For a long time now I've thought of switching to a vegetarian diet. I'm a lifelong animal lover, but so, help me, I've been dividing animals into categories such as non-edible even if I'm starving to death (dogs, cats, horses) edible in emergencies (rabbits, deer, quail) and animals that can be eaten on a regular basis (cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys).

More than that I realize that all animals are living beings, such as we are and that absolutely none of them deserve to be eaten by another animal that just happens to have opposable thumbs and walk on two legs.

My conscience therefore drives me towards giving up meat.

My question is, how do I make the switch.? Moreso, how do I do it successfully and with as little pain as possible?

Years ago, before there were the vast array of vegetarian products on the market, let alone support groups like this one, I ,having been inspired by the book "Diet For A Small Planet" tried to go completely vegetarian

I did not succeed. Vegetarian to me meant living on tofu, with an occasional peanut butter sandwich thrown in as a treat. Maybe some mac and cheese if I was starving.

Also salad by the pound until I thought I would faint at the sight of anything green.

Okay, that's the past. I want to do this now. I've been saying goodby to my favorite meats for the past year. I've been slowly changing my diet to accomodate more vegetarian dishes. There are foods now that didn't exist way back when.

Therefore I think I might be ready to move on to a strict vegetarian diet ( that is eating nothing that walks on two or more legs, but allowing eggs and dairy products and sometimes fish). If I try this and it works out and I decide I want to go stricter (that is, totally vegan.) I'll adjust my menus and cut where I need to.

The switch will be hard because--odd coincidence here-- DH has made up his mind to start a low carb diet :exactly the opposite of what I aim to do, since I don't think one can do both vegetarian and low carb at the same time.

So, DH will be eating lean steak and I'll be eating...?

Maybe I should wait until I can convince DH to go veggie too??

Ain't gonna happen. Dh going veggie that is.

Sigh. I still want to do this, but now that I've thought it through I don't see how I can.

I'm not sure I can offer any sage advice since our family became vegetarians 26 years ago and Diet for a Small Planet was one of our reasons as well. However, I don't make my own tofu any more. And, given our busy schedules right now, I do use some "convenience" products.

You might want to try substituting meat alternative products for traditional meat dishes to get started. DH might not mind these and could be a good compromise. We use the Boca, Gardenburger and Morningstar Farms products in moderation in our house. They are easy to prepare (a George Forman grill does wonders for them) and are portable so we can take them for lunches.

One word of caution, it is easy to rely too heavily on eggs and dairy products for protein if you are not careful. They are quick and easy, but shouldn't become the mainstay.

We love vegetable stir-fry. Tofu, meat alternatives, beans & rice, are all excellent and fast additives to help round out the meal.

You CAN do this. Center your menu around vegetarian dishes, then add a meat for DH if he really must have it.

I do recommend that you find a few good vegetarian cookbooks (there is a thread with some excellent suggestions). They will help you get started.

All I can say is "beans"..all of them, and hominy corn, and especially Edamame...not only do you get the protein (and you may need to combine some..rice and corn), but you get the fiber and all the phytochemicals in beans.

Nuts, too, actually!

Good for you. I am not there yet, but wish I were.

I made the switch overnight from eating meat to eating no animal products at all.

Cookbooks have been a great help. I love looking at cookbooks and various websites for ideas.

As for you and your husband, you and your husband can eat basically the same thing except with a couple exceptions.

Make a salad for both you and your husband, omit any veggies from his salad that are higher in carbs

Make nonstarchy veggies for both you and your husband

Make a bean dish for yourself. I love beans and they are great protein.

If he is having grilled steak, have grilled veggies including portabello mushrooms. If he is having baked chicken, have baked tofu. If he is having shredded pork, make yourself shredded veggies.

I rarely eat tofu or meat substitutes, I rely mostly on whole foods to provide me with my protein.

Congratulations on your decision to listen to your heart.

First, I am doing a vegetarian low carb diet -- Medifast, though not specifically vegetarian and which works for meat eaters. I have even achieved "moderate" ketosis by ketostix. Not vegan, but it works great and is vegetarian, search the forums for threads and reviews. There is also a book on Amazon about low carb vegetarians. Some of the Morningstar farms burgers (Grillers Prime) are low carb,high protein, and quite tasty. So it can be done.

When I first became a vegetarian, I was literally the only vegetarian I knew. That was back in spring, 1977, and I lived in the suburbs of McLean, Virginia. I ate a lot of eggs and a lot of cheese and endured a lot of grief from adults. (that's my "I had to walk for two miles in the snow every day to get to school speech," LOL)

But now, being a vegetarian is incredibly easy. You young people today don't know how good you have it! Delicious fake meat at every grocery store, and incredible health food stores like Whole Foods, entire shelves of vegetarian cookbooks, the internet.

You absolutely can do this. Tell me your favorite regular foods and I can help you translate to the vegetarian substitute. My dh is a vegetarian, so I don't know how I would handle the vegetarian husband thing.

Start out by giving up the idea of being a perfect brown rice/tofu/greens sort of vegetarian, and begin with just giving up meat. If your dh has a burger, you have a veggie burger (I think Amys are delicious). Serve it with all the fixings to your dh. If your dh loves frito pie, make it with vegetarian chili. If you serve delicious, fabulous, tasty vegetarian food, some men are too lazy to fix something else.

Are you on a weight loss diet, too? I will warn you, as my ticker will demonstrate, there are fat vegetarians in the world.

If you are going to be a vegan (and that's the real animal rights way, of course) then I am not going to lie: it's much more challenging to be a vegan, even for an experienced vegetarian like myself. I personally was only a vegan for three years, then I gradually fell off the wagon and gave up completely. But I sure did lose weight and feel great -- and morally superior, btw, during those three years. I may do it again when the kids get older. Hey, maybe that could be my maintenance and transition diet! By the end of my third year as a vegan I looked like a whippet. I only met two or three obese vegans, (at that time I was hanging around dozens of vegans) and I really don't know how they managed to get that fat as vegans, or if they were new vegans. I never asked them, LOL.

I promise that this is going to be easier than you thought. Once you start really thinking about the origin of meat, it's hard not to be a vegetarian.

Thank you for the reply.
I love both Morningstar ( especially their black bean burgers) and Boca products. And I like vegan cheese (made from soy) and soymilk, and almond milk, though the last one is hard to find in the local stores.

There is a dish I've regularly made for DH and me that involves rice and beans (also shrimp, but I could leave the crustaceans off my serving and just add more spice--its a Cajun dish, and no I'm not Cajun and neither is DH, but he DID pick up the recipe while he was in the Air Force and stationed in the delta, and extra spice and no shrimp would suit me just fine.

I've had a fairly good vegetarian cookbook for ages: Laurel's Kitchen, which has mostly been gathering dust on the bookshelf. If I remain true to my resolve to dump the meat I know that book is going to get a lot more use.

I'm really starting to believe I can do this.

Kudos to you for being able to make the sudden switch. I've been working up to this for months and again, I don't think I could do it were it not for the wonderful array of vegetarian and vegan products now on the market.

I love the idea of grilled portabella mushrooms as a meat substitute(in fact I wish I had some right now, since DH expects steak tonight, doesn't yet know I'm giving up meat, and is going to be mighty shocked when I turn down my share.)

I'm ready to give up meat and become a lacto-ovo vegetarian (more lacto than ovo since I adore cheese and feel indifferent about eggs, though I'll probably still eat them on occasion, at least in the beginning.

I lost some weight a couple of years ago and am mostly trying to maintain the loss. I know full well that a vegetarian diet can be just as calorie laden as a meat-based one, unless one is careful.

My ultimate goal is to be vegan, but I think it's going to take me a while to work up to that.

I did the change overnight after reading China Study and Eat to Live. Basically a click happened with me that I should not be eating any animal products so I quit.

I actually don't use many/any vegetarian/vegan products. I really only eat tofu (or seitan) if I go out to eat. On a daily basis though, I don't eat soy or processed products. I mainly eat vegetables, fruits, beans and some whole grains.

If you are looking for a meaty substitute, Veganomicon has a great recipe called "Chickpea cutlets" which uses vital gluten. I made them for my husband and he liked them a lot. They were pretty easy to make as well.

I'm also with you on loving cheese. I will love cheese until the day I die. I just don't think it is the healthiest thing to eat so it was fairly easy for me to cut it out.

Magrat - You've already gotten some wonderful advice, and you can do this! Congratulations on making such a great decision, for you and the animals and the planet.

I think it's just fine to give yourself time to work up to vegan, I'm still doing it myself. I keep on learning how to better deal with my weak spots, someday I hope it all falls into place. As with weight loss, I feel like this change will have better sticking power for me if I just take little steps at a time.

I second nelie's Veganomicon recommendation (recipes omnivores will drool over!) and you might want to also check out its predecessor Vegan with a Vengeance. Feel free to skip their cupcake book. I was really tempted, but so far I've resisted

I'm sorry, my keyboard broke and I was not able to follow up with this thread.

Congratulations on being a vegetarian~ welcome to the fold!

I am with Nelie on this one. I read "Eat to Live" by her recommendation, before reading it I was not a big meat eatter (only chicken fish and turkey) but I did do the veggie burger, and substitutions n' such. But now.. like nelie says.. I rarely eat meat substitute. Reading this book tells you how your body processes certain foods, why you should or shouldnt eat it, and studiest to back them up. I am a "clean" vegetarian. I dont typically eat out of boxes, I think the only thing I really eat that comes in a carton is Old Fashioned oats, brown rice, and soy milk ( when I want a treat). I am a cheese lover too but Eat to Live puts you in a whole other state of mind. I thought about getting everyone I know a copy for Christmas, but that may be a little pushy

Also, I wanted to add.. that if there is something you are eatting that didnt "exsist" a few years ago. I wouldnt recommend eatting it. I typically like to steer clear of anything chemically engineered.

I am a vegan. But its for health reasons, as in having read what dairy does to me...etc.

Animals in the food chain are simply bred to be eaten. Yes, it can seem horrific to humans but animals simply don't think like we do. And no I can't *prove* that..my point is that the only good *mental reason* imho for being veggie is that you don't like the idea of benefitting, foodwise, from cruel farming practices.

But they have every right to be eaten - we're capable enough to breed them to eat, so whats wrong with that..everything lives and dies. What would they be doing if they weren't being eaten...leading a life of eating grass and reproducing, that'd be about it lol.

Just trying to make you feel better, I guess.

Hmm.... I won't get into it with you, Emily. So long as you are a vegan, you are way purer than I am! Let's just agree to disagree.

I have to agree with Emily, I really dont do it for the animals, I do it because of what the animals do to me.