Vegan newbie

[O'Neil Joseph]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum, here looking for tricks and tips on how to successfully transition to a vegan lifestyle. I have tried this lifestyle to lose weight in the past and did see some immediate benefits. I lost weight quicker than expected and noticed an improvement in my bowel movements. During this period my diet consisted mainly of fruit which i think to be the cause of frequent hunger that let to me slipping back to my previous diet of emotionally satisfying comfort foods.

I want to go vegan and am open to suggestions on how to live a vegan lifestyle while feeling completely satisfied. The following are a few tips i found online that i plan to use.

1. Drink more water
2. Eat rice and beans, potatoes, yams, bananas etc.
3. Snack on nuts, raisins, dried fruit, dates, to curb cravings.

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me.

 

[amberfunk]

I highly suggest getting some vegan cook books from your library or even buying one. My favorite by far is "mastering the art of vegan cooking". They did all of their recipes pretty cheaply if money is an issue for you. Some ingredients are most expensive to buy at first but they last a long time such as nutritional yeast which has b vitamins in it which are essential.

I've also found it helpful to veganize some recipes that I had previously loved to cook so that I can still have comfort food and stick to my new diet. I've made stroganoff which was amazing. Finding vegan substitutes for non vegan ingredients is way easier now than it was 9 years ago when I first tried to go vegan. My downfall has always been cheese and red meat. I don't care too much for meat anymore and when I do I just buy gardein products which are great. I get daiya products for cheese and they are not too bad.

 

[SD Joe]

I wouldn't recommend staying on a mainly fruit diet since they have a lot of natural sugars. Treat fruit as you would desert and eat mostly veggies, rices, beans, and nuts. I'm going on 2 months myself and have lost 40 pounds and I feel great. My doctor also told me to keep up what im doing since my blood work came back all in normal ranges. No more high blood pressure, heart burn, and the always tired feeling i use to have before.

As amberfunk said get nutritional yeast for the B vitamins.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

10-20% and maybe 30% of your diet being fruit is OK but not 40-50% since that will be a very low protein diet and not allow enough space in the diet to try many other things.

Try more rice, bread and pasta things like this, for filling foods as well as some legumes, beans and/or soy and/or lentils.

Also nuts are filling. Nuts and avocadoes are two of the few vegan foods with a high amount of healthy fat and the body does need fat.

Also, a healthy vegan diet doesn't have to completely exclude things like biscuits, cakes, chocolate and crisps. If you are able to eat them in small quantities and can do that without binging, then a small amount of such products can help the diet seem fun. Of course, some of there are not vegan.