Help Change a Carnivore

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Hey guys! I've been considering converting to a vegan diet for quite a few months but don't know where to start..

I've seen what animals go through in slaughter houses and can't take part in supporting that industry any longer. I used to LOVE fried eggs and bacon for breakfast.. and now the thought of them makes me sick to where I can no longer eat them.

Enough rambling, here is what I am striving for guys: Vegan based diet (duh), organic foods if possible, and I am open to eating insects and insect products seeing as I cannot live without honey and they are very nutritional for their size, I will be trying to put on muscle mass so high proteins are a must, and finally I would like to keep any soy products out (if this is not possible then disregard it)

So my dilemma is not knowing where to start.. I need help with figuring out what to eat and not to eat and so on.

I appreciate any help and advice you guys send my way, thanks!
 
Welcome to the forum. Being vegan is easy: if you remove meat, eggs, dairy, honey from your diet what do you remain with ? Potatoes, beans, grains, vegetables, fruits to name a few :)

For putting on muscle, there is a youtube channel that I watch sometimes, the owner is a bodybuilder and shares what he eats in a day. I thought that it might give you some ideas to start:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vegan+gains+eat+in+a+day

Note that the owner is a bit ... off - so you may want to stick with the 'what I eat in a day' videos.

There are many vegan bodybuilders out there that have videos on youtube or articles online, so get searchin :cool:

Gab
 
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Hello and welcome :)

Well I'm female, and I'm not trying to gain a ton of muscle, but I am aware of another male vegan bodybuilder on YouTube called Brian Turner aka Humerus Fitness. He is not quite as unpredictable/volatile as Vegan Gains (who is known for being controversial). However, I do defend Vegan Gains because he fills a gap in vegan activism. I support ALL active vegans online; each of us has something unique to bring. There's no right or wrong way of going about it because you never know what a person will respond to. So @gab is absolutely right to suggest him, whether or not he's a bit weird. ;)

Here's Brian Turner's channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/HumerusFitness/videos

Vegans include insects and insect by-products as 'animal', so we don't include them in a vegan diet. Eating insects would not even be considered vegetarian - I suppose it's a kind of flexitarianism? But it doesn't sound like you've quite absorbed the vegan message fully (yet), and that's OK (I took several years to transition). Vegans don't tend to say that 'cannot live' without animal products, and we don't tend to see animals as nutritional densities.

You could always check out the Vegan Society website online. This website is also very useful.

If you'd like a high protein diet without soy you should definitely turn to nuts and pulses. Soy-free recipe links:
https://veganlifestyleassoc.com/recipes/?q=0 (select soy-free filter)
http://www.veganrecipeclub.org.uk/allergy-information/soya-free
https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/recipes/soya-free

Good luck! As @gab says, there's a lot out there to find!
 
Hi MyndTryX,

How are you getting on with the vegan lifestyle ?

Gab
 
Hi MyndTryX,
It's good that you are considering this new lifestyle and welcome to the forum.
In its most absolutely simple form, a vegan diet can simply be to take out meat and diary and adds legumes, like beans, lentils, and soy and peas.

In fact, just by that one simple step, you will probably already have enough protein for basic health needs, since the foods mentioned above have almost as much protein as most meat and dairy, and probably most people get an excess of protein anyway, according to some experts. Note that eating legumes is advisable not only for total protein intake, but also to get all the essential amino acid components of proteins (especially for lysine which is in lower amounts in other plant foods).

According to EPIC and AHS studies, (source: http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/nutrientintakes) meat eaters get around 15-17% of their total food as protein, compared to 13-14% for vegans on average. It is not a huge difference. 13-14% is considered healthy.

Because vegan foods contain a higher fibre portion, some of which is not digested, not all proteins are absorbed in plant foods. Only about 80% of the protein eaten in legumes is absorbed. In meat it can more like 90%+. So factor this in, but it's a very small factor though.

Most foods have quite a bit of protein in them, surprisingly enough. The one main food group that doesn't have much is fruit, so avoid eating a very large amount of fruit if you want to get extra protein. Still a good idea to eat a small amount for a healthy balanced diet.

I eat broccoli, partly because it has above average protein for a vegetable.

is a good laugh and has more info about plant sources of protein in the second half of the video.
 
You seem to be open minded on soy. Are you trying to avoid it because someone told you something bad about it, or you heard of a health scare. I looked into it, and I decided the soy scares were overblown. It is actually a very healthy food with many benefits, such as complete proteins. I recommend you do a bit of extra research googling articles online, and make your own mind up.

That being said, soy is not essential on a vegan diet, it just makes it easier.If you are eating plenty of soy, it's easier to go vegan with less nutrition research since soy is good in so many ways. However, if you really want to avoid soy, you can, as long as you eat some other legumes such as peas, beas, lentils and chick peas along with the other normal foods on a healthy balanced diet.
 
My advice is to:

T a k e I t S l o w

Start by going vegetarian first. Going full-vegan is possible but after the initial period a lot of people find it very hard to sustain and relapse.

Going vegetarian is the first step to let your body and mind adapt. Personally I would not incorporate a lot of soy, but thats just me.

Slowly start to adopt plant based high protein foods into your diet... Acquire a taste for things like lentils, beans, chickpeas etc.

Once you are secure in that, then start to eliminate eggs and dairy. Even by going vegetarian you are saving SO MUCH suffering. Keep that close to your conscious