Vegeterian, From a proud meat eatin texan Options

[The Fanatic]

So, i'm thinking of becoming a vegetarian for a month or two just to see if maybe my fat ass can lose some weight doing it. In actuality, it's more of an experiment to see how my body reacts to no longer eating meat every meal. Any suggestions and helpful hints from those who have tried vegetarianism? I'm esepcially interested in still staying meaningfully healthy. And if you don't want to contribute anything meaningful that's fine, please don't post. I DO NOT have any sort of PETA affiliation. I will post my results in this forum as time progresses. I probably won't start this trial until monday of next week.

[Mommy]

I think there is a lot that you could do. Until I started eating some chicken, I was mostly vegetarian. If you're wanting to do this to be healthier, that's cool. I think it's a good way to cleanse the body. Once you start eating meat again, try meats that are lower in fat. Turkey bacon, for instance, is 55% less fat than regular bacon. I have gotten a lot of people to start eating it. It's pretty tasty. Stay away from red meat. Chicken is a lot healthier, and you can do so much with it. It grills up nicely so you have less fat. Fish and shrimp are also good. Basically, just stay away from red meat for a while when you go back to eating meat if losing weight and staying healthy is your ultimate goal. Plus, when you haven't eaten meat in a while, it's a BAD idea to eat a giant juicy steak. You'll have a bad stomach ache for a couple of hours.

As far as the vegetarian thing, I'm not big on stuff mixed together or tofu so a lot of your typical vegetarian meals I don't enjoy. I make spaghetti all the time, and it's still pretty good without meat. If you want a super healthy treat, you could try making the sauce from scratch, but it takes a while.

Try making vegetarian pizzas from scratch too. I mean, the fact that you are using all fresh ingredients instead of processed already makes it healthier. Plus, you can chose a cheese that is reduced fat. They sell pizza dough made by Pillsbury in the section that has slice and bake cookies and stuff. That's probably a little more simple than trying to make the dough yourself. Just chose ingredients that are fresh and are reduced fat.

The thing that will make this easier for you is making choices that aren't too far off from the way you regularly eat, but still making healthy choices. Completely turning your food habits around just sets yourself up for failure. Just go fresh, limit your carbs (I don't see carbs as that big of a deal, but apparently they cause weight gain... I've never had this problem and carbs are all I eat), reach from all areas of the food pyramid, and be creative.