Finding plant-based recipes? Easy. Dealing with the social, cultural, and emotional pressures of being vegan? That's the hard part.
Motivated by a desire to eat more healthfully or live more ethically, many people choose veganism as a logical and sensible response to their concerns about animals, the environment, and their health. Yet, despite their positive intentions, they're often met with resistance from friends, family members, and society at large. These external factors can make veganism socially difficult--and emotionally exhausting--to sustain.
This leads to an unfortunate reality: the majority of vegetarians and vegans revert back to consuming meat, dairy, or eggs--breaching their own values and sabotaging their own goals in the process.
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, known as the "Joyful Vegan," has guided countless individuals through the process of becoming vegan. Now, in The Joyful Vegan, she shares her insights into why some people stay vegan and others don't. Understanding that the food is the easy part of being vegan, Colleen turns her attention to what she believes is the most challenging--dealing with the social, cultural, and emotional aspects: being asked to defend your eating choices, living with the awareness of animal suffering, feeling the pressure (often self-inflicted) to be perfect, and experiencing guilt, remorse, and anger.
In these pages, Colleen shares her wisdom for navigating and overcoming these challenges and arms readers with solutions and strategies for staying confident with family and friends, creating healthy relationships, communicating effectively, sharing enthusiasm without evangelizing, finding like-minded community, and experiencing peace of mind as a vegan in a non-vegan world.
By implementing the tools provided in this book, you will find that you can live ethically, eat healthfully, engage socially--and remain a joyful vegan.
About the Author :
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, a recognized expert and thought leader on the culinary, social, ethical, and practical aspects of living vegan, is an award-winning author of seven books, including the bestselling The Joy of Vegan Baking. She is an acclaimed speaker and beloved host of the podcast Food for Thought, which has been voted the favorite podcast by VegNews magazine readers for several years in a row. She shares her message of compassion and wellness on national and regional television and radio programs and as a monthly contributor to NPR on KQED. She has appeared on the Food Network, CBS, PBS, and FOX; interviews with her have been featured on NPR, Huffington Post, US News and World Report; and her recipes have been featured on Epicurious.com and Oprah.com.
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, a recognized expert and thought leader on the culinary, social, ethical, and practical aspects of living vegan, is an award-winning author of seven books, including the bestselling The Joy of Vegan Baking. She is an acclaimed speaker and beloved host of the podcast Food for Thought, which has been voted the favorite podcast by VegNews magazine readers for several years in a row. She shares her message of compassion and wellness on national and regional television and radio programs and as a monthly contributor to NPR on KQED. She has appeared on the Food Network, CBS, PBS, and FOX; interviews with her have been featured on NPR, Huffington Post, US News and World Report; and her recipes have been featured on Epicurious.com and Oprah.com.
Review :
The Joyful Vegan resonates deeply with me. Colleen Patrick-Goudreau identifies exactly what we need more of in our interactions with one another: greater empathy, understanding, and respect for our common humanity."
-- "Cory Booker, US senator"
"Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is a visionary. She translates vegan ideals into accessible prose and practice more effectively than anyone I know. Relentlessly positive, her message intuitively appeals to vegans, almost-vegans, and no-way-I'd-ever-be vegans alike, which is to say: all of us."
-- "James McWilliams, author of Just Food"
"Enjoying delicious, nutritious, plant-based food is easy! It's everything else that tests the most committed among us: the social pressure to conform, the emotional interactions with loved ones, and the awareness of all the unnecessary suffering. Luckily, Colleen equips us with everything we need to face these hurdles with strength and grace."
-- "Michael Greger, MD, New York Times bestselling author"
"Every vegan, semivegan, or plant-based individual needs a copy of this thoughtful, thorough, game-changing book!"
-- "Evanna Lynch, vegan activist and actress in the Harry Potter film series"
"The unique contribution of The Joyful Vegan is Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's ten stages that many vegans experience when they stop eating animals. The insights she provides around this concept are deeply empowering and validating."
-- "Melanie Joy, PhD, author of Beyond Beliefs"
"This book is essential reading for anyone who has ever thought they had to choose between living ethically, eating healthfully, and engaging socially. The Joyful Vegan normalizes a compassionate way of living and empowers readers to embrace their values with confidence and joy."
-- "Kathy Freston, New York Times bestselling author "
