New friendly vegan :)

I am not a vegan but I love watching and attempting to make vegan recipes in order to incorporate more vegetables, nuts and fruits in my diet. Feel free to add me!


Also, have you looked at the Youtube channels called "Tastemade" and "Vegan Black Metal Chef?" Tastemade has a whole plethora of different recipes for anything but they have a segment called Raw. Vegan. Not Gross which I especially love.


Cheers on losing weight!

Are we talking DIETARY VEGAN? OR REAL VEGAN?

I would like to start eating vegan. I am lactose-intolerant, but that is really my only motivation other than just wanting to eat healthier. I am looking for suggestions on the easiest way to get started. Also, have those of you with spouses, roommates, whatever, find it more difficult to eat vegan if they aren't vegan. If so, how do you combat that?

I have previously done the Paleo plan and find it difficult due to recipes. Perhaps my biggest problem is that I'm not that much of a cook and find myself overwhelmed if a recipe has too many steps or too many ingredients.

Do you suggest watching the horrific videos on how animals are treated through the process of preparing them for our meals to get started? I have heard that watching them has been what has triggered a lot of people to become vegan. I'm sure my questions are making some of you laugh, but that's okay. I figure it's best to be honest to get the best answers for me.

In my personal opinion, the easiest way to get started is to cut things out gradually. I tried going vegan all at once a few years ago, and it only lasted for about a week or two because I shocked my system and hadn't educated myself enough about how to get the nutrients I needed. I was hungry and felt weak all the time. When I decided to do it for real in March, I started by just cutting out meat to begin with (you could go even slower and just cut out red meat, then chicken, then fish, etc.). I would let my body adjust to that and then cut out something else, like cheese or eggs. I never really did much dairy because it never agreed with me so that wasn't too much of an issue. While I was going through this process I also started doing a lot of research about the potential dangers in a vegan diet, what kinds of vitamins were going to be more difficult, and what types of foods I needed to make sure I ate to combat those potential problems. But also, and this may sound stupid, just listen to your body. I learned very quickly how to eat properly so that I have energy throughout the day, don't feel weighed down, don't feel like I'm lacking protein or anything like that. It does take some time though.

As far as cooking, I would just suggest starting slow. There are lots of great easy vegan cookbooks out there, beginner vegan cookbooks, vegan cooking for the crock-pot, things like that that you may find helpful as you're getting used to needing to do more cooking with potentially unfamiliar ingredients. You don't have to be a master chef to make great vegan food. For example, if the idea of pressing and marinating tofu is intimidating at this point, you could always make a tofu scram where you literally just saute some veggies, crumble in the tofu right from the package, cook and season. Delicious and still one of my fall back meals for any time of day.

As far as watching the videos… I've watched a few documentaries, like Forks Over Knives and Vegucated, but I don't think that's absolutely necessary. If you feel that you need to see those images for it to really stick for you, then by all means. But I think that's a personal choice. I don't try to push those videos on people because they can be really difficult to watch. I usually cry, haha. For me, I already knew how animals were treated so actually seeing it was less important. But again, if you think that might be good motivation for you to stick with it, then that's fine too.

EXACTLY the types of answers I was looking for! Thank you so much! I am also going to check out some of the books that were mentioned others. I just think I would have a much easier time maintaining my weight if I cut out meat, although there are plenty of vegetarian and vegan meals that aren't necessarily healthy in the end.

I'm primarily vegan and would love to share support. Feel free to add me. When are you starting Ripped in 30? I'll be finishing my current challenge on 1/2/14 and I'll be up for something new.

Melanie