Vegetarian – To Be Or Not To Be

September 10th, 2009 · No Comments

Welcome back!

As someone who grew up on farms, I have had a love/hate relationship with meat and vegetables. We almost always had as much beef, mutton, pork, and chicken as we wanted. For a number of years, we also had large vegetable gardens – for a long time we had one garden on one side of the road, and another larger garden with corn, potatoes, and so forth, on the other side of the road.

Many times in recent years I have considered going vegetarian only to dive into a juicy steak the next time I had the chance. There are many reasons to eat more vegetables and less meat, not the least of which is to lose weight and gain better health.

How to increase vegetable intake

As both Dad and I try to eat more vegetables, I’ve picked up a few tips on how to accomplish that goal:

Gain knowledge. I have several cookbooks that are heavy with information about vegetables, their nutritional value, and various recipes to encourage me to try each dish. Understanding why each vegetable is important to my health helps me a lot.
Hang out in the fresh food area of your local store. The store we regularly shop at wisely has a huge fresh food area just to the right as we walk in the door. They have mastered the art of display, and I always pick up our favorites each time I walk through that area.
Try new vegetables and new recipes. Every once in a while I do try a new vegetable dish or revisit a long ago favorite. My goal is to try a new recipe each week, which does help in gaining a wider range of vegetable dishes.
Convert those dishes that can go meatless. Although I am still working on this, I can eat spaghetti without meat. Really.
Eat a balanced diet. It’s important that I make sure we have the correct balance of protein even as we increase our vegetable intake.

Planning and Patience

Whether your goal is just to eat more vegetables or to go completely vegetarian, planning and patience play an important role in whether you are successful or not.

Plan meals carefully. Browse through magazines and cookbooks or hop online for a plethora of information regarding vegetarianism. Know ahead of time what you plan to serve each day and you will remember to pickup the items you need during your next shopping trip.

Finally, be patient with yourself. The most difficult challenge I have is the craving for meat. Having eaten meat products all my life, trying to change to a vegetarian lifestyle is tough. But I know with planning, patience, and following the other tips listed above, increasing the amount of vegetables in our diet will greatly increase our health.

If you have struggled in this area, please leave your ideas and tips in the comment section. We would love to hear what did or did not work for you.