Going Vegetarian, pls vegetarians need your help!

I've been a vegetarian for 13 years and have never had a "yearly" vitamin shot.... I occasionally take a multivitamin, but not really regularly. One thing I do, when I'm working out hard (I run and weight train), is take a protein supplement. I don't like to eat too much dairy, so I usually choose Nutri Biotic Vegan Rice protein powder, vanilla flavour, which is decent when mixed with other stuff. I also sometimes drink Vega smoothies.

As far as diet goes, I would suggest checking out a bunch of vegetarian cookbooks or magazines from the library and seeing what you like and don't like. Vegetarian Times magazine has great recipes with nutritional breakdowns for each. For health reasons, I tend to try to be light on the cheese and include more beans, legumes and nuts in my diet. My plate rarely looks like a meat-eater's might, with a separate portion of "meat", vegetables and grain... usually it's all mixed together, sometimes grains served on a bed of greens. I try to eat as much vegetables (especially dark green ones) as I can.

The Morning-star Mozzarella and Basil Burgers are AMAZING on top of a toasted english muffin! Who needs greasy burgers!!!

i've been a vegetarian for two years-- i've never gotten a vitamin shot. i love to get creative in the kitchen. tip: get a GOOD vegetarian cookbook. I eat pasta, rice, and tons of fresh produce. do you have a farmers market near you? they usually have cheaper produce and it lasts longer. I eat dairy (drink soymilk) and just started eating egg whites (regular eggs make my tummy hurt) :P feel free to ad me if you wanna look at my food diary. i OCCASIONALLY eat fish (if yu like it, yu might try that...)

I think first off you need to decide what kind of vegetarian you want to be. Many people define vegetarian differently. do you want to be lacto-ovo vegetarian (dairy & eggs - I know you said you don't like eggs but you'd be surprised the amount of foods that contain these products)? Vegan (no animal by products whatsoever)? If you want to go vegan maybe the best way is to easy your way into by going lacto-ovo first then phase out animal products. One of the biggest challenges new vegetarians have is figuring out how to create a well rounded diet so kudos to you for doing research first. I've heard terrible stories of people who went vegetarian by simply cutting out meat in their diets without supplement it with alternatives then ended up becoming anemic and losing hair!

On the other hand I've been Pescatarian (fish yes, no red meat, chicken, pork, etc.) for 17 years as I was adjusting in the early years I would grapple with mild anemia but nothing too major. Fish is a great source of protein which is why I decided to stick with it and not go full board veggie. But if you do make the jump you will need to eat plant based sources of protein in place of meat. Examples; nuts, peanut butter, beans. One thing meat is a good source of that is harder to get when you don't eat meat is Iron and vitamin B12. I will get B12 shots on occasion because its harder to consume in a meatless diet.

Read up on alternative protein sources such as tempeh, tofu, soy.

I have fish maybe 2 to 3xs a week, not only is it good source of protein while being low in fat its also a good source of omeg 3 fatty acids. But other than having fish, my protein is usually way above my MFP goals and I like to keep it there. Ways that I make that happen is by eating soy products, protein shakes, dry unbleached nuts, edamame, protein heavy breads (perfect 10 bagels, ezekiel bread, etc.)

There's a lot of misinformation and scare tactics out there regarding vegetarianism/veganism. Don't listen to it. The 'vitamin shot' thing is one of them. As well, many doctors are not dietary specialists. If you want advice on eating, try to see a dietician. I would recommend doing this a month or so after becoming vegetarian, just so someone with appropriate expertise can make sure you're doing it right. A word of caution - in many countries, the term 'nutritionist' is unregulated, so nearly anyone can claim to be qualified as one. This is why I recommend seeing a dietician instead.

I've found that most people who 'get sick' after going veggie have not done very much research on the subject. So to avoid getting sick and having false starts, make sure you know your stuff!!

I don't know where you're from, so I can't speak for your region, but I know that since I started being vegetarian ten years ago, the world has become a lot more accepting of vegetarianism. I mean, then I could hardly find a veggie burger at a grocery store, and now I can find them at restaurants. It's gotten a lot easier over the years, but (again, depending on where you live) you may still face ignorant and volatile reactions simply for choosing not to consume meat.

Most veggies don't have much of a problem having a balanced diet, though it is a little bit trickier for vegans. Make sure you have vegetarian nutrition down first, and again, research is your friend.

I first started out being vegetarian when I was quite young, and relied upon store-bought veggie meats to replace actual meat in my diet. Over time, I was able to prepare more food myself and now don't have that sort of reliance. Maybe this is something you could do, while you are researching better options?

For cookbooks, I love the Veganomicon, How it All Vegan (and other books by these authors), and the Vegan Lunch Box. But a really good resource is www.vegweb.com. I've found it incredibly useful.

One thing to watch out for when researching food and nutrition is your resource's reason for being vegetarian/vegan. If it's health concerns when you care about animal welfare, you may be surprised to find people consuming caesar salad (often containing anchovy paste), marshmallows and other candy (gelatin), yogurts (often gelatin) and other items that contain animal parts. I religiously check the ingredient list of every item I purchase. Eventually, it's easy to spot what doesn't belong; however, it's more difficult for vegans. Dairy is in many unexpected items - even some soy cheese (casein). Again, many people who are veggie for the health are unconcerned about this, so it depends on your mileage.

There are plenty of easy-to-google beginner vegetarian guides online, but make sure it's made by a reliable source of information. If you can find references to research papers, all the better. Beware of fad-dieters who think that vegan is the new Atkins. These people often want a quick fix for the health problem a la mode and are unreliable. Try a vegetarian society for beginner guidance, like https://www.vegsoc.org/ or others.

Lastly, being vegetarian really isn't all that complicated. Don't eat meat, make sure you get enough calories/nutrients, and you should be fine.

You don't need shots, but you do need to take care that you are eating a balanced diet. I eat eggs, but if you don't care for them there's no need to eat them. I am also a cancer survivor so I limit my processed soy products and tofu. There are tons of grains, beans and legumes you can get protein I limit the fake meats like morning star/boca/quorn products. They can be just as bad for you as any other processed food and should not make up the bulk of your diet.

Feel free to peek at my diary. It's not perfect, but I put forth a lot of effort to eat as clean as possible.

Vegetarian Times magazine has a great Vegetarian Starter Kit brochure. They've got a digital copy online. I think it would be worth checking out for anyone interested in going vegetarian.
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/2007/pdf/vegetarian_starter_kit.pdf
When I decided to become vegetarian (at age 15), and it looked like it was not just a stage I was going through, my mom got me a subscription to Vegetarian Times for my birthday. I found it really helpful.

Oh, and about that shot....I've been a vegetarian for 25 years now. This is the first I've ever heard of a yearly vitamin shot. I don't even take a daily vitamin (mostly because I can never remember to take it), but I work really hard to get my vitamins & nutrients from the foods I'm eating. Feel free to add me as a friend if you like.

ive been veggie for 16years now never needed a vitamin jab and the only time i got anemic is with my 5kids cute little troubles nick my iron lol but iron tablets worked for me

i gave up meat for 2 reasons how it was kept prier to slaughter (not as much with the oraganic stuff when i was young) and i really dont like taste love the smell hate the taste same for fish i can stomach prawns and scampi hate all other fish taste smell texture

alternative protein sources quorn, quinoa whole grains, beans lentils legumes etc heres a site you might find helpful
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/healthnutrition/tp/protein.htm
meat free products have come along way they have better taste and texture but have a try see what you like. get a good veggie cook book and just experiment with meals
best of luck

I've been lacto-ovo vegetarian for just over a year now. I'm starting to give up dairy though. I think one of the biggest misconceptions about vegetarians is that we don't get enough protein. Without trying, I regularly meet the "recommended" protein levels... I just think Americans are obsessed with protein.

Personally, I don't care for all the faux meats. If I wanted to eat meat, I'd eat meat, you know? I do enjoy black bean burgers because they're delicious (I make homemade ones now) and what's not to love about something you can put on bread?

I've found that my biggest problem with vegetarianism is that I've begun to rely TOO much on pasta/bread/etc to fill me up and it's really not necessary. Right now, I'm trying to cut back on some of those things and up the veggies, legumes, etc.

I have been vegetarian for a couple of months only, so obviously I dont have that much experience.

I just wanted to recommend a cookbook called "How to cook everything: vegetarian". It is more than 800 pages, but has a huge amount of cool recipes. All I ever want to eat is in there. Everythings is structured according to foodgroup, it has advice on how to handle and cut, dice, or mince every vegetable you've ever heard of (even some you havent!), and it has variations on every recipe, so you can make it vegan. I usually get bored by cookbooks, but I can honestly say that this book has changed my world!

Arh, well, propaganda finished :blushing:

I've been vegetarian for a little over a year and am mostly vegan (I eat dairy if I visit my relatives because I don't much like the conflict and they can't conceive of a meal without dairy). But I eat vegan now at home always. There's a phrase I read somewhere I keep in my head "beans and greens," ie. make sure you get a good amount of beans and dark green leafy veggies (spinach, kale, broccoli etc.) every day. Of course, if you're eating dairy, then you can adjust as necessary. Beans are sometimes high in calories, but pretty low in fat. And lentils are similar, and quicker to cook, although you can always freeze beans, if you cook them from dried. I have a cookbook I like "Vegan on the cheap" - maybe you can find it in a library. I like it because it has recipes for the more expensive prepared stuff (veggieburgers, hummus, soy cheese, all sorts of things). Tofu took me a bit to get used to, but now I've learned how to cook it, and it's fine. I made myself a goal to try a new food every month when I first went vegetarian.

Best of luck to you - it's really not as hard as you might think it is. I'm glad I went vegetarian, I feel so much better about food and animals and health now. MFP is really helpful in tracking the nutrients, too.

Hope I helped!

101cookbooks.com!!!!!