A few easy steps to becoming vegetarian and staying vegetarian:
(1) DO NOT TRY TO DO IT OVERNIGHT. Changing your diet to get rid of meat typically takes weeks, if not, months. So do not try to quit meat cold turkey. Chances are it won’t work and it will discourage you from trying again. Try gradually to become a lacto ovo vegetarian and then progress to get off the dairy and eggs from there.
(2) FIRST DUMP THE RED MEAT. Red meat is typically the easiest item to let go because you can substitute fish, chicken, turkey, or soy substitutes. Red meat also has the dubious honor of being probably the most unhealthy component of your diet.
(3) DECREASE YOUR MEAT CONSUMPTION GRADUALLY. The typical American eats meat and/or meat products morning, noon, and night. You should gradually try giving up meat in units of meals. So for the first week instead of eating 3 meals a day with meat and meat products try dropping meat for breakfast (have oatmeal everyday 🙂 ). Then after your body has adjusted drop another meal after a couple of weeks. The goal here is not to be a vegan right away, but rather a lacto ovo vegetarian. Remember no rush; the point isn’t to see who can convert first, but rather convert in such a way as to sustain lasting change in becoming a vegetarian.
(4) WORK OUT AND THEN CONSUME VEGETARIAN FARE. Most dudes get hungry after working out and then their body craves meat. Its important to resist that urge and substitute something else that allows your body to recoup. I would recommend a smoothie with ice, fresh fruit, protein powder, hemp milk, and honey. After consuming it, you won’t feel so weighed down either.
Some of the benefits of becoming vegetarian:
(1) YOU WON’T CRAVE SUGAR SO MUCH. After we eat big meat meals our body tends to crave sugar. Its one of the reasons fast food joints sell soda with hamburgers. Sugar is the bane of our existence. It increases blood sugar spikes, causes fatigue, and leads to weight gain. Learning about a vegetarian diet will reduce all these symptoms by neutralizing the causes of sugar compulsion.
(2) YOU WON’T BE SO HUNGRY ALL THE TIME. Ever notice that you are still real hungry after eating food that is nutritionally bankrupt? Its because your body consumes nutrition not food mass. Some foods contain more fiber that stays in your system longer and causes you not to feel so hungry. Meat is not one of those foods unfortunately.
(3) YOU HELP THE PLANET. By now we all know that cow flatulence is killing our ozone, which leads to floods in Bangladesh and storms in the Gulf Coast. The Planet is rejecting our meat pollution much like our immune system rejects foreign organisms. By reducing the demand for meat, we can reduce the factory farming that poisons our life and disrupts the harmony with the planet. Becoming vegetarian diet is one of the most effective tools to restore that harmony.
Lacto Ovo Vegetarian: Are Eggs Good For You?
Eggs have been consumed for thousands of years. It is considered one of the first foods eaten by humans. However, times change and an enclosed limited hunter-gatherer society has morphed into one that has large grocery stores that contain almost every food under the sun. Are eggs useful, needed, or harmful? Here are the pros and cons and you can decide for yourself.
Pros:
(1) Digestibility: Eggs are highly digestible. In fact, on the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAA) scale, eggs score a perfect 100. However so does whey protein, so take the rating with a grain of salt (not literally because eggs contain sodium).
(2) Packed with Protein: The typical egg has 6.5 grams of highly digestible protein. The World Health Organization requirement for protein is 0.66 grams per kg of weight. Therefore the average healthy American who is 5’9’’ and 150 lbs (~68kg) needs about 45 grams of protein on a daily basis. 2-3 egg whites for breakfast can knock out almost 40% of that daily requirement. In addition, eggs contain all the amino acids needed in the human body. Therefore it is a complete food.
(3) Eggs Have 60 Calories: Considering the active healthy vegetarian man needs nearly 2,000 calories (maybe more) on a daily basis, eggs can be a good option.
(3) Rich In Other Nutrients: Eggs contain potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, choline, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B6, folic acid, riboflavin, and vitamin A. So much nutrition in such a little package is hard to come by.
(4) Eggs Are Cheap: You can buy a dozen for less than $2 at your local grocery store.
(5) Eggs Are Versatile: From omelets to hard boiled, poached to fried – eggs can be prepared in many tasty ways.
Cons:
(1) Eating Yolks May Be Detrimental: If you just eat the egg white you are missing out on a great deal of nutrients. In fact, the egg white is mostly water. The egg yolk is where most of the nutrients are located. However there is debate as to whether the pitfalls of consuming yolks. Egg yolks have 200 mg of cholesterol while the recommended daily intake is 300 mg. Although some nutritionists believe that consuming bad saturated fats is the cholesterol culprit, others believe egg yolks are part of the problem. Furthermore there has been scientific evidence linking Type 2 Diabetes (the bad kind) with daily egg yolk consumption.
(2) Contamination: Given the poor state of this country’s factory farms and a history of egg salmonella contamination, there is a possibility you can get sick from consuming eggs. However you can mitigate this risk by purchasing and eating pasteurized eggs. If you go to restaurants, you typically have no control over what type of eggs they buy and serve.
(3) Antibiotic Resistance: Once again, given the large amount of antibiotics fed to eggs, we see a resistance to the antibiotic forming in humans. Makes you wonder if this will come to bite us later on.
I personally do consume about 3 eggs per week. I do eat yolks despite the negative press and have not noticed any adverse effects….just so you know.