Vegan help (: !

4lustxx
4lustxx Posts: 22 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I’m deciding to go plant based again , this is for me and not my healthy I’m pretty “healthy” per say but I want to go vegan but I don’t want to do mock meats ( they are expensive and not as nutritious) I wanna vibe with my food and have that same loving taste but with vegtables and fruits etc. I don’t want to really imitate “meat and dairy “ foods . I want to embrace the different taste and texture of course but I need advice and Pages Pinterest boards FRIENDS to help with this journey I wanna eat healthy but I don’t want to be a health nut it that makes sense like obv eating a sweet isn’t unhealthy type thing. But I need help my current vegan friend they eat like vegan soul food and stuff delicious but it’ll only make me fatter 😂😂 if I just eat like that . I’m asking for direct help and advice and new friends for this I am working on weightloss but I want this diet to be permanent I want to cook amazing food and love things that are suppose to be In my body sorry if I sound dumb lol

Replies

  • eating_rainbows
    eating_rainbows Posts: 3 Member
    I would say the best way to change to vegan lifestyle is just like any other diet is just “experiment” with different foods within your food guidelines. You gotta find your groove so to speak. My SO and I have been transitioning to vegan lifestyle the past four months or so (I’m also switching out everyday cosmetic products for vegan products) and it just takes time. Pinterest has been a lifesaver. We do lots of salads seeing it’s the easiest way to get a lot of nutrient dense foods into one or two meals. We also do different roasted veggies if that helps. I find that I can eat almost any veggie roasted rather than raw or steamed. It’s a textural thing I suppose. Hope that helps. Good luck on your journey!
  • Nery_Tay
    Nery_Tay Posts: 81 Member
    Hey, I messaged you the resources which I refer to for information. Remember like any diet there are ways to gain weight. I would highly recommend avoid eating processed mock meats / processed food that would fall under as a Junk Food Vegan. I'm not a nutritionist so I can't give the direct advise, but I will recommend resources from certified Doctors and Nutritionists in the message.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    My best advice is to search the internet for recipes that look appealing (Pinterest is a good source) and begin with cooking those. Get an idea of what you like and what you don't. Once you find a few recipes and know what kind of food you like best, you can probably find a cookbook that focuses specifically on that food. There are so many great vegan cookbooks out there now, including those that avoid mock meats.

    One note though: there are lots of different mock meats. They aren't all expensive (especially if you make your own) and some of them are rich in nutrients. I personally find that mock meats are a great fit for my diet when it comes to budget, nutrition, and calories. And you can still have a diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables.
  • smithem79
    smithem79 Posts: 2 Member
    I just started yesterday and found lots of help from a Facebook group called plant based protein for beginners.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    Check out the book "Appetite for Reduction" - calorie light vegan food and everything I've cooked from it so far has been very good.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    If you want vegetarian (usually can be converted to vegan) recipes which aren’t meat substitutes, it helps to go to cultures with a long tradition of vegetarian eating, such as India and Japan. Look for vegetarian dishes from these cultures for inspiration on how to season plant based foods to be delicious without using meat and meat fat as seasoning. In the case of Indian vegetarian dishes which use dairy, you can often substitute a nut milk for milk, oil for butter or ghee, and firm tofu for cheese. It takes some learning to figure out how the different seasonings work together, but ends up being much more exciting than meatless recreations of “soul food” in which a lot of the original flavor came from ham or bacon!
  • noclady1995
    noclady1995 Posts: 452 Member
    A couple of months ago I started whole food, plant-based diet. I would definitely recommend starting your searches there because WFPB recipes don't call for fake meat and dairy. They focus on those food, like you say, that belong in your body. I absolutely love it because I started on this way of eating (and plan to keep it indefinitely) to resolve physical issues (joint pain, migraines, lethargy) that I've been having. I don't keep track of calories, and I've actually lost weight at a healthy pace (8 lbs in 2 months). It's SO much less expensive (and stressful, for that matter) in terms of groceries because I'm not buying a bunch of processed stuff that will probably go bad before I even finish it. For example, one of my meals this week I had brown rice with avocados, fresh cut tomatoes, spring mix salad, roasted veggies, corn and drizzled it all with a cilantro/lime tahini dressing that I made. OMG, it was so good. The hardest part of transitioning is definitely the textures of food and not eating food that takes forever to chew. I used to not like beans/legumes, but now I eat them all the time.
  • 4lustxx
    4lustxx Posts: 22 Member
    @noclady1995 thank you soo much I’ve been slowly doing that making my own food I just have been counting my calories and I ALWAYS go over like I’m sure some days I eat 3000 calories and I don’t get why I’m so freaking hungry I do hard work at my job a lot of lifting etc but my job to me is my excercise I’m always sweaty and sore after work and I have a 2 month old that I take care of and play with so I don’t excercise besides that and lol I don’t know and I eat filling food like yesterday I made rice with hummus cooked in it with spinach kale nutritious yeast and some flax and i just be hungry ☠️☠️☠️ but I’m overweight so it’s sucks
  • JessAndreia
    JessAndreia Posts: 540 Member
    4lustxx wrote: »
    @noclady1995 thank you soo much I’ve been slowly doing that making my own food I just have been counting my calories and I ALWAYS go over like I’m sure some days I eat 3000 calories and I don’t get why I’m so freaking hungry I do hard work at my job a lot of lifting etc but my job to me is my excercise I’m always sweaty and sore after work and I have a 2 month old that I take care of and play with so I don’t excercise besides that and lol I don’t know and I eat filling food like yesterday I made rice with hummus cooked in it with spinach kale nutritious yeast and some flax and i just be hungry ☠️☠️☠️ but I’m overweight so it’s sucks

    Try increasing the protein in the meals you eat. Some people find it to be satiating.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    Reduce items that are not high in protein. Consider less rice and hummus and fruits. Add dark leafy greens, hemp seeds, flax and chia seeds, beans. Here's a group: https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/45-happy-herbivores
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    can you open up your food diary?
  • windra06
    windra06 Posts: 50 Member
    Im plant based and eat a LOT of legumes, I do sometimes eat quorn or tofu but usually make 4 or 5 legume based dishes a week. I live on Pinterest! Happy to share my boards if you like. On 1200 cal I can pretty much take most legume based recipie and make it fit by reducing the fat and accompaniments and having sensible portion sizes. If it says 1tbsp oil I'll just use a few sprays so 1/4 TSP, if it needs coconut milk I'll use less or use plant milk. Sometimes the recipie ends up mediocre but it's fun experimenting.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    4lustxx wrote: »
    @noclady1995 thank you soo much I’ve been slowly doing that making my own food I just have been counting my calories and I ALWAYS go over like I’m sure some days I eat 3000 calories and I don’t get why I’m so freaking hungry I do hard work at my job a lot of lifting etc but my job to me is my excercise I’m always sweaty and sore after work and I have a 2 month old that I take care of and play with so I don’t excercise besides that and lol I don’t know and I eat filling food like yesterday I made rice with hummus cooked in it with spinach kale nutritious yeast and some flax and i just be hungry ☠️☠️☠️ but I’m overweight so it’s sucks

    Please change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • zeekngreatness
    zeekngreatness Posts: 68 Member
    These are so good from Publix

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