New to board - new to vege lifestyle

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-18-2003
New to board - new to vege lifestyle
9
Sun, 07-03-2005 - 7:49pm

Hi all -

Was going to post in "why you are here", but I do have a quick question and thought a new thread would be a good idea.

I've tried going vegetarian a couple of times before, but now, in my mid-thirties, something has changed and its become an easy lifestyle change. With three kids and a very protein-hungry husband I had my first clash today - I'd gone to the grocery to get appetizers for tomorrow's festivities and neglected to get "lunch meat". Oh well, I'll be better at addressing the families needs going forward.

I'm just curious how easy vegetarian living has come to other people? I'm just wondering why now, at this point it seems so easy for me and was it so for others? After only a week of omitting most meats (I'm still eating fish), I don't miss it at all. The smell isn't even appetizing to me. I do worry that, b/c I'm not trying the meats I fix for the family their food might lack in the taste department. DH also seems a bit bored/angry/victimized by my newly found diet; hopefully he will become more agreeable.

Very happy to be here and very comforted to read about others and their experiences as Vegetarians.

Thanks for reading, jkaz

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2003
Tue, 07-05-2005 - 12:54am

In my household (I am 26 and live with my parents. My mother is in a wheelchair and had a stroke that weakened her right hand and made it harder for her to concentrate, and I have several chronic illnesses that make keeping a full-time job impossible) I make a main dish that is vegetarian. My father puts a heat and serve meat entree in the microwave or fries up a ham slice or something a few times a week. He cooks the whole meal once every few weeks centered on meat (with plenty of veggies for me). My mother very often says that there isn't any need for meat when Dad asks what she wants and he is down to a few times a week.


My personal belief is that no one should have to cook something they cannot eat for health or moral reasons for any healthy person over the age of 12. When Mom was first in the hospital after her stroke she could not use her hands well enough to use silverware and once I did feed her her bacon, but other than that I don't go near meat. Similarly, they need to put what they need for their foods on the grocery list. I won't remember the bacon for the BLTs half the time- I'm having a CLT (cheese).


I never was a big meateater. As a child I would eat the lima beans (and never minded the tase of any common vegetable but green peppers) but meat would be the struggle. By high school we had a truce in that Mom would cut a chicken breast in two pieces, mine maybe four or five bites, and she would eat the rest- which was closer to the deck of card size they recommend. The day I left for college I became a vegetarian. I was an adult and had the right to make the choice, and for the next 9 months I was on a campus with vegetarian entrees served at every dining hall every meal. When my health problems forced me to come home at the beginning of my second year, transferring to the college where my father teaches, I brought my new diet with me. I ate a lot of side dishes for quite some time, when I was able to eat. But we gradually moved more and more to vegetarian dishes, and the day Mom had her stroke we went to the plan I described above. My father used to not like the whole vegetarian thing, but there are sometimes whole weeks when he doesn't bother to get or prepare any meat. I just make sure I include at least one veggie dish he really likes each week. But it has been

Jaseann

co-cl-Celiac Disease

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Wed, 07-06-2005 - 4:30pm
hi! i'm glad to hear it's been easy for you to cut out meat. i went vegan slowly, cutting out different things at different times and overall it was pretty easy. as you may be finding out, the hardest part is the social aspect - getting along with non-vegetarians like your husband. for whatever reason, non-vegetarians sometimes feel very defensive or emotional about vegetarians in their lives, and vegetarians often feel guilty or awkward about the "trouble" they imagine they are causing others. hopefully, once your husband gets used to you not eating meat and realizes that you aren't going to start nagging him to change his ways, he'll warm up to the idea.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-18-2003
Thu, 07-07-2005 - 11:11pm

Wow Jaseann, I'm so sorry about your mom. Your life sounds very difficult and yet you sound so together! Thank you so much for posting your story - words of encouragement are so helpful, especially in dealing w/ family situations.

For some reason giving up meat came more as a relief than a struggle and I'm not sure why. Although I'm going slow also, by not yet giving up fish. I think for now fish is the comfort zone of knowing I'm still having protein. I'm going to spend a few more nights reviewing early posts on ideas for protein.

That's so amazing too that your parents are now moving to more vegetarian meals. I'm kind of exactly where Jenindc was alluding to - on the 4th I didn't want to bring attention to myself and luckily everything at my in-laws house was buffet style - so I quietly kept to the veges & fruit.

Thanks so much for your helpful thoughts and experiences!

- jkaz

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-15-2004
Sun, 07-10-2005 - 11:56am
Well I have been one since I was 11 (I'm 20 now).

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

~*

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2005
Mon, 07-18-2005 - 7:11am

Hi, i am 21 years old and i just became vegetarian about 3 months ago. it wasn't hard for me to give up meat even though i was a big meat eater, but it was hard to convince other people that i was going to be alright. i am 5'6" and only weigh about 107lbs, this alone makes people think that i have issues. telling them im not eating meat anymore they think i am going to die. everybody's first reaction when i say i don't eat meat anymore is "not even chicken??.....fish????....nothing?!?!". i just have to explain to them that i do make sure that i am substututing other things for it. it's always the people who don;t know much about nutrition who don't think it is right. my mom didn't want me to do it at all at first, but now i think she is alright with it, or she just knows that i'm not changing. im sure she is secretly hoping it won't last forever, but i think it will. there have abeen a few times when i got discouraged because i couldnt find anything that i wanted to eat....but i still didnt want to eat meat. now that i dont eat it i cant understand why i ever did. it was also hard for me though because i moved back home last year and both of my parents eat meat. my mom is good about it. she will eat almost anything that i will, and she enjoys trying new things. my dad on the other hand wont touch anything with tofu or soy in it. this means that i have to cook 2 meals now. one for him and one for me, and mom will usually eat both. but over all it was a huge step in my life, i've finally started to live for what i believe in.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-18-2003
Tue, 07-19-2005 - 11:29am

I can totally relate taurus! Its so funny, just the other night dh and I were watching TV and, in reference to this BBQ show that happened to be on an the moment, he said, "maybe when we retire, we can go around and try our hand at these BBQ festivals." I said, "but I'm a vegetarian", he replied, "yeah, but not forever, right?" I just rolled my eyes and went back to my knitting. I just think its so odd that the people around us make it so difficult. I'm also doing the make-multiple-dinners thing for my kids and dh. My kids are like your mom, in that they've been pretty good about tolerating and mimicing what I eat, but I constantly have to create dinner + meat for dh. So glad to see I'm not alone. ( :

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2005
Tue, 07-19-2005 - 1:12pm
well i guess they are just looking out for us. at least we have people who care about us, and im sure when they see that you are still alive and healthy a few years down the road they will finally realize it is ok. i guess its just hard for people who eat meat to understand why someone wouldnt want to, or how it's even possible. even the people i know that arent totally against it think im doing it because i dont like meat or i am a picky eater. it made me mad one day when a lady at work called me a picky eater because i wouldnt eat the ham that was there. trust me i love ham, but i dont think its worth killing a pig over. people have even commented on my eating "low fat" and "whole wheat" foods. someone said "god forbit you ate a little fat" and i just responded by saying "well my heart thanks me for it". but i know that i am doing the right thing and thats all that matters. sticking up for what i believe in makes me a stronger person, and proud to be making a difference. here i go on a power trip again..haha
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2003
Wed, 07-20-2005 - 12:50am

Hi, Taurus!


I was still eating some meat in high school (a few bites so Mom wouldn't have to make two meals) when someone asked me at lunch, while we were eating if I was an anorexic. I was propably having something like a cheese and tomato sandwich- there was a bar with things like they have at sub shops- but I still laugh at the memory and I'm 26!

Jaseann

co-cl-Celiac Disease

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-20-2003
Wed, 07-20-2005 - 1:07am

For Dad, microwaveable meat dishes- that are precooked and just need about 6 minutes in the micro- are perfect. He rather upset Mom, back when she was still cooking, by saying that she didn't need to make one dish any more because the Tysons (or whichever it is) was just as good. If I'm making something and he cannot imagine it without meat, he can put one in the microwave. He also gets a ham slice a few times a year, and it fries up quickly. He cooks. I abandon ship and even avoid my bedroom (right above the kitchen) until the smell dissipates. He grills hotdogs, and a portobello mushroom for me. The night he cooks? Usually the

Jaseann

co-cl-Celiac Disease