Vegetarian/Vegan

jenn_may
jenn_may Posts: 154 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I have a goal to be vegan by the end of the year. Just wanting feed back from people who lead these lifestyles. I am in need of major moral support.

Replies

  • naomi8888
    naomi8888 Posts: 519 Member
    I was mostly vegan for about 18 months but around the start of this year I added back dairy, then eggs and now seafood. I did find it hard to meet a higher protein level as a mostly vegan. Try to include foods like seitan and tofu - also edamame. Look at blogs like ohsheglows and fat free vegan, also PETA. Get some good cookbooks like Vegan with a Vengeance and I love the Kind Life. It's a whole new world.

    Good luck!
  • JoJoDoerr
    JoJoDoerr Posts: 173 Member
    I highly recommend the vegetarian times site. They even offer a free starter guide that gives you the basics to get started.

    Personally, switching to a vegetarian diet was the best thing I ever did for my body! There was a major difference in how I felt within days of cutting out meat.( I do still engage in fish and eggs) Just getting rid of the red meat and pork alone makes a huge difference!
  • daisyverma
    daisyverma Posts: 234 Member
    I am vegetarian and have been since I was 5, so going back to meat was never an option for me really

    A few years back, I started to eat eggs for protein but then I stopped cause I felt bad as the chickens are treated so badly

    nowadays pple r more aware and there are lots of foods out there to cater to vegetarians

    As for Recipes, just google and you fill find tonnes

    I hated tofu, but I found some recipes that make it taste better (ie pineapple tofu)

    also, beans, nuts, lentils etc all have a lot of protein and there is even a website dedicated to Lentils...they are a superfood i guess

    also things like chia seeds, flax seeds and hemp seeds are a great way to get your omega vitamins.

    Just do your research on Chia seeds before trying
  • FlynnMacCallister
    FlynnMacCallister Posts: 172 Member
    Do your research, and also make the change in consultation with your doctor. I highly recommend getting bloodwork done before and after the change, to set a baseline, and to monitor what is going better and worse for you after you've been veg*n for a little while. Like all "extreme" diets, be it vegan, paleo, raw, high protein, etc, etc, etc, a proportion of people absolutely thrive on them, but a proportion of people have biological quirks which means they just can't be healthy with that particular diet. Ods are, you'll be fine, or even better on the new diet.... but it's important to be sure.

    For example, I eat no land animal products (if I can avoid it; I'd rather just put up with it and eat chicken rather than make a fuss....) and deliberately follow a low-iron diet (because of haemachromatosis) and it suits me fantastically. I take a B12 supplement, but that's all I need. Someone with poor iron uptake couldn't eat the same way, they'd rapidly develop anemia problems.
  • jenn_may
    jenn_may Posts: 154 Member
    I highly recommend the vegetarian times site. They even offer a free starter guide that gives you the basics to get started.

    Personally, switching to a vegetarian diet was the best thing I ever did for my body! There was a major difference in how I felt within days of cutting out meat.( I do still engage in fish and eggs) Just getting rid of the red meat and pork alone makes a huge difference!

    I am thinking about keeping fish in my diet, just because I love it so much. But would like to go at least 30 days without to see how I feel on a strictly vegan diet.
  • sanjoparolas
    sanjoparolas Posts: 549 Member
    Strict vegetarian here - no meat, no eggs, no dairy. Loving it! Thoght I would miss cheese but I don't. Have been doing this in combination with strength training for the past month and a half and doing great. Kicked it off with homemade juices as my primary source of nutrition and that really changed my cravings to plant-based whole foods. My diary is open if you're interested.
  • btmadison
    btmadison Posts: 38 Member
    I was just posting about this yesterday - it does not have to be a binary choice - start out with just a few days and build to it. Here is a short 5 minute TED talk about the "weekday vegetarian" - makes some good points, especially for those on the fence.

    http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_weekday_vegetarian.html

    Or read his article on his site - http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/try-a-weekday-vegetarian-diet-eat-green-food-without-taking-the-plunge.html
  • jenn_may
    jenn_may Posts: 154 Member
    I will not just be jumping right into a vegan diet. My plan is to slowly ease into it. First I am going to just make 3 vegan meals a week and gradually go from there. I have read one book on the subject and would really like to read more before being strictly vegan. I believe being educated is the most important part. There is a healthy way to do it and an unhealthy way to do it.
  • bigsisterdice
    bigsisterdice Posts: 51
    im technically a lacto-ovo-pesca-pollo-terian :D essentially: i dont eat red meat (including pork - it IS NOT white meat!) i havent eaten red meat in about 10ish years, i was somewhere in the preteens so i dont remember exactly, but my decision was made out of rebellion because my parents and brother are avid hunters... and i am a hardcore animal lover :)
  • vegan1975
    vegan1975 Posts: 6 Member
    When I decided I wanted to make the transition to veganism, I made lists of all my favourite foods (recipes and ready-made/store-bought) that I'd have to give up or modify as a vegan. This planning helped to reduce the number of unpleasant surprises as time went on. It's this part that gets discouraging...when you pick up the box of crackers you've always loved and find
    "modified milk ingredients" or "dried egg white" as an ingredient at the bottom of the list. That happened to me all the time in the first year or two.

    But depending on where you live, there are a lot more vegan products these days than when I made the switch, so that should help. Although not all vegan products are healthy, they do make vegan cheeses (check out Daiya), pudding (ZenSoy), yogourt (Wildwood), egg subsitutes (Ener-G), buttery-tasting margarines (Earth Balance), chocolate/nut/caramel bars (Go Max Go), mayo (Veganaise), and then a whole bunch of fake meats. These are all available at my local stores, but there are also many online vegan stores that sells these, as well as other vegan specialty foods and personal care products (eg, veganessentials, veganstore, etc).

    If you want to become vegan for weight loss purposes then be careful since a lot of these foods are just as high in calories as their non-vegan counterparts. You could actually end up gaining weight if you eat more thinking it's ok because it's vegan. But if your goal is to become vegan for personal/ethical/health/environmental/etc reasons and just want to make life easier, then these products are perfect for that.

    Lastly, it's trickier to cook and especially bake vegan things, so I rely on online recipes that are user-rated instead of cookbooks. You could save yourself a lot of time and $$ by doing this at the beginning (or at least until you figure out what type of vegan cuisine you prefer, and then can invest in those specific cookbooks).
  • jenn_may
    jenn_may Posts: 154 Member
    When I decided I wanted to make the transition to veganism, I made lists of all my favourite foods (recipes and ready-made/store-bought) that I'd have to give up or modify as a vegan. This planning helped to reduce the number of unpleasant surprises as time went on. It's this part that gets discouraging...when you pick up the box of crackers you've always loved and find
    "modified milk ingredients" or "dried egg white" as an ingredient at the bottom of the list. That happened to me all the time in the first year or two.

    But depending on where you live, there are a lot more vegan products these days than when I made the switch, so that should help. Although not all vegan products are healthy, they do make vegan cheeses (check out Daiya), pudding (ZenSoy), yogourt (Wildwood), egg subsitutes (Ener-G), buttery-tasting margarines (Earth Balance), chocolate/nut/caramel bars (Go Max Go), mayo (Veganaise), and then a whole bunch of fake meats. These are all available at my local stores, but there are also many online vegan stores that sells these, as well as other vegan specialty foods and personal care products (eg, veganessentials, veganstore, etc).

    If you want to become vegan for weight loss purposes then be careful since a lot of these foods are just as high in calories as their non-vegan counterparts. You could actually end up gaining weight if you eat more thinking it's ok because it's vegan. But if your goal is to become vegan for personal/ethical/health/environmental/etc reasons and just want to make life easier, then these products are perfect for that.

    Lastly, it's trickier to cook and especially bake vegan things, so I rely on online recipes that are user-rated instead of cookbooks. You could save yourself a lot of time and $$ by doing this at the beginning (or at least until you figure out what type of vegan cuisine you prefer, and then can invest in those specific cookbooks).

    Thank you for the helpful tips. I am wanting the switch for health reasons, not weight loss! My family and my husband's family have a long history of heart disease and I want to take as many preventative measure as I can for my daughter, my husband and myself. Tomorrow I am going to make my first vegan meal and I am excited about it. I am trying one off of hungry herbivore's website. I will definitely be making a list of the foods I will be giving up. That is such a great idea, thank you!

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