vegetarian noob trying to make a positive change!

Cilantrocat

Hi, I have been trying to lose 50 lbs to no avail!
I have switched to a vegetarian diet for over a year now and I feel a lot better in regards to my digestive system. I feel like I am doing a lot better with consuming veggies and fruits but I'm not losing!
My goal is to switch to a vegan diet as i no longer drink milk but occasionally have cheese and I love animals.
Cardiovascular problems run in my family and I have had a recent scare when I found out I have a blood clot in my leg, and high chloresterol. Man does it hurt. I am fairly active doing a lot of manual labor, gardening/farming and my day job requires me to do a lot of heafty lifting and I lift 50-100 lb materials all day! I always wake up feeling like I got my butt kicked.
I want to add cardio but I can't do too much because of the veins in my leg are not healed yet.
If anyone has any advice on lowering chloresterol or other tips let me know!

PollyEH

Hi, I don't really know much about the cholesterol, sorry, but just wanted to say good for you for keeping on with your veggie diet. I've been vegetarian for about 27 years, for moral reasons, and would also like to make the change to vegan at some point. (How much I love cheese is a problem!) All the research suggests veggie diets are better, so I hope you manage to reach your goals. Good luck!

_treehugger74

Hi! I am also a vegetarian and have been for 10 years. I'm looking to make the vegan jump and maybe it will help keep the 100 ish pounds off. I lost it once ... need to lose it again!

Cilantrocat

_treehugger74 wrote: »

Hi! I am also a vegetarian and have been for 10 years. I'm looking to make the vegan jump and maybe it will help keep the 100 ish pounds off. I lost it once ... need to lose it again!

Great to hear! Maybe we can help eachother

Cilantrocat

PollyEH wrote: »

Hi, I don't really know much about the cholesterol, sorry, but just wanted to say good for you for keeping on with your veggie diet. I've been vegetarian for about 27 years, for moral reasons, and would also like to make the change to vegan at some point. (How much I love cheese is a problem!) All the research suggests veggie diets are better, so I hope you manage to reach your goals. Good luck!

Thanks so much! I love cheese as well! lol I plan on keeping it up!

kvansteen

I also have a cheese problem and my digestive system would prefer I didn't eat it either.

Cilantrocat

Hahaha at least we all admit it! cheese is so very bad for you and I feel so much better when I go with out it.

adidrea

I went vegan cold-turkey a few years ago when I took the time to learn about the meat and dairy industry. It made me mad so I didn't want to support it anymore. I was even vegan for my wedding! Hahaha. It didn't quite work out for me though as it was very restrictive, so after about a year I switched to being a vegetarian and I felt a lot better.

You have to be very careful with a vegan diet, and make sure you take B-12 and Algae-sourced Omega-3 supplements which are both hard to get on a vegan diet. Ultimately, I didn't do a very good job of eating a wide enough variety of foods even as a vegetarian, so around Christmas time last year I added fish back into my diet. I still try to get everything that's non-vegan organic and also buy sustainably caught fish. I feel fine about the things I eat now and my body has never felt better because I'm finally getting enough protein. It's all about finding the right balance. If you want to go vegan just to lose weight there are probably better ways to do it because it's quite restrictive. You may not realize all of the products that have animal ingredients in them, but there are a LOT.

Things I thought were vegan that are actually not: Orange juice, wine, beer, store-bought cake mixes (have beef fat), white sugar, packaged peanuts (have gelatin), Red artificially colored foods and candies (have beetles, even though it just says "color added")....etc. etc.

I think it's great that you want to be a vegan though! Lots of animals will be helped because of it! I hope it works out for you, please add me if you need some support!

Cilantrocat

adidrea wrote: »

I went vegan cold-turkey a few years ago when I took the time to learn about the meat and dairy industry. It made me mad so I didn't want to support it anymore. I was even vegan for my wedding! Hahaha. It didn't quite work out for me though as it was very restrictive, so after about a year I switched to being a vegetarian and I felt a lot better.

You have to be very careful with a vegan diet, and make sure you take B-12 and Algae-sourced Omega-3 supplements which are both hard to get on a vegan diet. Ultimately, I didn't do a very good job of eating a wide enough variety of foods even as a vegetarian, so around Christmas time last year I added fish back into my diet. I still try to get everything that's non-vegan organic and also buy sustainably caught fish. I feel fine about the things I eat now and my body has never felt better because I'm finally getting enough protein. It's all about finding the right balance. If you want to go vegan just to lose weight there are probably better ways to do it because it's quite restrictive. You may not realize all of the products that have animal ingredients in them, but there are a LOT.

Things I thought were vegan that are actually not: Orange juice, wine, beer, store-bought cake mixes (have beef fat), white sugar, packaged peanuts (have gelatin), Red artificially colored foods and candies (have beetles, even though it just says "color added")....etc. etc.

I think it's great that you want to be a vegan though! Lots of animals will be helped because of it! I hope it works out for you, please add me if you need some support!

Wow! Thats totally messed up they can put bugs under color added. So gross. I often wonder what exactly those "natural flavors" etc are. Thats awesome that you have figured out a balance that works with your lifestyle. I am not trying to do it only to lose weight I feel it could help me make better choices though. I have found it to be hard when living with a bunch of meat and potato people! Lol and I am not sure when I will be able to find my own balance but I have been trying to get a lot of knowledge and recipes/ habits etc in place before trying to go strictly to a vegan diet.
Thanks for your input!