The themed dinner parties are on hiatus for today, so that I can share this awesome giveaway with you!
I have this friend who has a salt & vinegar chip-variety personality. (The first chip is too much. Suddenly, you’ve finished the bag.) He’s extremely outgoing, boisterous, huggy, and at first some people find him to be too much. He always says about himself that when people tell him that they don’t like him, he finds it to be a good sign. Not liking him is the first step to liking him. As odd as this may sound, I think veganism can be like this. In some ways the first step to going vegan is to say, “I could never go vegan.” This is often followed with all of the typical reasons – many of them involving cheese. I’m sure if you asked all of the vegans out there if they ever said those words – I could never go vegan – most of them would say that they had. So what stands between I could never and I have to?
It’s many things, really. It’s finding compelling reasons first and foremost (whether for health, the environment, and/or the lives of the animals). It’s also being armed with tools that make the transition go from impossible to possible. Because let’s face it, going vegan in our culture (regardless of where you live in the world and whatever culture you live in) is going upstream. You may not have multiple vegan restaurants in your town or a natural food store on every block, and even if you do, those may not be places you frequent. Luckily, that’s not the make it or break it of veganism. Once a person feels compelled and convinced, that part falls away. They’re just details, and the reasons I can’t get replaced by the reasons I will.
A person who was in no small part my guide from vegetarianism to veganism was Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Through her podcast, Vegetarian Food for Thought, I learned not only the why’s around veganism but also the how’s. While a person could easily say that Colleen is a passionate voice for the animals, she also is a pragmatic one. And really, it was her pragmatism that won me over. After going on daily walks and listening to her podcast, I couldn’t not be vegan. I realized that being vegan was the most natural way to live my values. After that, I turned to her many food podcasts to figure out how to create a sustainable and health-promoting vegan diet. (A person can subsist on veggie dogs and PB&J, but how fulfilling is that?) By listening to her podcasts and following her cookbooks, I tackled kale, Swiss chard, and collard greens.
That’s why I was so delighted when Colleen told me about her 30 Day Vegan Challenge. It takes all of the knowledge that a person can find in the hours and hours of her podcast (which I still highly recommend, by the way), and puts them together with videos, recipes, and an arsenal of tools. With her daily emails and guidance, a person can follow along and discover everything from the basics of filling a vegan pantry to navigating social situations at the holidays and finally to being a fully compassionate, joyful vegan. From the first day of the challenge to the last, Colleen’s online program takes you through every step. (A couple of my recipes are even included in the program!)
I’ve had the pleasure of reading through all of the days, watching the videos, and listening to the audio files, and I only have one criticism. It should be packaged with a time machine, so that I could go back in time about 7 years and give it to myself when I was going vegetarian. With grocery lists, meal plans, video tours of her kitchen and grocery store, reenactments of how to ask for what you want in a restaurant… This is just the kind of all around, start to finish program that helps a person every step of the way, including dealing with interpersonal conflicts, which in my mind is the trickiest part of veganism (far more than picking cashew-based cheese over animal-based cheese).
While the program is specially priced right now at $20, Colleen has offered to give away a membership to one reader of Cadry’s Kitchen. Whether you’d like to take the 30 Day Vegan Challenge yourself or gift it to someone, just tell me why you’d like it in the comments section below. This giveaway is international and only requires email/web access to take part. The giveaway ends at 12:01 am CST on October 24, 2012. The winner will be announced later that day. The giveaway has ended! The lucky winner is Lois! Congrats!!
Disclaimer: I was not paid for this review. I was given a free membership to 30 Day Vegan Challenge to check it out for myself, and Colleen is my friend. The thoughts and opinions are totally my own.
I love Colleen and her books, she is such a super nice and motivating lady. If I won I would share this book with my family because I am the only vegan or vegetarian member in my family, so I try and get as many tools in their hands as possible.
I have just adopted a vegan life style and this would give me more needed resources that I can use and share with my family.
I’ve been vegan for a couple years but I’m always up for a challenge. I wish I knew someone I could get to do the challenge that wasn’t vegan.
I would love to do this with my husband, who is an omni!
Cadry, you literally have me tearing up with this post. Going vegan has changed my life so drastically. I really wish I too could go back in a time machine and tell myself what I know now. It would have saved me a lot of physical and emotional pain. If I win this giveaway I would love to give it as a gift to someone who has a real need. Thanks for being as passionate as I am about being vegan! Love- Somer
I would love to gift this to my hubby. He’s doing good, but he struggles with the vegan lifestyle.
Once a week, I find myself eating cheese. I would use this prize to help me get back on track to eating vegan every day – especially when eating out at restaurants.
I would love this for my Mum- I’m sure she’d embrace it, I feel like she’s getting closer to going veg, just needs some guidance and an authoritative voice. I completely trust Colleen with that having listened to pretty much all her podcasts last summer!
Colleen is the best and I recommend her podcasts and books all the time! I suppose I would pass on my winnings to the next person who asks me questions about veganism — Instead of me passing them my copy of the ’30 Day Vegan Challenge’ book, I will pass them this membership.
I feel like my veganism is getting off of the healthy track it needs to be on. I hope this program can help me with that.
I’ve been trying to help my friend go vegan here at college so that I can have someone to eat and cook with. She definitely needs the inspiration.
Being vegan seems so easy now, but you’re right about how hard it seems as visions of pizza flash before your eyes. This is a wonderful giveaway for a new or aspiring vegan, and I don’t want to be entered in the contest. I just want to second your wise words, and offer encouragement to those trying to adopt a kinder, healthier lifestyle.
A year ago I visited Seoul for work and was horrified of the Korean consumption of dogs and cats. These thoughts were just the beginning for me as I began to ask myself why I was horrified by these needless killings rather than that of other animals that I happily ate with no thought as to their own personality and feelings. I couldn’t bear the thought of eating a creature like my own dog because I know his personality and I quickly realised that that was the only thing that allowed me to eat without conscious, not imaging the meat relating to the animals. Around this time I came to Coleen’s podcast. Almost by chance I listened to a post about art and film, unaware that her subtle words (in this episode) would lead me to deeper thought and ultimate change in diet and lifestyle. Those little seeds planted by one podcast lead me to listen more and more discovering information that sometimes I didn’t want to hear but needed to. My mind was opened and the truth was revealed. I still listen to Colleen’s Food for Thought podcasts. Still learning and being inspired by her compassion. I would love to win this giveaway, either to learn more for myself so I know how to respond to others when they question me or to gift it to my boyfriend who (alas) still eats meat, to show him why veganism is such an important element of my life and could be beneficial to him too (and of course the animals, health and planet). Thank you Cadry for the opportunity to win. Your blog is amazing. X
I tried to go vegan a few years ago after being inspired by Colleen’s podcast, but I’ve fallen off the vegan wagon! I would love this program to get me back on track.
While I have mastered vegan pies, cookies, home-made almond milk, cashew “goat” cheese and have after years of trying managed to ban milk from my tea and coffee, I still don’t seem to be able to make a 100 % switch from vegetarian to vegan. I’ve been eye-balling the 30 day challenge for a while but as I decided to go back to school I currently can’t afford it, not even at this very reasonable price. So there you go, that’s why I’d love to win it.
I love Colleen. I just started listening to her podcasts a couple months ago and she is seriously, one of the most inspirational people I’ve heard speak.
If I won this, I would likely give it to my cousin who is a die-hard animal lover and vegetarian. She once said, however, “I would be vegan except it doesn’t fit into my lifestyle right now” (She’s a college girl). I think this would be very inspiring for her.
I have been vegan for several years, but sometimes I have a hard time with feeding myself and my family healthy foods. I rely too heavily on easy, convenient junk foods and need help with healthy options for my family.
I’m a fan of Colleen’s. Without her podcast I probably wouldn’t be vegan today, and I recommend listening to it to anyone who is interested in going vegan. I would share the membership with my family. Sometimes it can be difficult for them to come up with vegan options when I’m visiting, so the challenge membership would be a great resource for recipes!
Colleen is my inspiration. She alone not only awakened me from my previous omniverous lifestyle, but she also made the transition to my becoming vegan incredibly simple and straight-forward. As an intelligent and motivating individual, I hope that this challenge membership will benefit my younger sister who is combating a major eating disorder and guide her to see the light and beauty in a healthy, plant-based diet, and I know that Colleen and her program would accomplish that.