Any vegetarians here?

Hi, I was brought up vegetarian, never eaten meat, and now 2 years vegan. There are several veggie/vegan/herbivore groups you may like to join, the wider community is not always so accepting

"Adolescent whim" is what I usually say, since I decided when I was 18 (45 years ago). In reality, at the time, the global context was different from now, with really widespread famine that seemed to be truly related to food shortages (in retrospect, some/much of it was political). My understanding was that the protein inputs to produce a pound of meat were on average substantially less than the protein inputs, and I never was a huge meat fan, so I stopped eating it.

Overall, I feel like we fortunate first-worlders are unavoidably a moving bundle of global harm; and that it makes sense for each of us to moderate that by taking steps that are personally easy for us. (We can't possibly fix it all.) What those steps are would differ by person. Vegetarianism was one thing that was easy for me, and now it's a near-lifelong habit.

This all sounds pretty grim, but I'm not a grim person.

I don't feel that vegetarianism is inherently healthier than omnivorous eating. I do think that most people eat fewer than optimal amounts of fruits and veggies, but (1) sometimes sadly that's an economic issue (not usually, in the first world), and (2) it isn't really any of my business. But omnivores are just as capable of eating plenty of veggies/fruits as are vegetarians.

IMO, vegetarianism is slightly less socially convenient than omnivory (things like negotiating dinner invitations to one's non-vegetarian new boss's house, for one example), and requires slightly more attention to nutrition. Neither of those are insurmountable issues at all, but it leads me not to recommend vegetarianism to anyone who lacks any ethical, taste, or food-sensitivity motivation.

I'm ovo-lacto vegetarian, but I think I'd feel all of the above about strict vegetarianism/fully plant-based eating/veganism, too. I understand what I'd need to do to shift to those ways of eating, and it would be achievable. It's simply not my preference.

Personally, I dislike fake meats, protein powders and protein bars, so almost never eat them. (I don't think there's anything wrong with them: It's a taste-preference thing. Life is too short to routinely eat foods I don't enjoy.) I don't have any trouble meeting my fairly high protein goal, within my calorie goal, without those products. I think I could do so even as a strict vegetarian (fully plant-based).

Vegetarian since August of 1993 (I was 15 at the time, never much liked meat growing up so it wasn't hard to give up). Ovo-lacto, no interest in becoming vegan.

I have been up and down in weight over much of my adult life, but this site seems to be steering me in the right direction (lost 45 pounds in 2016, gained some back after abdominal surgery that required 7 weeks of little to no activity for recovery). Counting calories works for me. I can still have Halo Top and Reese's peanut butter eggs, I just have to fit them into my daily calorie goals. (I am just the sort of person who would do 20 extra minutes of kickboxing to eat a Reese's egg, though.)

I'm still pretty new to the vegetarian game, but I'm enjoying it. I switched to ovo-lacto vegetarianism in February after--weirdly enough-- a 20-day challenge in my English class. We were supposed to do something we'd never done and I chose to go vegetarian. I found that I had more energy, slept better, and felt good about my food so I just kept going after the challenge was done.