When my sister told me she was going to become a vegan last year, my first thoughts were, "How can she never eat cheesecake? Or Cafe Rio? Or....?" You get the idea.
Now that I am on my 11th day of trying to eat like a vegan, I am finding it pretty easy to do without certain foods I used to love to eat. Ice cream, cheese, cookies, etc. How is this possible? I call it, the Crowding Out Principle.
If you plan your vegan meals (using my easy vegan meal plan model, or not), you will fill your body with good, healthy food at each meal (and for snacks and desserts), and not have any more room for the long lost dairy & meat that you used to eat so frequently. In essence, you "crowd it out" with good food. This is the same concept that helps people who fall into negative behaviors/addictions. When they use their time in pursuit of positive goals, they no longer have any time to feed their addictions.
Another reason why it's easier to avoid those foods, even when they are placed right in front of you, is because 1- you know that your body won't feel good afterwards, so you would rather eat fresh foods that make you feel good, and 2- you don't crave them the way you used to because you are no longer "addicted" to them. I imagine it's like someone who has quit smoking for years. Their bodies are no longer addicted so they don't feel the same urge to smoke as they would if they had just smoked the day before, and they don't want to regress and feel horrible all over again (I may be totally wrong on this, but at least it can illustrate my point).
So just remember, if you eat lots of good food, there will be no more room in your stomach to eat the bad stuff! Crowd it out!
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