So I've just started being a vegetarian for about 5 days now. My parents want to support me but they don't know where they can take me to restaurants or what to buy at the grocery store, and they don't know exactly why I am a vegetarian. To me, this is the equivalent to me coming out as gay--my mom has some serious fears about me starving when I was a child and she's worried I won't be healthy as a vegetarian--and my family eats meat every night and it is a big deal when my dad bbq's and we spend all summer bbq'ing.

I'm really nervous about talking to them about becoming a vegetarian because my mom is very judgmental and usually interrupts me to voice her opinion before I even finish what I have to say, and I haven't quite figured out the whole vegetarian thing--I've never gone out to a restaurant before as a vegetarian and haven't really thought of where to go. I know that instead of 5 Guys we could go to a burger place by my house that sells vegan burgers. I don't know what I would eat if we wanted to go to Chinese food if all I could eat is the hot and sour soup. Also, a big issue for me would be where my parents could buy groceries. Lucky's and Safeway has a small selection of vegetarian meals and the meat alternatives are not very tasty (which I know is an acquired taste), and I don't want to force my parents to drive around town to get vegetarian meals just for me.

I really don't want to make things too complicated, but I don't know how to make things simple.