thinking about switching
Find a Conversation
thinking about switching
| Sat, 11-26-2005 - 11:44pm |
The first time I met anyone with a vegetarian diet was about this time last year. One of my boyfriend's exes. She apparently switched to a vegetarian diet a few years ago but recently switched to vegan. She looked healthy, but no more than the average person I'd met before. My boyfriend said she had lost quite a bit of weight since they'd dated. My point is, since then I've tinkered with the idea of trying a vegetarian diet. I grew up in Texas around ranchers and hunters. I fired my first rifle when I was about ten years old. Barbeques, buffalo meat, and steak was a major part of my diet, and most of these meats came from friends' ranches. My boyfriend and I have an almost weekly Outback Steakhouse habit. I'm sure it wouldn't be an easy thing to give up, but I am concerned some about my future health. I'm healthy right now, 5'6" and 125 lbs. I normally work out five days a week, but haven't been in the last month and a half. That is another concern. I'm starting my workout routine again on Monday. Should I wait until I've been in my workout routine for awhile before I try such a drastic diet change? I've already changed my diet slightly in making sure that I buy free-range eggs and "smart chicken", and I've pretty much replaced my vitamin d milk with soymilk. My main reason for switching would be a mixture of future health (my parents and grandparents all tended to be uberskinny (around 98 lbs in their early twenties for the women) and then ballooned up once they got past 35. This happened to my mom. She went from 110 lbs right after her fourth child to a size twelve. She lost it again though through diet and exercise and is now my weight, but two inches shorter. So that has been a concern of mine since I was little. Another reason is I'd like my diet to be as small a toll on nature as possible. Growing up around nature gave me a great love for it. I'm happy knowing that most of the meat I ate growing up came from well-cared-for animals with plenty of room to roam, but I no longer have that option, and I'm having trouble buying beef not knowing where it came from. So any suggestions on the timing of my switch or any way of easing into it instead of going cold turkey would be very welcome! Thank you ahead of time. Sorry I rambled so much.

My deepest apologies for not noticing your post earlier, Shelly. Welcome to the board and please try not to take it personally- I've been a bit distracted!
I believe that any action that helps even some animals is positive, even if becoming a full time vegetarian seems too overwhelming right now. I never was comfortable with meat. When I was a child we lived in South Dakota and my parents belonged to a historical reenactment group that dressed up and camped like the hunters and traders of the 1840s. My parents limited their shooting to contests (no one can believe that Mom was the black powder pistol champion for several years!) and targets, there were a few hunters. They hunted with the Native American, be kind to nature, kill only what you can entirely use (and yes, they even found uses for the hide and some of the bones) and have the skill to kill quickly and mercifully. But even at 6, knowing that the area couldn't support all the animals over the winter, even the meat that showed up on my plate didn't seem right. But while becoming vegetarian was easy, 2 1/2 years ago I found out that some of my health troubles were caused by wheat. It's an autoimmune disease- when I eat wheat my immune system attacks my colon. I know, it sounds crazy, but so did living without the "staff of life". I didn't have a choice- I can never eat wheat or a few other grains again. It is a health issue, much like eating less meat can help you. But it was very hard at first. But I cook a greater variety of great dishes for my parents and me (Mom's disabled and I have several other health issues and use a cane to walk) than Mom did before either the meat or wheat disappeared from the main courses (Dad will heat up a microwave meat dish a few times a week to eat with what I made, but most meals are completely vegetarian)
Okay, you asked about exercise. You're probably concerned about protien, for one thing. Unless you are very active (as in athlete) you can multiply your weight by 0.4, which will give you the grams of protien you need daily. You can read food labels- there's some protien in just about everything. It's actually the type protien in the wheat that my body thinks is a poison! I'm sure you've heard that meat, eggs, and diary have "complete" protiens and with the exception of soy plant foods have partial ones, but if you eat a variety of foods you will get what you need. But if you're doing a decent job of getting your nutrients in you and you feel well, there's no reason why you shouldn't exercise. If you're gradually switching like you seem to be, there's even less. You have even more space to experiment and see how things are making you feel and more time to find out what works for you in terms of faux meats (soy based foods, some of which are
Off to the grocery store!
Hi Shelly and Welcome!
I became a vegetarian April 1st, 2000 and just went cold turkey.
PEACE ALSO TAKES COURAGE
I'm not vegan, but in my experience becoming vegetarian was freeing. It made me look at things differently and to go through cookbooks and magazines and cooking websites... every resource I could think of to find things to eat. It got me eating different vegetables we hadn't had. Or ones that we had only had in certain forms. I tried a dish with asparagus and while we had had the canned version and like it in a certain casserole, Mom had only eaten very salty, limp canned things and she was not looking forward to (I think it was