When I started to eat plant-based meals, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t even know about were cooking classes for plant-based dishes at the time. There’s now a growing number of plant-based cooking classes, seminars, and cookbooks to learn how to cook plant-based dishes. 

However, when you live with a spouse or significant other, it’s challenging because they may not be completely on board with you and since this is what you primarily do together, changing your diet could bring more havoc than good. How does the meal plan work if you can’t take that journey together?

I tried different things and failed a lot in my first 26 days but, I did find progress. I didn’t completely change to eating nothing but plant-based meals but, I accomplished what I set out for. 

We needed to eat more fruits and vegetables and less meat. My concern was our overall health and weight gain. To be honest, I feel like I’ve gained more weight now, especially during these COVID times but then I think of how much more weight I’d gain if I hadn’t changed my diet. 

Today, we eat plant-based about 4-5 times a week. I use very little, if any oil when I cook, as well as plant-based butter, plant-based milk. I found a variety of plant-based egg solutions to name a few too. I’ve ordered vegetarian dishes at steak houses which I would never have imagined doing and choose to cook plant-based dishes primarily out of habit rather than out of conscience. 

The biggest success has been getting my husband to love these dishes that he would not even want to try. Eating gluten-free is just now part of the norm, to boot. He still requests fish and occasionally chicken for special nights but plant-based foods have replaced what we would normally eat on a daily basis.

Prior to changing our diet, we would have pot roast on Sunday and eat that the next day for leftovers, ribs brined in wine on a Saturday, chicken tacos on Tuesday, pasta with meat sauce, and maybe a salad loaded with dairy dressing on Wednesday. One of my husband’s favorites is meatloaf with thick meat-based gravy that we’d have on Thursday and pepperoni and mushroom pizza on Friday. Does this resonate with you? 

I wondered what it would be like to incorporate a change in mindset that would eventually change our habits. What good would it be to go through all this and still have the same mindset we did going in? If we scaled back to this concept of eating very little meat, no oil, and just base all our dishes around a plant-based diet, would we be able to eat meat and dairy more like a delicacy? Would this change how we eat every day? It eventually did.  

Here are 10 suggestions I’d consider if I were starting a plant-based diet if I had to do it all over again. And what I mean by plant-based is not that you’re going “vegan” but that you’re going to start basing your dishes around foods that come from plants. Significantly scale down food that comes from animals. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one to go 100% plant-based because of the way you’ll feel. 

Having a plan will give you a better idea of what to focus on and how much you’ll need to be committed to this new lifestyle change. 

Your body will not only thank you for it, but you’ll notice a difference right away.