Questions for Vegetarians

It been about 1.5 weeks since I've eaten any meat. I believe Lacto Ovo is the correct term. No loss of weight or strength so far but I have had some unusual mood swings and depression. No way to know if it's directly related to the diet though.

Does anybody recall any adjustment periods of any sort and how long they lasted?

The biggest adjustment I'm working through seems to be more mental, on adjusting to the lifestyle and dealing with periodic judgments, comments and questions. I'd rather not even talk about it to some people, like how I tend to avoid face to face discussions on politics and religion.

It's nice to be able to visit this section of forum for support.

Thanks for being there friends

Originally Posted by Cal

After doing some internet research and hearing from all of you I am becoming less worried of it not being healthy for physically active people. I'm still worried about the family thing and having the time and patience to find things easy to cook that satisfies my craving. I love to eat, including many things that aren't healthy like fast foods. I also worry because neither my wife or I are real good cooks to begin with and have fallen in a rut of eating the same things that we know how to cook that are quick and easy - all main courses containing meat.....not much experience on experimenting with new things.

Thank you all so much!
Cal

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread but I wanted to comment on this.

I am pescatarian (although I too tell people I am either veggie or "don't eat meat" to save confusion).

I am also a far from inspired cook that lives with a carnivore.

I buy organic meat where I can and barn reared chicken (just can't afford free range) for my husband to alleviate as much guilt as I can and I buy free range eggs.

When I'm cooking dinners like curry or chilli I have 2 pans. Most of the ingredients are the same but in his I put meat and in mine I put quorn, chick peas, kidney beans or meat free mince. It's really quite easy. I tend to put more veg in mine.

If he's having something like a pie out the freezer I just put a quorn fillet in the oven for me and serve everything else the same. I even make toad in the hole (sausages in yorkshire pudding) for both of us, just in 2 dishes. Meat sausages for him, veggie ones for me.

I always ensure that at least 2 meals a day have some form of meat free protien in them; cheese, eggs, pulses, quorn/meat replacement. Eat plenty of veg and I find getting carbs no problem at all. Beyond that I take a multivit with cod-liver oil (as I say I'm pescatarian).

Have to confess I detest tofu and refuse to eat it.. that is NOT food!!!

So it's not necessarily a case of cooking 2 different dinners, just adapting the way you cook the normal ones so that you get veggie and your partner gets meat.

As for eating out.. every restaurant in the UK has some form of veggie option and coz I'm not really a picky eater (so long as there's no meat) then I'm happy.

Veggie is very common over here in the UK but I know other countries like the US and Oz it is less common. Keep going and get used to being "the only veggie in the village"... UK joke, sorry.

Hello Tilia, thanks so much for sharing your experience. I usually 'cook' 50% or more of the time for my wife and I. Although most of my cooking was outside on the grill. So far in the past week or so I've cooked my wife meat on the grill a few times while I had no meat in a similar fashion like veggie burgers and veggie hot dogs. Oh, I bought some plain tofu to try and didn't know how to cook it. I was going to chop it up and still fry with some veggies. It was slimmy of odd looking and turned me off a bit so I never did anything with it...lol

I'm planning on doing exactly what you mentioned soon with Italian style pasta. I'll make one sauce pan with meat and one without and try Italian-style veggie sausage with mine. So what you say makes perfect sense about not necessarily a case of cooking 2 different dinners, just adapting the way you cook the normal ones so that you get veggie and your partner gets meat. Thansk for emphasizing that.

We also recently ordered pizza half with and half without meat, so not really a separate meal there either. We went to burger king for lunch the other day and I had a veggie burger and fries and she had her usual. I didn't even know BK had a veggie burger until I did some internet research. I'm surprised to find that there are actually many non-meat meals to choose from but I can see for a vegan diet the choices where I live would be more limited. I may eventually become vegan but for now I feel good with the lacto ovo diet.

I still worry about dinner invitations with friends and extended family though, and business meals.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience. I really appreciate it!

Cal

Hi Cal

It's funny how countries differ in reality. Being veggie over here is quite normal. There are only 20 people in my workplace and 2 of us are veggie. Whenever it's someone's birthday and they buy cakes and sausage rolls it is always normal to buy cheese and onion rolls too.

Do you have things like Quorn over your way? They do an amazing range of stuff, chicken style pieces, mince, burgers, sausages, fillets, kievs. They are all YUMMY... they are even starting to do things like sausage rolls and savoury eggs (traditionally a sausage meat ball with egg in the middle and rolled in bread crumbs).. there is so much to choose from.

You can also get soya protiene. You have to soak it before you cook it but I know people that eat that.

Of course you always have the beans option, kidney beans, chick peas all have protien in them so make a great meat substitute. For instance.. if you're making chilli, leave the meat out of yours and just put more kidney beans in. Indian curry, leave out the chicken and put chick peas in instead.

Simples :o)

Hello Tilia,

It does seem like there are some differences here compared to the UK, Veggies probably being one of them. Also seems to be differences in spiritual availability or choices. Doesn't seem to be a much diversity of spiritual organizations outside of the major 3 monotheistic ones over here either, at least in the area I live.

I've never heard of Quorn before but that may not be indicative of it not being around out here. I've only been a vegetarian for about 2 weeks or so, therefore was not looking for such options. I just look up Quorn today. Sounds very interesting so I will look for it at my local health food store. I just started shopping there recently. Thanks for the tip!

I'm not sure if I've tried soya proteine yet. I've bought several vegetarian products that look like hot dogs, sausages and burger patties. I thought they were mostly soy based. I actually think that I'm getting enough protein in my diet, besides the protein things mentioned I eat one protien bar daily and have been taking Whey Protein on days I lift weights.

Thanks for the tip on chili as well. I was actually looking for a quick solution of canned vegetarian chili at my local grocery store while shopping yesterday and was disappointed not to find any without meat. Maybe I could just make my own like suggested.

I really appreciated the tips!

Thanks again and have a wonderful day,
Cal

[Lovely]

Vegetarians don't eat meat- not even fish or chicken. The
reason I don't is fish have a nervous system like ours meaning
they feel pain like us and must suffocate for us. If you want to stop
eating every meat except for fish or poultry your a pescetarian.

Athlete to win Ironman Triathlon more than twice: Dave Scott (6 time winner)
Food choice of Dave Scott: Vegetarian

Hi Lovely,

It was interesting to hear different vegetarians views about fish. Thanks so much for sharing your idea on it. Some very interesting things were brought up in this topic and other places I've been searching on the internet. I learned that some people have become vegetarians or vegans for moral or ethical reasons, while others for health reasons. I understand and respect both perspectives.

I'm not sure how I will end up. So far I've been holding a strict lacto ovo vegetarian diet for a little over 2 weeks, so no fish.

Someone earlier in this topic, I think it was WhiteShaman, produced a very impressive list of vegetarian athletes. I don't remember if Davis Scott was on it but if not that is a very impressive addition to that list.

Thanks for taking the time to share.

Cal

Hi Cal

Awesome questions and way to go for your choices and decisions!!!!

I transitioned slowly to vegetarian and then to a vegan diet... it has been over 3 years and I feel amazing. Normally people feel withdrawals or detox depending on how toxic their diet was before cleaning out their system with natural, whole plant food.

I wanted to share something big with you that no one else seemed to have brought up yet about the fish.

Today, even if I wasn't a vegan, and even if I didn't care about the welfare of fish or the welfare of the environment in that we are draining the oceans dry due to the massive, unprecedented fishing we are doing, I still wouldn't eat fish.

The reason? The toxic chemicals in them. Almost every fish today is heavily polluted with many toxic chemicals, anything from PCB's and mercury. Some are better than others, but I read and learned SOOOOOOO much about every fish and no thank you! I don't want any of these chemicals accumulating in my fat tissues and then causing all sorts of problems.

If someone really, really wants fish, yes, there are some that are less polluted than others, but still. I found this resource for you that you may enjoy reading about fish and their toxicity to make a better decision at least which fish you may want to consider if you are still interested in eating fish:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...-part-one.aspx
and
http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/...l_fish_29.html

Oh yes, and you may also enjoy this about transitioning to a veg lifestyle:
http://evolvingwellness.com/posts/17...or-vegan-diet/

All the best Cal :)
And I will add one more BIG thing, the success of your diet depends a lot on your thoughts and beliefs. If you let your body think it "needs" some animal protein at any time, your body will find a way to make you think it does with some deficiency or disease. If on the other hand you do your homework and realize that a veg diet can be complete, whole and perfectly balanced to not just support health, but optimal health, even when being an athlete, than that is what you will get :)

P.S. If you want to look into successful vegan athletes check out Brandon Brazier.

Hi Maya7,

You bring up some very interesting points about fish that I haven't really thought about. Although I have worried about the quality of our fish, and wild life in general, since the massive oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. It's very sad how modern civilization is destroying the earth and it's various species. It seems like it's more about corporate profits than anything else. Very sad indeed.

Thanks for the links to the articles. I especially liked the last one. It made me realize I was going about it all wrong with may too much processed vegetarian stuff like frozen veggie burgers, veggie dogs, frozen pizza's etc. in substitution of meat. While I always was eating a lot of processed foods I was also eating fresh meat (mostly grilled) and fruits and veggies regularly and rarely ever got sick. I've been eating a strict lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet for a little over 2 weeks and I've been sick for the last week with a bad cold that seems to be getting worse.....I've been really tempted to have a bowl of chicken noodle soup for the last couple of days but have held out. The bad cold could just be a coincidence though, no way to know for sure. I haven't worked out for almost a week which is also alarming.

I thought that frozen food by Amy's, Morning Star and Kashi would be healthy alternatives from reading the product descriptions; saying things like organic, whole grains, no preservatives, etc. Maybe I made a big mistake by changing my diet over a weekend instead of cutting mat out slowly over several weeks or longer??? The problem is I've tried that before and failed and fell back into my normal eating routine.

Your last point is very valid as well. I often forget that the LOA works whether I am conscious about it or not.

Thanks so much for sharing some valuable insights. I greatly approciate it.

Cal

[Chrysaetos]

Originally Posted by May7

And I will add one more BIG thing, the success of your diet depends a lot on your thoughts and beliefs. If you let your body think it "needs" some animal protein at any time, your body will find a way to make you think it does with some deficiency or disease. If on the other hand you do your homework and realize that a veg diet can be complete, whole and perfectly balanced to not just support health, but optimal health, even when being an athlete, than that is what you will get :)

It isn't just all in the mind, the body has it needs. =)
Fish pollution varies with the species.

Originally Posted by Cal

Maybe I made a big mistake by changing my diet over a weekend instead of cutting mat out slowly over several weeks or longer??? The problem is I've tried that before and failed and fell back into my normal eating routine.

When I went vegetarian I never got through that so called phase of illness.. I adapted quite well. Maybe you were just going to get sick anyway, hard to tell.