Question for Vegans or Vegetarians....?

Question

I do eat animal products but I rarely wear them. (no fur of course, and hardly ever leather) I was looking into how our meat comes to be in our stores and I did feel bad. I would like to start adopting a different lifestyle butI find it very difficult. Did everyone switch completely right away or over time? I don't eat meat that often but I do eat animal products (cheese, eggs etc...) How do I find out recipes, how to stay healthy without meat... and other important facts?

Thank you to everyone who responded. I appreciate all the ideas. I can't choose just one so I ask everyone to pick for me.

Answer 1

This is purely my opinion, I am a vegetarian from the beginning, its family tradition. But I have a friend who used to eat a lot of meat and wanted to quit eating meat and eggs, etc. I suggested to stop every kind of meat immediately, she tended to go on pushing the deal lines for anything, that way she knew she had to avoid meat.
Next is the part where you have to start your veggie lifestyle, start with things you know and have been eating, like salad, veg. burger, veg sandwich, soups, pasta, sub's, fruits, etc if you cook, Google veggie recipes and you will get hundreds of them. Gradually, you will get used to it.
To help you jump start your cooking, here are few site that you might like:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=a5ab4e9757ce435db160a303370da7cf&action=recipes

http://allrecipes.com/recipes/vegetarian/main.aspx

http://vegkitchen.com/

http://www.vrg.org/recipes/

Hope these will help.

here is the thing that i usually do, I make my own recipes most of the time, the secret is that I read the recipes, and substitute meat or sea food or anything that i don't eat with my choice of vegetables ;-) How cool is that?
Good Luck

Answer 2

I'm a vegetarian (though i reduce my eggs & dairy where possible.) I stopped eating red meat then maybe a year and a half later I went to chicken only (I never really liked sea food) then in six months or so I didn't eat any meat at all.

I have been vegan, but being poor it was difficult, so instead of cutting it out all together, I now reduce my animal product intake. I don't eat things like meringues or plain eggs, but I do eat things like biscuits that have egg etc.

You could get yourself a good vegetarian starter book, but I don't know of a good one personally.

PETA has some good downloadable information. See http://goveg.com/ . They reference their sources & if you're really interested you can go look up those too. I've found it quite helpful.

Answer 3

I switched from eating all meats to just eating fish overnight. I did this for about 9 months and then decided to go completely vegetarian and gave up fish as well. I have been a vegetarian for almost a year. It was hard at first but when I read about what is in meat now I do not crave it at all. Here is a video link that you could watch. It is pretty graphic because it shows what is done in slaughter houses, but it really opens your eyes to what is being done to that type of food.

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.aspvideo=meet_your_meat

Answer 4

I told myself that I would try it out and see how it went. I found that it is really easy to switch over when you have a motivation. Eventually it will get to where it is actually easier to not eat meat and you will find that if you take a bite of meat after the first month or so, it will not taste the same, it will taste gross. Good luck!

Answer 5

I started out slowly. I did give up all red meat first, and then chicken (never liked fish). I was vegetarian for two years with cheese and eggs as my main protein source (I built my meals around them). I then went vegan and built my meals around beans, grains, and nuts as my protein sources. And it was hard to go from vegetarian to vegan for me also. Total convience of vegetarian food was gone, and now I had to make most of my own meals (you really appreciate a vegan restaurant!). I would go to my library and read up on being vegetarian (or even Vegan for Dummies is published!). It will be a hard journey towards vegetarianism/vegan in this culture, but knowing that you did not have an animal killed against it's will for you just to ingest it, will give you peace in your heart.

Answer 6

If you eat eggs and cheese you dont have to worry about meat. Look for animal rennet free cheese though. Animal rennet is from the stomach of slaughtered calves. Google "Vegetarian cheese" to get a list.

Answer 7

I started by giving up meat and then I ave up fish. Then I gave up dairy and then I stpped wearing leather. It is probably easier to do things slowly as it gives you time to learn about how to eat a healthy diet and also learn new recipes etc. There is information and recipes on the website below.

Answer 8

start off slow. look it up on the net. start by taking little things away then over the weeks move on to bigger stuff. i started as a vegetarian but it toke me 4 years to become a vegan, now i have been a vegan for a year and a half.
good luck and please dont give it up the first month is the hardest. be strong!

Answer 9

No, I started with red meat, then the rest. Dairy will be the toughest, but once you stop yoru skin looks great and you won't crave it anymore. It has taken me a year and a half to go comepletely vegan.
Check out: www.ppk.com

Answer 10

I gave it up completely and right away, but that's not for everyone. My favorite websites are peta.com or peta2.com(especially the message board) even if you don't support Peta, they have really easy access to things like recipes and facts. Also lists of foods that are accidentally vegan like peanut butter captain crunch :] and lots of other useful things.