Intro

[rehenazelreyhan]

Hi!  I've been a vegetarian for about a year now and would like to try veganism. I seem to eat a great deal of dairy and would love to get away from that, as well as lose weight.

I'm also cooking for two kids and a boyfriend (who is also vegetarian).

Comments

[alasbabylon]

veganism =/= guaranteed weight loss, even if you 'do it right' and eat super healthy unprocessed foods in reasonable quantities and exercise regularly. just sayin.

[the_leh]

I was about to say the same thing.

I didn't lose an ounce being vegan. And I found it's harder for me to keep my food intake down because when I'm totally vegan, I'm hungry all the time.

[badmoviescript]

Why are you hungry all the time? I find that, probably because the amount of food I'm consuming is a lot more (300 calories of veggies is a lot bigger than 300 calories of steak!), I stay full for longer as long as I'm eating adequate protein and fat at every meal. Fiber, of course, is never an issue, but that helps too. But anyway, I haven't lost or gained any weight since going vegan a year and a half ago.

Anyway, I third the recommendation of Veganomicon! It's so delicious and can make your family less skeptical about your decision. It's not exactly "diet friendly" for everything, but it certainly is delicious. Good luck! If you're interested in losing weight, the vegan nutrition bible is called Becoming Vegan. It has a section about vegan weight loss. Also check out Eat To Live program. It's super healthy and will get you to your ideal weight if you follow it.

[the_leh]

I really didn't find that to be true, for me. I could eat pounds of veggies or carbs or protien things like beans and still feel hungry. I was getting plenty of fat too. I just noticed that when I'm vegan I'm a lot hungrier. Perhaps everyone's system reacts differently.

[confusedreality]

hi & welcome! i can also recommend vegancooking, that has a good tag-system to find things. there's plenty of people there also with kids (all kinds of ages as far as i can tell), i think that can be useful.

so, are you going to gradually work the dairy out? have you tried any subs yet?

[cyb3r_0ptik]

good job on vegetarian, and good luck going vegan. it was a really hard transition for me, personally. living in a house with two omnivores, and family who just wasn't getting it that i wasn't wanting dairy.

after about 7 months of no dairy tho, i feel completely free from that addiction. cheese was totes hard to give up, but i am so glad and proud that i did. animal suffering is not worth my tastebuds being "happy"

[the_leh]

I second checking out vegancooking. You also have got to get your hands on a copy of Veganomicon, if you don't have it already.

[res_judicata]

Veganism is the only way I lose a lot of weight and it's really really tough for me to lose weight. The problem with veganism is that it tends to be extremely carb-heavy, so as long as you don't overdo it on the carbs, overprocessed meat substitutes, and vegan sweets you should be good to go. Eat plenty of fruits, veggies, nuts, and beans. There are a ton of great variations on recipes. Check out http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ for a ton of healthy (and a lot of kid-tested/kid-friendly) vegan recipes. Good luck!