Any vegetarians following South Beach? How are you doing? I'm thinking of going veg (eggs and dairy). Anyone out there?

hi there

i know of myself and tomandkara. my phase1 was very succesful (14lbs) and my P2 is going pretty well too. i started Dec 2nd and as of today i'm down 21lbs. i do eat fish in small amounts, tuna and tilapia mostly. the biggest think i learned to look out for (thanks kara!) was being careful with the meat replacers. many of the items i regularly eat are made with wheat gluten, flour and have HFCS. i had to read labels slowly and pay attention.

SBD has been just what i needed to break some bad habits i think plague vegetarians. we eat lots of rice and pasta and bread and i was starting to become a little too unbalanced. now with my 4+ cups of veggies a day and the whole grain pasta as a small side only (no rice yet) i'm still getting great results.

for whatever reason you're thinking of going veg, it's easier than ever. i've been veg for 12years and every year there are more meat alternatives and protein sources and they're getting very common, even in small town grocery stores. (im lucky, in Austin we have a Whole Foods mecca and i've tried so many new things from there i don't think i'll ever get bored)

I've been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 18 years. Except for the Phase 1 deal, I've basically been eating Beachish for most of that time. There are some great vegetarian recipes up in the stickies, and then I do use some of the meat replacements also. It's not hard to follow South Beach on a vegetarian diet.

Kara

I've been vegetarian most of the last 34 years. I had no trouble with P1. I ate lots of hummous with raw veggies, nuts, beans, cheese, tofu and tempeh, eggs, plain greek yogurt with sliced almonds, and appropriate meat substitutes. My partner is vegetarian and diabetic, so I've been making choices based on carbs and content for years. That definitely made it easier! I also found some jerky type products I liked for quick protein fixes.

I'm not sure how others feel about this, but it worked for me. I ate quite a bit of homemade seitan. I know gluten is derived from wheat but it is all protein and making my own ensured that it stayed SB friendly. Obviously YMMV and everyone has their own opinion of whether or not this is really P1 friendly. It worked well for me. My cravings have been reduced far more than I expected.

There are some really good recipes in the files. Not sure what others think of this link, but I found it helpful getting started: http://www.south-beach-diet-101.com/...egetarian.html.

Thanks for posting that link, Cyndi! It has some terrific resources. Always nice to have new ideas.

Kara