As of today

ItsAWindUp

As of today, 15th of August 2011, ItsAWindUp is now vegetarian:)

Aoifey!

You sure this isn't a wind up? :P

sweet-rasmus

So, what's for dinner tonight in the new scheme of things?! I'm treating myself to pizza out

ItsAWindUp

sweet-rasmus wrote: »

So, what's for dinner tonight in the new scheme of things?! I'm treating myself to pizza out

Potato cakes:D

--LOS--

Congrats, you now have an obligation to the forum!

ItsAWindUp

--LOS-- wrote: »

Congrats, you now have an obligation to the forum!

I hereby accept my duties:D

Tar.Aldarion

a potato loving vegetarian, the best kind of person!

ItsAWindUp

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

a potato loving vegetarian, the best kind of person!

Potatoes=Sex

sweet-rasmus

I see you'll fit in quite nicely here

ItsAWindUp

sweet-rasmus wrote: »

I see you'll fit in quite nicely here

I'll try post here quite often too:)

Asphyxia

So I have taken the plunge and I'm becoming full on vegetarian I've been researching animal testing and cruelty over a couple of weeks and they have shocked me so much! I have been toying with the idea for a few months now and if I wasn't badly anemic I probably would have been converted by now. I'm going to be living in the house with a meat eater but I don't think it's going to put me off. :D

smegmar

Congrats 'Itsawindup' on the big move. The first few months are difficult but as soon as you get into the swing of things you'll really enjoy the vegetarian lifestyle, and forget about meat completely.

Remember a vital part of a vegetarian diet, that most forget, is alcohol. Taken in the form of a pissup with other vegetarians an semi organised events.....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056361190

oh hey, would'ya look at that. There is a veggie veg up being organised. As a new member I think it would be good to get into the swing of things like all serious veggies :P.

So anyway tell us about yourself 'windup'

ToniTuddle

Fair play to ya ItsAWindUp and Asphyxia New to it all myself!

I've been introducing less and less meat the last few months and started buying veggie cookbooks. Even regular cookbooks I just replace the meat in the receipe with the Quorn equivalent! Experimenting is great craic! Though not the greatest cook and sometimes the results are......dodgy to say the least but I'm getting there

Have a freezer stocked up with Quorn and LindaMcCartney products to do me for a good while now. Can't remember when I last had beef/chicken/pork etc :eek:

Plus I'm getting my Mum in on it as all this is helping to lower her cholestrol \o/

ItsAWindUp

smegmar wrote: »

Congrats 'Itsawindup' on the big move. The first few months are difficult but as soon as you get into the swing of things you'll really enjoy the vegetarian lifestyle, and forget about meat completely.

Remember a vital part of a vegetarian diet, that most forget, is alcohol. Taken in the form of a pissup with other vegetarians an semi organised events.....

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056361190

oh hey, would'ya look at that. There is a veggie veg up being organised. As a new member I think it would be good to get into the swing of things like all serious veggies :P.

So anyway tell us about yourself 'windup'

When I move to Dublin for college next year I'll be going to a few of those:)

pinkmonkey045

Hey guys,

I just noticed this thread as I too am new to the whole veggie business. I've been eating "semi-vegan" for 2 weeks. Finding it very easy - for now [don't want to jynx!]. I had seen some awful footage about a pig factory in the Uk. I then looked into it all even more. And decided I had to give vegetarianism a go.

But then, after reading about the battery hens and dairy industry cruelty, I felt put off eggs and dairy too so have been avoiding them and products with them, as I feel pretty disgusted by the whole thing.

Do you think vegetarianism is enough? I wonder if there are stats about how much a veggie diet helps V a vegan one. A vegan diet has been going well, but I am scared it's rather anti-social.......

I wonder if all vegetarians think about becoming vegan, and don't go vegan, or do they just not think about it........... Did you have a thought process? Just pondering.

ps i say semi-vegan as i have eaten honey. I just don't get the bee thing.

sweet-rasmus

When going vegetarian the impact on the environment and on the meat industry is huge. Of course there is a slightly greater change when going vegan. You can't quantify what is 'enough' though. You could be a strict vegan, yet pesticides used in producing in the food you eat will have an effect on animal life. Think about how environmentally friendly you can be, recycling and the impact on car, bus and air travel on CO2 emissions. All of these things will affect human and animal life. I'm sure there is plenty more. It is never enough :P You've gotta be happy with what you can do and no more!

Actually, the vegan society have some booklets and leaflets with some stats on the diets:
E.g.

ENERGY
Farm animals convert only a fraction of their food into meat, eggs, or milk. The fossil energy input to produce a day’s food for a vegan is only one-third that for a meat-eater and half that for a vegetarian.

They have vegan info leaflets and booklets as pdfs here: http://www.vegansociety.com/resources/downloads.aspx

Still, it sounds like you have great reasons to follow a vegan diet And there is no way it really can affect your social life :P Any restaurant will be able to provide you with a meal, even though some will make a greater effort than others.

As regards to opting for vegetarianism or veganism, I know that many vegetarians are veggie for a few years before changing to veganism (like I did) though other vegetarians stick with vegetarianism, or even go back to eating meat! Different for everyone

And I totally get you on the honey thing. I found it very odd, though I soon changed to have golden syrup instead. On toast Pretty similar. A few arguments won it over for me, though I'm not sure if some of the arguments apply for all production companies. I attached this pdf below about honey as The Vegan Society don't seem to have it on their website anymore. I downloaded it off their site last year.

Asphyxia

I'm allergic to honey!!

Doing food shopping tomorrow and getting my first proper veggie ingredients, my fella doesn't mind eating the meat substitutes in the dinners I make he's being very supportive of the change

pinkmonkey045

Thank you Sweet Rasmus for that educated reply! Very informative! So it does make a difference...

I see they are trying to make a point re the honey but I just don't like insects or care about them [a very non veggie attitude...??!!! i DO try not to kill them but thats pretty much it]. [i don't really like honey anyway though!].

2 weeks of pretty much vegan-ness, and finding it shockingly easy. I thought cutting out eggs and cheese aswell wud be hard but nope. Think i'm just in the right frame of mind for it, a month ago I could have been a mess.

Only annoying thing is i can't eat soy!!! Intolerance...Arg!

Anyway tks again!

Asphyxia

First week of no meat and it's been surprisingly easy. The only thing I'm finding a tad bit difficult is when I eat out, the vegetarian option has been utter crap in some places but it hasn't set me off. Very excited about food shopping tomorrow

bythewoods

I tried to go Vegan once (a few years ago now) and one of the things I missed most was honey! I'm so obsessed with putting it into green/mint tea, porridge, on toast... sometimes even on a spoon which is... pretty disgusting and shameful really. I only lasted about a month.

Thanks for that attachment sweet-rasmus, I guess I never really *understood* why eating honey was bad or whatever. Not sure if I could ever give it up again though!

flikflak

^ Have you tried agave syrup as a sub?