The Joyful Vegan

How to Stay Vegan in a World That Wants You to Eat Meat, Dairy, and Egg

By: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Narrated by: Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Finding plant-based recipes? Easy. Dealing with the social, cultural, and emotional pressures of being vegan? That’s the hard part.

Motivated by a desire to eat more healthfully or live more ethically, many people choose veganism as a logical and sensible response to their concerns about animals, the environment, and their health. Yet, despite their positive intentions, they’re often met with resistance from friends, family members, and society at large. These external factors can make veganism socially difficult - and emotionally exhausting - to sustain.

This leads to an unfortunate reality: The majority of vegetarians and vegans revert back to consuming meat, dairy, or eggs - breaching their own values and sabotaging their own goals in the process.

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, known as the “Joyful Vegan,” has guided countless individuals through the process of becoming vegan. Now, in The Joyful Vegan, she shares her insights into why some people stay vegan and others don’t. Understanding that the food is the easy part of being vegan, Colleen turns her attention to what she believes is the most challenging - dealing with the social, cultural, and emotional aspects: being asked to defend your eating choices, living with the awareness of animal suffering, feeling the pressure (often self-inflicted) to be perfect, and experiencing guilt, remorse, and anger.

In this audiobook, Colleen shares her wisdom for navigating and overcoming these challenges and arms listeners with solutions and strategies for staying confident with family and friends, creating healthy relationships, communicating effectively, sharing enthusiasm without evangelizing, finding like-minded community, and experiencing peace of mind as a vegan in a non-vegan world.

By implementing the tools provided in this book, you will find that you can live ethically, eat healthfully, engage socially - and remain a joyful vegan.

©2019 Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Very easy to understand!

Helps a lot on how to deal with the hall process on becoming a “vegan”. Love it

Great Book!

I enjoyed this book. I am grateful I found this book. It’s on my favorites list.
A great book for existing vegans and non-vegans.
I enjoyed the voice too.
I will recommend this book to friends and family.

Well Written

what had a great message was well written well performed advice anyone looking into the vegan lifestyle to read this especially when considering how to communicate with others to teach lessons that go far beyond veganism in this current day and age of partisan divide we are living in.

Wonderful, Sane Book

I haven’t eaten meat since 2004 and been fully plant based for 7 years. I hadn’t thought I could learn anything new and this book introduced me in ways to handle any situation with more graciousness than I’ve practiced. I feel freer and lighter than ever before. I recommend this book to newbies and old hats.

Lifelong vegan and vegetarian

Colleen is an excellent narrator but her philosophy is a bit single-sided. I was raised vegan and vegetarian-in a “meat free” household and do think we’re working towards a more compassionate future - but I don’t think hunters and sustainable farmers feel such a sense of shame as the author describes. I think most are doing what they can.

Living vegan among non-vegans

This book was absolutely amazing. It covers all aspects of being vegan regardless of how someone comes to a vegan lifestyle. It addresses in a most compassionate way how to live amongst non-vegans harmoniously while still remaining vegan and true to our values. I recommend this book for new vegans and long time vegans and everyone in between. I plan to re-read this book again!

Well Written

Colleen has written a thoughtful and thought provoking book. It covers all topics that vegans face and offers many insights. I highly recommend this book!

A struggling vegan

I’ve been vegetarian since December 2017. Vegan since January 2019. Though since January 2019, I have succumbed several times to eating things with cow’s milk and eggs. I’ve felt guilty each time and felt unworthy of the ‘vegan’ name. This book helped me to be gentle on myself. My spouse and 5-year old daughter are both omnivorous and virtually everyone I’m close to is omnivorous(though my daughter is starting to understand that eating meat is eating a killed animal and I’m seeing how her compassion is evolving). This book was such a helpful encouragement to stay the course and to offer compassion and grace to others, to the world, and to myself.

The audiobook is phenomenally read by the author and I’m grateful she read it. Though she takes a strong stand for veganism, her compassion is disarming and I believe non-vegans will feel challenged without feeling condemned.

Must Read

I love the tone and the stance made to become Vegan. The create a joyful view on how to become Vegan, stay Vegan, and spread Veganism. I would recommend this book to everyone of all ages and background. Consider this a ground breaking book.

Lovely and so inspiring

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has been a hero and my number one resource as I have transitioned to a vegan world view and lifestyle. Even if you're not vegan or are ex-vegan or are unsure what veganism is all about, this book is enlightening, very digestible (not long or dense or tedious), and deeply moving. Highly recommend.