Hello all need help to become vegan

400lbman

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  1. Vegan newbie
hey yall im introducing myself the 400lbman yes thats my weight. a little much i know hence why i am trying to become vegan. need help designing a meal plan and shopping lis have never tried a plant baised diet and to be honest to get to my size i mostly ate alot 0f meat. to help anyone who responds i mostly like stews and soups. not a huge fan of raw uncooked veggies and greens so i know that will complicate things any responses or messages would be greatly appreciated i tried to google this stuff im asking but that **** mostly lead to sites that wanted my money. and i didnt find to helpful im also jogging and working out i know just changing my diet isnt enough. again any thing would help literally my first time trying this im going compeletly vegan because i know me any meats or milk and ill fall off the diet
 
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Hi, welcome to the forum:)

It's great that your so determined and ambitious!

First off, if you ever feel lost or unsure, that's completely normal, it's not always easy to get inspiration, especially when you go from meat-eating to instant vegan.
Now, uncooked veggies and greens aren't exactly my favorite either (unless well seasoned!) but if you combine them right, you may (grow to) like them. Also, you can train yourself to like some things that you didn't like before, so I wouldn't lay off all of them per se.

Make sure to include lots of soy, cashew, rice and beans in your diet (maybe combine in poke bowls?) as those help build up muscles. Many people think that eating veggies and fruit only is the best way to lose weight fast, but due to the high sugar content and imbalance of such a diet, you might wind up gaining even more weight if you consistently eat fruits and raw vegetables only. Therefore: a little bit of everything
Personally, if I don't like the taste of anything (raw or cooked), I just add a little bit of chili and/or soy sauce to make it tastier. Oh and I usually use loooots of garlic: makes everything taste delicious and is super healthy (immune system booster)!
Try to keep it as balanced as possible, and avoid too many carbohydrates (pasta etc), plant-fats are actually very good if you want to lose weight, so don't avoid food based on their fat content only (avocado, walnuts, almonds etc.)

Good luck:)
 
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Language not only allows us to express ourselves but it also helps with our thought processes. Perhaps on Day One of your vegan journey, you don't need a nitpicking, lecture on semantics. IMHO that is exactly when it's needed. Unless your main goal is "striving to reduce animal exploitation" you are following a vegan lifestyle. However, that does not make you unwelcome here. And a lot of us here are pretty well informed on plant-based nutrition. Heck, that's all any of us eats!

I think the term you should start using and thinking with is "whole food plant-based". It's a diet. Not a lifestyle. Its main objective is not animal rights but personal health. It can include small amounts of animal products. It does exclude oil, salt, and sugar. (Vegans do not include any animal products and the vegan diet does not necessarily exclude oil, salt, and sugar.)
However, the vegan "diet" is compatible with the WFPB diet. And in fact, many vegans have adopted it. Lots of the forum members identify as WFPB. BTW, neither the vegan lifestyle or the WFPB diet is "weight loss diets". However, both can be modified to be weight loss diets simply by counting calories and creating a calorie deficit. The good news for you is that the WFPB diet can not only be easily modified to create weight loss but a lot of information is out there on how to do just that.

There is a ton of free information on the WFPB diet. I'm a reader and my first instinct is to hit the library. If you use a keyword search for "whole food plant-based" or just "plant-based", you will get lots of good reading suggestions. Most of them will be from the Forks Over Knives people. If you just read the FOK books you'll end up with a full understanding of the WFPB diet.

The thing is that some authors have "re-packaged" the WFPB diet in order to sell their books. And their books don't include the words plant-based or vegan. Probably the two most popular WFPB books fall into this category. They are Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live, and Dr. Gregar's How Not To Die. I've read them both and the FOK books. And it really doesn't matter which one you read. Fundamentally they are about the same.

Including all the FOK books and its spin-offs, there is no shortage of good info. I would say that an argument could be made that there is too much info. but I would counter that argument with that you could just about pick any of these books at random and start there and you could implement a WFPB diet successfully. In fact, just one book may be all you need to read.

According to Fuhrman, you don't start your EatToLive diet until you have finished the book. I'm not sure any of the other authors make that demand. but it's not bad advice. However one of the main enemies of any dieter is procrastination and this requirement may just lead to further procrastination. As an alternative, you could just look up someone else's meal plan and follow that. I think all the WFPB diet books include meal plans. There are also some good meal plans online.
Here is one.

And if your personality is one that is more comfortable with the How-Tos than the Why's, then just follow a meal plan like an instruction book.

There is also a lot of good YouTube videos on this subject. While I was looking for one to recommend I discovered this page in my favorites. this could be THE place to start your journey.

https://www.forksoverknives.com/pla...rs-guide-starting-plant-based-diet/#gs.11bzzw

Good luck. and let us know how it goes.
 
thanks for the tip will keep in mind while browsing i saw a thing might lean have on potattos for the first week or two. that and i lean twords a roman leginare diet aka lentals and barley mostly having trouble coming up with meal ideas so am fixing to rid the recipe section see alot about the struggle of keeping the diet ballanced still any one elaborate on that
 
thanks for the tip will keep in mind while browsing i saw a thing might lean have on potattos for the first week or two. that and i lean twords a roman leginare diet aka lentals and barley mostly having trouble coming up with meal ideas so am fixing to rid the recipe section see alot about the struggle of keeping the diet ballanced still any one elaborate on that


Check out that last link I gave you.
 
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Welcome to the forum! Recognition that a big change is needed is a big step, and committing and executing that change is even bigger.

Soups and stews are perfectly fine! Take those veggies you don't like raw and cook them down. Easier to eat, still delicious, and spiced how you want them. Nothing wrong with that at all!

Move as often as you can! Diet and exercise combined do wonders. Muscle burns more calories, so use opportunities to build it and use them when you can.

Good luck on your journey, and I do hope you find success!
 
I agree with reading the books How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Greger and Eat To Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. And my favorite cookbook is The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out by Angela Liddon.
 
Hello and welcome! I know everyone is recommending WFPB to you, and that is definitely best if you have health issues like obesity, but just know that if you like stews and soups, throwing some seitan chunks into that soup will "beef" it up without the meat! Vegan gravies are also easy.

You can also use the cheap silken tofu to thicken soups and make them creamy. So say you're making a lentil curry or a straight up veggie soup, stirring in the tofu while it's nice and hot will add texture, flavor and protein.

I love Pinterest. I loved it even more when I very first went vegan. If you enjoy certain types of meals, you'll be able to search for what you want to eat. Start an account if you don't have one it's free. Just start with vegan recipes.

Or vegan stew is what I put in for this: https://www.pinterest.com/search/pi...erm_meta[]=Vegan|typed&term_meta[]=stew|typed
 
I :heart: It Doesn't Taste Like Chicken. Not all the recipes are good if you are trying to lose weight but gaah so tasty.
 
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Reactions: Lou
Vegan dishes are also delicious, if you can make them properly. Search videos, take recipes from the vegetarian. You will be pure vegan after few days. Eating vegan dishes has lots of benefits. You will see it later.
 
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Reactions: Emma JC and Lou
going on the end of day 3 so far i find im not craving meat and greasy foods as much as i expected. find i enjoy the vegtible lentil stew with ht sauce next back i will make with some peppers. thanks for all the tips and pointers yall.
 
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Reactions: Emma JC
Hello,

I would suggest joining Pinterest, it is an awesome resource for finding vegan recipes. You just have to type in "vegan soups" or "quick vegan meals" and you get a bottomless scroll of recipes.

Here are some to help get you started though: Protein-Packed Crockpot Chili, Vegan Beef Barley Soup, Beefless Stew, Pot Pie soup, and some more soup recipes here.

Also, remember to drink LOTS of water! It'll help detox your body, boost your metabolism, and help suppress your appetite.

Hope this helps :)!
 
Some useful links

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Hi man and congratulations for having the guts to take this step and ask for help. This post is from one month ago-are you still motivated and things are going good? If yes then also feel free to contact me and I can help you.