Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

Okay, so if you didn't watch Oprah yesterday (first of all, I don't blame you), she had a segment on veganism. She challenged Harpo Studios to go on a vegan diet for one week and some of the results were amazing. Most people said they felt better. Many lost weight (one guys lost 11 lbs in 1 week! just by changing his diet!) and some said they had much more energy.

One of her main guests was Michael Pollan who has written a few books: The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food, and Food Rules. He is quite a smart guy. One of his motto's on the cover of In Defense of Food is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." I think this is a great mantra to live by whether you want to ease into being vegan or continue eating meat, but with more awareness. He is not vegan but eats many vegan meals and meat about 3 times a week.
The other was a lady who had written the book called The Veganist (thus they called her the Veganist on the show, I don't remember her name). I don't think she was very smart with her approach to veganism, though she is said to be an "expert." She went grocery shopping with one of the ladies taking the vegan challenge and instead of buying fresh produce and whole grains, she simply displayed how to by vegan replacements of already processed foods. Most of the grocery cart was filled with packaged food in the end. NOT the way to go about it. One won't reap all the wonderful physical and emotional benefits of being vegan with this approach.

Others who did the vegan challenge learned some disturbing things about themselves, such as addition to fast foods, junk foods, and other really alarming eating habits.

So, my advice is to go vegan, but do it intelligently. Buy cookbooks, find recipes online, or learn from someone who has some experience with vegan cooking. Do not go in blind because you will just end up buying vegan hot dogs which probably are no better than the normal ones.

And always keep learning. Continue to grow. Challenge yourself every day to be the healthier, happier person that you want to be. : ]