Is It Vegan?

It is such a dramatic change of lifestyle to go from eating almost exclusively animal products to none at all. I know that I need all the help I can get. I'm so grateful to live in the era we do today where information and technology is literally at our fingertips. I had my first solo vegan shopping trip this week, and while the store clerks were as helpful as they possibly could be, some things they just simply didn't know. This is to be expected. Which is why I'm SO glad I decided to use my smartphone to help me out on this journey!

I found an app on the iTunes store called "Is It Vegan?" (also available on the Google Play Store) You can input specific ingredients you are unsure of, or you can scan the barcode on the item you are considering purchasing. It will list the ingredients for you and tell you if it is vegan, vegetarian, or neither. I've been using the heck out of this app since I got it.  It is a very handy tool :)

Become familiar with common ingredients that you may overlook, but are definitely animal products.
Here is a detailed list from the PETA website:
http://www.peta.org/living/beauty/animal-ingredients-list/

I won't lie, making this transition hasn't been the easiest thing to do. At the same time, it also has not been the hardest. Small sacrifices for my health and countless other reasons are totally worth it to me to be a bit uncomfortable for a while.