Turns out the secret to long-term veganism isn't elaborate Buddha bowls or Instagram-worthy smoothies — it's embracing the beautiful mundane.
I went into this expecting variety. Maybe some wild fermentation projects. Perhaps a rotation of globally-inspired dishes that would make me feel inadequate about my own cooking. What I got instead was a masterclass in the power of boring.
Over the past month, I reached out to 30 vegans who've maintained this lifestyle for a decade or more.
I asked them one simple question: What do you actually eat in a typical week? Not your dinner party menu. Not your special occasion meals. Your real, unglamorous, Tuesday-night-after-work food.
The responses revealed something that behavioral science has been telling us for years: habit formation thrives on simplicity and repetition. And these long-term vegans have figured that out, whether they realize it or not.
The rotation is real
Almost everyone I talked to had what I started calling a "core five." These are five to seven meals they make on autopilot, week after week, with minor variations. We're talking pasta with marinara. Rice and beans. Stir-fried vegetables over noodles. Veggie burgers. Big salads with whatever's in the fridge.
One respondent, a 52-year-old teacher from Ohio who's been vegan for 14 years, put it perfectly: "I eat the same breakfast every single day. Oatmeal with banana and peanut butter. It's not exciting, but I never have to think about it." That lack of decision fatigue? It's not laziness. It's strategy.
Batch cooking is the unsung hero
About two-thirds of the people I surveyed mentioned some form of batch cooking. Sunday meal prep. A big pot of soup that lasts four days. A container of cooked grains in the fridge at all times. This isn't meal prep content creator stuff with seventeen matching containers. It's more like: make a lot of one thing, eat it until it's gone.
The psychology here makes sense. When you're tired and hungry, you reach for what's easy. If what's easy is already vegan and already made, you don't have to rely on willpower. You just eat the lentil soup because it's there and it's warm and you're hungry.
Nobody's making cashew cheese on a Wednesday
Here's what surprised me most. Almost none of these long-term vegans regularly make the elaborate recipes that dominate vegan cookbooks and food blogs. The homemade seitan. The three-hour cashew cheese. The dehydrated crackers. Those are weekend projects at best, special occasion food at most.
Daily eating looks more like: toast with avocado, hummus wraps, frozen veggie burgers, canned beans heated up with spices. One person described their go-to dinner as "whatever vegetables are about to go bad, roasted with olive oil and garlic, served over rice." That's not a recipe. That's just feeding yourself.
The snack game is strong but simple
When I asked about snacks, I expected to hear about energy balls and homemade granola bars. Instead, I got a lot of fruit, nuts, crackers with peanut butter, and the occasional handful of chips. Several people mentioned keeping cut vegetables in the fridge, but just as many admitted they buy baby carrots because they're already cut.
There's no shame in convenience here. These are people who've been doing this for over a decade. They've learned that perfection is the enemy of consistency. A store-bought hummus container has kept more people vegan than any elaborate recipe ever could.
Eating out is rarely complicated
Most respondents said they eat out maybe once or twice a week. Their strategies are remarkably similar: find a few reliable restaurants, order the same things, don't stress about it. Thai food with tofu. Indian vegetable dishes. Mexican places where you can swap meat for beans. The fancier vegan restaurants? Those are for birthdays and date nights.
Research on dietary adherence consistently shows that flexibility predicts long-term success. These veterans aren't rigid about finding the perfect vegan meal every time they leave the house. They're practical. Sometimes dinner is a veggie sub from a chain restaurant. Life goes on.
The real secret is permission to be boring
What struck me most about these conversations was the complete absence of guilt about repetition. Nobody apologized for eating the same breakfast for three years straight. Nobody felt like they should be doing more, cooking fancier, exploring new cuisines every week.
They've given themselves permission to be boring. And that permission is freedom. When eating well doesn't require creativity or effort every single day, it becomes sustainable. It becomes just what you do, not a performance or a project.
Final thoughts
If you're new to veganism, or struggling to make it stick, this might be the most useful thing I can tell you: stop trying to be interesting. Find your core five meals. Make them easy. Make them things you actually like, not things you think you should like. Repeat until they become automatic.
The vegans who've been doing this for a decade aren't succeeding because they have more willpower or better recipes or stronger ethics. They're succeeding because they've built systems that don't require constant effort. They've made boring work for them.
And honestly? After talking to all of them, I've started eating oatmeal every morning too. It's pretty good.
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Jordan Cooper
Jordan Cooper is a pop-culture writer and vegan-snack reviewer with roots in music blogging. Known for approachable, insightful prose, Jordan connects modern trends—from K-pop choreography to kombucha fermentation—with thoughtful food commentary. In his downtime, he enjoys photography, experimenting with fermentation recipes, and discovering new indie music playlists.
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