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Are you considering shifting to a vegetarian diet?
Maybe now you see the health benefits of making the transition to vegan diet or you simply want to discover if you can make the big leap to a plant-based diet. But whatever your reasons are, it’s good enough that you have come to terms in trying a healthy option.
A vegetarian is a person who avoids eating meat, poultry, fish and shellfish and their by-products. Instead, he restricts his food preferences to grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables and fruits with or without the dairy products or eggs.
According to the Vegetarian Society, there are three kinds of vegetarians, they are:
- Vegans. They are those who don’t eat eggs and dairy products or any other by-products of animals and only stick to their vegetable diet.
- Lacto vegetarians. They eat dairy products, except eggs along with their vegetable diet.
- Lacto-ovo-vegetarians. They are those who also eat eggs and dairy products aside from their vegetable diets. Most vegetarians are under this category.
The transition from being a non-vegetarian to being a full-pledge vegetarian is undoubtedly not an easy task to accomplish. It requires sheer determination and discipline to be one.
The transition period doesn’t have to be swift or abrupt. In fact, it should be gradual to allow your mind and body to take in the changes. There would be struggles and challenges along the way and you have to keep that determination if you want to get past the transition period.
Following are some time-tested tips that will guide you and help ensure that you are on the right track:
- Take the matter seriously, make up your mind and stand by your decision of becoming a vegetarian. It’s useless to do something you are not committed to finish and succeed.
- Read and gather information on vegan lifestyles. You should at least know what vegans usually do if they really feel so hungry. With this, you can gauge yourself if you have the patience, determination and commitment to fit in their system.
- Check out their recipes. Choose those that leave great impact to you and be sure to start trying some of them.
- Make a mental note of what vegan recipes can work for you. Eventually, you can do your own tweaks in those recipes according to your taste and preference.
- Start making substitutions. Instead of using meat or poultry in your usual favorite dish, try substituting vegan substitutes for meat.
- Start phasing out red meat in your diet gradually. Everything is about gradual shifting, so find opportunities where you can include vegan ingredients to your usual recipes or meals. You don’t need to forego meat in an instant.
- After the red meat, it’s time try to give up the pork, chicken and sea foods. First, try not to eat pork for two weeks, then after that, try not having chicken for the next two weeks and lastly, leave out sea foods for the last two weeks. Hopefully, after a month, it wouldn’t matter anymore.
- Try dairy and eggs. After being meatless for some time it is suggested that you consider dairy and eggs if it feels right for you. They are rich in saturated fats compared to soy alternates.
- Make a list of your favorite foods that you regularly eat before the shift - breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and desserts. Then, make a list of the possible meatless substitutes to the meat ingredients of your favorite foods.
By keeping the guides above, you can feel that you are ready to make the big switch – that of becoming a vegetarian.
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