StudioVeena.com › Forums › Discussions › Any Vegan Support groups?
-
Protein does not have to be a problem, but most people need to eat some protein rich foods in order to obtain what nutritional professionals consider sufficient amounts of protein. This is completely possible on a vegan diet. But, if someone tries to go vegan by removing meat, dairy, and eggs, and does not increase consumption of protein rich plant foods like beans, nuts, tofu, tempeh, seitan, etc., then most likely they will not obtain optimum levels of protein and they may not feel well. It’s not difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of protein on a vegan diet, if you’ve been vegan for a while, you might not even give it much thought, but for new vegans, it may take a little adjustment.
How frequently one eats is determined by personal preference, activity level, the types of foods consumed, etc., but not by type of diet. Some vegans eat many small meals. Some vegans prefer the western “standard” of 3 meals a day. Other vegans eat on a whole range of schedules.
I highly recommend the book Vegan For Life for information on vegan nutrition. It was written by two vegan registered dieticians and provides excellent research based information on nutrition for vegans. There is good general information, as well as specialty chapters on topics like vegan nutrition for children, seniors, and athletes. It also includes a few sample meal plans. Even if you’ve been vegan for a while, it has a lot of good information, including relatively recent research.
I really like Post Punk Kitchen, but while some of the recipes are healthy and easy, many of them are either more involved or not necessarily things you want to eat on an daily basis. Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the author of Post Punk Kitchen, did write a book called Appetite for Reduction, which has a lot of fast, relatively healthy vegan dishes. She wrote it after she wrote Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar, and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World–you might understand why.
-
Colleen Patrick-Goudreau rocks. She is the queen of being vegan. Great books, videos, podcast.
-
You guys would be so proud of me. 🙂 I actually make my curry chicken did with the Gardein with all the veggies I usually use and it came out great. Thought Im still having difficulty preparing ahead and eating on time, Im still doing way better than I was before. Thanks to all of you here. I want to also ask if there are any particular to look for while getting better in this such weight changes? I know that I need to exercise more but I still get dizzy but I think its because I havent mastered eating yet.
-
Thanks Cats 🙂 … ♡♡♡♡♡..
-
I am trying so hard to be vegan myself and am doing pretty good at it. So Im here to support yah! xx
-
You can do it KRAZYKAT.. 🙂 I just found out that they got vegan ice cream.. lol I went to Albertson’s and asked the manager to help me find the cheese and I found So Delicious ice cream. Thanks to everyone on here, I have been finding more things to try. Look at the other postings on here and see if you can find some of the brands that I can’t find. I still haven’t found Loving Hut brand yet.
-
Ok.. I need to ask this. Am I doing something totally wrong? I just started doing this app on my phone with S Health and this week I’m noticing that I’m way under my calorie count everyday. Am I supposed to experience this? The packs of food that I buy don’t have much in there but like on my Gardein products, they are so low in calories. What do I do?
-
Hi everyone!
In reply to your first question ambience24z9338 I can agree that the Post Punk Kitchen website is great, along with Thug Kitchen (if you don’t mind swearing – there is also a TK cookbook) and Connoisseurusveg.com. I follow Vegan Bodybuilding and Nutrition on FB and although I’m not a bodybuilder I do work on my strength (as a lot of polers do) and there is a lot of knowledgeable, helpful and supportive people on there. Food is discussed, a lot!
I’ve been vegan for two years and I found it easier to transition than to cut everything out in one go. I started out by cutting out all meat, then cheese, to all dairy, then eggs. Honey was the last to go. I found this easier for me as I got used to what to cook and how to substitute non-vegan foods.
You WILL get there – keep trying. Each person’s journey is different.As a comment to your latest post about calorie consumption I think that you could benefit from looking at higher calorie foods that are easy to get into your diet, for example nut butters. These carry good fats which is why they are higher calories. You can have nut butters with fruit (I hear almond butter and apple is supposed to be nice), or veggie sticks. Also, if you’re more likely to eat low calorie meals can you eat more of them in a day? As mentioned in an earlier post, some people benefit from having several smaller meals over the course of the day.
I hope that some of this helps you and your transition to a healthy, well balanced, manageable vegan diet 🙂
-
If you’re not getting enough calories the solution is to eat more. If you aren’t feeling particularly hungry, then rather than eating more by volume you can be sure to include high calorie vegan foods in your diet. A few common choices are: nuts and nut butters, seeds and seed butters, avocado, dried fruit, and hummus. More moderate calorie foods you can increase your consumption of: fruit, beans, tofu, tempeh. Smoothies can also be an easy way to increase calories, you can get a lot of food into a small-ish glass. You can also be a little more liberal with things like olive oil on salads.
As a side note, I’ve never thought of Gardein products as being particularly low calorie, although that might just be because I have no idea what how many calories are in various types of meat.
-
Also, it’s worth noting that if you’re estimating the amount of food you are eating, rather than measuring it, preferably by weight, you may be eating more than you think you are. If you have a food scale, weighing your food is the most accurate way of monitoring serving sizes, if not, measuring cups, etc. will do.
Log in to reply.