Vegan/Vegetarian
Long time vegetarian, most of the time vegan
I have to admire vegetarians, but unfortunately, regardless of how many veggies I eat, and how often, I still have a craving for the protein from something that is not vegetarian. Mom always told me to eat my veggies, but she always had some meat on the side.
regardless of how many veggies I eat, and how often, I still have a craving for the protein from something that is not vegetarian.
Look around at the supermarket and you may find meat like protein dishes that are pretty good. Look for the Morningstar brands and you may even find the Loma Linda brands of vegetarian protein foods.
However, there are a number of foods that have more protein than you would think. So, you may have to study how to eat well as a vegetarian. It may be like learning to drive a stick shift after never driving anything but automatics, but in time you will get the hang of it.
I may be a little skewed in my judgement as I grew up on textured vegetable protein foods and did not eat meat until nearly an adult. Currently have not eaten meat in nearly thirty years.
Although I'm not "officially" a vegetarian, I'm almost there. We eat very little meat. It's like it's almost becoming a "special occasion" thing like an organic free range roasted chicken at Christmas. It seems like there are a lot of us "almost vegetarians" around these days.
Due to the influence of a Chinese friend, I now consume twice as much vegies as before Christmas 2014. Diagnosed as pre diabetic at Christmas and now, due to a regular diet free of bread and potato (except occasionally) and more light exercise, I am now back to normal blood sugar levels. Also lost weight!!! But I can still have normal portions of meat, chicken and fish. No seconds!! aand No pork.
I love veggies and fruits to the point that my friends called me "goat" or other "ruminants". But I like them because of taste, not some ideals or love of nature. I also prefer them as they are (I'm not talking about raw foodism; but at least if it's a spinach, then it looks and tastes like a spinach, instead of processed into things like "fake meat".)
And meat? I follow the example of my grandma, who ate both lamb steak and salad until her death at 100.