10 Annoying Things About Being a Vegan (+ how to deal with it)

My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!

Hello, vegan friends! It’s going to be close to two years since I’ve been a vegan now and lemme tell ya, some things about this lifestyle can get annoying!

Most of the discomfort I experienced was in the first couple of months of becoming a vegan. Being uncomfortable (or a little annoyed!) is common when adopting a new lifestyle or doing anything new in general. As time went on, I discovered that most of my annoyance was due to a lack of knowledge.

If you’re just looking to dabble into the vegan lifestyle, you will find this information very useful because it will give you an idea of what to anticipate and what you can do about it.

If you’re a seasoned vegan, you will still find this information valuable because a) you’ve probably experienced similar things, and b) get strategies and techniques to help cope with these little annoyances.

1.Grocery shopping can be tricky.

I felt so confused in the beginning. Making a grocery list seemed like a 2-hour exercise! I’d flip through cookbooks, look up recipes on Pinterest, then write down all the ingredients. All of this took a tremendous amount of time!

And that was just dinner planning. I’m not talking breakfast, snacks, lunch…see why anyone’s head would spin?!

Shopping at the store was another challenge. I suddenly became super interested in all the new vegan products I had never tried before. I would spend a significant amount of time reading labels, searching for reviews of the products on my iPhone while holding the item in my hand. I wanted to try them all!

It got a little annoying that my life centered around planning meals and grocery shopping.

After a while, I realized that sticking with simple foods I was already familiar with was key. I didn’t have to go search for pitaya or jackfruit to make my meals. All I needed the good ol’ beans, lentils, some grains, and a lot of fresh produce! Simplicity is the key.

Produce aisle became my favorite aisle. The mushroom section is my fave. I love to throw in a few creminis, portobello, and shiitakes into my cart. If I feel adventurous I grab some oyster mushrooms or enoki.

I can assure you that grocery shopping does get easier once you get into the rhythm of things. Figure out the simple foods you like to eat and stock up on vegan staples (lentils, beans, and whole grains).

2.It’s all about that CHEESE.

The cheese was one of the hardest things to give up for me. I hadn’t realized how much I liked cheese before I stopped eating it. The fact that it’s the main ingredient on a pizza, tacos, and enchiladas did not help at all.

This shows how much dairy is, in fact, addicting and how I had become addicted to it.

Plus, my husband was not a vegan which made pizza take-outs so irresistible!

It was the first month and I knew it would be the hardest since I went cold turkey. I found a few solutions to overcome my cheese cravings with natural foods. I realized that if my body was craving cheese maybe it was telling me something. Maybe I just needed to add a little more healthy fat to my meals?

I’ve listed all of the 9 natural foods that helped me overcome cheese cravings in a separate post. You don’t have to eat all 9 at the same time. Try one food at a time and see what works best for you!

Another thing I did to help me with my cheese cravings was to make my own vegan cheese. Sounds intimidating but it really isn’t. Here’s a recipe to a delicious 5-ingredient Vegan Parmesan Cheese.

3.Some vegan substitutes suck.

Where do I even start? When you go vegan cold-turkey, the easiest way is to start substituting animal protein and dairy for vegan substitutes. It makes cooking much easier since all you have to do is to sub meat for mock meat or tofu.

There’s still a bit of a learning curve. Cooking tofu is different from cooking chicken. It’s definitely not the healthiest way to eat because mock meats and cheeses have sugar and processed ingredients.

While some vegan substitute foods taste delicious, others suck big time! And you never really know until you buy it and cook it at home which can really ruin the entire dish you’ve made!

I’m still learning how to make tempeh properly so that it won’t make me gag. I’ve had it at a restaurant one time and it was super duper delish! This made me think that tempeh is the best thing in the world for vegans. But then when I made it, it tasted horrible!

And vegan cheeses…I could write a whole post and reviews of vegan cheese products and 90% of them would be no bueno. I’ll admit, it is a difficult task to manufacture vegan cheese to make it taste like dairy. I mean there is no dairy! A lot of companies are working hard to perfect the recipes and make improvements to taste and texture. I give it up to them.

The bottom line with vegan cheeses bought at a store is it’s a trial game. You just have to buy a few and see what you like. Or just make it at home yourself – this is what I do.

4.Cooking in a non-vegan household can get interesting.

I don’t mean to scare you since every household, every family, and every relationship is different. But it won’t be easy at first, especially, if you are the one who does most of the cooking.

In the first few months, I was still trying to figure out how to cook and what to eat. It was a lot of trial and error. And a lot of my recipes sucked. They were too watery or too spicy. It didn’t help convince my husband that vegan food could, in fact, be delicious.

It also presented another dilemma: should I cook the meat for him? I didn’t (and still don’t) mind cooking meat for him at times. Although, he does most of the cooking if it involves animal products.

Since we always have dinner together, I tried to make meals that overlapped. For instance, if I made burgers and fries for dinner they would all have the same ingredients except for the patty. This made it easy to share a meal together and save time in the kitchen.

Over the course of two to three weeks, once I got my routine down a bit things got a lot easier. And now that I’ve been a vegan for over a year, we’ve grown to understand each other much more and cooking together is not a big deal at all.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to navigate/survive the life with a non-vegan partner read my post 11 Tips On How to Survive With A Non-Vegan Partner.

5.Heightened concern from everyone.

The minute people found out I was vegan, they immediately expressed increased concern over my well-being. They asked if I had any health issues that would prompt me to adopt this lifestyle. They asked if I knew what I was doing. They told me the vegan lifestyle was too restrictive and that it would make my health decline. On and on and on…

If it was a random person at a dinner party that was telling me this, I didn’t really care to be honest. But, when it was my parents…it was a little tricky.

It was just something new to them. Something not many people they knew did. And the negative light in which vegans are often portrayed or make the news didn’t help either.

It wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Everyone was still respectful. It’s just when you hear a lot of the same comments from people you speak with over a short period of time, it does get old.

I think some of their concerns were valid. I jumped into being a vegan cold-turkey. Later in the year, I realized that I, in fact, wasn’t getting enough protein each day and had to up my intake.

So, don’t shun all the concerns. The first couple of months are forgiving. However, if you’re planning on sticking with this lifestyle for longer or if you’ve been a vegan for a while, I recommend getting your bloodwork done. Also, speak with a doctor to make sure your diet has an adequate amount of vitamins and nutrients. It’s super important.  

6.Giving up eggs.

Oh, mama!

Eggs and cheese. The duo that hunted me everywhere!

I could easily do without an omelet because there are vegan alternatives such as Tofu Scramble or Chickpea Scramble. But baked goods…that was hard!

This was a problem not because I baked too much. I am not much of a baker. The thing was that free baked goods were everywhere around me!

Early morning meetings at work with breakfast pastries like croissants were so hard to resist! Since they weren’t healthy anyway, I made sure I had my oatmeal before I headed to the meeting. That helped solve it. Plus helped keep my weight in check.

Everything from birthday parties, anniversaries, baby showers…all the cake and the cupcakes were so tempting! To some events, I’d bring a fruit bowl. And sooo many people appreciated that! I mean, most people are not looking to consume all that processed sugar and indulge into the frosting to end up with a tummy ache. Everyone loved fruit.

If you find yourself in similar situations, bring your stuff to the party or eat before so you aren’t tempted by all the breakfast pastries that are loaded with butter and sugar. They ain’t good for ya anyway.

7.Hostility.

Okay, this is a painful one. At points, I sensed that some people felt like I was attacking them by becoming a vegan. This was my choice and had zero impact on another individual. Nevertheless, some people felt like they had to defend themselves because they ate meat and dairy.

I found this to be so silly! There weren’t many people like that. But when I encounter some, it did make me sad. After all, I wasn’t attacking anyone. Why did some people feel the need to defend themselves?

I think this has to do with human psychology. Killing other creatures seems cruel. Yet, many people eat meat because they are so removed from actually witnessing how it all works.

Rationally, not eating animals seems right. So when meeting a vegan person, they feel like they are wrong.

I know I do it too, without even realizing it. Not about veganism but about other topics where my beliefs are not aligned with my actions.

My point is – in life, there will always be people who will criticize you no matter the topic. It could be clothing, hairstyle, people you are friends with…the list is endless. So it isn’t worth the worry.

8.Curiosity and the Police.

When I announced that I was going to be a vegan, people thought of me as special. It was kind of fun, actually.

I became an object of curiosity and friends and co-workers would ask me why I decided to make the choice. Sometimes the same person would ask me the same questions multiple times!

People felt amused by how I was able to cook and eat without using any meat. Most of these people didn’t know any vegans so it was new to them.

In the first month of being a vegan, I was still learning about vegan nutrition and what to cook. So, I couldn’t answer all of the questions! Some questions made me think and eager to find the answers too. Overall, I’ll admit that I enjoyed the spotlight. People’s curiosity made me investigate a bunch of things I wouldn’t otherwise think were important.

The very same people who were curious in the beginning turned into the Police later on. This was a surprise!

For example, I’d go to a snack drawer to look for snacks and a co-worker would approach me saying “Wait, you can’t eat that! It isn’t vegan!”. I was just looking. Jeez!

Most snacks at work were not vegan except for chips. So I’d grab my pringles and go back to my desk.

I guess my co-workers did help me with the temptation to grab a kit-kat bar or a piece of mini-Hersheys. I’m grateful for that.

I know a lot of fellow vegans have a very similar experience and when it happens do not be taken aback. Your co-workers and friends mean good!

9.Getting enough protein.

I work out a lot. Five times a week plus two days of yoga or stretching. I’ve been doing it for close to five years now and it brings me joy. My day doesn’t feel complete if I don’t work out.

For a while, as I was deciding which vegan protein powder I liked better, I stopped having it altogether. I went a couple of months without having protein powder shakes every day. I’d have them one or two times a week at most. Big mistake.

I didn’t think much of it because I was still buying little trial pouches of various powders to try and didn’t realize that three months flew by!

I also wasn’t tracking my protein intake at all. Sure, I had beans, lentils, and tofu throughout the week. But that wasn’t enough. Due to high-intensity training I needed more protein.

If you are a newly vegan or have been a vegan for a while and have not tracked your protein intake, do so! Just track how much you’re eating for 3-4 days and you will be able to easily see if you are getting enough protein.

A general rule is that an average person should consume roughly 0.4g of protein per lb of body weight (or 0.8g/kg). So, let’s say you weigh 120lbs you should consume 48g of protein every day.

You can use several apps such as myFinessPal to track your meals for one week (annoying I know, but a must-do) to evaluate whether you’re getting enough protein. If you exercise daily, then you need to increase your protein intake by an additional 0.2g/lb of weight (or 0.1g/kg).

10.Long cooking hours.

In my first couple of months of being a vegan, I particularly disliked how many hours I spent in the kitchen. After becoming a vegan, I started to meal prep each Sunday and sometimes I’d end up spending 5 hours in the kitchen!

I was so annoyed that my Sundays were shot. I mean, I wanted to still binge on Netflix (at least 2 episodes of Grace and Frankie, please!). Or paint my nails, or go to the gym.

Sometimes cooking took way longer because I tried to experiment and ended up with failed dishes. Some tasted horrible, others got burned. I just couldn’t get the brown rice not to burn! Grrr…

Eventually, though, I put a limit on how much experimentation I’d do in the kitchen on a given Sunday. Plus, as I got better at cooking, I could tell which ingredients were key to making recipes taste good and things that I shouldn’t substitute for.

Oh, and since my hubby was not a vegan, I’d have to cook him meals as well. He helped me cook and we’d often meal prep together. Nevertheless, cooking two sets of meals even for two people is a lot!

My advice is to be smart in the kitchen. Optimize your time so that you can go out and do things you love. Resting and self-care is so important.

My brand new cookbook is out on Amazon! It’s called “30-Minute Plant-Based Recipes” and it’s perfect for busy vegans. Grab it now!