Transcended. Vegetarian help please!!

I was a major meat eater two years ago.on my birthday I picked up this book on a whim called "Skinny *****es" I know it sounds shallow but the book was entirely about the veg slash vegan lifestyle.id recommend picking it up.I was vegan for a while and still to this day drink soy milk,avoid cheese and meats...can't handle the mental images I get.
If you allow yourself eggs,make sure their organic and not caged.if you be regular eggs your getting the hormones and the stress that chick had...sounds weird I know
Try. Soy milk tastes better anyways
Chick peas,beans,broccoli,quinoa ,etc contain protein etc.
The trick is to plan ahead,know your options and schedule.look up recipes and health food stores.hope this helps

I've been vegetarian for about 6 years now. My diary is open to friends, so feel free to add me and see what I eat each day. I just got diagnosed with celiac disease, so consider this fair warning that I'm currently figuring out how that will work for me. My blog is veggiebentolove.wordpress.com, and I've been blogging my lunches and most snacks for over a year now - lots of ideas!

A great resource is vegetariantimes.com, and they have an awesome starter kit: http://www.vegetariantimes.com/vegetarian-starter-kit/ as well a bunch of links on the PCRM website: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vsk/vegetarian-starter-kit

You may find that you crave meat every once in a while. It's okay to have some, but my experience was that I got stomachaches after eating even a little. It's also absolutely okay to admit that some people have a hard time being vegetarian full-time. My husband feels weak after a few days with no meat, so he continues to prepare his own and add it to whatever veggie meals I make for us both.

I've been vegetarian for 14 years. I take a multivitamin made for vegetarians because it's high in things hard to get on a vegetarian diet. I eat sooo many egg whites for my protein. It's important to watch carbs on a vegetarian diet. It's really easy to eat too many carbs and not enough fats and protein on a vegetarian diet.

Make sure to read the ingredients on things. Don't eat anything with gelatin, glycerin, stearic acid, etc. on it unless it specifies it's from a plant source. Try to make your own food when possible. It just makes things easier.

I'm mostly veg and the little meat and fish I do eat is /sustainable/pasture/humanely raised. I was all veg for 15 years before realizing that I wanted to support the local farmers who are doing things the right way. I realized that my abstaining from meat is not going to influence animal agriculture to stop or change, but paying a premium for really humanely raised meat does turn the heads of other producers. I own two backyard chickens so I eat their eggs frequently and a fair bit of grass-fed cheese (no liquid dairy milk for me purely bc it makes me ill).

Anyway what I wish someone had told me on Day 1 is not to fall into the trap of processed meat substitutes as much as possible. It was such an easy and convenient way to get protein, but it's all frozen processed crap and sodium and half the time worse for the environment than the meat it's trying to replace. I would rather eat less protein and eat more real food than resort to cramming a bunch of processed protein bars/supplements/etc. just to meet what I think are unnecessarily high requirements on this site. Of course this will depend on what your fitness goals are (bulking, etc.). I do most of my shopping at the farmer's market and then supplement with staples at the store.

Quinoa is great nutritionally, but if you're a socially conscious person, you may want to research the economic issues it's creating in Latin America. I do a lot of garbanzo beans. I'd eat more black beans if I liked them but I don't. Moderate amounts of peanut butter. GREEK YOGURT (the real kind) - Trader Joe's nonfat greek yogurt has like 22g of protein for 120 calories or something insane. I add it to everything.

You will feel better. I know my soul felt lighter when I was a veg head. I really miss the lifestyle.

First, get a good multivitamin there are several vegetarian and vegan brands out there

I would think nutrients that you will be missing:

B12-some school of though says that if you eat "dirty" vegetables that you can obtain it from the microorganisms in soil. There is debate on whether 1. it's clean-think manure animal and human 2. if it is even bioavailable to humans without first being digested in a ruminant gut (i.e. cows and other animals eating it). Nutritional yeast which is pretty good and taste likes cheese has some B12 and that maybe more bioavailable to humans. Fortified sources of vegetarian "meat', soy milk, almond milk. A good multivitamin

Iron-Fortified sources of vegetarian "meat", soy milk, almond milk. Iron is also found in dark green leafy plants like spinach, broccoli, kale. The only issue with this type of iron is it is not readily bioavailable to humans in the plant form. Our bodies better absorb the blood or heme form of iron. However, there is a way to increase the absorption. When ever you eat a green leafy plant make sure you combine it with a source of vitamin C it becomes available to humans. Think a spinach salad with strawberries or kale and a lemon sauce.

Protein-Complimentary proteins a lot of native cultures have been doing this for centuries. Basically plant proteins lack either one or the other essential amino acid making them incomplete. The best way to get a complete protein is to combine plant protein so think beans and rice, lentils and wheat, nuts and beans, beans and seeds, seeds and grains, nuts and grains.

Calcium-Fortified sources of vegetarian "meat", soy milk, almond milk. Dark green leafy plants but beware some contain oxalate with is binding. Soy yogurt, tofu, beans, almonds, and calcium-fortified foods.

Zinc-soybeans, cashews, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds

I really enjoy cooking and use vegetarian/vegan cookbooks to help meet all the nutritional values. They help provide well-rounded meals.

You are more than welcome to add me as a friend.

Congrats! I can't eat meat for ethical reasons either. The one thing nutrient wise that I want to mention is B12. I became deficient in this vitamin after several years of being veg, since its not really found in plant based foods. My doctor put me on a sublingual supplement and now my levels are great. Low levels make you fatigued and can lead to neurological and psychiatric problems.

Also, here's a couple decent sources for veg protein info (last ones the best):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/vegetarian-protein-sources_n_1539928.html#slide=1013355
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/w_DietAndFitnessResource/super-healthy-vegetarian-protein-sources/story?id=16477525
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/25-vegan-sources-for-protein.html

Also, a great recipe site that has a lot of vegetarian recipes is skinnytaste:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2007/07/vegetarian-recipes.html

And this MFP thread has a LOT of links to other recipe sites, both vegan and vegetarian:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/683419-websites-like-skinny-taste

Best of luck!

Welcome to the club! I've been vegetarian since March. Watch the carbs and stay away from all the processed foods (as someone else stated). In addition, this is one of those areas where you really need to look deep inside of you and decide what is best. For me, I don't have a problem consuming dairy and eggs. But I have cut down on dairy (I drink almond or soy milk) and I buy cage-free eggs (preferably from a local farm).

There is so much information out there and there are a lot of, what I like to call, "extreme eaters." And I mean no disrespect, but I have found that there are limitations on what I can and cannot do with foods. I tend to go what I think is the middle way-- doing what I can to do less harm to animals and the environment while still maintaining some sense of sanity. I'm a mom and a wife to a meat eater on a tight budget. I make compromises sometimes-- for instance, we eat a meat substitute once or twice a weak to make my husband happier. Last week my husband made breakfast and cooked the eggs in the same pan he cooked his goetta. I ate it anyway and was grateful that he cooked and even made a vegan sausage substitute for me (in the same pan as the goetta). This is life, in all of its glorious imperfections.

So the best advice I can give is: If you really want to be happy, enjoy being on this path but remember to love yourself and the people who walk beside you, no matter how imperfect we all are.

I recommend this book a lot.. because it is seriously great- check out Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson. You won't regret it.. even though the recipes omit ovo-lacto products the food always comes out absolutely delicious!

I would also say watch out for processed vegetarian foods. (I've been a vegetarian since birth.. so I've eaten them plenty) and they are chock full of sodium.. and some contain extra-chemical-looking ingredients which kind of gross me out. If you do try out some of the options, I'd say my top three are:

-Garden Burger Original
-Tofurky Gourmet Sausage (each link packs 29g of protein)
-Tofurky Deli Slices (all Tofurky products are non GMO btw, if that matters to you)

Now... my fiance who is an omnivore really enjoys Morning Star products. I suppose they are a good transition from meat, however, they are high in sodium, processed/filler ingredients, and are made with GMO soy.


I totally recommend learning to make your own hummus (so yummy and great source of protein), eating plenty of nuts/seeds.. and cook with lots of beans/legumes.

[Edited to add- Oh! Don't forget to take a good multivitamin. :-) Just in case you're not sourcing all you need from pounds of veggies every day, I definitely recommend taking something with all the B's. ......Also- forgot to add that LightLife brand SmartDogs and their other products are yummy, usually low cal and made with non gmo soy.]

Vegetarian Times
http://www.vvegetariantimes.blogspot.com