Who’s a vegetarian?

yes, 15+ years. about a year of that was a full raw diet. now, we're mostly vegan but there a few things we didn't give up: cheese, eggs and ice cream. definitely ice cream.

the trick is learning how to cook (i can make cookbook recommendations if you need them) and find your protein substitute. lots of leafy greens. kale and a scoop of protein powder goes into the morning smoothies. for burger replacement, we go with beyond meat. the burger patties grill up great. they also do ground 'beef' which we use for tacos/pasta/sloppy joes as well as brats and italian sausage. i have a few black bean burger recipes that work really well too.

i've always been an athlete: TKD, swimming, surfing, running, cycling, hiking, skiing. i'm outside and moving a lot. i've never had an issue staying strong for those activities and having a vegan diet. it takes effort to make it work. you'll be going to the grocery store a lot more often. you need to spend the time learning to cook and to figure out what works and doesn't work.

 

Heard a guy talking about trying the vegetarian thing for while. One of the selling points to him was saving money on beef/meat. His complaint, said those savings were offset by more toilet paper purchases......... LOL

 

My wife is doing this [and therefore, myself, to some extent]: what are the cook book recommendations?

 

I eat some greens, vegetables, nuts, and fruit but I also eat some meat, cheese, and eggs - all in moderation. Works for me, and I don't own a microwave.

 

I could never go vegan. I love cheese too much, but I could possibly go vegetarian. After the current diet I am going to try and go to a more veggie heavy diet, and go for non red meat for my animal protien. Trouble for me there is that I hate 99% of all cooked fish, so I'm basically left with chicken. Tofu, properly done, is delicious, but soy has a lot of estrogen in it. I'm a fan of boobs and all, but I don't want my own.

The biggest obstacle to all of it, and I've heard it mentioned here, is learning to cook. I'm part of the microwave generation and the 6th of 7 kids. Mom was pretty much done teaching how to cook by the time I came along. I'll be trying to go for stuff that I can batch cook and freeze because my work schedule doesn't give a lot of time for cooking during my work weeks. Need to be able to cook up enough to get me through a 7 day stretch.

 

I guess I will formally enter the fray.

I used to do a lot of extended fasting [still do fast for portions of the day and eat only select foods for select time periods].

Anyway, these are my conclusions [some will sound crazy]:

• As much as possible, eat foods in the form that God created it [its naturally occurring state, not 'prepared']: this infers a 'raw' diet of fruits and vegetables [if you have blood sugar problems, not much raw fruit]; if eating meat, it infers eating it raw
• The most important part of fasting is eliminating the 'wrong' foods: for me, this would start with white flower and white sugar, but would also include all the other crap prepared foods have in them [the list is long]
• Go as long as possible from the time you rise until you first eat; try to reduce eating to one meal a day. If possible, try to go multiple days without eating.
• Drink as much water as humanly possible
• Exercise [by this, I just mean 'move enough to sweat' not necessarily anything drastic].

 

I don't think I could do that, but I know health is a very individual thing. If it works for you, by all means, have at it. I've gotten best results when I eat small meals frequently, though I still need to improve the quality of the foods.

All in all, it's hard to break habits that have been ingrained in you for decades. The more drastic the change from your norm, the more difficult it is to adopt the change. To that end, I've found that gradually adjusting things is a more sustainable way to change habits. I've adjusted my portion sizes first, and that has kind of stuck, so now I am working toward healthier foods. Gradually adding in more exercise too, and so far I've been fairly successful in sticking to the changes.

 

Research and planning are the keys to doing it right. Gotta make sure and get all of your amino acids for a complete protein and take a B12 supplement (if you're not doing soy) at the very least. Garden of Life meal replacement and protein powders help a TON. I still do those to this day b'c they're so convenient. I may still have my Excel spreadsheet floating around that I used and can send to you if you decide to do it.

Exactly. All of this. Haven't tried the BM stuff yet (appropriate acronym?) but a couple of friends of mine said it's gross so I've been reluctant to buy it. I do love me some black bean burgers tho.

Lol, the change in your gut is pretty drastic during the first 2 weeks or so, especially if you're eating a lot of beans for protein. But it eventually dies down quite a bit after your purge your colon and your good gut bacteria stabilizes.

+1 on the anti-soy bandwagon. Getting some vegan meal replacement and protein powders makes breakfast and lunch a LOT easier. Then just make something simple for dinner. If you're cooking for just yourself or maybe you and your better half, then having a small appliance like an air fryer (which is just a small convection oven) or toaster oven helps a ton. That way you're not having to heat up the entire oven when you want to roast some veggies or have a baked potato.

 

thug kitchen is a great place to start. others include:

$15 Vegan for Everybody: Foolproof Plant-Based Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and In-Between

vegan for everybody

$14 The No Meat Athlete Cookbook: Whole Food, Plant-Based Recipes to Fuel Your Workouts―and the Rest of Your Life

no meat athelete

$34 NYC Vegan: Iconic Recipes for a Taste of the Big Apple

nyc vegan

$15 But I Could Never Go Vegan!: 125 Recipes That Prove You Can Live Without Cheese, It’s Not All Rabbit Food, and Your Friends Will Still Come Over for Dinner

but i could never go vegan

$17 But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan!: 125 Recipes to Win Everyone Over (But I Could Never Go Vegan!)

but my family would never go vegan

$25 The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes

whole foods - from whole foods market

$16 True Food: Seasonal, Sustainable, Simple, Pure

true food - based on the restaurant. not everything is vegetarian/vegan but many of the recipes are.

we mix up tofu with seiten. it's a great alternative that doesn't require as much prep as tofu. for your schedule, i'd recommend doing your prep work (washing and chopping veggies, making sauces, etc) on the weekends since that's the most time consuming.

 

I will likely stick with poultry for protein. I'd rather get it naturally than from suppliments. As far as the cooking stuff goes, my work schedule is 7 on/7 off with 12 hour shifts. I can't cook during that 12 hours, so it has to be stuff that I can prep before hand and take to work with me to reheat. I'm talking with one of my coworkers and she says she has a bunch of healthy slow cooker recipes that would freeze and reheat well, so I will be looking into that. For now though, I am jsut sticking to my nutrisystem diet food. It's all a bunch of processed food garbage, but it's helping me maintain the small frequent meals habit. Little by little I'll get there.

 

it isn't. thaw the patties, throw them on a hot grill. it'll sizzle and char just like cow. they've tweaked their recipe in the past couple of months and it's gotten much better.

 

also, you can look for impossible burgers. same idea as the beyond meat folks. impossible seems to have a better connection with restaurants. there are a few here in denver that serve them.

 

Theirs is soy-based unfortunately, so I'm out on that one.

 

I think I just found @joonbug 's new avatar.

 

Pay attention to what you drink. Avoid soft drinks / soda / pop / Coke / Pepsi. Drink A LOT of water, and maybe some tea & coffee with little if anything added to it, and keep your alcohol intake to a minimum.

 

I'm a carnivore, but my blood type suggests I should be vegetarian. My wife have the "Plant Paradox recipe book by Dr. Gundry " I am doing my best to eat more greens and less meat.

 

For those that know, I have heard the salt content in the impossible and beyond meat burgers is through the roof. Any truth to it?

 

A Beyond patty contains 270 calories, five grams of saturated fat and 390 milligrams of sodium.

 

Here is their nutrition info:

 

I always incorporate fruits, vegetables, meats, carbs daily into my daily diets. I also like to exercise (mountain biking, running, hiking, etc). So far I've been able to get clean bill of health from my Doctor during my yearly checkup so no plans on changing it .

 

If you want to run cool...

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zHLJP6J-LaQ
"My stomachs like Disneyland, but for dead things".

 

An easy way to learn AND have the proper extremely fresh ingredients sent straight to your door is to use Purple Carrot. They give you large colored instruction cards that you can save for after you learn what menu items you like. They send you everything (spices, recipe, etc.) you need in a box without having to rely on a grocery store.

Feeds 2 people. Sometimes you’ll have leftovers. Some menus are exotic and you’ll learn new stuff. Others you’ll try once and say been there done that. 80% of the menus are pretty darn good. Very fresh vegs.

 

I eliminated red meat and limit poultry to one or two meals a week. Lots of vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and fruit. Smoothies with veggie protein, and soups are your friends. Also fish for me.

After a prostate cancer diagnosis at 58, I doubled down on raw cruciferous and other veggies, like the cancer diets recommend. So far no radical treatments have been necessary and PSA is stable (at age 62). Also, blood is good now and no meds, which is also a goal of mine.

I'm not a crusader, this is just my own plan.

 

But your avatar....

 

just a flesh wound...

 

It's interesting reading the responses here. I will admit I used to think any man that was a vegan had to be sissy man, that drove a prius. Based on the comments here, it's clear that if you don't eat meat your a giant pansy. But the reality is that a lot of the information we've been told was a lie. There is actually a lot of research showing that we're not designed to eat meat, and it's actually causing a lot of health problems, including increased rates of cancer. I would encourage folks to watch that video @ColoradoTJ linked. The Gamechanger. You might learn something.

My wife and I are attempting to transition to a whole foods, plant based diet. The hard part for me will be getting enough calories to put on muscle in the gym. Also, I've been on cholesterol meds for a few years now and I'm only 31. I believe that by eliminating dairy and eating cleaner, I can drop that medicine. I'm at least going to try. Who the hell wants to be on cholesterol meds their entire life? Or any medicine for that matter.

We are a severely unhealthy country and getting worse every day. People have got to take responsibility for their own health, which starts in the kitchen.

P.S. one of the worlds strongest dudes is a vegan. In addition to a growing number of Olympians.

 

Ni