Veganism... It's a new thing for me, I'm becoming weak!! Advice/help please!!

:O I just tried some RiceDream today, it's so nice!! Much nicer than soya Theres also this oat stuff in tescos too, might try that Ohhh this is so exciting!!

 

Hullo! At new years i decided to go from full vegetarian to full vegan, i had been vegetarian for about a year and it had been one of the best things i had done , and i have wanted to go vegan since last year but thought it would be best to see how i get on with vegetarian first and in truth, it was so easy! And i felt great for it too.

Going to vegan though, is proving to be so difficult for me! Not because i miss certain whole foods i.e. eggs and milk, cheese, i can't remember the last time i had an egg either scrambled or boiled etc, and i have been drinking soya milk since last year, rarely eat cheese i don't see that being a huge problem as i only ever eat the one kind when i do eat it (le roule, soft garlic cream cheese, what could be substituted for that any suggestions?). I never eat honey.

So its not cutting out those foods as a whole thats the problem, but when shopping and checking out ingredients lists, almost everything has eggs or milk in it! When i am cooking a fresh meal for myself cooking with vegan ingredients is not a problem, but sometimes i am really tired after work or on the move and i like to snack, but finding it very difficult to find vegan snacks now!

I am wondering if anyone else found this side of being vegan difficult when they first started? Not so much dropping the whole foods but dealing with the amount of food in shops that include eggs and milk in the product.

I enjoy cooking but it seems a daunting prospect having to cook or make up absolutely everything i eat especially when my job already takes up so much of my time

 

Same with me actually, at the moment I don't eat eggs or milk... Unless its in a bought product. So I'm just taking it slow atm

An update on the RiceDream, that also makes me ill ¬¬ Now I'm on some oat stuff xD If this doesn't work I'll scream xD

My vegan brother went vegan straight away, didn't eat very much for the first month, and now cooks everything he eats- baked beads and jacket potato is his fave quickie. Theres also some curries in some supermarkets i think that don't have dairy in them, you'll have to check but I do know they exist OH Onion bahjis are good too

And you can order pizzas with no cheese

 

Spowle10 and Dragonvine I'm not sure what products are available in your area of the world so I don't know how helpful this will be.

There is a great substitute for the cream cheese called Tofutti better than cream cheese. It can be used just like regular cream cheese, as a spread, making cheesecakes, in dips, etc. It has a milder taste than cream cheese but pretty much the same consistency.

To help out on nights your too tired to cook it might be helpful to make large batches of food when you do cook. Freeze or refrigerate individual portions and just pull them out and heat up on nights your tired. This works great for things like spaghetti sauce, soups ,and stews.

One easy snack I like is cheeseless nachos. Just fill a plate with chips, heat up some beans and pour over the chips. If you have some energy then chop up some tomatoes, avocados and onions. If your tired then just pour some salsa over the beans.

Pieces of pita bread or pita chips and hummus is another good and easy snack.

 

Ohh thanks Lila I've found a place in the UK that sells toffitu, so I'll give that a try

 

I started the veggy path back in the late 70's. Health and stomach problems were my driving forces to change my diet.

I am not an animal rights person. I got nothing against animal rights and don't like abuse. But I put myself first and eat what I can discern is best fir me. So I never got into veg land for the animals.

I was a vegetarian for 20 + years. I ate vegan and raw for a few years and vegan with a mix of raw and cooked vegetables for 15 years with little protein and found it unhealthy in the long run for me.

I tried DR Arnold Ehret raw diet for a few years and wasted away, then added starchless cooked vegetables but no real sources of protein as I could not digest soy or oily nuts. After 15 years of this I became lacto-ovo vegetarian for 5 years and after 20 years total time of being a vegetarian I started to eat a little animal protein on occasion as my health was deteriorating from living on an unbalanced diet.

Probably if I could digest milk and eggs well, I could have stayed on the vegetables and lacto-ovo diet and done well, but it seems many proteins give my food allergy trouble digesting.

Fruitarian ?? - a very clean diet for the insides no doubt, but a wasting diet for the body over the long-term. Too unbalanced. Nowadays, the fruits are pretty crappy as well as far as quality. The peaches have the fuzz buffed off them and chemical waxes and fungicides coated on them.

They are picked very green and rot before they ripen many a time. If you do happen to find some edible commercial fruits they are beautiful on the outside and taste like you are eating rubber. You can sometimes get good fruit at farmers market, but out here it is slim pickings.

The corn is genetically modified and the government refuses to label it as well as all the other modified foods, so our food supply if composed of "frankenfoods" more and more and we do not know what the hell we are really eating.

Now I eat more balanced, am still about 90% to 95% vegan. Also add 2 or 3 eggs to a loaf of bread I bake which is 60% whole wheat and 40% unbleached flour. Eat some seeds as well, but the oil bothers me if excessive.

If I could eat anything, I'd eat a mix of vegetables, grains, decent fruits, some fish and very little meat. Possible some dairy as well. Guess I'd model it on the "old" food pyramid more or less with lower animal protein. I put my health first, although I can find spiritual pleasure in not supporting killing excessive amounts of animals if I can live healthy otherwise.

In the end, you wont dictate to your diet what you will eat, it will tell you. If you can live a healthy life on fruits alone, then do it. and if not and you body tells you otherwise, then there is your answer. Following natural law will help those that are hell bent to "do it there way" no matter what. For we all bow to nature in the end - so learn to accept natural law to help you live peacefully in life.

We sometime forget we are spiritual beings residing in a physical body living in physical world and have to answer to natural law as well a manmade laws and divine laws. Good to keep the three all in balance.


BALANCE is the key!

 

Aww, I'm so sorry to hear the ricemilk didn't agree with you!

I've also heard good things about hemp milk... just can't seem to find any locally to find out what all the fuss is about
love,
mom

 

Ok update on my vegan/veggie thing ^^

I'm full veggie now, I only really eat eggs if its a tiny weeny ingredient in a curry or something, and same with milk, I'm a minimal-lacto-ovo veggie!! I like to say I'm half vegan

The only dairy I'm eating now is chocolate and cheese (as I said above, I have little bits of milk or egg if its already in a made-meal, but I am cuttin down on thos too). I found a really nice vegan ice cream yay!!

Once I find a decent vegan cheese, I think I'll be all set I'm gonna have a shopping trip tomorrow to see what I can find

I'm cooking vegan without knowing it, and my boyfriend doesn't mind when I'm cooking for him, as long as he gets food (ahh the true way to a blokes heart eh )!

I've tried the cheezlyz whatever its called mozzarella super melt stuff.. I have to say I really don't like it unless its melted... So I'm going to have to invest in some experimenting And hopefully I'll find some dairy free chocolate I'm happy with!!

I'm in such a better place after going veggie, and going vegan just seems natural to me I'd hate to label myself as a vegan, because if I ever do make a mistake and eat a little bit of dairy people may think I'm doing it wrong or whatever xD But yea I'll guess I'll have to make that transition slowly too

Thanks for all your help guys, and if anyone knows of any chocolate or cheese substitutes I'll be happy to hear it!!

 

Hiya! Try a company called Plamil! I eat their dairy free chocs an they is yummm, especially the mint one, you can mail order through their site an arrives fast, or Holland an Barret stocks them too. They do a carob one too but i find that much to rich for me.

I would be interested in the cheese thing if you find one easily available, that is about the only thing i have not found a substitute for. H&B do great toffuti ice cream.

Good luck!

 

Omg I love their toffitu ice cream!!! I might try the toffitu cream cheese

I'll have a look for the plamil choc

I think I'd be a full vegan if it weren't for the damn cheese!!

 

Heehee, yeah their toffuti icecream is good, i like the cones they do too, corneto (sp?) type thing with wafer cones, only problems is the wafer tends to be a bit soft rather than nice an crisp, no problems with the ice'cream' itself though!

Let us know if you try the cream cheese i can get that at H&B too but have been a bit reluctant to try it haha, anyone here tried it an like it?

 

I, luckily, have never really liked cheese for the most part. So that's an easy one for me. I've only just started this past week, and I'm going in stages. I have one day where I have to be entirely vegan, then the next I eat mostly vegan, but if there's something that I crave, I'll eat it then. Regularly I'll start phasing those easy days off. I'm not sure what my problem foods are going to be yet. So far my cravings have been almost non-existant. I was wanting spicey cheetos the other day, and for me that means ranch, but other than that... nada. I'm lucky enough that about a year ago fried food started tasting really disgusting to me. So all that fried chicken that I used to love is no longer a problem. Now it's starting to sound like I'm bragging about my easy time. Which I guess I kinda am I think eventually you will okay. One thing I did when I was still contemplating veganism, when I thought it would be hard to give up the meat, I would look at horrible pictures of whatever animal I was eating. Or when I was drinking milk, I'd look at pictures of the horrible conditions of dairy cows. It really worked for me. Made it so that I got sick everytime I ate those foods. Didn't want them after that

 

Try Daiya! It's a cheese substitute an it makes the worlds most awesome grilled cheese.

I tried rice milk, almond milk and hated them. I had soy milk once and got sick. I use hemp milk called Tempt, from Living Harvest Foods. http://livingharvest.com/

I am lactose intolerant and have issues with eggs. I can eat things like baked goods, with eggs in them, and I can eat milk chocolate every so often. I developed an anaphylaxis with fish or shell fish about 2 years ago.

I have "soy based" products every now and then, like my Tofurky sausages or a veggie burger, but otherwise I actually avoid bringing soy into the house because my sons are allergic.

So, with all of those things, veggie is not so hard because I wasn't eating that stuff anyway.

My one thing is butter. I have tried and can not find a substitute that tastes right or works for browning in a pan.

I "fell off the wagon" at thanksgiving, but have been working hard towards no-flesh since. I know Christmas won't pass clean either, but I have already planned on being clean by new years and then when next year's big dinners roll around, I'll be ready and should have more will power.

In my house, the youngest is on board and hubby is 98%. Meetings at work have meat lunches & he gets tired of the jokes about his food from home. (He got sick the first few times) The oldest is a total carnivore. My folks think I'm nuts and encourage the oldest, while chastising the youngest for not eating meat.

Oh, and homeschoolmama, Tempt is gluten free. I get the vanilla for my coffee.

 

Pnut butter