CAN YOU BE VEGAN IF YOU’RE TIRED (OR BUSY OR LAZY)?

Can you be vegan if you’re tired?

Or busy?

Or even just lazy?

Yes, absolutely.

It can even help give you more energy and make you feel less fatigued.

Going vegan makes you think more about what you’re putting into your body, and can help you pinpoint what’s making you feel so exhausted.

So, let’s talk veganism for lazy people. How would I, an idiot sat at a laptop, have any expertise in lazy vegans? Well, dear reader, I am a lazy vegan.

Bet you didn’t see that coming.

We’ve already established that if you have your heart set on being a vegan, having no money isn’t going to set you back. Don’t believe me? Then check out this post.

But can you be vegan if you’re too tired/busy or lazy?

HELL YES.

I’m not even going to insist you get organised, although it probably wouldn’t hurt. I have a video on bare-minimum meal prepping for vegans – click here to have a look, if you’re interested

If you have the secret sauce recipe for being very vegan whilst remaining very busy, plz be kind enough to leave me a lovely comment. Ta.

1. Work out what you’re eating

If you weren’t busy or lazy or both, we’d call this meal planning. You’d write a list every week (or month if you’re a chronically organised person) of all the meals you’re going to have.

I don’t do this.

I have done in the past, on occasion (once).

It’s all very well and good planning to make spag bol for your tea, but then you wander past a curry house on the way home and all you want is curry.

Or you really fancy oven chips and sausages (no shame).

Or can’t be arsed to cook so get yourself some lovely crusty bread, hummus, olives and delicious things like that.

So what do I mean by work out what you’re eating?

Basically, make a list (in your head, in your diary, on the back of an envelope, whatever) of all meals you can cook. If you can’t think of any, refer to my list of super duper easy vegan meals to cook.

I, like most vegans, was once an omnivore that wondered what vegans eat. When you transition to a vegan diet, take the time to learn a few easy meals. These can even be things you already eat – beans on toast, avocado toast etc – that are naturally vegan.

It is a MYTH that you need to be able to cook extravagantly to be a vegan – all you need is your arsenal of go-to meals.

I’m knackered all the time. How will this help me?

If you feel like you’re exhausted all of the time, consider seeing a doctor. Depression can often manifest itself as exhaustion. You could have an intolerance to gluten or some other food.

Eating a whole food, plant-based diet can be great for making you feel more energised and help you sleep better.

Why?

Our bodies are extremely good at quickly digesting plant matter. Meat and dairy, less so – it can hang around in our colon for days, getting up to all sorts of mischief.

Your doctor may ask you to keep a food diary. It may be that you’re lacking in an essential vitamin or mineral. Make sure you’re taking a B12 supplement, and that you’re getting enough iron (this post will give you loads of examples of iron rich foods)

2. Throw away the food rules

I don’t mean nutritional food rules, although it’s not nearly as frightening as people think to get adequate vitamins etc on a vegan diet.

If you’re worried about nutrients 1)don’t be if 2) you read my post on it.

I just mean don’t get too hung up on what you can eat when.

FOR EXAMPLE if I’ve been at work all day I eat a lot of fruit, pasta, and vegetables.

That’s obviously healthy, but it’s low in fat.

So when I have my main meal night, I’ll make myself a big bowl of porridge with almond butter, flaxseeds and hemp seeds.

With a chaser of Tesco Rocky Road because I have a small/medium dependence on it.

Trying to lose weight but don’t want to eat less?

Flip your meals.

Have a ginormous fry up for breakfast, your usual lunch, and a smoothie for dinner, you may find that a few pounds melt away all no their own.

Why?

I’m no doctor (shocker), but I ASSUME it’s because your body can digest a smoothie so much quicker than a heavy meal.

This means you’re not sleeping on a full stomach, the contents of which is shoved into storage by your body because it has better things to do while you’re sleeping than digest food.

I know you’ve all heard this before, but try not to worry about protein.

If your calories intake is sufficient and you’re eating a reasonable diet, you’ll be fine.

If you are worried, protein powder is obvs an option, but silken tofu massively upgrades smoothies (it makes them so so creamy) and you can add it to melted chocolate and vanilla to make a chocolate pudding.

I also have a whole post here on getting protein.

Also peas. Peas are packed with protein. And just think how proud your mum’ll be.

3. Chill out

I’ve been lazy my whole life, omni and vegan. When I was omni I had no issue with eating the same meal all the time.

In fact, at uni I pretty much existed on jacket potatoes with cheese and beans.

And yet.

I panicked that I would waste away on a vegan diet (not while oven chips exist!). Weird no? The least healthy part of my dinner was the bit I would be omitting.

Chances are, transitioning to a vegan diet will up your health game.

Again for the people in the back: as long as you eat a varied diet and plenty of calories you’ll be SWELL on a vegan diet.

Being vegan doesn’t need to be complicated. Peanut butter on toast for breakfast. Maybe a banana. Lentil soup for lunch (I’d add more bread, but that makes some people angry) then curry/chilli and brown rice for tea.

EASY.

Snack on fruit, dates stuffed with almond butter, ritz crackers with hummus.

4. Meal prep (NB, this is only for the busy NOT the lazy)

Lazy people, look away now. This isn’t for us. I’m only writing it for the busy people out there. Exhausted people, this isn’t for you either. GO and have a nap.

If you can face doing both, meal planning and prep work very well together. You can prep up all your overnight oats for the week on a Sunday afternoon, cook a couple of batches of curry, chilli, soups…

You can even batch cook your grains so you just have to warm them up.

It astounds that there are people out there who go to that much effort. That feeling of achievement after you’ve meal prepped for the week and then cleaned your kitchen must be absolutely top.

One of these days I’m gonna get my rear in gear and meal prep.

The only form of meal prep I do do (lol) is truly meal prep for lazy people.

It is as follows:

• have some salad with tea on Sunday comprising of red onion, cucumber, red pepper, and cherry tomatoes
• Chop enough to last you the next days.
• Done.

Since you already have the stuff out on the worktop it really isn’t too much effort to chop two cucumbers rather than half of one.

I do have a post on meal prepping here – I’ve not dramatically metamorphosised into a meal prep queen, but I have compiled a list of handy tips to help you become slightly more organised than you were before.

5. Connect on social media

Vegans are GREAT at posting pictures of their dinner online. Follow a few on Twitter (check out some of the people I follow) and see what everyone’s eating.

This is a great way to find accidentally vegan things – I had no idea Just-Rol puff pastry was vegan until I saw someone make a delicious tart using it (get the ready rolled stuff, spread on vegan pest and/or tomato pasta sauce then top with roasted veg or raw tomatoes, courgettes and olives, bake until golden).

It’s also good to find inspiration for things like Christmas dinner, buffest and feeding omnis vegan food they’ll like.

A lot of brands promote their vegan products on Twitter and Pinterest too (especially around Christmas) so you can find out new vegan ranges as soon as they’re available.

If you’re a truly lazy vegan, social media is a brilliant way to waste an afternoon watching videos of animals do all kind cute things.

So, can you be vegan if you’re tired?

bloody hope so.

I’m medium busy and very lazy and I fucking manage. And let’s face it, we’re all tired to some degree. I genuinely believe that switching to a vegan lifestyle can give you more energy – it certainly helps you identify what foods make you feel energised.

TOP TIP: adding greens to your smoothies gives you BUCKETS of energy. Yes, they turn them a darling shade of sludge-brown, but it’s WORTH IT. After a spinach, banana, raspberry, and flax smoothie I feel ready to take over the freaking world.

IT SOUNDS WANKY BUT IT’S TRUE. PROMISE.

After half a dozen failed attempts at going 100% vegan (as much as I possibly can), but I got there in the end!