I'm starting a Vegan diet-help!

[emason]

I have a friend who lost a great deal of weight fairly quickly and painlessly (she says) by going on a vegan diet for a few months.

I echo a lot of what other posters have said up thread, but I just want to add that "fairly quickly" is not the right approach to take. Slow and sustained is much better for you. 2-2.5 lbs. per week should be the maximum you lose. Anything more than that is not healthy for your body.

[snoopysnake]

You could make a gradual transition into a vegan diet, and see how your body takes to it. If you don't already have any favorite health food stores, go to some and see all the variety of veggie and vegan foods are there. A lot of food packages now have soy and other allergens like wheat, milk, and eggs, highlighted at the end of ingredients lists (I am allergic to eggs, and really appreciate this!) so it's now a little easier to find the foods that are non-allergenic for you.

I don't think anyone mentioned rice milk yet. Some of those are pretty good.

[Karina1974]

I have a friend who lost a great deal of weight fairly quickly and painlessly (she says) by going on a vegan diet for a few months. So-I decided to take the plunge beginning after New Year's.

If I were you I would read this article and give what the author has to say about being vegan some serious thought before making your decision, whether you are doing this for health reasons or for ethical reasons.

[reese]

If I were you I would read this article and give what the author has to say about being vegan some serious thought before making your decision, whether you are doing this for health reasons or for ethical reasons.

Ah Tasha, the now famous ex-vegan! I loved her Voracious Vegan blog (now renamed Voracious Eats) and this article has received massive amounts of attention over the last few weeks in vegan circles.

[Karina1974]

Ah Tasha, the now famous ex-vegan! I loved her Voracious Vegan blog (now renamed Voracious Eats) and this article has received massive amounts of attention over the last few weeks in vegan circles.

I can imagine, given the comments she made in the article, and the intro written by Mike Geary, whose emails I receive on a regular basis: she had even received death threats against her and her family for admitting her story and "speaking out against veganism" so to speak. That's not surprising since some vegans (not all) treat veganism as almost like an extremist cult or religion that nobody can speak against. The truth hurts for these people.

[my little pony]

skinny bitch was a good read with some good recipes for beginners (and advise on buying vegan cheese that will actually melt)

[PrincessLeppard]

I have the Skinny Bitch cookbook as well. Good stuff. I love the "tuna" salad made with parsnips. I'd never bought parsnips before. And who knew Veganaise tasted so damn good? Now I use it all the time.

Even in egg salad. Which seems....wrong.

[my little pony]

i never liked mayonnaise but i find myself using veganaise all the time

[GarrAarghHrumph]

I have to say, I'm not a big fan of vegan diets as a quick weight loss tool. I wouldn't call a vegan diet "quick and painless." I've been vegan for a while, not for weight-loss reasons, and it's still a challenge to make sure I get everything I need in my diet. (I'm a terrible cook, so that's a big part of the problem!)

That's the thing - as reese said, above in this quote, a vegan diet is fine, but you need to know what you're doing. You need to know how to combine foods to get complete proteins, for example. It's important to find out how to do such a diet nutritionally. If you do it correctly, it's fine. But it's too easy *not* to do it correctly. IMO, this is not the type of diet you can go into blindly. Study up first.

[GarrAarghHrumph]

Wow-maybe I should rethink a bit. But I do love to cook, and I'm pretty good and creative at it. I am approaching this as a fun challenge. I already take a lot of vitamins and I'm in good health...

I certainly will tell my doctor about it. My annual physican is right as I was going to start this. Also, I was considering doing the vegan diet until I lost some weight, then gradually add in dairy or a little meat (I hardly eat any red meat anyway) and then perhaps go one month vegan, one month non-vegan or a bit of a mix to maingtain the weight.

Everyone is so helpful! I can't thank you enough!

Why not just have vegetarian days, steadily, every single week? IMO, you and your body will be healthier if you set a basic diet and stick to it (maybe you only have meat 3x per week, the rest is vegetarian, etc.), rather than yo-yo from month to month. Still, you need to know what you're doing re: proteins, various vitamins, etc.

I'd want you to talk to a nutritionist before you do anything.

[Bonita]

[QUOTE=GarrAarghHrumph;2991971]Why not just have vegetarian days, steadily, every single week?

That's what I did, over the years I slowly went from meat every day to vegetarian days sometimes to all vegetarian days all the time. It wasn't on purpose at first, I just really don't love meat all that much, just was used to eating it every day growing up. I was down to about two days a week (without even thinking about it) when I decided to go cold turkey because of ethical reasons (I have pet house rabbits, and many consider them food, so I started thinking, why is chicken okay but rabbit isn't?).

[Holley Calmes]

I already have vegetarian days for my husband and myself....at least once a week, but since we eat leftovers, it's more like 2 or 3. But-that's an excellent suggestion. We are not huge meat eaters....we consume more dairy than meat.

I thank everyone again for all the info. I am not going into it blindly-I have several books, several vegan friends...and all you wonderful folks! That's research! In fact, my daughter's mother in law is a very committed vegan.

[my little pony]

holley, is your daughter's MIL the same lady who doesnt believe in luck, it is all God's will?

sorry if I am thinking of someone else, that just seems like an odd combination for some reason

[Holley Calmes]

Pony- it's the same woman! Yes, an odd combination, and she really is very sweet. I just can't handle a lot of aspects of Evangelicals. Her diet is based on the "Halleluia Acres" diet/lifestyle. It is a Biblically based movement out of South Carolina. I can't seem to reconcile veganism and the Bible, but they do!

But hey-different strokes......she does have a good heart...even if she doesn't believe in saying the word "luck." I try to be tolerant.

[Christina]

Inspired by this thread, I made lentil soup tonight. It made a *lot* of soup. Which tasted ok with liberal amounts of hot sauce. Do you think I can freeze it?

I try to do some meatless meals, but it doesn't seem to go over well here. My mother has been a vegetarian since I was 3 (I'm 40 now), so it's not unusual for me. My MIL can't cook anything well, and her idea of vegetables with dinner is mac & cheese and mashed taters.

[my little pony]

i make and freeze lentil soup pretty regularly and it works out fine

[Anita18]

Why not just have vegetarian days, steadily, every single week? IMO, you and your body will be healthier if you set a basic diet and stick to it (maybe you only have meat 3x per week, the rest is vegetarian, etc.), rather than yo-yo from month to month. Still, you need to know what you're doing re: proteins, various vitamins, etc.

I'd want you to talk to a nutritionist before you do anything.

I agree that you should be consistent with your diet. Be nice to your body, and your body will thank you.

I'm not too sure about nutritionists, though. My college roommate consumed more pills than food - vitamins and supplements of all shapes and sizes, upwards of 20 a day, and she was skinnier than stickly me. She claimed she went to a nutritionists who told her she should eat that way. Her family came from money in NYC so it wasn't like she went to a non-professional quack type.

Also, my vegan coworker has to take a daily multivitamin to get all her nutrients. Personally, I wouldn't get into a diet where I'd have to take supplements because I wasn't getting everything I needed through my food. Being vegan and taking vitamins to avoid factory farming is completely understandable, but once the rationale is to avoid chemicals getting into your body, taking vitamins sorta defeats the purpose.

[Evilynn]

Inspired by this thread, I made lentil soup tonight. It made a *lot* of soup. Which tasted ok with liberal amounts of hot sauce. Do you think I can freeze it?

I freeze mine all the time. I can also recommend squeeze 1/4 of a lemon over your bowl of soup, the acidity helps lift the hefty feel of the lentils.

I think having vegetarian and vegan days sounds like a good plan.

[*Jen*]

I have a friend who is vegetarian 4 days of the week, for ethical concerns about sustainable farming. The other 3 days she does eat meat for health reasons, but significantly less than other people.

My father doesn't feel that he's eaten a meal unless it has meat in it. I've been vegetarian since I was 12. The two are connected

[Jenny]

That's the thing - as reese said, above in this quote, a vegan diet is fine, but you need to know what you're doing. You need to know how to combine foods to get complete proteins, for example. It's important to find out how to do such a diet nutritionally. If you do it correctly, it's fine. But it's too easy *not* to do it correctly. IMO, this is not the type of diet you can go into blindly. Study up first.

Sounds good in theory, but how many non-vegans eat carefully balanced diets that cover the full nutritional spectrum, without any harmful foods or excess? Judging by the obesity and heart disease stats, the proliferation of fast foods and the products that fill our supermarkets, I'd say very few.