacles you may encounter?

These may include the social challenges of eating differently than your loved ones, and navigating holidays and social gatherings. In addition, you may struggle with personal barriers like old habits and conditioning, people pleasing, self-sabotage, or limiting beliefs.

To empower yourself to successfully sustain a thriving plant-based lifestyle, it is important to do your inner work. This helps you build a strong foundation to reach your goals and navigate obstacles along the way. Below are five mindset shifts to increase your readiness and resilience for creating the healthy life of your dreams.

1. Connect with your vision for change. What led you to move toward a plant-based lifestyle? Healing from disease? Living more lightly on the planet? Compassion for animals? Spiritual alignment? Whatever your motivations, reconnecting with your WHY helps you remain intentional about your lifestyle choices. Write a statement encapsulating your WHY and review it daily, to stay connected with your reasons for change and your plan for how to get there. This becomes your North Star, helping to re-align you when life conspires to take you off track.

2. Continue to learn the benefits of plant-based living. No matter what your initial reason for adopting a plant-based diet, research suggests that discovering multiple motivations for your lifestyle (including those that extend beyond self to the greater good) makes you more likely to stay committed through tough times.ii In addition, as you learn more about veganism and plant-based living, it will help you gain skills and confidence to overcome any obstacles and challenges you may face.

3. Break through the trance of old habits. Throughout the course of our lives, we acquire habits and preferences that become automatic. This is especially true when it comes to eating patterns. Adopting a vegan lifestyle causes us to confront many of our old patterns, habits, and assumptions.

Whether it is your addiction to cheese, the societal message that you need animal protein, or ingrained cultural and family food traditions, shifting to a plant-based lifestyle will cause you to call these old patterns and beliefs into question. To overcome habits that hold you back, consider the following tools:

· Mindfulness: Bring non-judgmental awareness to unhelpful patterns. Mindful awareness helps to break the trance of old habits.

· Motivation: Remember WHY you are making this change and that you deserve to care for yourself and to honor your values.

· Information: Learn the HOW of healthy plant-based eating, so that you can undo misinformation, gain new insights, and discover solutions.

· Support: Seek out others who have overcome these same problems, drawing from their wisdom and encouragement.

· Patience and Persistence: Remember that it takes time and practice to change old habits and develop new ones. Don’t give up on yourself.

4. Let go of perfection or self-judgment. It is normal to make mistakes or have setbacks when you are trying out new habits and lifestyle patterns. You may accidentally eat something you didn’t plan to eat or give in to a friend’s pressure. Have grace for yourself and use this as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Those who are successful at lasting change learn to view setbacks and mistakes as learning opportunities. Instead of giving up when these happen, or beating up on yourself, see them for what they are—guidance for you to learn from so that next time you will be prepared. We all have setbacks.

When they happen, be kind to yourself, let yourself feel your feelings (whether disappointment, discouragement, or frustration), then explore what you can learn, and move forward.

5. Celebrate the benefits of your new lifestyle. You deserve to feel proud of your steps toward a plant-powered, vegan lifestyle. Give yourself positive messages as you make progress, whether you are learning new recipes or undoing old habits. In addition, pay attention to inner and outer positive changes that you experience.

Many people notice physical benefits within days or weeks of adopting a plant-based diet. Other benefits may include emotional peace, greater confidence, authenticity, joy, or a sense of inner alignment. Also, celebrate the ways your lifestyle helps animals and the planet. Remember that you are a leader and role model for positive change.

Changing your lifestyle is a journey with many steps. With each step, you gain confidence, and the next steps become clearer. As you connect with your motivations for change, break through old conditioning, learn from setbacks, and celebrate your successes, you are truly on the path to an inner transformation that catalyzes the healthy, meaningful, and fulfilling life of your dreams

References

i Crawford, Angela (blog), “Navigating Social Situations on Your Vegan Path,” October 3, 2024, https://angelacrawfordphd.com/2024/10/03/navigating-social-situations-on-your-vegan-path/

ii Research by Faunalytics found that vegetarians and vegans who maintained a veg lifestyle often had multiple motivating reasons, including not only personal health, but also ethical and/or environmental considerations. See: “Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans: Initial Findings,” Humane Research Council (HRC), December 2014, https://faunalytics.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Faunalytics_Current-Former-Vegetarians_Full-Report.pdf; “A Summary of Faunalytics’ Study of Current and Former Vegetarians and Vegans,” Faunalytics, February 24, 2016, https://faunalytics.org/a-summary-of-faunalytics-study-of-current-and-former-vegetarians-and-vegans/