[graatsia]

Hi everyone!

I just wondered if someone else has the same issue. I'd like to be vegetarian and when I live in the southern warmer (like when I was living around the mediterannean) climates, I never even remember that meat exists. It must be that my energy needs are that much different in warm sunny climate than back home in the cold north (scandinavia in the winter...). When I came back home in the middle of the winter, I was able to keep to my normal veggie diet for about 4 days and then found myself craving for meat. So, now I'm not vegetarian any more, because I believe that I must give my body what it asks, because it knows what it needs (except for candy and other sugary "drugs", of course).

I would balance my diet by simply eating more carbs, but since I'm gluten sensitive and get quite a bad reaction from anything that contains wheat/rye/barley (lucky me, I can still have my morning oatmeal! I'm not sensitive to oats), I'm basically obliged to keep myself alive with meats. I'm used to it again and I don't mind the taste, but I it takes me big efforts to remind myself that I should find more exciting ways to prepare meats...

What do you guys eat? Or am I the only gluten sensitive (half?) vegetarian who tries to lose weight? I can get my body kind of used to gluten again but I will put on all those 15 lbs that simply melted off when I stopped gluten for 2 months. I find that my new nearly (=still practicing) gluten free lifestyle gives me wings - I have so much more energy, but when the weather gets really really really cold, I find it harder and harder to stay even remotely vegetarian... I guess I should eat like Inuits when the February comes.

[bluestegosaurus]

So, I'm a fat, gluten-challenged vegan. Granted, I've been meatless for a long time, but upon cutting the gluten, I started getting meat cravings. I didn't eat any, but I kept looking for something filling ALL THE TIME. I realized potatoes were cheap, easy, and filling, so we started keeping a pot of potatoes on all the time, and the gnawing hunger subsided. And then I realized my pants were not buttoning, and I was eating potatoes all day. I just switched the potatoes for pinto beans, and I can already feel the difference. What you need are legumes: delicious, proteiny, low glycemic, gluten-free, vegan and filling. It'll help turn the volume down on the meat cravings.

[lucindaarrowspark]

I am also a gluten sensitive vegan who is trying to lose weight.
Bragg amino acids and nutritional yeast flakes have been my salvation. I add those two magic elixirs to salads, throw in half an avocado, some nuts a little Franks Red HOt b/c I put that sh*t on everything and I am good to go and I stay true vegan!

[lackadaisy]

As someone who took sudden meat cravings in the past two months when I cut down carbs and eliminated eggs--I know it can be rough.

But meat cravings, like, carb cravings, are self-reinforcing: you crave what you've trained your body to crave. I craved fish when I cut out fish, and eggs and greek yogurt when I became vegan.

But when the craving subsided, I felt much, much better on my low-gluten, unprocessed, vegan diet than I ever have before --and steadily lost at the same time.

Originally Posted by bluestegosaurus

What you need are legumes.

This is exactly right. I added black, pinto, navy, garbanzo, and soy beans, lentils, nutritional yeast, and dark green vegetables (spinach, broccoli, kale, chard), a modest amount of brown rice, and some nuts to my diet and took out processed food as much as possible

I eat a substantial but veggie-based salad (no "crunch" or "dressing" calories) for lunch every day and a light cooked-veggie supper, and I have been shocked at how easily I've shed excess pounds: ~12 in just over two months.

Hope this is useful and motivating!