Advice For a Vegetarian?

Hey Folks,

I wanted to see if any of you have any advice for a vegetarian diet. (I’m not vegan- I eat eggs and dairy products- just no red meat, chicken, or fish)

My goals are pretty basic. Coupled with working out 4-5 days a week, I want a healthy diet that will help me gain about 5-10 lbs of muscle but remain pretty lean…

Currently I eat about 2-3 eggs and oatmeal in the morning, a protein shake (Metabolic Drive), lunch is usually consisting of a salad, some yogurt, a banana, and an apple, post workout protein shake (Surge) with a bowl of cottage cheese, and dinner typically consists of some…variation of pasta w/ legumes, mexican food, etc…

Any tips/suggestions? I know its pretty tricky for “my kind”- hoping someone might have some insight…

Thanks,
RS

Easy - eat more eggs. A LOT more. Figure out your caloric needs and your macro needs, add accordingly with the protein you can eat - eggs, nuts, beans, and of course, whey and Metabolic Drive…

Eat a ton more eggs, and shakes :slight_smile: Though I’ll admit that baked salmon is delicious. And I love Sashimi.

I take it you are talking about what type of veggie protein you can take that is not powder…? Though you can clarify in your next post for the next poster or if the ninja vegans pop out. There are a few veggieVets that are pretty damn big but rarely come out into the open.

Beans, lots of beans!

But I spent 1 second googling : protein sources, vegetarian and found this excellent site.

If you’re looking for more basic (or advanced) information or what not, I recommend you look up articles by Dr. John Berardi on this site.

It should work basically the same way instead of red meat, chicken, or fish you rely on obtaining your building blocks from a variety of nuts beans etc + eggs + protein shakes.


BACK TO EGGS!

Scrambled, boiled, omlettes, sunny-side up, with ketchup, salsa, siracha!, chili paste!, with a pbnj sandwich!, or ahem… peanut butter sandwich. uHHhh with beans! just add eggs to everything!

Just some general advice. I would supplement with a good B-Complex, plus some extra B-12. Put nutritional yeast on your salads. Be sure that you are eating lots of good saturated fats/oils, like butter (preferably raw), Coconut oil and Palm oil.

Try not to overdo it on the grains, which happens with some vegetarians. Also don’t eat soy too often, if at all. Concentrate on the dairy and eggs. Nuts are good, but if they start giving you digestive problems, either reduce quantity or sprout them.

Also make sure that you eat lots of fermented foods: fermented vegetables or fermented dairy like kefir or yoghurt…make sure the yogurt has real acidophollis culture and not that sugary pectin shit, like Dannon or most of the junk you get at chain grocery stores.

And the beans…make sure that you soak them overnight and throw away the soaking water…given, that you want a social life.

I have been a vegan on and off for years.
I am a former athlete, and was a vegan for some of that.

Sometimes I have dairy issues- so I go off of dairy for a while and it subsides.
Pasturization, and american domestic
cheese kills me. Sheep and goats milk products not as much. Hmmmmm.

Right now I am doing fish- huge difference.
eggs and yeah some good dairy. And besides
I love to eat good fish so many kinds so many good ways to eat it.

there are some really good yogurts with
no sugar and high protein, like 20 grams a serving. Its a thicker greek style,
I get it at whole foods, I think trader joes has something similiar.

quinoa, its a grain, it can behigh in nitrates so try to use an organic one.
but its very high in protein. swap it out
with oat meal or cook it for dinner with some squash.

I can not speak enough on legumes and nuts.
Lots of Beans, and yes use fresh water when you cook them like entheogens mentions.
Lentils, black, red, pinto, I can not eat
too many chic peas or I have gas.

DR.Berandi has some really good recipies
with nuts and protein powder to eat as a snack

and he has a geat shake- meal replacement
its something like yogurt or cottage cheese,
some whey-protein, greens plus, ice and water
maybe some peanut butter, really good.

I also get stuff from these guys
there is a brand of vegan sausages
from these guys tasty, and really high quality proteins- in good dosages.

http://www.fieldroast.com/grainmeatstory.htm

Being a Vegan and travleing ( work) dont often mix- so I am more of an organic veggie type that eats good , fish, dairy and eggs,
And I try to stay organic.

Being a vegan is fine, but its much more work
to eat eh variety of stuff you need.

Kinein made a good point about the eggs,
its really easy to add several a day hard boiled to most salads, with grains, etc.

kmc

Why are you vegan?

I was vegetarian for 2 days, I was waiting for my check not by choice, it was horrible. I tip my hat to you sir, if you can function normally without animal tissue.

[quote]Makavali wrote:
Why are you vegan?[/quote]

I was a vegan I did for a few years.

I dont really like most meats and never have.
I sometimes have issues with dairy american dairy products are sometimes hard for me to digest.

Its a great detox- I never got sick. I always had great energy. I slept fantastic

My weight was about the same as it is now,and I lifted as heavy. I weighed about 170-180 then and basically about the same then.
at 5’5.

I think they pump a ton of junk into most/all meats here in the us. I am around enough stressfull bad things at work, so I wanted
and still want the best intake. I had my BP taken this week (had to go to the ER)
it was 113 over 65 Im 36. My cholesterol and triglierides are very low.

That being said, I do eat fish, and some dairy and eggs. And I try hard to eat fresh, and organic. My brother is still a vegan
he is super thin, strong as hell- and his bloodwork is
fantastic.

kmc

You will definately need a good source of DHA-EPA, which is like 12-20 eggs a day, if thats too much there is a vegan formula extracted from sea microalgae.

Namase !

Legumes, nuts, seeds, dairy, eggs and quinoa are your friends. You can make amazing, high protein stuff with quinoa(quinoa and shitake mushrooms, mmmm). I’m not a veg, but my fiancee pretends to be, so we do a lot of vegetarian cooking.

Someone said it above, soy is garbage. Eat it in moderation, but treat it like junk food. Edamame are probably fine, but the processed soy shit that all the vegetarians I know love to scarf down is trash.

There’s a section over at Precision Nutrition entirely devoted to vegetarian/vegan nutrition. Lots of recipes and info.

Making your own seitan is very easy, and very cheap. I made almost a kilo of it the other week for about $3, and if you’re willing to take the time to make it from bread flour rather than using vital wheat gluten you can do it even cheaper.