Looking for Vegetarians/Vegans...
Melisha82
Posts: 243
I'm currently TRYING to change my lifestyle to the Vegan way, but I'm having a tough time doing it. I would love for any of you out there that are familiar with this lifestyle or even trying to convert yourself to add me! I need all of the motivation and advice I can get!
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Replies
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I would try easing into it. Start off with being a vegetarian and then from there slowly go vegan. It is very important to do extensive reaserch on the vegan diet to be sure you get the nutrition you need. It can be very hard to do and it is easy to get vitamin deficiencies if you don't know what you are doing! Good luck! I am a vegetarian so you can add me if you would like
Another thing, make sure you are not just doing this for weight loss!0 -
Hi there! I'm a vegetarian (been one for a little under a year) doing "Vegan Month" this month.
For me, cutting out meat was not difficult, there's really no thought involved once you get used to the lifestyle. I was scared at first and even told myself I would be vegetarian but when Thanksgiving rolled around (it was about 3 weeks away at the time) I would allow myself some turkey. However, after 3 weeks of vegetarianism, meat really didn't matter to me, I was more excited about the new recipes I got to try and the different foods I was eating. So instead of turkey I made myself a stuffed pumpkin, it was awesome!
like I said, after that it was just second nature, checking labels to make sure there was no meat based products, obviously ordering veggie options from restaurants and cooking vegetarian meals.
But for a change, I thought I would do a month of veganism. I gotta tell you, it's been great but it's a lot of work and way more thought than just simple vegetarianism. I have a cookbook "Appetite for Reduction" which is not only a vegan cookbook, but it's recipes under 400 calories. It's an awesome book because it's low cal, low fat, high nutrient, easy, cheap vegan recipes that have made this vegan month really easy and enjoyable so far. I would suggest going and getting a shiny new copy of some cookbook that you like (I highly recommend the one I mentioned above) and cooking some meals. If you're not much of a chef, try it out! I promise, once you get the hang of it eating and enjoying a meal you cooked yourself is the most satisfying feeling!
Going vegan means more time in the kitchen, cause it's too difficult to be vegan if you don't cook for yourself (unless you are a millionaire and can afford to eat at high priced vegan restaurants all the time, or you want to live off crackers)
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck! and I agree that easing into it is important, because it's a huge lifestyle change! I'm not saying I'll be 100% vegan forever, cause I would like to have the odd bit of cheese, but I am committed to eating mostly vegan and always vegetarian. Totally lessens your environmental footprint and is way nicer to those poor beasts locked away in factory farms! It's very relieving to know you aren't supporting that anymore!0 -
Hi! (: I'm a four- or five-year vegetarian, and a super avid cook.
I agree with the other two posts---definitely do vegetarian first! I'm on the weak end of vegetarianism (ovo-lacto-pescotarian, which means I eat eggs, dairy, and fish), but it works extremely well for me. I actually started being vegetarian to maintain my weight as a swimmer in high school and ended up not missing meat at all; now, I feel way healthier, in general. It's really not difficult to do!
If you need recipes or advice, or have any questions, shoot me a message! Again, plenty of experience here--I would love to help if I can.
Oh, and I'm Kristi. Nice to meet you!0 -
Hi!
I was vegetarian for three years and I transitioned to being vegan a month ago. I love to cook and knit. I would love to share some recipes.
Add me if you'd like :-))0 -
I went straight to Vegan and am loving it. If you are looking for recipe ideas this site has a lot of great tasting dishes. Good luck on your journey.
http://vegweb.com/0 -
Sent you a friends request...I have been veg for 17+ years - always looking for other veg*ns to chat with!0
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Besides "Appetite for Reduction", the same author published "Veganomicon", both excellent cookbooks. As others have said, look into what you need to meet certain nutrtional requirements in lieu of meat. There are plenty of great protein sources other than meat, whether you are vegetarian or vegan.0
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I have a different take on it than the initial posters... I had a hard time sticking to vegetarianism. Easing into it did not work for me (but it did for others, and could for you, obviously!). So one day I decided to go for it and just be vegan. Period. I made it clear to everyone that I would not be eating animal products at family gatherings, work functions, holidays, vacation, etc. So far I have stuck to that for nine months and I love it!! It can be difficult, for example, when staying at a hotel for a week. Otherwise, it's easy once you become familiar with the restaurants in your area that are "vegan friendly" and get a few easy meals in your cooking repertoire. I always have a big purse and can easily hide a plastic container of food or Subway meal in there for when I go to gatherings. Stir fry, veggie fajitas, tofu scramble, lasagna, veggie pizza, pasta with vegetables... it goes way beyond PB&J! The Internet is your best friend when eating out, or getting bored or uncertain about food choices, or needing to rekindle your motivation for making this lifestyle change. Good luck:)0
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My wife is a vegetarian since she was 7... and she's 29 now. It wasn't a healthy thing for her, it was an animal thing. I suppose it all depends on how picky you're going to be. For instance, every time we go to a restaurant, I ask if the beans are cooked in chicken broth, if any lard is used, if chicken (or other animal) broth is used in sauces, etc.
That said, its been an interesting experience in that I'm the cook, we eat dinner together every night, and we have the same meals... just that, at times, mine has meat when hers doesn't. And trust me, chicken close to her dish is not tolerable. Anyways, I have TONS of stuff you can do to ease yourself into it if you ever have any questions. Add me if you'd like.
Oh, my one tip: Go out and buy Quorn products. In my humble opinion, they're the best meat replacement thing out there that I even eat at times. You'll be surprised by what you can find.0 -
^ egg whites are used as binding agents in quorn. to be honest, i quite liked quorn and being able to use it in place of meat in recipes was convenient but vegan food, in my experience, works best when i embrace it for what it is, rather than trying to make it like the meaty diet i grew up on.
you're welcome to add me and nosy through my food diary - i've been vegan for a few years and was vegetarian for many before that. i'm not the best or most imaginative cook but i usually eat fairly well 0 -
Hi
I've been a strict vegetarian (no food with a face) for 12 years now.
I was never a huge meat eater before I turned veggie, but I did love chicken and bacon.
It's difficult at first. My main problem was other people taking my new lifestyle seriously! In the first few weeks/months I'd have people asking me if I wanted, for example, a sausage roll, and I'd say no thanks I'm vegetarian, and they'd laugh and say well you ate them last month! haha. But once people started realising it was a permanant change, they stopped all of that.
I missed certain things for a while, but I personally really like Quorn products and find it a good substitute for meat. I eat exactly the same as the rest of my family, minus the meat...just replaced by a quorn product.
I do eat dairy products, and I imagine being a vegan is extremely hard!!! 99% of vegetarian options in restaurants are cheese based! And I love eggs and milk too, so I know I could never handle being a vegan.
I suggest just being vegetarian for a while and see how you go on, and after you've gotten used to that and if you find it easy enough, then try cutting out dairy if you want to vegan. But I think it would be too hard to go from eating everything, to a vegan, over night!
Make sure you eat plenty of dark green veggies for iron....spinach, brocolli, green beans etc. Nuts are good too.
You'll probably benefit from taking multivitamins, but check the boxes first as a lot of them aren't vegetarian!
Good luck, and feel free to add me if you want some veggie friends 0 -
Hi everyone
I've been vegetarian for about 2 years now. Tried going vegan with Sassy Knudson's website. She has some great ideas for transitioning. Decided to go the pesco-ovo-lacto route (yogurt and some cheeses are my only dairy). Looking for recipes that don't require a trip to the Far East for some ingredients. Just want some good ol' fashioned comfort food. My oldest daughter has passed along some great recipes which I will share with you. Thanks for reading! Jaycee624.0 -
How do you spot a vegan at a dinner party? Don't worry they'll freakin tell everybody!
That said, I've been vegan for about 6 months now and I finally feel like I've really got it down packed! I have the list of books that are great vegan reads, the magazine list, the website support, the essential cookbooks (I highly recommend "Vegan on the Cheap" for beginner basics), and the movie list ("Forks over Knives" is officially out, check for showings near you!). I love recipe swapping and sharing new resources- add me if you like. Pointers on making life easier are always welcome; message me any time!0 -
I've been a vegetarian for over a year. I always told myself I would do it. I loved red meat and hated pork and poultry which is pretty backwards. I made the mistake of just diving into it head first and totally blind. My best advice for you is research what meals you like and find the vegetarian/vegan alternative. That way you aren't hungry, staring at your fridge and wondering what can you eat. I have no advice for turning vegan because I am allergic to soy so I quickly decided that was out. So if nothing else, research before making a huge change into your diet.0
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I hope you don't mind...I'm sending all of you Veg*ns Friends requests! If I missed you - I'm sorry - feel free to add me!!!!0
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Hey, I've been a vegan for 2.5 years and vegetarian a year more, so 3.5 total years without meat. It's definitely a great life choice. If you eat varied foods and unprocessed foods you will feel incredibly better and drop tons of weight. I know for me, I've lost close to 90 lbs since I went vegetarian in January 2008. Feel free to add me and look over my food journal.
I eat mostly fresh or frozen vegetables, beans, lentils, whole wheat bread... Though I do have a penchant for eating tons of Clif and Builders bars. Keep in mind that before I became a vegetarian I would literally eat meat every meal. I feel that a good 50+% of my diet was animal derived until I changed so, honestly, anyone can do it. I hate hearing the incredibly lame and weak response of "Oh, I just like *insert animal bits* way too much to ever give that up." It's complete BS, after a short amount of time it doesn't bother you and eventually your mind just looks at meat as dead animals, not as food, much like how you'd look at rocks or motor oil. The giving up of dairy and eggs was harder than meat, but really not to difficult. You just modify stuff you get at restaurants and shop in the produce section at the grocery store.
I became vegan for three primary reasons: Health, Animal Welfare, and Environmental Causes. Health is obvious for me, I've lost tons of weight, feel better, look better, and am exponentially healthier.
Animal Welfare is a big one for me; as I have two cats and a strong sense of empathy. Meat and slaughter is an obvious argument, but people often ask why no eggs or milk. Milk comes from cows that are perpetually inseminated to keep them eternally producing milk and all the little male off-spring that can't produce dairy themselves are quickly scooped up for veal or hamburgers. And when the old milk cows are no longer commercially viable, off to the grinders for them. It's just cruel to envision a life of mechanical servitude for these poor creatures. Same goes for eggs; look up "Chicken Grinder". All the male chicks quickly get ground up, smothered, stomped or some other way destroyed pretty quickly... billions of them every year. And those lucky females that survive have an exciting lifetime of enclosed suffering jammed into a miniscule pen with other chickens where they lose all their feathers and suffer infections, injuries, etc. Whenever they're all done laying eggs and are no longer useful, then it's time for them to go the way of their brothers. It's abysmal the treatment of these animals, egg production in this country is absolutely horrendous. I find it cruel and I know that I would not want the entirety of *my* one and only life spent penned up and suffering all day, everyday.
Environmental issues for me are also very real, since meat, egg, and dairy production are extremely polluting and an absurdly inefficient means of food production. Meat production consumes nearly 10x the resources of cereal grain or legumes. Also, due to the incredibly nasty runoff and byproducts you have whole swaths of sea that are unusable do to dead zones. And when it comes to aquaculture, for every pound of shrimp caught there are nearly 5x as much by-catch (other sea critters caught but not used) that just die for no reason. It's horrible how we hunt species of fish and other marine life to near extinction (Like tunas, anyone see the commercial with Adrian Grenier?) simply because we just don't wanna eat a cup of chickpeas instead which is better for you, better for the fish, and better for the entirety of the aquatic ecosystems.
It just makes too much sense when you stop and think about it all to be a vegetarian/vegan. Use your head.0 -
Hi everyone! I became a vegetarian a couple of years ago for moral/ethical reasons. Currently, I am in the process of transitioning into a vegan lifestyle. It's been a rather slow process. I would love some like-minded friends on MFP that share my beliefs :happy:0
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Hi! Veggie here, who cooks vegan at home. Lost about 50 lbs to date with my lifestyle - but now I'm getting serious about it. Check out my blog for vegan/veggie recipes, and feel free to friend me!
Good luck! It's not as hard as most people want you to think it is. Honestly. I'm a huge foodie, and a personal chef, and I would NEVER go back to my old ways. Plus, vegan is way cheaper. LOL. 0 -
I'm vegan going on three years. I find it makes it easier to stay within my calorie limits, actually. I don't have time for a long post right now, on a break at work, but I'll try to friend all of you for mutual support.0
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^ egg whites are used as binding agents in quorn. to be honest, i quite liked quorn and being able to use it in place of meat in recipes was convenient but vegan food, in my experience, works best when i embrace it for what it is, rather than trying to make it like the meaty diet i grew up on.
you're welcome to add me and nosy through my food diary - i've been vegan for a few years and was vegetarian for many before that. i'm not the best or most imaginative cook but i usually eat fairly well
I learn something new every day! I suppose I wouldn't know that since my wife isn't a vegan. Needless to say, however, all of our cheeses, eggs, and (MY) meats are all free range/organic and MUST be researched prior to purchasing.0 -
I've been a vegetarian for almost 2 years. I do believe a vegan diet is healther, it is my next goal.
Best of luck on your journey, and feel free to add me as a friend if you'd like. Any of you veggies, I can use all of the support!! 0 -
I'm a vegetarian and a cook. I cook vegan at home but can't seem to ditch the dairy when I'm out of the house. I try to avoid eggs as much as possible since chickens, the way factory farms produce and care for, are disgusting. I've really struggled with the transition to veganism. Vegetarianism was way easy once I figured out that my common migraines and random nausea spells completely went away when the meat was gone.0
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Hi,
When I was 15 I decided to become a vegetarian for ethical reasons. I have to tell it wasn't easy but most of all because of the fact that there where almost no choices in my hometown (in Portugal). I didn't have a store where to buy simple stuff like tofu and forget about restaurants (had to stick with scramble eggs).
For me easing into it didn't work, what I did was eat all the meat I wanted for 3 months, in which I thought about the slaughter of animals all meals long and it worked. Since I became a vegetarian I never ate meat or even considered it, even when it was very difficult to find what to eat. Only when I relocated to the capital of my country I found out that there were stores only with this kind of food. I seemed a child in a toy store!
I would love to go vegan and really feel that it is the right thing to do but I have a meat eater as a partner and it's harder to give up eggs and milk. I almost don't eat cheese, only organic milk, and free range eggs.
I love to cook, and I'm crazy about mushrooms, so if you (or anyone) wants we can share recipes.
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A great, healthy food blog to follow is ohsheglows.com0
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I'm a vegan (well, trying to be). I've only been vegan for about two months, but so far it's been great. For a while I wasn't getting enough protein, so I was starving all the time, but I've fixed that so it's all good. I went from meat-eater straight to vegan, btw. And I would also suggest vegweb.com I get almost all of my recipes from there. They're great! Feel free to ad me! :happy:0
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Vegan for about 6 yrs now. Feel free to add me.0
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I've been eating vegan for about a month and a half now. I love it. I wasn't a vegetarian beforehand, but I also just didn't eat much meat.
The only thing I found difficult was giving up dairy. I've also faced challenges when eating out and there have been a couple slip ups (e.g. cheese coming already grated on top of some pasta... just didn't think about that!)
Overall, it has been successful though. I have been amazed at how much more energy I have now than I had before. It's really been life altering. I actually have the energy to get out there and do some exercise.
I have a long way to go with weight loss, but I already am feeling healthier.0 -
I'm ovo-vegetarian. I eat eggs and some dairy. I've considered going vegan, but haven't made the transition just yet. currently focusing on eating 'clean" Going vegetarian wasn't difficult for me. A few things I recommend for anyone going vegetarian or vegan is to purchase a crock pot, even a cheap one that you can get from Walmart for $10. It's helpful in cooking beans and rice. Also if you can swing it a small food processor. I got one for under $100 and make my own veggie burgers. If you decide to use TVP or texturized vegetable protein it easier to mix in a food processor than by hand.
Oh a few blogs I follow:
Chef Marcus Samuelsson
http://marcussamuelsson.com/
Bankrupt Vegan
http://bankruptvegan.blogspot.com/
and this one I just found yesterday
http://thedirtyvegan.blogspot.com/
Anyway, Those are my tips. Feel free to add me.0 -
I've been a vegetarian for 15 years (I'm 23) and like other people have said being vegetarian first would be the easiest. Being vegan is incredibly difficult, and to be done well it's best to research quite a bit first.0
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Hey! I'm new to this site and also vegan! Thought I'd say hi and anyone is welcome to add me! Would love to chat with new people (vegan or otherwise).
I went vegan the second I finished reading Skinny ***** three years ago! I experimented with vegetarianism in high school, mostly cause I didn't like the taste of meat and didn't want to have to eat it at family diners. However, I usually went back to eating chicken. After reading Skinny ***** I moved on to Fast Food Revolution and I knew I'd made the right decision. Now one of my favourite things to do is reading books on the food industry and by vegan authors (recently finished the Crazy Sexy Diet and it's probably my fave!), as well as watching documentaries. I am just disgusted by all of it!
Since being vegan I have no regrets! I love my life! It's made me a different, much more positive and lively person! At first it was hard and I was surviving on french fries, but there are SOOO many resources out there with amazing recipes and nutrition advice! I love trying new foods in vegan restaurants and trying to recreate them at home!
I don't know any other vegans personally - two of my cousins are vegetarian though. It would be great to get to know some others to swap recipes and ideas Especially anyone that's into juicing because I'm about to buy my first juicer 0
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