Vegans!

Eat beans for protein. Lentils are easy because you don't have to soak them. One cup has the protein of 3 eggs. Look on the Happy Herbivores forum for lots of diet ideas.

I've added Chia seeds to my diet. Huge nutritional bonus for the calories. I'm not Vegetarian but I don't eat a lot of meat.

See if your local library has a copy of the book 'Appetite for Reduction' by Isa Chandra Moskowitz (or check out her Post Punk kitchen blog) http://www.theppk.com/blog/ The book's recipes are 200 to 400 calories per serving, and ready in 30 minutes. I've tried several recipes and some are really, really tasty (people at work want the recipe and they cook it at home), while other recipes are a bit more hit and miss for my taste buds.

There's also www.101cookbooks.com by Heidi Swanson (blog and books) and Thug Kitchen on Tumblr is funny (NSFW swearing), but also yummy recipes.

Once I get hold of my high powered blender next week, I'll be making vegan green smoothies, which are packed full of vegies and a little fruit, together with nutritional supplements such as seaweed, chia seeds, flaxseeds, etc. if desired. From what I understand, it's a quick, easy way to get your day's worth of vegies really quickly and simply (and retaining more nutritional value, because you can leave the skin on veggies instead of peeling). Search for YouTube clips using the terms 'Vitamix' 'Optimum' or 'Omniblend' recipes.

One of the 'problems' with vegan recipes is that while they're heavily plant-based, some of the more specialised ingredients (such as nutritional yeast) may be difficult to come across in your local supermarket, so checked out Asian grocery stores, online stores and healthfood shops for more unusual ingredients.

I am almost a vegan, I eat organic eggs from my friend's organic farm, but other than that I don't consume any animal meat/dairy or by product. I can't eat gluten either (celiac) so my diet is quite unusual! I avoid processed foods and so I pretty much eat a plant based diet consisting of veggies, fruits, potatoes, rice, legumes, nuts etc. My health has increased massively and the weight is melting off

Believe it or not there is actually a vegan food pyrimid its very helpful also avoid the processed vegan options aka soy cheese ect and go more whole foods

Transition a little at a time from vegetarian to vegan. I let milk go first (now have almond milk), then eggs since I was only eating about 2 a month, then egg products in everything, then the rest of dairy (cheese, yogurt, butter, etc). Going slowly makes it easier than getting overwhelmed all at once.

Check out the Happy Herbivores Group on here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/45-happy-herbivores
I find this group very helpful in following a vegan lifestyle.

Feel free to friend me. Together we can do this!

I would go back to vegetarian before jumping right in to veganism. That was my big mistake. I went from eating everything to veganism in one day. It worked for a few months but I ultimately realized that i needed to scale it back to vegetarianism before I was ready to fully commit to a vegan lifestyle. i work towards it everyday knowing that eventually I will get there.

Feel free to check out my diary. I try to eat mostly whole foods and limit processed foid which I recommend. You can make your own sauces like cheese type sauces. Make vegan friends, if only on the internet, check out recipes and do some research. Try not to eat a lot of breads. Hmmm that's what I can think of right now!

Staying on the Vegan diet is a lot easier to me then even eating meat but eating healthy. When I eat meat or animal products, I get hungrier faster, but when I am eating a vegan diet, I eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables and I stay full a lot longer and I really don't ever feel hungry. And the times that I do feel hungry, it's like a different kind of hungry. It's a hungry where I feel it but if I can't eat right away, it's not a big deal. When I was eating animal products, I would get hungry but it would feel like cravings and I almost always gave into them which isn't good and was quite annoying for me trying to lose weight.

Something else that made it easier to stick to was a change of the way I was thinking. When I was just trying to eat healthy, even as a vegetarian, it was all about the diet; all about losing weight. When I switched to being a vegan, it became about health and not contributing to the factory farming. I know that if I eat animal products, I AM contributing to it and I am NOT being healthy. Knowing these things contribute greatly to my willpower, and I know it's not worth it to give in.

Most days, I struggle to even get enough calories. I am usually full around 800 calories and I have to force myself to eat those last 400-500 calories, which tells you how much I am not hungry on a vegan diet.

One of my favorite things I have discovered so far is the simplest salad dressing ever. I was wanting to start making my own salad dressing because who knows what is in the store bought ones and I found that squeezing a lemon over my salad and then adding some black pepper and garlic salt is so delicious and probably the lowest calorie dressing you can use. I also always add avocado to my salads so it kind of mixes over everything and adds to the dressing. Super yummy.

Hope this helps!