I'm doing a great job so far! I've started a 4 days a week yoga schedule, and I come home wanting to eat healthy. Tonight, I had some light chocolate soy milk, a Morningstar Farms griller prime, and some homemade mac and cheese. Over the summer, I've found several kinds of nuts that I like. I still eat dairy products, but I find it hard to drink milk. My goal is to be 100% a lacto-ovo vegetarian by the new year.

I think the strangest thing is that I don't really even want meat anymore. Strangely enough, the one thing I find myself unable to give up thus far is pepperoni pizza.

Oh Kekoa, I finally feel like I've found a vegetarian who must understand me! The only meaty things I still feel crave are the foods that are probably made of whatever the butcher scraped off the floor, with added spices. Pepperoni, and better yet, "twiggy sticks" which are like mini sticks of pepperoni. Mmm... (I have not succumbed to eating them, but I do wish someone would make a vegetarian version!)

It took me a few years to stop lapsing over cheese burgers, too, LOL! I think I'm finally past that phase now. I can go past Macca's without wanting to get a cheese burger. Wooh!

Are twiggy sticks like beef jerky? Beef jerky is so popular here in the U.S., but looking at it makes me gag.

I had cheese pizza tonight, and it tasted wonderful. The person in front of me had ordered pepperoni(they showed him to make sure it was the right order), and it looked slightly nauseating to me.

I actually haven't eaten meat since Tuesday, and I decided to just be done with it and officially be vegetarian. I feel better than I have in a long time, and I'm not craving meat at all. My family is pretty supportive. Other than the occasional chicken stir fry or hamburger, my mom doesn't eat much meat, so she's game to eat vegetarian meals with me. My dad and sister both love veggie "meat" so we're good there. I'm making lasagna tomorrow with the crumbles fake ground beef.

I find that the hardest thing is trying to explain why I decided to stop eating meat. There's really no delicate way to say "I cannot eat cruelly slaughtered animal flesh anymore" without offending people.

I'm still going strong, and don't plan to ever eat meat again. If someone is lurking and considering trying a vegetarian lifestyle, do it! It's so much easier than I ever thought it could be, and I was a HUGE meat lover who ate meat every day. It gets annoying to travel, but even Burger King has a veggie burger on the menu now. Not to mention, it's not hard to find pretzels, string cheese, nuts, fruit, etc in many gas stations.

Kekoa wrote:

I find that the hardest thing is trying to explain why I decided to stop eating meat. There's really no delicate way to say "I cannot eat cruelly slaughtered animal flesh anymore" without offending people.

Try being asked that question when you come from a family of sheep-farmers! It's not easy. I just say "I don't want to eat dead animals anymore" and the mental imagery is usually enough to stop anyone dead.

But it's been so long now since I've been vegetarian that my family and friends are used to it and my aunts prepare something for me at family dinners, and anyone new who I meet doesn't ask because they just assume I always have been a vegetarian.

Erin.
::righteous babe::

I've been saying "I find that it's healthier and I feel better," trying to avoid conflict. The last six months have taught me that there are so many misconceptions, and so much fear about vegetarians! "What do you eat?!" Well, if anything, I eat much more than I did as a meat eater. Yesterday, I had a new whole wheat pasta dish with greens, tomatoes and vegan cashew "cheese." It was to die for! "I'd die without meat!" Well, actually every study shows you'd be healthier. I just smile and bite my tongue though.

Everything here is going great, and my mom became a pescitarian last month (where you only eat seafood), but she eats fish maybe once a week. It's been awesome, because it allows us to cook most of our meals together, whereas before, I had to make a lot of small meals for myself. We've been checking out some of Kansas City's best vegetarian restaurants, and it's been a lot of fun. It still amazes me how much I love this. It irritates the crap out of me when people say "Oh, I give you sixteen months tops." People who haven't lived it just don't understand.

Oh, and I also have a suspected dairy intolerance, so I'm trying to cut back on dairy. Huge, immense props to you vegans, because it's really difficult. I'm trying to stick to just cheese, and it's helped a lot. Amy's is a life saver, for making such delicious dairy-free stuff. Dairy in things (desserts, puddings, fake meat products, etc) doesn't bother me at all, but too much cheese or any straight up milk, and my stomach kills me. Grrr.

I'm considering vegetarianism but I was scared that there wouldn't be much variety in what I could eat. I googled vegetarian recipes and found a fantastic website that I wanted to share:

www.taste.com.au . . .

Some of the recipes use dairy products/eggs and may not be suitable for those who are not lacto-ovo vegetarians but I am definitely looking forward to trying these recipes.

I don't enjoy meat products and I'm very willing to try vegetarianism. I have my fingers crossed that it will work out for me.

DaNcInG_MoNkEe wrote:

I'm considering vegetarianism but I was scared that there wouldn't be much variety in what I could eat. I googled vegetarian recipes and found a fantastic website that I wanted to share:

www.taste.com.au . . .

Some of the recipes use dairy products/eggs and may not be suitable for those who are not lacto-ovo vegetarians but I am definitely looking forward to trying these recipes.

I don't enjoy meat products and I'm very willing to try vegetarianism. I have my fingers crossed that it will work out for me.

Every vegetarian I've ever talked to (myself as well) swears up and down that becoming veggie only expands your food options

Vegetarian Times, in addition to being an amazing magazine, has a huge recipe database. There are great cookbooks out there. I have one with 300 vegan recipes that take 30 minutes or less, and are delicious!

www.vegetariantimes.com

Thanks so much. I'm really looking forward to this new venture. My mum isn't too happy about it, but I'm hoping that I can encourage her to use less meat products. Vegetarianism just seems to be a much healthier lifestyle (so long as you do it properly) and thats what I am aiming for.

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian. (: I have been since I was 12, because I don't like how the animals are treated, it's terrible! I have recently have been reading "The China Study", by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, and it's really amazing. It talks about how animal proteins directly cause cancer, and how a plant based diet can stop and reverse many health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, etc. And it's all legit because the author has done 70 years worth of research on it. I'd recomend it to everyone. After reading this book I really want to go vegan, but my mom would freak if I did, she already hates me being vegetarian as it is. :/

Vegans, I need help! Why is it so darn hard? I feel like I've been doing fantastically with my vegetarianism. I only eat eggs if they're in a recipe, the only dairy products I eat are cheese and sour cream, I make sure not to overdo the soy and 99% of the grains I eat are whole wheat. It's just so darn hard to cut out all dairy and eggs! I know it's better for me and better for animals (the dairy and egg industry is AWFUL), so I want to get to the point of eating vegan 50% or more of the time. It's just soooo hard, and I find myself sucking with vegan recipes. I know that I do too much cheese, it's a nasty habit to cut.

Hi everyone
Thanks for this thread, I have recently started to think about becoming a veggie of some sort, but I am unsure of how far to push the boundaries at the moment as I am anaemic and don't want to end up worse.
I don't really eat a lot of red meat, occasionally sausages and bacon, rarely beef and hardly ever lamb or such like. Pork doesn't tickle my tastebuds. Therefore my staple meat at the moment is chicken and rarely fish.
I eat eggs perhaps once a month and the only milk I have is on cereal and in maybe 1 drink a day.
I just wondered if anyone would be kind enough to PM about how to get started with it all, without spending a fortune, and whether it would affect my anaemia at all. I currently get a lot of protien from nuts and dried fruit and eat snacks such as fruit.
I am not a fan of soya milk or anything like it, but as I don't touch much milk as it is, maybe I could come onto that stage at a later date.
Thanks C x

Ugh...I never encounter many unsupportive people, except my grandparents and a few older adults. They are here for Christmas and they've been here for only 24 hours and have offended me already. They think it's funny but they don't realize it's actually hurtful and rude. I was making some lunch and my dad asked if I would play Trivial Pursuit with them. It's widely known around our family that I hate board games and I will not play them. I told him no, that I don't like games. Then my grandpa said, "How are you ever going to find a man? You don't like games and you're a vegetarian!" Yes, because all men only love women who play games and eat meat. My grandma started laughing and thought it was hilarious. I did not. I went about my business and they said some other dumb comment that I don't know because I was trying not to cry (haha I cry a lot when I'm at home because I eat a bunch of crap and it messes with me) or yell at anyone. I should have brought my blood test results with me so they could look at them and see that EVERYTHING they tested was within the normal range. They're always asking me about protein and other things.

Hopefully this won't be a problem the rest of the trip. If they say anything else, though, I can't promise that I won't let the beast out! Haha.

Once I was leading a small group at a girl's house (I lead a small group of some freshmen in high school). The girl's parents were out of town so her grandparents were there to take care of them. Her grandma was practically force-feeding everyone and asked if I wanted a turkey sandwich. I should've just told her I wasn't hungry, but I told her I was a vegetarian. So she starts telling me a story of how one of her older granddaughters was a vegetarian for a while, but then she "finally came to her senses." I was like UM WOW I'm sitting right here.

It's just so annoying. People think they are being funny or they think they're are going to change my mind, but it's just rude. I don't make fun of you for eating meat, I don't question your health or if you're getting enough of anything, I don't tell you that you should or shouldn't be eating something. Grr. Just mind your own business people! I'm glad most of my friends and people from younger generations are more understanding and actually will accommodate me (my parents and grandparents will not eat vegetarian meals or make them...I don't expect them to, but you know, one vegetarian family meal would be nice).

Anyway, I think that helped me get some frustration out!

Odessa wrote:

"I don't want to eat dead animals anymore"

LOL! Who would want to eat a live animal? Sorry! I find that extremely amusing... It will always make me think of D. Adams' "Restaurant at the end of the universe", with the talking cow advertising its best cuts of meat...

(I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian since 1999)...