Going Vegitarian?

I'm not vegetarian, but I don't eat meat very often. I get a lot of my recipes from myrecipes.com. I made portabello and black bean quesadillas last night that were DELICIOUS!


http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/portobello-black-bean-quesadilla-50400000117311/

I've been a vegetarian the majority of my life, I've only eaten meat for the past two years. Even now the only meat I eat is fish and chicken. The two things you want to make sure you get enough of are protein and iron. I started eating chicken because my blood work showed I had anemia (an iron deficiency in the blood).

p.s. pintrest can be a good place for recipes, also check out any vegetarian Japanese recipes, they tend to be yummy, healthy, and low in calories.

I am vegetarian. Go online to Vegetarian Times, they have the best recipes. Also, Trader Joe's sells a soy chorizo and a vegan burger patty, both are awesome! I eat a lot of black beans, lentils, and recently millett. You won't feel tired after a meatless meal. Good luck!

I second the Vegetarian Times recommendation - you can sign up for their e-mail newsletter for weekly ideas. Also, several cuisines - Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian - have a lot of vegetarian dishes that are delicious and will keep you full.

Go big on South American and South Indian cuisine, not much meat to begin with in many of the decisions, and if there are, they're usually easy to substitute with vegetables (or omit completely)

As a for a particular recipe I'd suggest to get you started, spicy carrot salad.

Grate some carrots, toss them with as much green onion and coriander/cilantro as you like, and sprinkle with pepper. In a small bowl mix an ounce of soy sauce, a half ounce of sesame oil, a half ounce of sriracha sauce or chili paste, and between half or one ounce of water (or white vinegar - my preference). Douse the carrots, herbs, and onions and toss to even out the dressing. Sprinkle with a little lime juice and you're good to go. Beware, it is a bit spicy.

Almost forgot, tips to stay full:
- eat more frequently than you do now, aiming for 5-6 meals (obviously smaller than you eat now)
- get a water bottle and make sure to stay hydrated. You're supposed to drink upwards of 3 litres a day, so in the course of a 12 hour day that works out at about a juicebox full of water every hour!
- carry low cal snacks around, such as apple wedges and crackers with low fat cheese.

Hope this helps!

That's great that you have decided to do this! It is also great that you are easing into it. I gave up animal products about 3 months ago and I went through HELL trying to get through the meat cravings (it's an addiction, really), but I lost 13 pounds without even trying! Anyways, enough about that.

The key is to start small. First, get rid of the red and processed meats. They are just terrible for your heart, cholesterol, and weight, so cut them out as much as you possibly can. Start with having them only once a week, and then after a while see if you can go down to once every two weeks, and so on. You will probably want red meats more than ever before only because you are cutting them out of your diet, but resist! Your body will thank you later.
You can buy some alternatives, too. If you are going somewhere where you know there will be grilling, bring some veggie dogs and ask the griller to throw them on for you. They taste great and are not bad at all for you (50 calories and 2 grams of fat for one link).

You can also begin switching out your dairy with some alternatives. I used to drink skim milk a lot, but I think soy milk and almond milk taste much better. And I heard on Dr. Oz that companies actually add sugar to low-fat dairy products to make them taste better...I guess I wasn't doing myself any good buy buying skim milk! I think you will like soy milk and almond milk too - they even have chocolate! As far as eggs go, I don't really like them anymore, but you can replace eggs in recipes with applesauce or flax seed.

With poultry, this should probably be the last thing you start to ease out of your diet. Poultry is doused in ammonia and other harmful chemicals in the slaughterhouses, and they have just as much cholesterol as a steak! I found this the hardest to get rid of, so start with 2-3 times a week and go from there.

As far as staying full as a vegetarian, you will have no problems doing this. All I can say is...BEANS! Beans are my new favorite food. They have adequate calories and edamame soy beans are just freaking delicious. Add in plenty of healthy nuts (pistachios, walnuts, almonds, etc.) and don't load up on pasta and cheese just because you're vegetarian! I've seen a lot of vegetarians gain a ton of weight from choosing the wrong foods.

What's also important is paying attention to your vitamins. You can of course do this on My Fitness Pal, but I do struggle with keeping my iron and calcium intake in check (as in not enough). Also, you have to take a B12 supplement because vegetarians usually don't get enough of it because it is completely from meat. Solve all of these problems with a fantastic daily multi-vitamin. I really like. I really like this daily vitamin:

http://www.drvita.com/p-3560-natures-plus-source-of-life-red-multivitamin-and-mineral-liquid-supplement-mixed-berry-30-fl-oz.aspx?CAWELAID=1906484642&catargetid=1920411117&cadevice=c&gclid=CLbO-fSMoLgCFfBDMgodDxwAfA

It doesn't hurt my stomach, even on an empty stomach.

Good luck!

I am Vegan, which is essentially the same thing. I just don't consume dairy either. I have found that eating beans and avoiding processed wheat are the keys to staying fuller longer. The thing about wheat is that, if it is not purchased in its original einkorn state, it has been genetically altered.

Wheat is a very particular plant, and genetic engineering is a major problem for this food group. Firstly, it is polyploidic in nature meaning, when you cross breed it, it takes on all of the chromosomes from BOTH parent plants as opposed to half of each or some other combination. This may not sound like a big deal, but the wheat found in grocery stores today was cross bred hundreds of times, leaving the wheat we are eating several THOUSAND chromosomes different than what our ancestors ate just a hundred years ago.

To put this into perspective, there is only one chromosome that divides man from woman, and clearly one is a big deal. The problem stems from the fact that this new dwarf strain of wheat was never tested on humans or animals before being introduced into the public as sustenance. We are now paying for that negligence.

Blood sugar levels play a large role in our body's desire to eat. If blood sugar levels become low, then our bodies obviously want to eat to bring the sugar levels back up. We feel this low in headaches, irritability, lack of focus, nausea, "brain fog" and other unpleasant symptoms. Also, causing a spike in blood sugar makes the body create more insulin which, in turn, will drop the blood sugar and make you "hungry" again.

Wheat has a VERY high impact on blood sugar levels, creating a cycle of eating, sugar high, insulin response, low and further eating. A good example of how drastically wheat affects blood sugar levels is when I did a self test comparing two slices of bread to a pint of chocolate chunk ice cream. An hour after eating the entire pint of ice cream my blood sugar level was moderate 135, still safely under the mark of 150 that results in an insulin response. However, an hour after consuming the two slices of whole grain bread, my blood sugar reached 167; 17 points over the safety mark. And the shocking thing is that I only consumed two slices. Most individuals do not even stop there.

So long story short, limiting the amount of wheat you eat each day will definitely benefit your attempts to stay full and live healthier. I certainly hope this helped, and stick with it! You'll thank yourself for going Vegetarian later down the road!

-Becca