Hello! :)

Welcome floratink!

I was lactose intolerant too as an omnivore and it made me so so sick to consume most dairy and almost all cheese. I would still try to consume Greek yogurt and very slight amounts of mozzarella and grated Parmesan on rare occasion but when I got dairy completely out of my diet, my digestion improved dramatically, the bloating cramping and diarrhea left, the sinus congestion went away, and my energy and stamina increased by a LOT. I was already mostly consuming plant milks for years before becoming vegan (soy milk has sure improved from what it was in the late 1990s lol) and would avoid most dairy like the plague but the Greek yogurt was my last holdout. I think dairy/cheese is the hardest for people to give up.

I haven't seen Vegucated though I have heard good things about it! I hope you find lots of support and tools here! It's great to have you here!

floratink said:

Really! That is very interesting! I'm surprised that your energy has increased, who would've thought? Luckily, i don't think the transition from Vegetarian to Vegan would be too difficult since there are a lot of Vegetarian/Vegan-friendly alternatives out today. I hardly consume dairy products in general and I know it will be hard to go out to eat at a restaurant, especially living in the South!

You should try catching it while it's still on Netflix!
Thanks for being so nice.

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I think the reason my energy increased was because my body wasn't working so hard to digest meat and dairy. And the inflammation/reactions my body had to the dairy were gone and I didn't feel so sick all the time. My bowel movements normalized and became very healthy from eating way more vegetables, fruits, beans etc. My carb intake went up slightly but it is all good carbs, very little processed stuff. My staples are daily leafy greens, millet, buckwheat groats, quinoa, oats, bulgur wheat, dried beans and lentils, pumpkin seeds, almonds, fresh fruits and veggies. Also, two years in as a vegan I had a full cholesterol blood screening that was offered for free at my place of work to employees (I work at a medical complex). A year before going vegan I had my total cholesterol done and HDL. Total was 155 and HDL 62. Several years later as a vegan total went down to 125 and HDL decreased very slightly to 57, but LDL was low, 66, glucose was 88, triglycerides were 27. I have also periodically had vitamin D and B12 levels checked as well as hemoglobin a few times and all have been healthy.

I remember I used to struggle to run on the treadmill back in 2010 when I started running, despite being a dancer and very active for years. I couldn't get past two miles. A few months in as a vegan in 2011 I remember one day starting to run on the treadmill and then daydreaming for a while and just going and going and then I looked at the time and mileage on the treadmill and realized I had run almost three miles and still had so much more in me to run. It was quite a breakthrough. I also started cycling to work and all over, and increased strength training over the years as a vegan. I did have to increase caloric intake quite a bit at first to keep from losing too much weight (I was already underweight when I went vegan) but the more I learned to cook and what to eat as a vegan, the easier it became to maintain and gain.

Restaurant eating can be a challenge for a vegan, though it is getting better. Have you heard of Happy Cow or Veg Dining? Both are sites where you can search for vegan friendly restaurants in your area and find feedback from others on local options for vegans and so on. And when you find some great vegan stuff, you can also leave feedback on there. Might be worth looking into. I seldom eat out myself (I love to cook and prepare my own whole foods), maybe a half dozen times per year, but when I travel or visit relatives for a long weekend I generally bring along my own food and preplan. If I stay in a hotel I make sure the room has a refrigerator and microwave or kitchenette. Sometimes though I contact local vegan groups in the area I am going to and talk to them about what is available there. Locally, I have not had too much trouble eating out and finding vegan stuff but I usually call ahead and talk to someone there about options or ask about questionable foods and how they are cooked (for example Mexican restaurants often use lard in refried beans or tortillas; indian restaurants often cook rice in ghee etc). It can be a hassle to have to preplan ahead but it can also make life so much smoother as a vegan. You do what you can. Some people are less strict than others. I have been fortunate not to have trouble when working with restaurant staff to find something vegan, just once I had trouble at an Indian restaurant when I asked for a batch of rice without ghee in it. It meant they had to go out of their way apparently to do this (which was funny because my Mom, sister and self were the only customers in the entire restaurant that day). Other than that experience, it has not been too bad. I went to Palacios Texas in 2013 and was a bit shocked that I couldn't even find basic oats, canned beans, and raw seeds in some of the area grocery stores. Everything was junk food. Even the peanut butter had a ton of extra junk in it. Thankfully the people I stayed with were kind enough to drive me to a nearby town where I found a much better selection of basic food items for the week (I was staying in a motel with a kitchenette). I don't even think I attempted to eat out back then, but I was aware of several area restaurants with at least one vegan option according to Happy Cow site. It did open my eyes to the lack of food options in poor areas. My mother and father in law were doing missionary work in the area which is why we visited there. What was nice though was the incredibly fresh and awesome fruits down there where it was warmer, and the authentic Mexican food, including tortillas were all naturally vegan down there. I discovered that cheese is not very common for Mexicans and they don't use animal fat in many of their foods like Americans do.

The Vegetarian Resource Group has some great information on restaurant eating and specific restaurants (chains, fast food etc) and what foods are vegan and not vegan etc.:

http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/
http://www.vrg.org/fastfoodinfo.php

They also have a food ingredient guide that might be a helpful reference.

I'm guessing you must at least have some great farmers markets where you live in the south? Being it is a warmer climate and all.

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