Vegan, Vegetarian and Raw Diets
katejeanette
Posts: 2
Hi All!
I have been doing some serious research into different meat-free diets and would like to find people who are either considering the same or have already committed to one.
I was a vegetarian for most of my teenage years and then got back into eating meat in my 20's. I have found that over the years I have regretted the decision to return to eating meat and have found myself in a stand still. Do I give it up again? And if so, do I want to go completely vegan? Or raw? I am turning 30 in September and would like to enter my new chapter with a made-up mind.
I have switched to nut milks and cut out cheese, but I have been having a hard time giving up yogurt. I have some 'digestive' issues regarding the intestines and colon and find that if I do not have probiotics in my diet it creates more stress on my digestive tract. I found a vegan alternative, water kefir grains, but they are hard to come by. So other than yogurt, dairy is pretty easy to give up.
Other things like eggs and fish are another hard area to let go. I love fish, but with all the scary things happening to our water systems I am getting more and more conscious of it. Eggs are also hard to give up. I do not eat them everyday, but I do enjoy them. I live close to the country and have access to fresh, free-range eggs.
The biggest con to my decision is that I am on a really tight budget and cannot afford a lot. I would love make my diet half raw, but a lot of the foods are made with a dehydrators, juicers, food processors, blenders, and sprouters. I have a cheap juicer, and old blender and a magic bullet. Over time I can get these things, but for now I need to work with what I have. So any advice on easy raw recipes would be greatly appreciated.
What do you think?
I have been doing some serious research into different meat-free diets and would like to find people who are either considering the same or have already committed to one.
I was a vegetarian for most of my teenage years and then got back into eating meat in my 20's. I have found that over the years I have regretted the decision to return to eating meat and have found myself in a stand still. Do I give it up again? And if so, do I want to go completely vegan? Or raw? I am turning 30 in September and would like to enter my new chapter with a made-up mind.
I have switched to nut milks and cut out cheese, but I have been having a hard time giving up yogurt. I have some 'digestive' issues regarding the intestines and colon and find that if I do not have probiotics in my diet it creates more stress on my digestive tract. I found a vegan alternative, water kefir grains, but they are hard to come by. So other than yogurt, dairy is pretty easy to give up.
Other things like eggs and fish are another hard area to let go. I love fish, but with all the scary things happening to our water systems I am getting more and more conscious of it. Eggs are also hard to give up. I do not eat them everyday, but I do enjoy them. I live close to the country and have access to fresh, free-range eggs.
The biggest con to my decision is that I am on a really tight budget and cannot afford a lot. I would love make my diet half raw, but a lot of the foods are made with a dehydrators, juicers, food processors, blenders, and sprouters. I have a cheap juicer, and old blender and a magic bullet. Over time I can get these things, but for now I need to work with what I have. So any advice on easy raw recipes would be greatly appreciated.
What do you think?
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Replies
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You have a lot of issues and questions here. My suggestion is to try in parts. First, go vegetarian with or without the fish and eggs. Find some good recipes for your budget. Play with both vegan and vegetarian recipes. Try some raw days. In 6 months re-assess. Do you want to go full vegan? Do you have the time/money/dedication for a raw diet? Decide where you are and what you want to do next.0
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I am a vegan (not raw) and I love Kris Carr's book "crazy sexy kitchen"- lots of good recipes. Some of the ingredients are sort of bizarre, though, so I also added "Vegan table" by Mayim Bialik. Those are more kid friendly but I noticed not as calorie-friendly.
I do take a probiotic pill and also triphala for digestion. Which is just an herb.
Good luck with your decision!0 -
I'm vegetarian and I don't eat eggs (I just think they are gross, I will eat foods with them as long as I can't taste them at all). I'm also trying to keep soy mostly out of my diet. I eat for super, super cheap. The trick is to find vegetarian/vegan cookbooks that focus on using whole foods instead of processed substitutes that cost a ton. For example, today I'm gonna make myself veggie burgers out of lentils, rice, and beets. I by my beans and rice in bulk when I have the money, so I can feed my whole house dinner for 5-7 bucks.
It's totally possible to eat really healthy as a vegan/vegetarian, hypothetically. I love beer and soda so I'm not very good at it, however. Try the No Meat Athlete blog (although that has a lot of soy substitutes) or google any of the vegan MMA fighters.0 -
Not sure which way you should go but you can lact-ferment almost any vegetable to give you more probiotics and vitamins.Hi All!
I have been doing some serious research into different meat-free diets and would like to find people who are either considering the same or have already committed to one.
I was a vegetarian for most of my teenage years and then got back into eating meat in my 20's. I have found that over the years I have regretted the decision to return to eating meat and have found myself in a stand still. Do I give it up again? And if so, do I want to go completely vegan? Or raw? I am turning 30 in September and would like to enter my new chapter with a made-up mind.
I have switched to nut milks and cut out cheese, but I have been having a hard time giving up yogurt. I have some 'digestive' issues regarding the intestines and colon and find that if I do not have probiotics in my diet it creates more stress on my digestive tract. I found a vegan alternative, water kefir grains, but they are hard to come by. So other than yogurt, dairy is pretty easy to give up.
Other things like eggs and fish are another hard area to let go. I love fish, but with all the scary things happening to our water systems I am getting more and more conscious of it. Eggs are also hard to give up. I do not eat them everyday, but I do enjoy them. I live close to the country and have access to fresh, free-range eggs.
The biggest con to my decision is that I am on a really tight budget and cannot afford a lot. I would love make my diet half raw, but a lot of the foods are made with a dehydrators, juicers, food processors, blenders, and sprouters. I have a cheap juicer, and old blender and a magic bullet. Over time I can get these things, but for now I need to work with what I have. So any advice on easy raw recipes would be greatly appreciated.
What do you think?0 -
You sound like me, althought I don't love fish or have to eat it, and I don't like eggs really at all unless its an egg salad sandwich ew! but yum.
I would suggest using the magic bullet. Don't have to juice, unless you really wanna. I blend everything, and I just have the cheapy ninja. If you do not buy organic (there is some risk) you can pretty much spend way less then you would on packaged, processed and frozen foods. WAY LESS! and like another mentioned buying in BULK saves you a ton!!0 -
My husband and I have decided to do a 30 day vegan diet and see how it goes. We currently eat about 90- 95% vegetarian and feel this is just the natural next step. We decided to start the "diet" in two weeks and work on slowly eliminating dairy and fish from our diets during that time (to make the transition easier and give us some time to find some new recipes!).
Good luck with your decision and feel free to add me!0 -
vegetarian my entire life, never even tasted meat, avoid eggs and a marathoner twice over at the ripe old age of 47. new friends welcome…and double dare carnivores who say I am weak and patsy looking...0
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Eat what you want to eat and don't worry about which title it falls under. I am a vegetarian and have been for over a decade. I don't eat meat because I don't want to. When I find out something has meat in it, it becomes unappealing to me. I did not "give up" anything; I just don't eat meat and gelatin products.
As for your yoghurt quandary, there is a lot of conflicting information about whether probiotics do anything to help the digestive tract. If, however, you want to keep the probiotic habit, probiotics can be purchased in pill form. Additionally, Silk makes yoghurt made from soy.
You gained the weight back because your restriction wasn't sustainable.0 -
Don't worry I also don't have dehydrator, juicer, food processor, blender, sprouter or magic bullet. I have knife and simple shredder. But I eat a lot of veggies on daily basis. Currently I'm on the 2nd day of vegan diet and trying to make it as raw as possible. Just use imagination. The only very special extra I'm considering to buy is hemp protein or other protein source, as I have limited budget. It doesn't cost me more than any other diet, as I'm still on calorie limit here on mfp
I love the rainbow diet idea. So I try to make my diet as colorful as I can.
Get some inspiration on http://www.fullyraw.com/0 -
I am really considering a pesco-vegetarian diet with a heavy emphasis on raw veggies. The only thing is I would not follow a special diet at someone else's home.0
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I also have digestion issues and recently became intolerant to dairy, gluten and peanuts.
I've started to eat raw, and mostly cut of meat, I just force myself to eat it for the protein… I eat coconut milk yogurt for the probiotics (gluten, soy and dairy free) I still eat fish and meat on occasions, I think that if you completely remove meat and eggs that you won't be getting enough protein especially if you workout. I buy a good vegan protein powder and make smoothies everyday. If your considering going completely vegan, expect your grocery bill to go up, I spend almost 150-200$ a week on groceries and supplements, you should start juicing and try to buy mostly organic. I would recommend watching food matters and hungry for change on netflix if you have it, it defiantly opened by eyes to what I was eating and what it was doing to my body.0 -
Kombucha drinks and kimchi both have probiotics, plus they are calorie friendly. Both are simple to make at home. Kimchi can be made with most veggies ( it's basically a quick, half sour pickle with Korean spices). Kombucha is fun and you can produce a starter from a bottle of store bought.
Both are very low in calories, too.0 -
I'm new to this site and soooo happy to find other vegetarians and vegans, I have been a vegetarian for many years and an occasional vegan. Since i began studying Ayurveda I dropped the vegan because of the use of ghee and yogurt in much of the cooking. I have 2 very close friends who are on raw diets, one for over 10 years now. From what i have been taught though raw foods are difficult to digest and will eventually make your digestion weak. Weak digestion will lead to not only weight gain but illnesses as well by causing a build up of toxins in your body. from what i have seen, Raw diets are labor and time intensive, to get all of your nutrition you have to spend the time juicing, dehydrating and sprouting. I simply don't have the time. being a vegetarian and vegan are also somewhat time consuming. you certainly have to plan ahead, shop more often (i suggest buying small quantities to ensure your food is really fresh), and stay away from canned and packaged foods (many have hidden animal products and all are just so overly processed..yuck). I was lucky to have a vegan chef at my disposal, her suggestion: take it a day at a time, first vegetarian only meals, then a vegetarian only day. experiment with recipes and learn how to add superfoods into those recipes. Once you have a bunch of tasty recipes down start increasing those veggie days. I saw someone posted about Kombucha, I love that stuff...grow my own now to save money. It's a learning process and my experience was take it slow, learn as you go. Hope this helps.0
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I'm plant based too, 3 years next month...was vegetarian before so meat was never hard to cut out but cheese was harder for me. LOL I have since replaced "cheese" with avocado, I love avocado and I never miss cheese when avocado/guac is topped on something! LOL
Lentil tacos are my favorite....super easy too! Lentils in warm corn tortilla, topped with sauteed veggies (I love doing poblano peppers, sweet mini peppers, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and tomatillo) and then guac and salsa on top. YUM! Sriracha too....
I do enchiladas like that a lot too....stuffed with the above veggies, sometimes spinach....and frontera enchilada sauce (red is veg, the green has milk in it.) Pop in oven 20 minutes....top with guac, done!
This salad is delicious too (and i don't even typically like kale) but this site has lots of yummy recipes: http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2012/01/spicy-peanut-ginger-kale-salad.html0 -
You can also get "probiotics" from fermented foods. Kimchi, saurkraut, etc. I love fermented spicy lemons....an indian dish. I think it's an acquired taste though. LOL I am pretty sure you can ferment pretty much anything....there are tons of recipes on Pinterest...0
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I know soy yogurt has probiotics in it. I don't know what it tastes like (I've never liked yogurt), but my children's mother and my two boys love it.0
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Hi All!
I have been doing some serious research into different meat-free diets and would like to find people who are either considering the same or have already committed to one.
I was a vegetarian for most of my teenage years and then got back into eating meat in my 20's. I have found that over the years I have regretted the decision to return to eating meat and have found myself in a stand still. Do I give it up again? And if so, do I want to go completely vegan? Or raw? I am turning 30 in September and would like to enter my new chapter with a made-up mind.
I have switched to nut milks and cut out cheese, but I have been having a hard time giving up yogurt. I have some 'digestive' issues regarding the intestines and colon and find that if I do not have probiotics in my diet it creates more stress on my digestive tract. I found a vegan alternative, water kefir grains, but they are hard to come by. So other than yogurt, dairy is pretty easy to give up.
Other things like eggs and fish are another hard area to let go. I love fish, but with all the scary things happening to our water systems I am getting more and more conscious of it. Eggs are also hard to give up. I do not eat them everyday, but I do enjoy them. I live close to the country and have access to fresh, free-range eggs.
The biggest con to my decision is that I am on a really tight budget and cannot afford a lot. I would love make my diet half raw, but a lot of the foods are made with a dehydrators, juicers, food processors, blenders, and sprouters. I have a cheap juicer, and old blender and a magic bullet. Over time I can get these things, but for now I need to work with what I have. So any advice on easy raw recipes would be greatly appreciated.
What do you think?
There are vegan alternatives to cheese, milk, and meat (you might have to ask someone in the grocery store where they are). Eggs aren't bad as far as calories go, unless they are fried eggs.
What are you doing for protein and calcium?
Some veggies are good just raw (tomatoes, bell peppers, etc). Do you have space for a garden?0 -
I've been a vegetarian since 1995. I eat cheese, yogurt and sour cream but eggs make me gag.
Anyone can feel free to add. My diary is open to friends.0 -
Hi, vegetarian ex-vegan here!
I went vegan due to medical reasons and it is pretty nice! The only downsides are that it can get pretty spendy, and (unless you live in Portland, OR) it is hard to go out to eat without having to eat a salad sans cheese/everything tasty.
But it made me feel great!
Also tried to go raw once...VERY hard, but totally worth it if you can afford it. Same issues as veganism, though,0 -
Mostly vegetarian sometimes vegan. A lot of raw. Been that way for a long time and feels great. Never eat meat or eggs or fish. U will feel great once u get meat and processed foods out of ur system.0
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I am born vegetarian - never tasted meat.
I went on a raw food diet to lose weight and discovered that I am allergic to dairy products.
After some experimentation I eat 80% raw today and eat cooked vegetarian food for Dinner. I stopped eating raw for Dinner because I had a hard time going to sleep and still felt very energetic.0 -
i get where your coming from, i have done my fair share of diet experiments and have become very conscious in my dietary choices. i do not currently eat meat but eat a little dairy. scrap the blenders dehydrators ect. eat fruit in the morning salad in the afternoon cooked veg in the evening add tofu, tempeh, lots of beans. you can snack on nuts or have nut shakes with soy milk or whatevs. if you decide to eat meat, eggs, fish just add to the salad or cooked veg. or you can eat yogurt with your morning fruit.0
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