Hello,
I am new to 3FC and figured that the best strategy is to look for a group that said veggie. So here I am. I have been a vegetarian for many years, but I am a complete novice to diet/weight loss stuff (although I should have started long ago before it became a problem). I joined WW last week adn it seems to be going pretty well, but I really hate their message boards. So I cheked out 3FC and it looked pretty good.

I am very short and rather spherical. I am also a cooking fanatic and and buy organic. I am not a vegan and probably never will be due to my deep and abiding passion for dairy products.

At any rate, thought I would drop in and say hi. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

hi seecat! Your post hit home with Me. I am a vegetarian as well, and have always LOVED dairy products....specifically, CHEESE!!...any kind of cheese, smoked gouda, baby swiss, cheddar, muenster(i always called it monster cheese), you name it, i love it. I could literally live on cheese, and actually have, on evenings when I didnt want to cook. But the problem was that even though i am vegetarian, I was still having a slight weight issue. Id always joke around at work and say "If I didnt love cheese so much, i'd be really thin", Well,I tried to cut back on the cheese, You know, have a brick of it in the fridge and only have a couple of slices for snacks in the evening....that went over great.....just like a lead balloon. I lived that delusion several times. Finally, when the weight just kept coming on, and i really took inventory of my limitations, i decided, right then and there, i will treat this like an addiction, because for all intents and purposes, thats EXACTLY what it is for Me, and addiction. Cheese for me is like alcohol to an alcoholic. i cant just have a little and then stop.So....i made a really difficult decision to not bring bricks of snack-type cheese into my home anymore, and you know what?? i have lost 28 pounds. that isnt the only thing that ive changed, but ill tell you, it is one of the big changes. it was really difficult at first, especially when grocery shopping, but i guess i did a desensitization thing on myself.I do not miss it one bit anymore, i dont even think about it.i am certainly not saying everyone should go out there and do that, but i bet you can find a way that works for you.you already have the vegetarian thing down, AND you have culinary talent, something i do not share, although i try. i have a cute apron anyway.and this site has some great things.tons of support, and i like the journals. You can keep track of your highs and lows, and refer back to them from time to time.the recipes are great too.I wish you the very best of luck seecat!

Welcome SeeCat!

There are a fair number of veggies here on 3fc. You will fit right in.

Yes, everyone I know who would think about veganism, but hasn't done it, says cheese is the big factor. Do you guys know the movie "Supersize Me?" In that movie, there's a doctor who says cheese can be addicting. There's a chemical in it called ceisomorphine (SP?). As the name implies, it has the neurological effect of a drug like morphine. So cheese can be addicting! Jjules has the right idea.

Culinary talent, eh? You could try cooking Thai and Indian. That would cut your cheese intake.

Good luck!

Thanks for the welcome!

Amazingly enough my main dairy consumption comes not from cheese but from milk and an innate distrust of butter substitutes. Must be a wisconsin thing.

I loved "Super Size Me." Once again made me glad to be a veggie. Also made me glad that I do not like deep fried foods.

I love cooking Indian food. Thai I tend to leave to others, but a firend of mine tried to teach me and I have a comple items that appear in my food rotation. I also love Ethopian and Nepali. Mostly I cook fusion meals which means that basically I mix and match and make things up.

Yes, I cook fusion meals, too. And I'm likewise originally from WI. My dad was telling me that back in his day, WI made it illegal to dye oleo yellow. Apparently Wisconsinites were afraid that oleo would compete w/ WI butter.

Butter substitutes are kind of iffy for baking. But I get along without butter. Mainly, I use soy margarine.

Well, I must have been doing soemthing right this past week. I had my first weigh in and I lost some weight, which is excellent. I suppose it comes from actually keeping track of what I was eating, which is not my strong suit.

Yes, Aquareggie, you are correct that it was illegal to have oleo match butter. Kind of a dumb law, but just one of many dumb laws that I have encountered. This week I did not use any butter, but then again I did not do any serious baking. I think I will probably avoid baking anything but bread until I am certain that my will power can stand it.

HA! it is addictive?? im not nuts?? thats a great thing to hear. Congrats on your loss seecat! i havent seen supersize me yet. is it about americas love for fast food?

I saw the movie several months ago and while it was somewhat entertaining I thought it was pretty far fetched. I wonder what would've happened had he exercised during his "program"?

Seecat -- congrats on your loss.

Jjules -- Supersize Me is about America's love of fast food. It's also about the quality of the food. Love2live is right that it is farfetched -- the word I would use is "propaganda." But it does show some of the evils of the American food industry. My dad, who is by no means liberal, thought schools should show the movie.

I agree about "Super Size Me". Although of course no one would eat fast food all the time in real life, it does a good job of presenting the issues and how manipulative the fast food industry is, especially for children. HAve you read "Fast Food Nation"?

Aqua-"propaganda." -LOL

You all make some interesting observations-but you know what I realized from the film if anything? Parents really need to be taking more of an active role in their kids lives.

It's pathetic that there isn't a greater emphasis on exercise and most of all about moderation. Let's face it-eating a burger and fries now and then is not the problem for these kids-it's that they are eating things in total excess. I don't think the teachers and schools should have to do this when it should the parents responsibility.

Yes, Seecat, I've read Fast Food Nation. That's my main source for my food industry conspiracy theories. And it's sad about hooking kids on junk food.

Love2live, doesn't it seem different these days with respect to kids and food? When I was a young girl (cranky old lady voice), a candybar was a treat maybe twice a week. We got a small homecooked dessert after dinner. And a normal sized portion for meals.

Now, it seems like people take their kids out for dinner constantly. And if kids eat at home, it's either microwaved salt and fat, or salt and fat from a box. Plus a gallon of soda.

great insight Aqua-I agree with you about parents and the times for that matter. I like you was given these types of foods as a treat-and I see all the time when parents either take their kids out to eat several days a week (like 4-5) or just buy them certain types of foods to appease them.

The key thing to remember is that children learn through example. And as you know from the saying, "like mother, like daughter"-I think this (as for many things) comes back to the whole notion of accountability.

I am total there with you on the occasional treats versus today's constant stream of junk food. We never had soda at home and did not eat fast food at all. Candy bars were something that we got only very rarely. Today there are children that eat french fries every day. I wonder why. I think everyone learns in school what good nutrition is supposed to be, but I do not know if it sinks in. And children really do not get much choice about what to eat when they are younger and by the time they can make those decisions the habits are already formed. On eof the consequences is that there are children who are healthy weights but are in horrible health because of the junk that they eat.

Yeah, no kidding. It's so awful when parents let their kids eat junk, but then it's "OK" so long as the kids aren't heavy. What kind of message does that send? That (a) junk food is good, and (b) the only important thing about eating is that you stay THIN.

It should be the other way around.