Looking for Vegetarians/Vegans...

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!

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 :-))

Sent you a friends request...I have been veg for 17+ years - always looking for other veg*ns to chat with!

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:)

^ 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

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.

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.

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.

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.

^ 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.