Hi there! Just wanted to say hello! I am 50 years old and need to lose weight in order to maintain my mobility. I can feel myself stiffening up. My weight has crept up and up for most of my life with very few successful attempts at dieting (by successful I mean managing to stick it out for more than 2 days!). I have been veggie for nearly 20 years.

My highest ever weight was 224 lbs. I lost 6 stone very fast about 18 months ago and then put four of them back on again I started using Dietpower about 5 weeks ago and have lost around 16 pounds -so I am pleased. My current weight is 178.8 lbs. I have decided to slow down my rate of loss now because I am scared of getting back into the binge eating pattern. My short term goal is to be "overweight" by the end of August.

I look forward to reading everyone's posts and hope that I can offer my support.

Welcome Pufffin!

Hi Puffin :

Welcome!!

thought i'd post a lil note and hello under a very convenient, already there hi thread. hi puffin! hi gang!

i posted a little on this site last year, but slacked off due to finishing up my degree and moving 1200 miles across the country. i'm a bit more settled now and wanted to get back in to the swing o'things and remembered this dear, dear, sight. good news is i see from my old signature i haven't gained any weight since i last posted, though i haven't lost any either. slow and steady wins the race, eh? hope y'all don't mind me joining the conversation. i love this veg forum as there are some awesome recipes, factoids, threads and whatnot. e.g. The Uncheese Cookbook and a delectable cabbage soup recipe i made this week are two examples (thanks fatchickbegone and photochick).

i've been a strict vegetarian for a little over a year and am about to make the transition to vegan, much easier now that i live in a place that does not have animal lard in everything sold and has alternatives to dairy! i mean, our supermarket was called pigglywiggly...hello trader joe's!. i've been scouring threads, following all the wonderful links and such and wanted to say thanks. so. thanks! like many who post on here, i'm looking for a good book/website on veganism. not one that tells me why it rocks or why i should be one, i know that. and not one that tells me the nutritional benefits, i know those too. i'm looking for a complete ins and outs guide that tells you all the things that have animal products in them that the average jane doesn't know about. e.g. "casein"- this is new for me, i had honestly never heard of it before until today. what is it? what do i find it in? or whey? what all products do i find this in? know what i mean? my last trip to the store i spent a severe amount of time reading the label of everything i normally buy just to see what i am going to kick out here in a couple of days. lookin for a handy shopping guide.

i have a tendency to be a little wordy and so i'll stop before this gets outta hand, but do have a one or two more questions like, when you transitioned did ya just throw out every pair of shoe you own even if they have a good two years left in em or what? i'm poor and my only heavy coat is wool - again do ya toss it?


viva la revolution, ollie

When I became a vegan I kept my leather shoes and I will be wearing them until they give out. I didn't see how it would make things better to toss them in the trash. Same with my leather watchband. I had some leather bracelets. I gave those to my non-vegan sister because she'd admired them in the past.

I think this is an issue that everybody makes their own decision on--some vegans don't feel comfortable wearing the leather anymore. For me, I know my two pairs of leather shoes have years and years of wear left in them. I just couldn't justify putting them in a landfill (and I know once a leather shoe molds to your foot it doesn't have much resale value to another person, so I couldn't see giving it to Goodwill)--it doesn't change the fact that I bought them in the first place.

And I forgot to answer your other questions!

Vegan Freak, by Bob and Jenna Torres, is a good introduction to the "whys" of veganism, if a little basic. I've never read a book by Erik Marcus (he runs vegan.com), but I've heard they're good as well.

"Animal Ingredients A to Z" (available many places online, including Food Fight's online store) is supposed to be a great printed reference about animal products. My (vegan) sister has it and loves it. My copy of "The Garden of Vegan," a cookbook by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer, has a list of common animal ingredients in the back.

Learning how to read labels is definitely one of the tougher parts of transitioning to veganism, but it gets so much easier with time! Good luck!

thanks for your response, betsy. and i think you're right. i think it's whatever i am comfortable with and at this moment can afford. i.e. can't afford new shoes, but don't mind digging some leather purses that were gifts from gramma out of the closet to take to goodwill.

and thanks for the book suggestions. "animal ingredients a to z" is exactly what i am looking for. so far, the links i am finding to the list online are outdated. from my search a few veg boards led me to the peta's online list of animal ingredients which seems to be pretty comparable to the one you suggested. so i am off to read. lots of info to process. cheers.

Ollie - Welcome! Betsy responded exactly like I'd say. I do still have one pair of leather shoes (very glad I didn't have many to begin with!) that I need to replace but they're nice ones I have to wear to work and dont' have the $$$ to replace right now. I do really recommend Vegan Freak, it's a mostly fun read and helps you deal with the changes you'll make.
I also have many cleaning products, health/beauty items/makeup that I'm slowly replacing also. I wasn't about to toss out everything at once but as I run out I buy items that I know do not animal test and don't contain animal products. Slow and steady wins the race!
I still struggle at times with the labels myself and need to get the animal ingredients A to Z! Though instead I've just been eating more whole foods that I don't have to guess at so maybe not!

thanks for the welcome. enjoy the blog which you insist i read by the way. so in my search for animal ingredients i came upon peta's site and an older edition of the list betsy suggested. both are below for viewing pleasure (if this link thang works, i forgot if there is a trick to posting a link, we'll see). i agree with the whole foods and as i have found a super produce market i'll be right there with you (and probably mimicking some of your recipes) but i like to know what i am doing. these lists are pretty extensive and go to show how little i know about what all is derived from animals. some boards i have looked at dispute some entries on these lists like beta carotene and urea. it's all a little dizzying. if anyone has any 2 cents to throw in on these lists, it would be appreciated.
peta:

http://www.caringconsumer.com/resour...ients_list.asp

animal ing. a to z

http://www.spunk.org/texts/food/sp001610.txt

hello and welcome ollie

I also recommend Vegan Freak, it's a pretty light fun read and has lots of practical advice. I also recommend Becoming Vegan by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, it gives you a lot of solid nutritional information.

I still have a couple pairs of leather shoes and a wool coat, I'm getting to feel less comfortable wearing them so I think I may try to find ways of getting rid of those soon. I think I've accumulated enough new shoes to do that, but I'll need to buy a new winter coat.

As far as animal ingredients in processed foods, the big ones to look out for are whey, casein, lactose, albumin, and gelatin. Generally I try to stick to less processed, more whole foods. If a product has a long list of ingredients that I am not able to identify or pronounce, I usually don't buy it.

thanks shananagins! albumin-mmmmm-i've learned something new today and it's not even noon. cute dog btw.

i'm in store for my first "winter" and getting rid of a coat is not in my immediate future.

as far as food, i'm in to whole foods meself. really my stumbling block to veganism thus far has always been cheese, but i can no longer justify my love for cheese. also, i'm married and hubby did really well with my vegetarianism. i allowed no meat in the house and he just ate it at restaurants, but i'm not to sure if i can do the same with dairy, so still deciphering how that's all gona work.

weird how we can justify things to ourselves...like cheese...or fish...

*anecdote*

hubby and i were sitting on the couch talking about all this jazz and he says he is thinking about giving up chicken and beef, but will continue to eat fish. i ask why and he replies, "it's less vulgar." okay, we're having this conversation in front of our aquarium and so i jump up and point to our jewel cichlid, "you tell mephestopheles that eating fish is less vulgar!"

ha funny. Welcome! I've actually read very few books on reasons to give up animal products other than the health reasons. I think the China study and Eat to Live are awesome but I've looked up stuff as far as ingredients goes.

Ok get this though, I had a bottle of stevia. Stevia is strong stuff so they generally cut it with fiber (or something else). I never read the bottle and I bought the bottle before giving up animal products. My husband said he looked at it the other day and they cut stevia with.... LACTOSE! Ugh. I never even looked although I wouldn't have had a problem when I bought it but I continued using it without checking.

Ollie I use both of those lists and they seem to be pretty good for items I've looked up.

Nellie - I plan on buying stevia for the first time this weekend but the packet type for my coffee. A little scared of what some people have called the "bitter taste"