Vegan Circlejerk

That's really cool! But it's not that easy for everyone. In my family even vegetarian food barely existed growing up. Lentils were at best used to make soup and that soup also contained bacon or sausages. Mash is made with milk and potentially butter. Even salads often contained bacon, cheese or at the very least milk in the seasoning. Even store-bought bread is not necessarily vegan. Red cabbage should be vegan even in my family, I agree. So while everyone else is feasting duck, mash, various appetizers, desserts, christmas cookies, I would have been left with cabbage. Not exactly healthy and tasty. More a concept for being laughted about.

Sure, if you're an experienced cook already and mostly prepare your own food, it might be easier. But in my situation, going vegan step-by-step also gave my social circles some time to adapt to the new situation. So there's less weird comments and less social pressure to 'stop with that bullshit'.

By the way, as you mentioned smoking: also cigarettes aren't vegan in many cases. I luckily was never addicted to that shit but if I imagine myself in the 'cabbage situation' above who is now also on tobacco withdrawal that sounds like a perfect intro for a mental crisis. Not exactly a situation that would have motivated myself to keep going. Nevertheless, for those affected, try to stop smoking guys! :)