First day without meat. (Go me!) Am I doing it right?

Ejay,
Your right. I agree, sorry.
I would say: if Jessum can be bothered to put in the work learning good nutrition, she may not need the pills. (But she  may the B12 supplment, I know vegans need it, I don't know about vegetarians). Howevere I would say that if she works hard at good nutrition, and was to get sick from vegetarianism, it would then be time to consider supplements. (I know women who have eaten extremely healthily as vegetarians and vegans and had problems with iron, one of whom was studying nutrition at college).

I have to say that looking at Jessum's post, I do suspect she's the kind of person who will put the work in.
Again congratulations, Jessum.

Hey,

Thanks everyone. =).

I'd prefer to do it without suppliments, if possible. I'm not saying if I got sick I wouldn't consider turning to them, I'm just saying that I want to show that it can be done without pills. But, yeah, if I got sick I would change.
I luckily got everything tested about a week ago (from like Sugar levels to iron levels) and everything is fine. Should I go back in like two months to check it is still all okay or just see how I feel?

Yuck, leafy greens   Haha, no that's fair enough. And before yesterday I'd never eat mushrooms or even think out touching soy milk and I found them pleasently suprising. So hopefully I will be suprised with leafy greens. They will taste nicer than supporting animal cruelty =)

On the cheese thing, how much would you guys suggest, like once a day or like once a month?.. I quite like cheese =(
And is it different if I eat feta cheese?


Thanks for being amazing

There's quite a bit of cruelty involved in the dairy industry, so cheese isn't good. But I'd suggest you get comfortable with a vegetarian diet before you put any more pressure on yourself. Particularly since you sound like you've not got a long history with vegetables.

Regarding feta, I don't know if goats are treated as badly as dairy cows,  but many  Australian goats end up getting live exported to the middle east when they are beyond their milking years (http://www.liveexportshame.com/background_sheep.htm).

Cheese was very hard for me to give up, but if you change over to sow milk you may find your taste for dairy decreases a little after a while.

I realise this (the dairy industry etc) but yeah my plan is to slowly cut stuff out. I don't think I could go from an meat eating diet to vegan in .2343 seconds. So yeah, changing margines and milks to dairy free and getting my eggs from my friend who has pet chickens on her farm, to cutting everything out.
This way it also covers the other people who make me meals (friends, fiances parents, family etc) so they don't have to make a drastic transition either.
So I guess I'll just start by eating cheese only every second time I want it. =)

I like that!

Good on you for not wanting to use supplements. I've been vegetarian for over 4 years, vegan for nearly 2. And NEVER have I used supplements. Since I did it properly I've never needed them. I RARELY get sick!

You'll learn to love spinach! It's the tastiest thing ever. Fried mushroom, onion, garlic and spinach on toast is my favourite breakfast meal! I use spinach in every single meal I make! Broccoli is also an amazing tasting vegetable if you fry it. If you really dislike spinach, I would suggest putting it in dishes which you won't really notice it, like spaghetti and currys. Oh, and don't forget to eat things like chickpeas and lentils. You can usually knock this out of the way by simply making a chickpea curry if you're unsure of where in your diet to encorporate them.

I'm fairly biased when it comes to cheese. You would be suprised at how easy it is not to eat it! I'm not sure exactly where you live, but I can easily get mozarella cheezly, which melts! It's great for pizzas, and even toasted sandwiches! It tastes pretty good too. And it's really easy to make other dishes have a slight cheesy taste by adding nutritional flakes, don't knock it till you try it! Even I was a sceptic to begin with. I even worked out how to make an awesome mac n cheese with white sauce, nutritional yeast, and mustard. Even my omni boyfriend loves it! And yes, most supermarkets stock Tofutti better than cream cheese. It actually does taste better than cream cheese!!! It's great with sweet chilli sauce on things like jacket potato.

Good luck, feel free to message me if you're having any difficulties

I actually don't mind spinach, I don't think I could eat it by its self

However I just made a broccoli soup. This probably doesn't mean much to you guys since you don't know me. I've never even thought about making a soup and I've never even ordered one in a restaurant. I've also never looked in the frigde, seen that there is broccoli and then tried to work out how I could make a meal out of it... But the soup was so easy to make.. AND ITS AMAZING!! It's so good. I'm totally inlove. Being veg is much easier and tastier than I would have thought!

I'm going to a friends for dinner tonight and I'm so taking it so everyone can taste it!

And I even substituted thickened cream with soy milk and it still tastes amazing!

That's great! You can also use coconut cream

oh and by the way! Pumpkin soup is AMAZING! It tastes really great if you chuck a tin of coconut cream in the fridge for a while before hand so it thickens a little, then throw it in the soup after serving. Pumpkin soup is my all time favourite.

Hey Jessum
Congrats! When I first became a vegetarian, i struggled with nutrition because I was quite young and didn't research it or spend enough time eating!So you're doing great by asking for help!

I know you said that you struggle with having to eat more regularly but it's really important. If you look at other animals, herbivores have huge digestive tracts and spend all day eating just to absorb enough nutrients to stay healthy.

So because we are trying to be herbivores when our bodies aren't quite designed for it, it's so important to make up a balanced diet other ways and eat enough. If you find that you struggle with all the changes like having to eat more regularly and in larger quantites or having to think about what to eat before you eat it, then maybe you should consider taking supplements just while your starting out? There's no shame in it (that I know of)

I take lots of supplements that are herbal and animal-product-free everyday because it just makes my life so much easier and my body thanks me for it.