Vegetarian Diet Transition
Replies
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Congratulations on trying to make the transition to vegetarian! Although personally I made the switch for personal reasons due to my love for all animals, not just cats and dogs. I do have to say I made the transition pretty quickly and I am not looking back at all. I have been eating a plant based diet for 10 months now and I absolutely love it! I love all beans, quinoa, and tofu. I try to get plenty of fruits and veggies into my diet and focus on how I feel with what I am putting into my body. I have lost over 15 pounds in the last 10 months with my transition to a plant based diet and I am almost at my goal weight. I love the diet choices I have made and you will too! Just keep experimenting with different foods. Try out some good vegetarian online blogs or cook books and don't be nervous to try something new. I personally have read the book, Kind Diet and I try a lot of recipes on Pinterest.2
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littlechiaseed wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »littlechiaseed wrote: »I'm sure if you're not vegetarian then the fish thing seems like splitting hairs but when it comes up weekly in person, it's pretty annoying especially considering I didn't even eat fish before becoming vegetarian because it grossed me out. I can count on one hand the number of times I ate fish when it wasn't a fish stick broiled to an unrecognizable crisp.
perhaps you should broaden your cultural horizons...
I don't travel out of the country much so why? And after going to Canada and how it sucked trying to find food there, I'm not looking to venture much further as much especially in countries that don't speak English.
Because maybe understanding that different cultures are going to view "vegetarian" a little differently than you might make it not so annoying for you when people bring up fish...which is common to many "vegetarian" diets in different cultures...because they don't consider fish to be meat...
I trust that you are also not Catholic...Catholics are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all of the Friday's of lent...but fish is acceptable...1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »littlechiaseed wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »littlechiaseed wrote: »I'm sure if you're not vegetarian then the fish thing seems like splitting hairs but when it comes up weekly in person, it's pretty annoying especially considering I didn't even eat fish before becoming vegetarian because it grossed me out. I can count on one hand the number of times I ate fish when it wasn't a fish stick broiled to an unrecognizable crisp.
perhaps you should broaden your cultural horizons...
I don't travel out of the country much so why? And after going to Canada and how it sucked trying to find food there, I'm not looking to venture much further as much especially in countries that don't speak English.
Because maybe understanding that different cultures are going to view "vegetarian" a little differently than you might make it not so annoying for you when people bring up fish...which is common to many "vegetarian" diets in different cultures...because they don't consider fish to be meat...
I trust that you are also not Catholic...Catholics are to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all of the Friday's of lent...but fish is acceptable...
I was catholic and never understood why fish wasn't meat or why "don't eat meat on friday" somehow translates to "we have to eat fish on fridays" at least where I live in Texas that's how it's translated.. Boggles my mind to this day.0 -
baleighbee wrote: »Congratulations on trying to make the transition to vegetarian! Although personally I made the switch for personal reasons due to my love for all animals, not just cats and dogs. I do have to say I made the transition pretty quickly and I am not looking back at all. I have been eating a plant based diet for 10 months now and I absolutely love it! I love all beans, quinoa, and tofu. I try to get plenty of fruits and veggies into my diet and focus on how I feel with what I am putting into my body. I have lost over 15 pounds in the last 10 months with my transition to a plant based diet and I am almost at my goal weight. I love the diet choices I have made and you will too! Just keep experimenting with different foods. Try out some good vegetarian online blogs or cook books and don't be nervous to try something new. I personally have read the book, Kind Diet and I try a lot of recipes on Pinterest.
For your weight loss did you still track your calorie intake? Or did it happen naturally as you switched up your food choices?0 -
As a Canadian vegan, I feel compelled to chime in and say that I have plenty to eat!
OP, there are so many amazing veg friendly recipes out there. I'd suggest looking on some blogs or just browsing some cookbooks at your local bookstore to see what appeals to you and seems tasty!3 -
Lentils, beans, and chickpeas ars your new beat friends, as they a lovely, cheap sources of protein. My main advice is move away from the idea of meat-centric dishes, and think more about makeing pulses and vegetables the 'star' of the dish. That way, you arent going to have to rely on meat replacements all the time. Also experiemnt and try new things, there is so much we dont try because we rely on meat, so test out new recipes and have fun exploring new tastes.1
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crzycatlady1 wrote: »baleighbee wrote: »Congratulations on trying to make the transition to vegetarian! Although personally I made the switch for personal reasons due to my love for all animals, not just cats and dogs. I do have to say I made the transition pretty quickly and I am not looking back at all. I have been eating a plant based diet for 10 months now and I absolutely love it! I love all beans, quinoa, and tofu. I try to get plenty of fruits and veggies into my diet and focus on how I feel with what I am putting into my body. I have lost over 15 pounds in the last 10 months with my transition to a plant based diet and I am almost at my goal weight. I love the diet choices I have made and you will too! Just keep experimenting with different foods. Try out some good vegetarian online blogs or cook books and don't be nervous to try something new. I personally have read the book, Kind Diet and I try a lot of recipes on Pinterest.
For your weight loss did you still track your calorie intake? Or did it happen naturally as you switched up your food choices?
As I mentioned before, vegetarian doesn't necessarily equal weight loss. There are plenty of healthy foods that are also calorie dense. I'm a flexitarian (new term I learned today) and my veggie main courses tend to be more calorie dense than if I were to eat meat...a lot of lean meat, poultry, and fish is really low calorie...legumes, lentils, and other pulses are fairly calorie dense and these things tend to be staples in a vegetarian diet...1 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »crzycatlady1 wrote: »baleighbee wrote: »Congratulations on trying to make the transition to vegetarian! Although personally I made the switch for personal reasons due to my love for all animals, not just cats and dogs. I do have to say I made the transition pretty quickly and I am not looking back at all. I have been eating a plant based diet for 10 months now and I absolutely love it! I love all beans, quinoa, and tofu. I try to get plenty of fruits and veggies into my diet and focus on how I feel with what I am putting into my body. I have lost over 15 pounds in the last 10 months with my transition to a plant based diet and I am almost at my goal weight. I love the diet choices I have made and you will too! Just keep experimenting with different foods. Try out some good vegetarian online blogs or cook books and don't be nervous to try something new. I personally have read the book, Kind Diet and I try a lot of recipes on Pinterest.
For your weight loss did you still track your calorie intake? Or did it happen naturally as you switched up your food choices?
As I mentioned before, vegetarian doesn't necessarily equal weight loss. There are plenty of healthy foods that are also calorie dense. I'm a flexitarian (new term I learned today) and my veggie main courses tend to be more calorie dense than if I were to eat meat...a lot of lean meat, poultry, and fish is really low calorie...legumes, lentils, and other pulses are fairly calorie dense and these things tend to be staples in a vegetarian diet...
Thanks! The whole animal for food issue is getting to me more as I get older, and while I still don't have an issue with eating the local, pasture raised beef we buy (we visit the farm and see how things are run), I am becoming more uncomfortable with the commercial farmed items I'm eating (I eat a ridiculous amount of canned chicken). I don't think I'd want to go full vegetarian, but I'll have to look into flexitarian
edited to clarify0 -
Beans, lentils, eggs, sweet potatoes and salads are my staples. Lots of Indian cooking with chickpeas, veggies, and lentils. Cottage cheese and fruit makes a good breakfast or snack. smoothies with almond milk or yogurt. Don't resort to eating pizza and bread all the time and you'll be fine! Hummus and veggies and occasionally tofu and rice. My boyfriend also became vegetarian a few years back after he realized it was cheaper than eating meat. He eats a lot... There's quite a bit of experimenting going on in our kitchen now 0
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littlechiaseed wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »littlechiaseed wrote: »I'm sure if you're not vegetarian then the fish thing seems like splitting hairs but when it comes up weekly in person, it's pretty annoying especially considering I didn't even eat fish before becoming vegetarian because it grossed me out. I can count on one hand the number of times I ate fish when it wasn't a fish stick broiled to an unrecognizable crisp.
perhaps you should broaden your cultural horizons...
I don't travel out of the country much so why? And after going to Canada and how it sucked trying to find food there, I'm not looking to venture much further as much especially in countries that don't speak English.
if you're really asking why should you broaden your cultural horizons, then i have so much sadness and pity for you as a huaman being.2 -
Sorry everyone I didn't actually make it clear that whilst I'm losing weight, my reason for changing my diet is purely personal beliefs regarding animals and animal welfare.
Also, I understand the differences between different types of diets and the definitions to me frankly aren't that important.
Thank you for all the useful advice and I have been doing relatively well so far so hopefully it will continue!!5 -
Hey, I'm a pescetarian and my main advice to you would be to become well acquainted with your spice cupboard! Cooking without meat can take a little getting used to for a lot of people because they are used to the meat imparting a lot of flavour to a dish and in particular providing a rich/savouriness (umami) that can be difficult to replicate. I use things like marmite (yeast extract), hendersons relish (a bit like Worcestershire sauce), soy sauce and dried mushrooms (and the mushroomy stock from soaking) in soups, stocks, gravies and stews. Veggie curries are brilliant and can be really filling and healthy just be confident and experiment with spices. Another tip would be to get away from the idea of meat having to take centre stage in a meal - for instance we quite often have a roast dinner which is essentially all the trimmings - roast potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire puddings, steamed veg, gravy - without the meat, or a "full English breakfast" with eggs, beans, toast, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns and veggie sausages. Meat replacements can be a good way of getting more protein in your diet, I prefer frozen soya mince to quorn mince as it has a more substantial texture. Good luck!4
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There are so many options for you to choose from, OP. When it comes to faux meats, I prefer to either use Gardein brand or make my own seitan. Check out my obsessive Pinterest boards (scroll past all the cardmaking & papercrafting to get to the recipe boards): https://www.pinterest.com/jenniferarent/0
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vegan4lyfe2012 wrote: »There are so many options for you to choose from, OP. When it comes to faux meats, I prefer to either use Gardein brand or make my own seitan. Check out my obsessive Pinterest boards (scroll past all the cardmaking & papercrafting to get to the recipe boards): https://www.pinterest.com/jenniferarent/
Thank you, I'll definitely have a look through! ☺️0 -
Im a vegan and make my own veggie burgers, they're both more cost effective and healthier. Literally just shredded zucchini, black beans, steel cut oats, and ground flax seasoned with steak seasoning. I make like 50 of them for $10 of ingredients and freeze.
Anyway try Yummly, it's an app that provides tons of recipes to fit any dietary restrictions. It's fantastic.2 -
chubby_momma wrote: »Im a vegan and make my own veggie burgers, they're both more cost effective and healthier. Literally just shredded zucchini, black beans, steel cut oats, and ground flax seasoned with steak seasoning. I make like 50 of them for $10 of ingredients and freeze.
Anyway try Yummly, it's an app that provides tons of recipes to fit any dietary restrictions. It's fantastic.
I'd love that recipe for the black bean burgers!0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »littlechiaseed wrote: »cushman5279 wrote: »I'd recommend sticking with the egg whites and maybe some fish here or there.
What plant do fish come from?
I know quite a few vegetarians who also consume eggs and dairy...what plant do eggs and dairy come from...they also don't feel the need to go around calling themselves octo-lacto vegetarian, they just call themselves vegetarian. Also, in many cultures and religions, fish is not meat and would be perfectly acceptable in a vegetarian diet.
As to the OP, my wife and I never fully made the transition, nor will we. We started transitioning months ago with meatless mondays and then added other days...ultimately we decided that what we were doing was pretty good for us and didn't see the need to fully transition...we eat vegetarian 3-4 days per week..."meat" days are usually fish and sometimes chicken...we don't eat much beef, but I do enjoy a good steak or burger from time to time.
I'd suggest just transitioning slowly and keeping an open mind as to what exactly you're trying to accomplish, why you're considering vegetarian, etc and whether or not a different WOE would work better for you. Also, if you're doing this to lose weight be forewarned...many of my vegetarian dishes are more calorie dense than my meat, poultry, or fish dishes.
I'm curious. From which 8 animals do octo-lacto vegetarians drink milk? (cow, goat, sheep, buffalo, horse, yak ... I'm out of ideas. I sometimes see "tiger's milk" on food labels, but I've always assumed that was just a marketing ploy. ... Of course, there was that children's story in which the tiger chased the little boy around a tree so fast that he churned himself into butter... hmmm.)0 -
littlechiaseed wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »littlechiaseed wrote: »I'm sure if you're not vegetarian then the fish thing seems like splitting hairs but when it comes up weekly in person, it's pretty annoying especially considering I didn't even eat fish before becoming vegetarian because it grossed me out. I can count on one hand the number of times I ate fish when it wasn't a fish stick broiled to an unrecognizable crisp.
perhaps you should broaden your cultural horizons...
I don't travel out of the country much so why? And after going to Canada and how it sucked trying to find food there, I'm not looking to venture much further as much especially in countries that don't speak English.
if you're really asking why should you broaden your cultural horizons, then i have so much sadness and pity for you as a huaman being.
It ain't free dude. Costs major $$ to travel. Kinda have other priorities before doing any of that. Not to mention I was constantly taking meds while in Canada because it was hard to eat. I have ibs I have to be careful.
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