Going vegan - Day one.

Hello-
After a few months of research, I have decided to go vegan for (several) health reasons. Does anyone have any good advice from back when they were a newbie?

Also, I'm a little curious (not my main motivation) about the weight loss that occasionally comes with the transition. Would any body like to share some stories?

This month was my one-year "veganniversary."  :-)  I didn't go vegan for weight loss, but when I did first make the transition I lost about 10 pounds (I was very overweight).  During the last year I did regain that lost weight because I found it was way too easy to eat junk food that happens to contain no animal products.  If you take a look at the PETA website, there are a lot of "accidentally vegan" processed foods on grocery store shelves.

My advice, and what I've been doing in the last couple of months to lose weight, is to stick as closely as possible to whole foods, stay away from the highly processed stuff, and really watch the fats (such as olive oil or vegan non-hydrogenated soy margarine -- it's still fat!)  Also, using the calorie tracker on this site has been helpful -- I've only lost a few pounds since I've been here, but keeping track in a book before I found this site was really useful.  I've lost about 16 pounds so far.

Also, unless you really have a craving, try to enjoy being a vegan by enjoying veggie food in its many forms, and staying away from processed meat analogues.  There are other ways to get protein and other nutrients that don't involve as much processing and preservatives!

Favorites sites and cookbooks:

http://vegkitchen.com/index.htm

http://veganfamilydinners.blogspot.com/

http://www.annecollins.com/vegan-diet.htm

http://www.vegetariantimes.com/

http://www.theppk.com/

http://vegweb.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Veganomicon-Ultimate-Is a-Chandra-Moskowitz/dp/156924264X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569243581/r ef=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf _rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf _rd_i=156924264X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&am p;pf_rd_r=0H7W6G2AT387KG4D8KX9

Last piece of advice that I would have found valuable when I was a newbie -- it gets easier to put together meals after awhile!

Good luck!

I'd suggest you get as clued up as possible about nutrition  before you do anything radical.  Veganism means that many foods are unavailable to you and you'll have to make sure you replace the energy and nutrition you lose or you risk your vegan diet being more unhealthy than the original.

Weight-loss largely happens when the energy lost by cutting out, say, dairy products is not replaced with something equally calorific.  But it's possible to gain weight as well.

Hey guys,

Thanks a ton for the feedback! And especially for all the resources.

Hey, congrats! I made the decision to go vegan about 9 months ago, and I love it. I decided to do it for ethical and health reasons, but now when people ask me why I feel like the honest response is that I just love how it makes me feel! I have more energy, my skin is better, I don't get upset stomach (which used to happen a lot) AND I lost about 10 pounds without even trying.

You do have to pay close attention to certain nutrients, though, or you'll end up sick and maybe end up going back to dairy/eggs/meat/etc. I wasn't getting enough B12, which is one of the only vitamins that is really really difficult to get enough of from plant-based sources. Symptoms of deficiency include memory loss, trouble concentrating, and I was definitely noticing that. So now every day I take a supplement specifically for vegetarians/vegans that includes my daily requirements for B12 and iron. I also try to include a good protein source in just about every meal I eat.

To me, this is all another side benefit of veganism - it's made me that much more focused on what I'm putting in my body.

I think you only really lose weight on a vegan diet if you ate alot of chocolate/icecream/biscuits etc before the transition. I have not lots weight effortlessly on a vegan diet (yet) merely because of my utter fondness for peanut butter and banana - a combination sadly both vegan and high in calories.

Other than that, however, I have to say you have tons of energy on a vegan diet - I went from lacto-ovo vegetarian to vegan a few weeks back and have twice the energy as I did then (although, I doubt this would be the case if you didn't eat enough iron, calcium, protein etc).

To warn you though (its a little offtopic) be prepared to have the runs for a few days. It doesn't happen for everyone but it is likely.

Original Post by hit_horrorpops:

I think you only really lose weight on a vegan diet if you ate alot of chocolate/icecream/biscuits etc before the transition.

I don't know, I didn't really eat  much of any of those things before I switched. But cutting out dairy, especially, which is really calorie-dense - cheese, butter, etc. - can definitely make a big difference in your daily intake. I wasn't really calorie-counting before I went vegan, so I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty positive that that's what did it. And I wouldn't say I ate much more dairy than your average person (which, granted, might not be saying much.)

Original Post by seekay108:

Original Post by hit_horrorpops:

I think you only really lose weight on a vegan diet if you ate alot of chocolate/icecream/biscuits etc before the transition.

I don't know, I didn't really eat  much of any of those things before I switched. But cutting out dairy, especially, which is really calorie-dense - cheese, butter, etc. - can definitely make a big difference in your daily intake. I wasn't really calorie-counting before I went vegan, so I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty positive that that's what did it. And I wouldn't say I ate much more dairy than your average person (which, granted, might not be saying much.)

It's interesting the numbers mentioned, because I dropped 10 lbs without even trying after the switch as well.

and I eat more Dark chocolate now than I even ate milk chocolate when I was vegetarian. (I hardly ate a bar a week of milk chocolate and now I eat nearly half a bar a DAY of dark chocolate). I still lost the 10 lbs mentioned.

I was on livejournal.com even before the switch but these 2 communities REALLY helped me with my transition

veganpeople

vegancooking