I'm a Vegetarian: Days 1 and 2

I find it surprising that you’d be hungry after a meal. Try eating more vegetables (don’t they make stir fry at Brody)? Also, have a big salad with raw veggies like spinach, broccoli and carrots. I am a vegetarian and ate at Broday last night- and I was so stuffed I couldn’t eat dessert! (Which are always vegetarian :o) Try eating out at a Japanese restaurat- lots of noodle dishes and vegetable sushi. Also, whole grain pasta with marinara and veggies. You may have stopped eating meat- but from your diet it doesn’t look healthy.

I’ll admit that finding a lot of healthy variety at Brody is hard. Go grocery shopping at Foods for Living or just Kroger. I find that cooking for yourself makes vegetarianism easier and healthier. And keep snacks on hand for when hunger strikes- dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, smoothies. Good luck!

i’m trying to find shakes that taste good. i’ve never had ensure before. what are your thoughts on them?

You don’t just have to eat fattening foods!
If you’re looking to survive in the dorms, try these:

ANY Pasta dish without meat (isn’t this in Brody?!)
Salad
Cereal
Tofu (if they have it)
Fruits and Vegetables
Starch foods (french fries, etc)
Veggie Burgers

It’s kind of unreal, after being vegan for 3 years, to see how people’s diets are so centered around meat that they can barely survive without it!

I’m going to rock your veggie world with this fact. When grains are sprouted they digest as a veggie, not a starch. Check out the sprouted pretzels made with sprouted whole grain flour that digests as a vegetable at uniquesplits.com and more at essentialeating.com. Lots of vegetarians, including myself follow Essential Eating balanced diet and with great and lasting success. Good luck and munch on a few yummy sprouted flour pretzels that are a veggie, not a startch!

being vegetarian there are so many foods you can eat especially when you live without meat and have to find really healthy alternatives. go for a lot of grains and pulses which will make you full such as rice, pasta, bread, quinoa, couscous, polenta, lentils, beans and there are many more. Grains and pulses also have good fibre and protein. try and include more vegetables into your diet especially root veggies (pot, car, turnip) nuts and seeds are great also. keep it up!! :-)

I find when I eat too many carbohydrates in the morning I’m starving and looking for snacks later — even if those carbs are fruits or vegetables. I’m what Gabriel Cousens, M.D. calls a fast oxidizer, meaning I need higher quantities of fats and proteins. Slow oxidizers need more carbohydrates and less fats and proteins — so they do well on noodles and rice with some veggies, which I do not. It sounds like maybe you would not do well on that either. I think when people go veg, they often know to get enough protein, but not good quality fats. Good fats calm the nerves and ground the body. When I don’t have enough, I literally get stressed. Then I go get to any place serving burritos and get black beans, spanish rice, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa and a huge dollop of guacamole. Taking that combination is like taking a muscle relaxant or anti stress pill because I immediately feel better. I think this is why people say they feel better going back to a meat diet because they are not getting enough good fats and proteins. I also found that when I would make steamed veggies, beans and some grain (rice, quinoa, amaranth) with a sauce over it (tahini, etc) and drizzle some essential fatty acid oil (like flax, udo’s oil, hemp, chia etc) over it in the morning for breakfast, I was calm and grounded all day and did not need to hit the candy machine mid day. You can get some flax seed and grind up a few tablespoons in a cheap coffee grinder and sprinkle it over your salad, or put a handful of walnuts in your oatmeal, or soak a few tablespoons of chia seeds in water and mix it in any dish. Or blend any of these up with some maple syrup of agave nectar and chocolate for a chocolate morning shake. This will give you some good energy that will match your possibly fast oxidizer body type. Put some beans in your salad. Eat lots of hummus and tofu and bean soup and favor these over rice, noodles and toast. Mix in some ground nuts or seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, walnuts, almonds, chia, flax…) And of course get in lots of veggies and favor these over fruits. If you are a fast oxidizer, I think if you do these things, you will find yourself more grounded and to a better job of feeling balanced and good on the diet. Good luck!

I hope the author is reading some of these comments and taking the advice given! Thanks, all, for sharing the info. I’m not a vegetarian, myself, but it’s good to know these things in case I ever do decide to become one.

Fabulous article! I applaud you for brining this diet to light in a way that allows people a glimpse into what this diet consists of. Many people feel this is an unknown and unthinkable sort of diet, but with a little research and effort it’s quite simple! Do you think you will stick with it?

-Ashley