10 things that surprised me about going vegan

In 2016, for health and ethical reasons, I tried out "Veganuary" — that is, I stopped eating all animal products for the month of January. I was expecting to miss cheese in sandwiches and the ease of ordering eggs for breakfast, but by the end of the month, eating them just didn't seem necessary. I've been vegan ever since.

Full disclosure: I was already vegetarian before going vegan, so it was just a matter of nixing milk, cheese, and eggs from my diet. They were in a surprising number of foods that I enjoyed, but no doubt full-on meat-eaters would find the switch much harder and may need to make incremental changes. Thankfully, there are endless resources online that can help, such as this guide by Rainbow Plant Life.

There are also things anyone wanting to become vegan needs to keep in mind, including potential deficiencies and supplements, before they change their diet.

Immediately after going vegan, some people experience discomfort due to the increased consumption of fiber, while others have reported better energy levels.

In those first few weeks, a lot of people asked me if I felt better, but I couldn't honestly say that I did. I didn't feel any worse, but I wasn't bounding out of bed any earlier, either.

While it's possible I was lacking certain nutrients in those early days as I adjusted to the new diet, it's also possible that I didn't notice any major changes because I had already been eating a vegetarian diet for so long.

Other people may not notice improvements in how they feel because it's also possible to be vegan and eat poorly, thanks to the availability of highly processed vegan products.

A few weeks after going vegan, however, I did notice improvements to my skin, which seemed clearer, perhaps due to me dropping dairy from my diet.

"Studies have shown that removing dairy from patients' diets improves their acne," dermatologist Papri Sarkar previously told Insider. "This relationship is especially strong with dairy and lower fat milks. In my experience, I've found that if patients go off dairy for a month, a significant number of them with mild to moderate acne see improvement."

I do not know how I survived my 20s — I lived on Diet Coke, bagels, and takeout Thai food. I couldn't tell you how much protein I was getting, and I definitely hadn't heard of B12 or iodine.

After becoming vegan — and getting asked a lot of questions about my nutritional intake — I educated myself. I wanted to be able to maintain this diet long term while proving to others that it's totally safe to be vegan.

Watching nutritionists and vloggers on YouTube was the first, digestible step, followed by reading a lot of online resources. More recently, I've checked in with a nutritionist, paid close attention to my bloodwork at the doctor's, and I sporadically track my food intake on a free app to make sure I'm not consistently short on certain vitamins or minerals.

As a result, I am so much more aware of my nutritional intake and overall health than I ever was before going vegan. This is something I definitely didn't anticipate before making the switch.

These days, I look at cashews and see cheese. I look at tofu and see quiche. I look at a can of chickpeas and see a breakfast scramble or meringues. I look at kidney beans and see doughnuts.

Before I was vegan, I wasn't taking full advantage of all the creative ways these whole foods can be used, or how they can create delicious, sometimes healthier versions of comfort foods. Many people consider veganism a restrictive diet, but that hasn't been my experience at all — it's definitely made me more excited about food and cooking.

Accidentally, I went vegan at just the right time. While veganism has been around for centuries, many food companies woke up to the need and opportunities in the late 2010s. Seven months after I went vegan, the first Impossible burgers came out. Oat milk, which had been around for decades, became a mainstay of coffee-shop refrigerators.

Now it seems like every company wants in on the diet.

Some of these products do carry higher price tags than the meat versions, and they are not available in every store across the country. However, I've been surprised to see just how much these products have taken off — even infiltrating fast-food chains — and how the options keep getting more diverse.

I lived in Brooklyn, New York, when I turned vegan, and there couldn't have been a better place for it. My neighborhood was crammed with grocery stores and vegan-friendly restaurants, and the coffee shops all had a plethora of nut-based milks.

However, in the years since, I've moved to a small, rural town in Upstate New York, and I've had a very different experience. Frustratingly, many nearby restaurants think a plate of fries or a side salad is a good vegan meal option, and there are very few places I can go out to eat.

It's also a nearly 20-mile drive to my nearest supermarket, and while it does carry many of the plant-based items I enjoyed in New York City, I'm aware other people may not be able to make this journey. Additionally, food deserts can also make veganism harder in some areas of the country, so access to fresh produce and a variety of vegan products is not possible for everyone.

Milk powder seems to be lurking in everything, from store-bought breadcrumbs and crackers, to flavored potato chips, cereal products, and hamburger buns. Even some meat substitutes have eggs and milk in them.

Alcohol is another one: Depending on the type of alcohol and the brand, the production process may have involved the use of eggs, isinglass (a product from fish bladders), milk, or other animal products.

Additionally, there are non-vegan ingredients I've learned to avoid, such as whey, which is a milk protein, and carmine, a red food dye derived from beetles.

Allergens, such as milk, are printed in bold letters on packaging, which makes it a little easier when you have to check products at the store which, invariably, you have to do with every single item.

Where would I be with store-bought puff pastry or Swedish Fish?

Going vegan doesn't mean giving up all the fun stuff: Thankfully the list of accidentally vegan foods you can buy in a grocery store is pretty long. Some might share production facilities with other items that do contain animal products, which is usually made clear on the packaging.

Animal products are used in a surprising number of ways, and I didn't know about half of them when I went vegan — I probably still don't. It's a learning process.

I knew to be aware of leather when it came to shoe shopping, but I'd never thought about car interiors. I knew to be cognizant of animal testing in the beauty products I bought, but I hadn't thought of medications — something that continues to be a conundrum. I wasn't aware of all the items that use down as stuffing, from coats to couches to pillows. I didn't know that animal fat is used in plastic bags.

For people who cut out meat for health reasons, these products may not be a concern, but for those who become vegan for animal welfare — like I did — or the environment, they are worth researching.

This is an oft-repeated observation among vegans. We don't regret giving up food like dairy and eggs, and we don't regret making our lives harder when we go out to eat. The major regret is that we ever doubted making the switch, or that we waited so long to do it.