Moving Into a Vegetarian Lifestyle

Starting a vegetarian eating lifestyle can mean making some drastic changes in your life and diet.  You can expect to have a period of adjustment that might be a bit confusing at times. But successfully converting to a vegetarian lifestyle will be well worth the effort.  Use these tips to help make the transition easier to living the vegetarian lifestyle.

Many people fear becoming a vegetarian and think that they need to make many different lifestyle choices in order to meet their daily values of protein. Few realize that it is actually quite easy to get all of the protein that your body needs through eating plants and vegetables. As long as your diet contains grains, beans, vegetables, and nuts, you will easily meet the body’s protein needs without having to supplement your diet.

One thing that you can do that will make it easier for you to eat vegetarian is to do an inventory of the foods that are already in your diet. Odds are, you already enjoy some dishes that are based in vegetarian cuisine. Other dishes that you enjoy may be able to be turned into a vegetarian dish with a minimum of difficulty. For instance, if you enjoy spaghetti with meatballs, making the switch to spaghetti with marinara sauce and chunky vegetables could be a quick alternative.

Another thing to do in order to keep your diet varied and fresh is to visit a natural foods store. While grocery stores these days tend to have sections that cater to vegetarians, going to a natural foods store can be immensely helpful when it comes to finding vegetarian fare. You will be able to find many different types of prepared vegetarian meals at these types of stores that you might not have known about otherwise, so be sure to make a visit.

Also, to ease through the transition, you could consider trying some of the meat alternatives for a little while.  These soy-based products are not what you want to eat for a long period of time.  However, tofu can be made into imitation hot dogs and hamburgers, which is an option that you may want to consider.  Additionally, a product known as Quorn is a protein-rich meat alternative that many vegetarians find helpful when it comes to replacing meat in their dishes.

It is better to pick up some of the many vegetarian cookbooks as this can really help you to keep your diet varied without having to resort to dishes with meat in them.

While transitioning to becoming a vegetarian can have it’s difficult aspects, the hardest part is definitely the transitional phase.  Once you get used to the vegetarian lifestyle and you find dishes that are suitable to your palette, it will be much easier to remain a vegetarian in the future.  And the effort will definitely be worth it.  From being vegetarian, you can move to becoming vegan and eventually start eating more raw foods.  You will find this to be helpful to your health, to the welfare of animals, and to the state of the environment, so make the right decision today!