Hi everyone!

I'm glad to be here. I'm new to the magic of forums, and I'm pretty sure I've found one for every endeavor I've found myself in in the last year or so, so here I am. The final countdown. I was cliché enough to start my journey for the umpteenth time on New Years, and my you guessed it.. Resolution. I'm gonna get healthy this year. That's where you lovely folks come in.

I have fit friends, I have heavy friends, and I have everyone in between, but it seems like nobody's in the same page as me. My closest fit friend thinks I should automatically have the diligence and self discipline that she does, and that's just not how things go. We all know that. My friends on the heavy side just plain don't want to exercise, or eat well, and the two or three friends that ARE into it and are supportive, live inconveniently far away. Like 1.5+ hour drive.

So here I am. To make matters even MORE complex. I was raised on meat and potatoes, by an EXTREMELY redneck family. Don't get me wrong. I'm very proud of who I am and where I come from, but the sticks of Pennsylvania isn't the friendliest Most embracing place for someone who is striving for as near to a vegetarian diet as realistically possible!

So here we go. Help me out folks, anyone out there with these complexities? I'm three days strong on my veg. eating, and my slow implementation of new types of exercises is going as planned (three days isn't much to gauge things on... Lol)

Thanks for existing! Glad I found this site!

Hi whollyhick! I can relate to being raised on meat and potatoes, although not in a redneck area of PA, lol! And that type of diet is hard to break! You end up with a love of hearty, comfort foods, and you turn to them for every kind of emotion and occasion. You are vegetarian, I am low-carb. You give up the meat, I'll give up the potatoes, lol, and somehow we will get to where we want to be! You will find lots of support here. Everyone is very encouraging. Good luck! You can do this!

Welcome! Whoo hoo, 3 days strong, WAY TO GO! In my opinion, the first few days are so hard, and you're doing great! Don't stop now!

I'm a vegan living in the south, I really understand your challenges. Where I live, I personally know zero vegans, or even vegetarians (including my husband, who has a meat-a-palooza style of eating). My closest vegan friend is several states away. So I'm right there with you, sister.

But nevermind all that, you can STILL do this! If I can, YOU can!

This is going to be YOUR year! You don't mention your age, but if you happen in be in your 40s, the 40-somethings forum has great folks in it!

And really, everywhere on the site has great people, so my biggest piece of advice to you right now is to JUMP IN immediately. Don't hold back, start chatting on the threads right away, and you'll quickly find new friends who will stick with you through this process!

Welcome!! I can also relate to your "meat and potatoes" upbringing; I'm from a very Italian family (re: off the boat) and when I decided to go Paleo/Primal I thought they'd skin me alive. The idea of no pasta, bread, olive oils... you get the idea. But eventually, they understood and I bet your family will too! I agree with what Mrs Snark said, this is your year! We're all in this together so rock on!

A balanced diet is the best one - when you do the vegetarian and even more so the vegan thing - I swear 1/2 the people at my work are one or the other... you have to be very careful with what you eat - amino acids are the building blocks..... of pretty much everything - when you change your diet and cut out all meat/animal products - you loose a lot of the AA that the human body can't produce on it's own - if you eat an egg here and there - it won't hurt you - and a little red meat every once in a great while won't hurt either - balance everything out - if being strictly on vegetables/fruits is something you really want to do - then make sure you talk to a dr. and do your research first.
You seem like you really want to make a change - that is what we are all here for - I wish you the best of luck!!!!!!!

AWH you guys are all really great! I'm so glad I came here! to answer a few questions:

I'm 22
I'm now officially 4 days strong! (VERY little lactose e.g. Cheese on my salads and one bowl of shrimp chowder soup, because a friend and I went out to eat and catch up. BUT my initial goal was very low carb, relatively raw, and allowing myself dairy, fish, and eggs, of which I've included every slip-up in the past 4 days! Woohoo! ) I'm so proud of how my self control has done! My husband loves pot pies and eggos and pizza hot pockets, all of which I've SMELLED in the last four days, and still diligently prepared my salads and tofu curries! (I love them! Remind me to make up the recipe!) but seriously, talk about ****. I love those things too! And I stooped to buying veggie dogs, because I used to be a hotdog-a-holic! (Anybody out there know Sheetz?!) haha but, I'm working on it folks! Slowly but surely, I'll get there. Unfortunately I've also recently realized my goal for overall weight loss should be higher, probably. But hey, we'll see!

Thanks for the kind words of encouragement! Tomorrow nights supper:eggplant Parmesan! All recipes welcome!