I spend time at the beginning of each year reflecting on the past year and creating goals both personally and professionally for the New Year.
When looking back at 2011, I feel like I accomplished a fair amount, yet I believe I failed somewhat in my goal to inspire my family to crave more meatless meals. Upon reflection I now realize that I tried to do too much too fast, which is something I have definitely been guilty of historically. I made the mistake of not “bridging the gap” enough when preparing our meals. It is REALLY hard for massively carnivorous people to go cold turkey and eat beans and grains as the basis of some of their evening meals. It was also foolish of me to expect that they would quickly start craving whole food plant-based meals as much as I do. Becoming vegan was a process for me and did not happen overnight…I should not expect that my family would not need to go through the same process as I did when learning to eat more meatless meals.
So, I am going to try something new this year. While we will definitely still consume many whole food plant-based meals, I will also be adding some faux meats into some of our dinners. This is a means to an end. I don’t plan on cooking this way forever, by do want to use the faux meats as a stepping stone to help my family realize that they can learn to love some whole food plant-based meals.
Sometimes in life we need to be wise enough to realize when a new approach is needed.