What is the best way to transition to being a vegan?
I want to get meat out of my diet, so I am thinking about not eating red meat or chicken, and eat fish, and eggs, then just eggs, and eventually cut out eggs and dairy. I do drink unsweetened almond milk a lot. I'm trying to lose weight and keep it off. I have a lot of weight to lose, once I lost it I don't want it ever to come back. i can't have flour or sugar, I've started to go to OA and they say not to have either one of those, I guess it can trigger a binge. So many of the dessets look good on here, maybe I can have things made with agave, if not I can just drink a lot of fruit smoothies, I like those, they're great!
have any of you had long term success losing weight, by becoming a vegetarian or vegan, when I say long term I mean at least 5 years maintaining a healthy weight, hearing about 10 years or more of maintaining a healty weight would be even better, even if it's not you, just someone you know.
My doctor said to add food to my diet, not to leave foods out, I think the idea is add more fuits and vegetables, and after that I will eat more of the healthy foods and cut out the food that is not good for me.
Any help would be very much appreciated. This and wikipedia are probably the best sites I have found.
The best way to transition is to just do it. On the day I decided to be vegan, I had chicken in my refrigerator.
Being vegan will not cause you to gain or lose weight. That's a matter of how much you eat and your metabolism. If you're vegan and eating more veggies, you may eat more quantity, but fewer calories, and lose weight that way.
True story about the flour and sugar. If I eat either, I get really hungry and want to eat the world. I'm massively hypothyroid and even on replacement I can only eat 800 calories a day. I thought I was doing great on 1100, but my doctor told me a couple of days ago that was waaayyyy too much. I don't know if it will work yet, but I know that in the morning, if I have protein, I am less hungry, so as much as I like whole foods, I'm going to have 1/2 serving of protein powder in 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk + 1/2 cup water (85 to 90 calories).
It seems like what I'll have to do for everyday eating is in line with what other people would have to do with. You should be fine with your weight loss goals, but don't put them first during the transition. I had to eat a lot of meat analogues at the beginning. If I went past a bbq place, I'd have to go home and make a fake bacon cheeseburger to keep me on track (if you find yourself in that position, use bbq sauce because the analogues don't taste at all like the real thing).
Good luck.
It's so annoying not being able to edit:
I should mention that after the transition, which lasted about a year for me, I now naturally like beans over analogues. "Meat" was important for me at the beginning just so my head didn't think I was being deprived or starved. Your body is fine, but your mind will need some adjustment time to buy it.
Also, I don't use traditional salad dressing, which may be relevant to you. I slightly thin some "refried" black beans with veggie broth or water and heat it. I like the warm bean goop over cold lettuce leaves with cold grape tomatoes. I like to spoon it over the center and then toss the salad so the beans get on all of the leaves. It adds some "heft" to a salad, provides a topping, and is pretty healthy.
I can't vouch for this, personally, but I read about this book recently. It seems like just what you're looking for: http://www.kathyfreston.com/the_lean_badges.html
Thank you for the suggestions, veggydog I put the book you mentioned on my amazon wish list, maybe I'll see if the local book store can order if for me. Amazon is great, but I would rather support a local business if I can. Amazon is a good place to find stuff though.
I am going to OA now and it's going to be hard, so stopping the carvings for sugar and flour is going to be difficult. I think stevia and agave would be good for sweeteners I guess I am concerned that a sweetener, will trigger me to binge. Yesterday I went to visit my daughter and her mother was talking about the Chinese buffet. I think that triggered me to go eat there, that's where I ended up, and at first I thought ok, I'm lonly going to eat the raw vegetables that they have, that didn't happend and I ended up eating a lot of shrimp. I do have some fake meat at home with isn't too bad. I can't eat vegan hotdogs they just don't taste good to me. I already drink unsweetened almond milk. I haven't seen the unsweetened vanilla flavored one though, only the vanilla almond milk with sugar in it.
This site is great, I found it in 2006, Idon't like the new look of the site, it seemed easier to navigate the site back then too, I have been away for a while, but I like it a lot. some of the recipes are too involved for me, when it takes 10-15 ingredients to make something, I'm just not into it, too time consuming and expensive to buy everything to make some of these recipes, I think 3-5 ingredients are enough for me, so I guess I could alter the recipes to suit my budget and the effort I'm willing to put into it.
I like that this has has a supportive community it's great and a lot of fun, and I like how people share their recipes, great site!