A New Lifestyle, With Some Help.

[SingingCanyon]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place to post this, but I'll try anyways.

I have had this on my mind for a while now and I feel like this is the time to act on it.
For most of my like I have been a meat-eater. But lately, ever since I got into Wicca, I have been thinking a lot and have decided that I don't want to be anymore. I want to be a vegetarian. I'm not really sure how to go about it though. Do you have any ideas? Please help, and have a wonderful day!

Blessed Be,
Singingcanyon

[Ravencry]

There is no problem for eating meat. A humans diet needs some of the proteins that meat has. We were made to eat both meat and vegetables. I understand that it is harming animals, but you could say a thank you to the spirit of the animal and leave a gift to the spirit, out doors. And you could lessen the amount of meat that you eat, you don't need to eat it everyday if you get all of your proteins Try peanut butter, eggs, and soy beans to fill in your protein requirements.

I was vegan for a year (I ate NOTHING with any hint of animal products), and my health got extremely bad because I was anemic and couldn't stand the sight of another peanut, much less peanut butter, and soybeans!

Best of luck to you if you do it, I know that it is rather hard if you don't take your time and research how to get all of your essential nutrients.

[Traumwandlerin]

I'm a vegetarian for over 15 years now, and I'm in perfect health

It all depends on what you eat. You will want to look up protein combinations, cause your body will need lots of proteins. Proteins are plenty in meat (way to much) and in little amount and not perfect combinations in your average vegetarian food. Good examples are: Rice with beans or potatoes with eggs.

If you aren't vegan you can get a lot of good stuff out of dairy products, so you don't need to care about a lot of them, like calcium.

One point that's difficult for vegans is B12, if you consume dairy products, this is no problem. Another problem is omega 3 (or was it 6?). This is not found in vegan food and normally not found in vegetarian food. You can either go look for a good plant oil and read if they have the right balance between 3, 6 and 12 (google the right balance) and than just stick to it and add plenty to your meals, or you will need to seek out additional nutritions and read up if it's vegetarian, cause those products are often made out of fish.

Buy yourself a good cookingbook, you can find great ones online. Experience all this new and tasty food most meateaters will never taste If you are capable of German, I recomment "Tierrechtskochbuch". You can easily download it.

[Asch]

Lemme add on that the best vegetarian foods I've ever had DO NOT try to taste like meat. Fake meat is awful, veggie burgers that clearly admit they are veggie are super tasty. I could never be vegan, I love fish, honey and dairy too much but it's possible to be a modified vegetarian pretty easily.

[JBRaven]

For very simple starters try looking at PETA for ideas.

[Kitty]

I've been pescatarian for over 7 years now [wow - lol] and although I do eat fish, I'm not that keen on it and mostly stick to shellfish anyway
I've had some pretty nice imitation meat burgers but I do prefer bean burgers and the like
I did do the change very swiftly - ate meat one day and stopped the next - and that worked fine for me but I would maybe try phasing out, maybe cut red meat out first, then white meat, then fish, then sea food and by products and stop when you feel comfortable
I would also take vitamins as well - it's difficult to get enough of some of the nutrients we need - even if you cut out fish as well as meat then I would also take fish oil tablets, as well as a vitamin especially formed for vegetarians
my grandad considers himself pescatarian as well but he eats turkey at christmas - lol
I see you're 16 as well so if you have a parent who still cooks for you make sure they know that there are foods other than pasta - lol, I'm lucky that my mom used to be vegan and still loves a lot of vegetarian food, in my family they only eat meat 2 or 3 times a week anyway
another thing I love is lentil pasta - it's got about double the amount of protein as wheat pasta and tastes nicer too if you like your pasta al dente

Are you thinking of doing this for ethical reasons ? I don't really see a problem with eating meat as an ethical issue as such but it's worth realising that with all the vegetarians in the world the market definately produces less meat than it did when we were still doing the 'meat and 2 veg' thing so ignore people who tell you that you won't make a difference
I don't have a moral issue with eating meat but I disagree with ravencry that it is natural for us to eat meat - it's my personal view that it's not natural, it makes us ill if we eat it without cooking it first - how is that natural ? also it's kind of icky to be eating something that was once alive - lol
xx

[SingingCanyon]

Thank you all so very much! Your support is very much appreciated. I know that a lot of you disagree with my choice for various reasons but I think that is is the best choice for me.
Reason 1: It has quite a few benefits. First of all a vegetarian diet has a lot less fat in it, Yuck. Fat. Also, vegetarians have a lower chance of getting type 2 diabetes and cancer (both of which run in my family).
Reason 2: I don't like the idea of eating an animal. Yes I know I know, I have been doing it for the the past 14 years. But lately I have been more aware of animals and I feel almost guilty. All life is sacred, and many of the meat processing/packaging places are very cruel to the animals they kill.

Thank you all for your good ideas on how to start but I have one. I will allow myself 2 meals of meat a week for exactly one year. Then i will cut it down to 1 meal a week and then finally none. I read this online and think that this is the best idea.

Blessed Be,
SingingCanyon

[Ravencry]

It sounds like a good idea to me, too. It should help your body get used to a meat-free diet.

[Kitty]

oooh just a quick tip - If you decide to go back to eating meat after a long period without start SLOW
my friend was brought up vegetarian - then in year 9 decided she wanted to try a beefbuger from some fast food restaurant - threw it straight back up [ewww]
xx

[Asch]

Pretty much every critter on earth needs bacteria in their gut to digest food properly. If you don't eat meat after awhile the appropriate bacteria for digesting those proteins die off or decrease in number and it becomes very hard to digest meat. That's also one of the reasons folks that don't eat a lot of veggies foods tend to be gaseous and uncomfortable when they do eat veggies, at least for a couple weeks.