[Serzen]

I have become a vegan since yesterday, for compassion and for health.

I am learning to change my behaviour as a consumer, one step at a time. I just need to be patient.

I don't intend to change the world, I intend to change myself.

I am open to any advice you would like to share. Thanks-

[SeekerOfLife]

I used to be a vegan for over 20 years. It was for health reasons. It was the best I ever felt.

[vonmoxie]

My advice based on my personal experience is this: make sure you get enough protein! Over time I ended up having a permanent physical problem (not horrific, but a real annoyance) as a result of ending up with a protein deficiency when I was vegan.. I imagined I was getting enough protein, but I wasn't nearly educated enough (i.e. not at all, embarrassingly) about the difference between the complete protein with all the essential amino acids which comes from things like dairy, and the greater effort that is involved in obtaining a comparable level of the same nutrients from vegan sources. For some reason I thought I could just drastically change my diet without getting counsel. Clearly you're much smarter than me. (I can't believe I never knew that the reason those amino acids are called "essential" is because our bodies need them but can't produce them. I guess I just thought it was a pet name...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_amino_acid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_nutrition#Nutrition

Good luck! I wish I could go back to it, but I'm afraid now to end up flaring up the situation that got created previously to become even worse. If I'd known more the first time around I might have been able to keep it up all this time. I'm still mostly vegetarian now though not vegan.. doing the best I can with what I have and all that. Mostly I get my more complete protein from eggs.

[Serzen]

Originally Posted by vonmoxie

My advice based on my personal experience is this: make sure you get enough protein! Over time I ended up having a permanent physical problem (not horrific, but a real annoyance) as a result of ending up with a protein deficiency when I was vegan.. I imagined I was getting enough protein, but I wasn't nearly educated enough (i.e. not at all, embarrassingly) about the difference between the complete protein with all the essential amino acids which comes from things like dairy, and the greater effort that is involved in obtaining a comparable level of the same nutrients from vegan sources. For some reason I thought I could just drastically change my diet without getting counsel. Clearly you're much smarter than me. (I can't believe I never knew that the reason those amino acids are called "essential" is because our bodies need them but can't produce them. I guess I just thought it was a pet name...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_amino_acid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegan_nutrition#Nutrition

Good luck! I wish I could go back to it, but I'm afraid now to end up flaring up the situation that got created previously to become even worse. If I'd known more the first time around I might have been able to keep it up all this time. I'm still mostly vegetarian now though not vegan.. doing the best I can with what I have and all that. Mostly I get my more complete protein from eggs.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I did a lot of research.

For breakfast I eat fortified cereals, a mix of nuts, a mix of seeds and soy milk.
For lunch and dinner I eat legumes, vegetables and mushrooms. I try to mix as many colours as I can. Another options are tofu, tempeh, edamane (I still couldn't find those, my country is still mostly carnivorous) and I also heard about seitan but I haven't tried it yet.
At the evenings I have tangerines, apples, bananas and any other fruit that comes across my mind.

I think I'll be ok if I can maintain this but I'm always open to suggestions, just in case.

While not vegetarian, animal proteins are not a big part of my diet. Vegetarian dishes make up most of my diet. Missing protein is a very real danger. I eat a lot of nut butters, lentils, and beans.

Consider looking at foreign/ethnic recipes for good dishes that meet your health requirements.