My hopefully clever plan

i've been wanting to go vegetarian for quite a while, so i've told my mum that, as an experiment, i was going to go vegetarian for a week to see how i cope. what she doesn't know is that i'm palnning on staying as one forever! I might have to go to a pescitarian for a while to keep my protein levels up whilst i adjust to tofu and that, but soon, it will be veggie all the way! how does that sound?

 

protein isn't a problem. do some research on how much protein you need for your size/weight and learn how much protein is in what you'd normally eat. the average meat eater gets way more protein than they actually need each day.

also, you don't have to eat 'tofu and that' for protein, not every veg person has to rely on tofu for protein. my advice is to do some research on veg sources of protein, calcium, iron, etc. i see you are 16, so maybe you could try a nutrition class in school? i took one in school and it made balancing a veg diet much easier.

and there's a free vegetarian starter kit somewhere on the web, maybe somebody else could provide that link?

 

^^
I totally agree. I went veg overnight and that did me no harm at all. Protein is protein, any adjustments are just in the mind.
Quorn is good stuff; from a nutritional perspective, and it's fairly similiar to chicken in terms of texture and preparation. So that helps with the transition.

Starter kits ...
http://www.tryveg.com/cfi/toc/
http://www.veganoutreach.org/starterpack/index.html
http://www.viva.org.uk/goingveggie/index.html
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/CAMPAIGNS/vegetarianism/ALL///

Hope it works out

 

Make sure you check out how much protein you need. Guidelines are (that I've been told by my doctor) .8 grams per kilo (2.2 pounds) of body weight your have. Personally, I do not eat even half the protein I should be according to that guideline since I've started cutting out more meat products. Granted, I am overweight so it's a bit different for me, but I should be eating 76 grams and I get maybe 30 a day which I'm struggling to get more in due to allergies.

 

Ooh yes, wonderful and nothing 'weird' or hard to find.
Incidentally as far as I know all baked beans here [in the UK] are vegetarian. No idea why there would be a need for them not to be.

 

Really? Here in atleast the South USA bake beans are pretty much sure to have bacon in them unless stated otherwise.

 

Mushrooms and bean sprouts have lots of protein in too

And yeah, i did the 'i'm trying veganism for a week' thing with my parents when i went vegan

 

That's a shame.
Sometimes you can get cans of beans here that have small/chopped up hotdog sausages mixed in, but those aren't as common. Generally you just get straight up beans. Never knew about the bacon bits, that doesn't sound very appealing.

 

Well, I'm booking next wednesday as the beginning of my vegetarian journey! I've already begun by eating vegetarian food when I'm not at home, and I seem tro be doing quite well on that, although why mini cheddars aren't vegetarian, I don't know...

 

Mini cheddars have milk and egg in them. If something obviously doesn't have meat in but has no vegetarian society label then it's usually because the eggs aren't from battery farmed chickens

 

Or there might be rennet in the cheese powder. That was the case with cheese flavour doritos (but they'd changed the recipe, last I checked).