Useful Tips to Stay Vegan and Eat Out at the Same Time

The vegan lifestyle isn’t without its own share of difficulties for a number of reasons, but at the end of the day, it’s well worth it because it keeps your conscience free of guilt. Nevertheless, don’t let your lifestyle keep you from enjoying your life, because with the help of the following tips, you will be able to eat out like a pro, without breaking your vegetarian diet in the slightest.

Eat Only at a Vegan Restaurant

This tip might seem a bit obvious and not a feasible option most of the time, but it doesn’t have to be so. The main problem with going to a vegan eatery is that the people with you are probably not vegans. Now, since you have already taken up a vegan lifestyle, it’s worth considering whether or not you should go dining with people who are not willing to eat veggies even for one night. Going to a place where they serve meat and sharing the table with people who are eating meat can be difficult for a vegan for multiple reasons.

Firstly, if you are a new vegan, it might be uncomfortable for you to resist that urge to give in and eat meat. Secondly, if you really do care about animals, then seeing meat being eaten by your friends might be a very difficult proposition for you. This leads to the question, why go to a place and be part of something that clearly causes you distress? Especially since eating out is supposed to be a peaceful and relaxing activity. Going to a non-veg restaurant with people who are going to eat meat in front of you is a bad idea for a committed vegan!

Ask for the Ingredients

If you find yourself in a place where there are no dedicated vegan restaurants, order only when you are sure about the ingredients and just in case you are not sure, ask for what’s being used in the dish. Don’t misbehave or be impolite because that doesn’t help the cause and only gives vegans a bad name in general. The good news is that places do have a number of strictly vegetarian dishes, so the waiter should be able to help you out with that if you just tell them about your food preferences.

Customize

Customizing the menu is quite often a reliable option at a good restaurant, so talk to the waiter or the chef about it. A lot of meat or egg-based dishes can be made vegetarian by customizing them to exclude the animal products. In fact, even the likes of Starbucks have dedicated vegan Starbucks food options for people to choose from, so that they don’t have to miss out on this world-class café, just on account of being vegan.

Whether you are a new vegan or an old one, it is important to remember that no one should not associate the vegan lifestyle with being miserable! While you will certainly need to make a few initial sacrifices, do not restrict yourself where you don’t need to and these three tips should help you to avoid just that.