If you're a vegetarian...

ACosby1108

I've considered becoming a vegetarian or slowly moving toward it but do not know where to begin or how to start. I'm wondering what power foods will be important to maintain energy if you work out daily? I'm always afraid of losing nutrients or energy because I will reduce and eventually stop my meat consumption. Not sure where to start but if someone can help that would be great!

Anissa

melsinct

Former vegetarian checking in...

Just make sure you eat your macros, e.g. eat enough protein and fiber, with special attention to the protein since you will eliminate meat. So long as you aren't going vegan, you can still do eggs and Greek yogurt and other high protein animal sourced items.

The most important thing will be to identify high protein, non- meat items to add into your diet, like quinoa, bans, tofu, etc. A quick Google search should bring up a big list with a lot of helpful resources.

ACosby1108

Ok thanks! I was just worried of not getting enough to feel sated and making myself sick. I've never tried tofu and don't know how to use it! *lol* I would love to find a good app that I could get on my phone or something, to try this out.

SavageFeast

I am a relatively new vegetarian, and I eat a lot of:

-eggs
-cheese
-milk
-beans
-Luna Bars
-Boca and Morning Star Farms products

deb3129

As long as you are still eating cheese,eggs, etc. you will not have to worry about protein at all. I am completely vegan and getting enough protein is still not really a struggle for me.

SpazzyMal

Chances are you'll be getting more general nutrients than you would by eating meat, assuming you don't only eat junk food. The only thing meat offers in abundance more than the majority of plant-foods do is a high concentration of protein and iron, and a few other minerals which escape me at the moment. Fruits and veggies on the other hand offer a huge rainbow of nutrients that meat doesn't even begin to touch. Focus on whole foods, fruits, beans, veggies. Your protein intake might go down, but are you sure you should really worry about protein that much? I feel a lot of people overemphasize protein, when in reality it's nearly impossible to be protein deficient if you focus on whole foods.

That said, here is a (vegan) list if you're worried: tofu, seitan, beans, quinoa, whole wheat, nuts (peanut butter counts!), tempeh, lentils... Green veggies also have a fairly decent amount of protein-to-calories ratio, though they're low in calories so you have to eat a lot of them to get high numbers. Truthfully, just about everything has some protein in it, and it adds up. If you're vegetarian and not vegan, that opens up even more things which you are probably already aware of, so I wont rehash them here.

Other things to consider are protein powders, if you still feel like you need an even bigger safety net.

Maddi_InBetweenDays

I like this site because it addresses the idea of complete proteins
http://www.theveggietable.com/articles/protein.html
The recipes leave a lot to be desired, but the info is good.