No, it really isn’t hard. In fact, it’s incredibly easy to be vegan. It’s like going through life eating endless yummy side dishes, and never having to wonder if the roast is medium rare, or the chicken is cooked all the way through.

Crowding the meat off my plate has led me to explore the endless variety of vegetables, beans, and grains at my local grocery stores. Every year, I try to do a little better than I did the year before, in terms of what I put into my body. On the same food budget I had when I was an omnivore, I now eat mostly organic foods. I’ve weaned myself from less nutritious, processed foods, and learned to enjoy cooking many things from scratch. This winter, I’m mastering cooking my own beans, so I can stop buying canned. So far, I’ve come up with excellent refried beans, black beans, and baked beans that are so sinfully delicious, I can’t make them more than once a month without expanding my waistline further.

Removing meat from my plate, and my kitchen, means cooking goes faster, and so does cleaning. There’s no meat grease to dispose of, and no bones. Without meat fallout to dispose of, my trash doesn’t attract flies or smell bad in the very hot Texas summer. I can compost almost all of my kitchen food waste, which feeds my vegetable garden.

My doctor is really happy that I’m vegan. It’s better for my heart, and my blood pressure. Eating a plant-based diet may help me live longer, and remain healthier into my old age.

And then, there’s the lack of ethical dilemma. I don’t treat my dog with love and care, and then eat some other sweet animal. I don’t make my body a graveyard for animals who are slaughtered in horrific ways, after living lives of misery.

So, no, it’s not hard to be vegan. Being vegan is easy. You should give it a try.