Vegan Lifestyle for 31 days. Need experienced help!

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  • Zinka61
    Zinka61 Posts: 539 Member
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    Do be sure to eat grains in some form while eating vegan. While you don't have to eat grains and legumes together in the same meal to create complementary protein, you do need both in your diet in general. It's just not that hard going vegan. Pick out a new recipe to try every day, and if you get stuck, make a nice pot of bean and veggie soup with rice. There are lots of tricks to replacing animal products in vegan cooking, but you will learn about that as you follow new recipes. Have fun and read a little about vegan nutrition. Vegetarian Resource Group has solid info.
  • Zinka61
    Zinka61 Posts: 539 Member
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    http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/
  • LoupGarouTFTs
    LoupGarouTFTs Posts: 916 Member
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    You know there is nothing intrinsically healthy about the vegan or vegetarian diet?
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    The book, "Thug Kitchen" has vegan recipes.
  • Zinka61
    Zinka61 Posts: 539 Member
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    Here is a good bunch of info for inexpensive vegan food choices when shopping: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/natural-health/whole-foods-plant-based-fifty-dollars-a-week/
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    It looks like you have already gotten some great advice, I second the advice about picking up a cookbook or finding a website with recipes that look appealing and going from there.

    Vegans can certainly be healthy, but veganism isn't the only path to health. Just make sure you don't layer too many restrictions (too little fat, no grains, etc) on top of it and you should be fine.
  • deniztuzu2
    deniztuzu2 Posts: 77 Member
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    Putting "vegan recipes" into Google yields "About 49,600,000 results"
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,179 Member
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    Vegan and avoiding oil?
  • mjffey
    mjffey Posts: 72 Member
    edited May 2015
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    LoupGarouTFTs wrote: »
    You know there is nothing intrinsically healthy about the vegan or vegetarian diet?

    I don't think this is what she is looking for. Being vegan or not is a personal choice and all eating preferences do have their pros and cons. If this is all you have to bring to the discussion, I think you should not post. I thought that this website is to encourage people. Thanks.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
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    http://www.pennmedicine.org/health_info/nutrition/how_much.html

    The chart in this link shows how much fat and oil we need in our day. :)
  • PeachyCarol
    PeachyCarol Posts: 8,029 Member
    edited May 2015
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    OP, regarding your mention of fats and oils, is there any particular reason you want to limit them? There are a couple of fad vegan diets out there that have "interesting" macro balances with very low fat and protein intake, and I don't know how sustainable they are for the long term.

    Fat is good for you. There are a lot of vitamins in food that are fat soluble. It's also satiating and good for your skin. Don't be afraid of decent percentage of your diet coming from it. Vegan sources of fat are generally healthy sources of fat, too.
  • LadyFencer
    LadyFencer Posts: 51 Member
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    If you have a decent library go there for cookbooks rather than buying. Some rely heavily on vegan junk food. There are many good websites with recipes. My favorite vegan cookbook is Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure.
  • Fighting4Healthy
    Fighting4Healthy Posts: 336 Member
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    For everyone concerned about my fat intake, I'm not trying to eliminate fat out of my eating habits, i am trying to limit it. I used to have a bad habit of eating foods that were extremely high in fat, bad fat not good fat. For years i have tried to cut down on fat, for example, i don't eat fried foods. I will eat foods that have fat in them but all of the extra fat i avoid. I bake or pan sear food but i don't deep fry. I also try to avoid added butters. Just so y'all know, I'm not eliminating fat, just limiting.
  • LadyFencer
    LadyFencer Posts: 51 Member
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    I don't think anyone has mentioned PCRM yet. They have a vegan kickstart, a 21-day support program that begins at the first of every month. They also have a lot of recipes. Vegan.com has a lot of information as well, including recommendations of books by vegan dietitians. Eating vegan at home is actually not very hard once you get used to it. Unfortunately, eating vegan in restaurants can be difficult. I found that I did not lose much weight following a vegan diet without counting calories, but my blood pressure normalized.
    Also, for some reason, there are people in the world who seem to take a stranger becoming vegan as a personal affront. Ignore them.
  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
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    If you're only doing it for health reasons, than vegan is the wrong diet.

    I was vegan for 5 years and all I ate was pasta and fake meats and stuff. I got extremely unhealthy and skinny-fat. You can avoid this by not eating the junk that I did, but it's still extremely restrictive and difficult for someone just trying to get healthy.

    If you want to get healthy then just stick to regular foods. Get your macro nutrients and calories in check. Avoid artificial trans fats. Lower your sodium down to a healthy level. Supplement with omega 3, vitamin D, and a quality multi vitamin as needed.
  • Cacophony1
    Cacophony1 Posts: 12 Member
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    Just stay focused and make healthy choices regardless of what title you call your eating style..Does it really matter?? lol...the results will speak for themselves...Good luck, stay focused as obviously we all are on this same journey whether a meat eater or not..
    Less In, More Out and MOVING my Body Consistently, for a purpose more, is the "WOE" pathway to health I'm on...lol..GOOD LUCK..cyber-hug !!

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