A Vegan Diet: Will this work for me? What's the best way to transition? Any suggestions or tips to stay on track? How do you feel now that you have become a vegan/vegetarian, and what made you make the switch if you did?
Okay, so here's how this idea of becoming a vegan popped into my head. I was sitting at my computer desk, which had an array of soft drink bottles/candy wrappers/other trash atop it. Ironically, I was watching a YouTube video about obesity in America. I had an epiphany. My family has a history of obesity. I haven't been to them gym lately. And obviously my diet is not..err...balanced atm. At first I was researching diets like Atkins or South Beach, but they all seemed so commercialized and boring. Then I started thinking about Veganism (sp?) and what I learned about it matched the goals I wanted to accomplish.
Honestly, as much as I love animals, being an animal lover isn't one of my main reasons for wanting this. The reason why I want this is to improve my state of mind, health, and well-being. From watching a couple Vlogs about choosing the vegan lifestyle, i've also realized that this is definitely NOT going to be easy!
I live in North Carolina, which is known for fried everything and sweet tea. I live with my parents, who are very fond of meat. And, most importantly, I love meat!! So you can see that this might be a little challenging for me.
Some other information to know: I'm 19, female, and weigh 126 as of today. I've always had a fairly high metabolism, but since i've quit tennis it seems to have slowed down (not surprisingly). Also, i'm at high risk for cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, if that makes a difference. I don't smoke or drink.
I figure there must be at least a couple of TL'ers who are vegans, or are like me and what to become them!
Look up the paleo diet. It is based around eating grassfed meats and local grown vegetables. Eliminate all processed foods and you will feel a difference.
I could try that approach! transitioning slowly until eventually i'm completely vegan. And the main reason i'd prefer to go straight to veganism is because if I went halfway I don't think i'd be able to control myself from going back to my old ways lol.
On November 07 2011 10:47 Newbistic wrote: May I ask why you chose veganism and not vegetarianism or even soft vegetarianism (eggs/diary maybe even fish being ok)?
Completely agree, when you want to change your diet, change it to this. This way you actually get the proper nutrients, and you can still have the LOTS of kinds of food that have dairy in them.
On November 07 2011 10:53 retroactivekingpin wrote: I could try that approach! transitioning slowly until eventually i'm completely vegan. And the main reason i'd prefer to go straight to veganism is because if I went halfway I don't think i'd be able to control myself from going back to my old ways lol.
You're less likely to go back to your old ways slowly transitioning. If you transition too fast, you'll probably get tired of your new diet and go back to your old habits.
On November 07 2011 10:53 retroactivekingpin wrote: I could try that approach! transitioning slowly until eventually i'm completely vegan. And the main reason i'd prefer to go straight to veganism is because if I went halfway I don't think i'd be able to control myself from going back to my old ways lol.
You're less likely to go back to your old ways slowly transitioning. If you transition too fast, you'll probably get tired of your new diet and go back to your old habits.
My wife and I are doing slow transitions as well. Part of it was that we both went back to school and cutting meat out of our diet was a great way to save some money. After doing that we decided to start cutting out diary as well. Since we're not doing it for ethical reasons (although we both love animals) we don't worry too much about the occasional diet slip - we'll eat just about whatever we're served if we're visiting someone or are stuck on the road with "only" fast food options.
First of all, whoever says stuff like "being vegan/vegetarian isn't healthy" has no clue. Period.
However, you are going to need to put in a lot more EFFORT if you want to only eat vegetarian food (and even more so if you'd like to go vegan) if you want to stay healthy.
"It's not healthy" applies because of so many people are like "hey, ima go vegetarian/vegan" and simply stop eating everything that doesn't fit in. There are certain vitamins/minerals and stuff like protein that most of the people in the western world get from either their meat or randomly from stuff that's not included in those types of diet.
I started being a vegetarian about 6ish years ago when a friend of mine (she did the same martial art as me, about ~30h per week of pretty hard workout) who was vegan kinda converted me by saying "go ahead and watch earthlings. If you make it through the whole film without feeling bad for eating meat, I'll stfu" =D.
The hard part in the beginning for me were two things: Protein and weight gain. What I basicly did at first was just remove all meat/fish from what I ate before. Result was eating too much stuff like nuts/cheese and my training didn't work out well cause I simply lacked the protein needed. However, I fixed all of those issues over time. Once you're at the point where you feel that your body feels weaker/worse than usually you start getting those little hints again where your body tells you what it needs. If I find myself staring at a piece of meat even though I started to hate how it tastes - I know I'm lacking protein for example.
Random tips: -Inform yourself. Become conscious about what you actually stuff into your body. Learn what you need, what's good for you and how to obtain it. -If you, as you say, actually LOVE meat, don't stop eating it imo (yes, this is coming from someone who doesn't eat meat because he loves animals <3). Learn where you food comes from, learn where it's not from animals who suffered from the day they were born. Start eating stuff like chicken over swine.
Personal suggestion: Do it step by step. Definitly. You can try those whenever you feel like it.
-Stop eating meat. Try it for a month or two. Whenever you feel like you NEED meat, grab a random protein resource of your choice. Keep eating fish. If you go back to eating meat after a month or two and it still feels right for you, stay with it. -Stop eating anything with a lot of refined sugar and sugar substitutes. (This one is hard as fuck). No coke. No sweets. No chocolate. Read what's actually in your food. I can promise you from personal experience, if you did that for a month and you drink a glass of coke afterwards you won't be able to believe that you ever drunk something that disgusting. It's horrible. Once you're getting used to it again you'll like it again. Don't worry. You'll be able to choose whether you want to keep that stuff in your life or not.
In case you are past the "no meat" stage and feel fit or maybe even fitter than before I'd start removing fish and obvious stuff like eggs and milk from my diet. Do it slowly. Give it time after you removed certain major things. Read up on where you get the stuff from that's in it.
Personally over the years I've become pretty relaxed to what I don't consume, but I'm always aware of what's going on. If I buy stuff for myself I'd buy soy milk. If I'm at a restaurant and get cow milk I won't bitch at the waiter. If I'm in the mood for fish or cheese (fuck, I love em), I eat them. The only thing that I really completely stopped was meat. Just can't stand the taste anymore. =P
How I felt with the whole thing? Awesome. In retrospect the greatest improvement in lifestyle came from learning how my body really works, what it needs, what it doesn't need. I still read on the little stickers about what's in this or that and decide if I want that or not.
If you're aware of what you eat you can consciously make the decision to eat what's bad or what's good for you. - If you're not aware of those things you will most likely eat shit unhealthy because of pure laziness. I hate not having a choice when it's about the only body I get in this life. =)
Feel free to bomb some more question, especially when it comes to sport vs vegetarian diet. Pretty sure I can give some pointers there.
if you have to ask an online community to aid in making such a drastic decision, then you probably shouldn't make this change.
there are better (less drastic) ways to diet (or control obesity in general with exercise) and i suggest checking out those before trying to change something big.
whenever you want to change your behavior, you can't make a giant step or you'll fail and scrap the whole idea. instead try to go for a small change until that becomes your standard. then make another small change.
On November 07 2011 10:47 Newbistic wrote: May I ask why you chose veganism and not vegetarianism or even soft vegetarianism (eggs/diary maybe even fish being ok)?
The more limited your diet, the more difficult it is to acquire all the proper nutrients.
Because being vegan just makes you better than most people.
That's so wierd!! I was just reading The Skinny Bitch before I came onto TL haha. I am also seriously thinking about going Vegan. I'm not overweight now but I feel like I eat super unhealthy and that if I continue eating this way, I WILL be overweight when I'm 40. Anyway, the best advice I've read so far is transition slowly so it sticks rather than jump in and tomorrow just try to do everything differently. I got this book and they made a cookbook too that I think I will try out. I don't know any vegans or even vegetarians in real life so I figured I'd have to do a lot of experimenting and reading haha. Good luck to us both!! =D
I'm a vegetarian and I can tell you that if you prefer to eat unhealthy foods, you will eat unhealthy foods whether you are vegetarian or not. I'm inclined to think people who go veggie are likely to eat healthy because somebody who doesn't pay attention to their diet and make it an area where they exercise conscious control isn't likely to go veggie... rather than it being a matter of causation.
EPT
