Have you been staring longingly at the buttered toast at Sunday Brunch this past month? Will you be the one nobly declining the platter of the haggis at Burns Night Formal Hall next week? Veganuarist, good on you!

I myself haven’t been a vegan very long – a year now, give or take. Personally, it was one of the smoothest transitions I’ve ever made. But the road might be a bit more rocky for others (as an aside, the best vegan rocky road = crumbled Cornflakes, Oreos and melted dark chocolate). If you have ever considered becoming vegan, then you would have probably picked up a copy of PETA’s brochure with its exhaustive list of the ethical and environmental benefits of a plant-based diet. But here are three things PETA (probably) and the health-and-wellness gurus (certainly) won’t tell you. From my experience, they are three things that Veganuarists need to know if they want any hope of sticking around beyond January.

1. EAT ENOUGH (I.E. A LOT)

Don’t try and be one of those people who become vegan to lose that last inch of puppy fat or reveal one of those elusive thigh gaps. Oreos, French fries and peanut butter are vegan (huzzah!) for a reason. Not because we need to go on a vegan “Man vs Food” eating contest, but because vegans have just as much right to treat ourselves. Believe it or not, veganism isn’t just about vegetables. Eat plenty of pasta, or try bean burritos (that’s what Nanna Mex is there for), experiment with products like Cauldron tofu falafels and healthy fats like avocado. If you’re eating enough you’ll get ample amounts of each macronutrient. And remember that plant-based foods (whether you’re eating vegetables or porridge oats) are a lot lower in calories for the same volume. So you’re going to have to get used to eating A LOT - fine by me. A typical breakfast comprises three (yes , three) of those Quaker oats porridge sachets (around 90g of oats) mixed with cocoa powder, a few dates, almond milk, and some mixed nuts and seeds. It takes 5 minutes to make and contains around 20g of protein (more than a third of my recommended needs). So don’t worry about your protein intake – if you’re eating enough calories, the protein will come naturally.

1. KEEP IT INTERSECTIONAL

Back in school I would keep on raving about intersectionality because I thought the word sounded intellectual and vaguely cool. But once I fully understood the breadth of the concept – the interactions between any and all biological, social and cultural categories – then I was able to feel some resonance between my principles and my dietary choices. The notion of the “Other” that suffuses our Orientalist discourse on the “exotic” female is equally potent in our perception of animals. One minute there is a lewd fascination in “grooming” dogs for shows, chopping off their tails and combing their hairs; the next we drink a glass of milk, the end product of a process that involves the forced and painful process of impregnating a cow with a phallic metal contraption.

Humans are the only living creatures than take the milk of another animal destined for its own child. What we do to a cow is nothing short of rape. Veganism is reduced to a triviality when you practice it in the framework of privileged, Western capitalism. Veganism should not just be about health gurus like Gwyneth Paltrow and Deliciously Ella foisting their chia seeds and goji berries upon us. It should occupy its rightful place in a broader framework of social justice. Veganuarist, think about the amount of flesh that you would have chomped into this month had you not given up meat. The same area of land used to rear whatever poor animal you ate might instead be used to yield sixteen pounds of grain for famine-ridden populations.

1. (DON’T) PREACH IT

Think about all the times that you have walked past a street preacher spouting news of the apocalypse. Do you ever seriously think of converting? It’s the same with veganism: don’t try to bring others round to it if they themselves haven’t expressed an interest. Veganuarists – remember you are choosing the lesser of the two evils, but that doesn’t come with the licence to claim that you are living the “cruelty-free” life. For all those who claim that veganism is a hopelessly utopian and idealistic lifestyle to follow, I would argue that it is completely the opposite. It is a compromise between the excesses of consumerist society in which we live, and the difficulty we have of extricating ourselves from it. Be that as it may, I can vouch for the fact that it is a compromise worth making – not just for a month, but for life.