Fellow Vegans or wanna-Vegans?

I'm a vegan too, and seem to be one of the few male vegans here. I've been one for about two years now. I was a lacto-ovo-vegetarian for a year before, but felt that I was kind of halfing the effort; so went all the way and became a vegan (Well, I guess some more strict people would discount me since I eat honey, but I really see no ethical or environmental qualms with honey).

Before I stopped eating meat, I was at an all-time high of 245 lbs. The Freshman Fifteen became the Freshman Seventy for me. I was 21 and tired of being heavy and also taking more interest in the environment due to studying resource Geosciences. After I became a lacto-ovo I lost 20 lbs. I was so happy, however, I was still pretty big and had replaced cheese for meat.

After I became a vegan, I lost another 20 lbs. I was sitting around 205 lbs solely off of diet. I hadn't exercised since I was 17. Finally last February I embarked on the exercise videos, P90X. With those I was able to get down to 175 lbs, but I unfortunately gained 5 lbs of it back this summer due to living with my best friend, heavy drinking, and tater tot indulgences.

I just restarted a new round of P90X yesterday, along with my fiancee (whom I live with now and who is a lacto-ovo-vegetarian), and am hoping to reach my ultimate goal of 165 lbs by New Years. Hopefully making for a three year total weight loss of 80 lbs.

If anyone is interested in eating vegan or getting an idea of what a vegan eats, feel free to browse my food diary. I'll be updating it more often now. I rarely use fake meats and cheeses and try to eat a whole foods diet.

Hi all! I'm a long time on-again, off-again vegetarian (been veggie for about 6 mos now, not missing meat AT ALL, will never go back to eating it -- completely unpalatable) and I'm currently transitioning to vegan! My diet got way off track this summer, I was making too many allowances for "treats" like pizza, ice cream, and grilled cheese sandwiches and not giving my body enough REAL food -- I would eat 'til I was stuffed and still feel ravenous. I finally got it through my thick skull that even though I was feeding my body calories, I was starving it of the nutrients necessary for it to function! Plus, I'm quite certain I had more than I little bit of a sugar/carb addition going on. Apparently I'm one of those people who cannot have anything tempting in the house, because eventually I WILL eat it, and eat too much (sugary cereal, ice cream, excessive milk, etc.) and the only thing for it is to cut it out COMPLETELY.

This will be my third day without ANY animal product in my diet (though I say "transitioning" because this is pretty new to me, and I want to leave room for slips ups -- that is, in case I eat something that has animal product in it that I'm not aware of.)

I want to limit my intake of processed fake-y foods and focus more on whole foods. I feel incredible when eating minimally processed or unprocessed plant-based foods -- though I have found over the last couple of days I tend to quickly get tired/cranky when it's time to eat and then feel immediately better and energized after getting nutrition in me, but I would guess that's just my body detoxing from the over-processed, refined carbs and sugars I was eating earlier in the week and getting used to the new diet.

The weird thing is, as short a time as I've been doing this -- I'm already finding dairy unpleasant (my husband likes caesar dressing on his salads... I was fixing him one night before last and the parmesan-cream combination smelled absolutely VILE). This coming from someone who was practically ADDICTED to dairy and NEVER thought I'd give it up. I guess that's lucky though -- better to be turned off by it, than fight cravings for it!

Anywho -- that's my story in a nutshell. :flowerforyou:

I started this today, I'm a day behind

Last night I stayed up late to make the soup and couscous salad (used quinoa). So I made the oatmeal this morning and am on track. I had an early morning Van's waffle, but still. And tonight I have a softball game (no time to make food later) so I brought a big salad with tons of veggies and a little Goddess vegan dressing. Mmmm!

I've been strict veg for a few months, just doing this to bring me back to eating healthy

Yea I have a buddy. Good luck.

I live in a rural area where I can get lots of fresh produce BUT I am VERY limited on the options that I would be able to go FULL Vegan. I can only get soy cheese in american and cheddar. The only Vegetarian options in resturant here are fatty fried mushrooms or french fries. or a salad (and when you ask them to leave the cheese off they stare at you like you have 2 heads and assume the mouth breather stance) So tired of the non-veg friendly life

Vegan for years! And loving every minute of it. Feel free to add me and we can share tips and support

Have been eating a vegan diet for about 3 years and suspect there may come a time when most everyone does. Made a great vegy pot pie for supper tonight. So easy, so delicious.
To the person who mentioned the soy cheese...watch out as most of that isn't vegan. It has cassien (sp?) in it which is from milk. For the most part I don't eat too much of the fake foods that try to mimic the meat eaters diet. There's lots of great stuff without it. That said I do love a treat of daiyu cheese when I can get it but I don't even really think of it as a cheese substitute. It's just another food. Anyway, here's to all the vegans out there and to all critters we've saved from a brutal life, to the improvements to our health as a result, and to what we done to help the planet!

It's good to see so many people trying to come to the Vegan side. On the mock cheese, it's amazing how much of it is not vegan, which is something just completely befuddling to me. Why bother making mock cheese if it has dairy in it anyways (I understand lactose intolerance, but they'd really open their markets up to those with milk allergies and vegans if they went without and mass marketed it).

Also, I want to applaud all the new vegans and those attempting to be, you're making a great step in the right direction for your health and the environment.

Side note: Am I the only one who sees Activia commercials and laughs at them? Dairy to help digestion? Come on. Hooray for being vegan and never having digestion issues or irregularity.

Hello all,
I have been a lacto ovo vegetarian for a year now. I am trying incorporate more dairy free foods into my diet because I am lactose intolerant... yet that fresh mozzarella pizza calls my name! I found a good recipe for lentil loaf which is pretty good: http://christinacooks.com/_webapp_3121464/Not_Your_Mama's_Meatloaf . Anyone else find some good recipes?

Daiya cheese is pretty good on pizza. It's a little creamy and 'stretches' like real cheese.

Do we have a link to where there are vegan recipes?

I bought some Falafel mix today. I am going to use it to make veggie/grain patties rather than Garden Burger or Others that have dairy products in them.

I just had some Pacific Natural Food Spicy Black Bean soup and added some chunks of avocado to it. Yum!

BMW6Series

All I can say is do your research as to what you are really eating. I actually posted on my blog a list of products that are vegan that may surprise you, a lot of them are accidentally vegan but it sure helps to keep life tasty.

There are a lot of surprisingly vegan things you wouldn't expect... like off-brand bacon bits, Oreos, cheap Kroger brand Mushroom Gravy, a lot of cheap Walmart "Buttermilk Biscuits", etc. It's cheaper and easier to make vegan food like that, just be vigilant. Anyways, it always benefits the consumer to read labels anyways.

Im been looking into and reading about becoming a vegan & I want to do it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how i should start it or what are main things i should buy besides a bunch of veggies, tofu, protein powder and such....

Also what are ingredients i should watch out for when reading labels to make sure im not having animal products!

Thanks!:flowerforyou:

I am a vegetarian and I would like to be vegan but not there yet. My whole family just became vegetarians this year including my three little ones. I would like to be vegan but I think I will do it slowly.

We can help each other for sure.

Long time veggie here (18 years & counting) and most day's I eat vegan. I very rarely use eggs, or milk but I do use honey and much as I'd love to give up cheese, my will power is just not up to it! But I'm working on that one.
I dont use TVP, it has an unfortunate effect on my digestive system, but I do use Quorn. I know that's not vegan, egg white is used to bind it, but my Hubby likes it, he's an omni but he's happy to eat veggie in the house. I like & use tofu, but the DH wont touch it, so I only cook with that when he's away with work.
It's good to know there's so many Veggies & Vegans here for support.

I love all of the Amy's burgers. They had a quarter pound burger that was awesome but now it's hard to find by me.