Want to try a vegan diet or lifestyle without feeling overwhelmed?
This 1-week vegan challenge will take you through every single day with delicious recipes and helpful resources..
Everything’s super bite-sized and in a neat little package (including a 1-week vegan meal plan at the end of this article which you can print out) to help you start a plant-based diet in no time!
free 7-day vegan meal plan
Your next week of eating is planned out with these quick and delicious vegan bowls, meal prepping steps & full grocery list.
Challenge day 1
Today’s the preparation day of your vegan challenge! Although you’re free to start eating plant-based right now, it’s important to lay a good foundation.
Educate yourself
Don’t let this title scare you! No need to become a pro right away but it’s always good to know a couple of things before starting a 7-day challenge like this.
Going vegan has lots of benefits that go beyond the injustice towards animals.
See how you can decrease your environmental footprint, improve your health and possibly even reduce your monthly grocery bill! These facts can be highly motivational.
Evaluate your kitchen
Do you have the main staple foods at home to create simple vegan meals, or do you need to go grocery shopping?
From oats to pasta, bread, plant-based milk, snacks, legumes, and fresh produce, it’s important to be well-stocked and keep animal-based foods out of your sight as much as possible.
Check out the following guides for more tips!
- Complete Vegan Grocery List
- 25 Vegan Staple Foods
- Best Snacks at the Store
- Being Vegan on a Budget
- Vegan Ingredients Checker
download our free printable vegan grocery list
Grab your free PDF and sign up for our newsletter by entering your email below!
Browse some vegan recipes
No matter if you don’t have a clue what vegans eat all day long or you already have a vague idea, getting some inspiration for delicious plant-based meals is always helpful!
We recommend that you choose a few easy recipes or dishes you think you’d enjoy. Write them down or collect them somewhere so you can create a simple meal plan for your first few days on a vegan diet!
Check our meal planning guide here as well as the following beginner-friendly recipes.
Challenge day 2
Make a vegan breakfast
Start the day with a delicious plant-based breakfast! Choose from the options you wrote down yesterday, eat a bowl of cereal with plant-based milk or make a simple smoothie.
There are so many options and breakfast is usually the easiest meal to make vegan! Check the following resources for more help.
Plant-based nutrition 101
Will you suffer from terrible malnutrition during your 7-day vegan challenge? How do vegans get their protein, iron or healthy fats — and what about vitamin B12?
Isn’t a vegan diet unhealthy if you need to take supplements?
All of these questions can come up if you’re new to plant-based eating. We’ve created this full vegan nutrition guide including portion sizes, a handy food pyramid and cheat sheets to see which foods have which nutrients!
download our free vegan nutrition printables
Grab your free PDF and sign up for our newsletter by entering your email below!
Challenge day 3
Now that you’ve got breakfast down, it’s time to move to the second meal of the day!
Vegan lunchtime
Free your mind from thinking about how to satisfy your midday belly rumble with some easy make-ahead vegan lunch ideas!
You’ll even save some money if you usually grab lunch outside at a restaurant or café — here are our best resources to find your next favorite plant-based lunch recipe.
By the way, just using leftovers from dinner is totally fine, too!
Tackling cravings
Just like anyone else who’s avoiding certain foods, it’s totally normal to experience cravings as a vegan.
Especially if you literally just had cheese or pepperoni pizza a few days ago or your family and friends eat that kind of food around you all the time!
The good news is that pretty much anything you love to eat is available in a vegan version these days (more on how to make anything vegan later).
Check out the following recipe collections, tips for what vegan food you can find at which restaurant as well as an in-depth guide on dealing with cravings (plus free printables!).
Challenge day 4
Awesome, you’ve made it this far in your vegan challenge! One more staple meal to cover today — perhaps to enjoy during a movie?
Vegan dinner
In our house, dinnertime is the best time! We sometimes cook together, laugh together and share what we experienced the past couple of hours.
And we love doing that over some delicious plant-based food!
No matter what type of eater you are, the following vegan dinner recipe collections have to offer lots of flavor, minimal prep time and they are totally family-friendly.
Not just aspiring vegans will enjoy these!
Movie time
How about moving over to the couch after your delicious vegan dinner and watching one (or several) vegan documentaries or movies?
It’s one of our favorite ways to learn more about a subject — and images can express more than a thousand words sometimes.
This doesn’t mean that you need to watch clips of animal cruelty (although this will definitely strengthen your commitment next time you walk past a fast food restaurant), there are well-done family-friendly movies delivering an inspiring message about what it means to be vegan.
Check out these vegan documentaries and speeches!
Challenge day 5
Get ready to become a snacking and meal-prepping pro today! Or just get a rough idea of what to munch between meals as a vegan — your call.
Vegan snacks
We don’t know about you, but we LOVE snacks! Anything from veggie sticks dipped in hummus to crackers, smoothies, or energy drinks and bars — there is so much goodness that can get us through a busy day as a vegan.
Find some tips for making your own vegan snacks and choose from our protein-packed or kid-friendly recipes and check out the best vegan snack boxes you can order online!
- 30+ High-Protein Vegan Snacks
- 25+ Tasty Vegan Snacks for Kids
- Best Vegan Snack Boxes
- How to Make Bliss Balls
Meal prepping
Preparing more of your own food at home can be a real chore — especially if you’re not super kitchen-savvy.
That’s where meal prepping comes in! From cooking larger batches of food that you can reuse in different ways and save time to prewashing and chopping your produce, roasting veg or making your own vegan dressings, the possibilities are endless.
Check out our two resources below for more!
Challenge day 6
By now, you’re pretty knowledgeable about plant-based food! But there might be a few long-loved meals or treats you’re still missing — no problem.
Veganize your favorites
Just make all the things you love to eat in a vegan version!
If you haven’t browsed your local store for delicious pre-made vegan sausages or cookies, check out these vegan food swaps, which you can use to recreate many dishes.
From vegan grilled cheese to vegan chicken wings, there are lots of great recipes which you can find on the internet, too!
Education round 2
Knowledge is your best friend in pretty much all areas of life, right? We want to encourage you to check out different formats, from physical books to articles (like this one), videos, audio, and in-person talks.
No matter if you’re really interested in nutrition, general lifestyle, social aspects, philosophy, and ethics, or just good food, check out the following collections to find your new favorite podcast or book.
Challenge day 7
The final day of your vegan challenge! Let’s try some super delicious treats and see how you can move forward with this lifestyle.
Real-life vegan tips
As you might have picked up on, the vegan lifestyle isn’t always easy — and it entails much more than just the food on your plate.
One of the reasons why people shy away from transitioning to veganism is that they fear having difficult conversations with friends and family.
We’ve definitely been there and want to share our best real-life tips as a vegan, from being the only vegan in the family, helping your partner or kids transition, or surviving parties as a vegan!
- Being vegan when your family isn’t
- Becoming a plant-based family
- Vegan holiday survival guide
- Vegan cookout tips & recipes
Make vegan dessert
Okay, what’s left to discover? Dessert, of course! It’ll be the easiest course to sway any non-vegans, and you’ll soon fall in love with vegan cookies, cakes, bites, or ice cream, too.
Here are our favorite collections (we’ve shared ice cream recipes during day 3 of this challenge already), which contain lots of goodness for every taste preference.
More vegan guides
Did you enjoy our 7-day vegan challenge? You’ll probably find the following guides helpful, too!
- Going Vegan For Beginners
- Transitioning to a Vegan Diet
- Going Dairy-Free For Beginners
- Vegan Side Effects
- What I Eat as a Vegan
Did you follow this 7-day vegan challenge? How did you like it and what were your biggest wins and struggles? Be sure to share in the comments below, check out the recipes below and Pin this article here.
Ingredients
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Instructions
- Choose from the vegan recipes above and create a meal plan.
- Feel free to re-use recipes you liked and work with leftovers!
- Read the full article for lots of real-life tips about going vegan and be sure to sign up for our free vegan transition course.
Alena Schowalter is a Certified Vegan Nutritionist who has been a vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2012. Together with her husband, she founded nutriciously in 2015 and has been guiding thousands of people through different transition stages towards a healthy plant-based diet. She’s received training in the fields of nutrition, music therapy and social work. Alena enjoys discussions around vegan ethics, walks through nature and creating new recipes.
Welcome to our 7-day vegan challenge where we break down the first steps for your transition! Including lots of little gems, easy recipes, meal plans and real-life tips, this week will be super easy and fun.