I am changing my life and becoming vegan. I am alone on this since my family and friends will not give up chemicals and meat that causes many health problems. I need support and advice on how to get most of my protein through a plant based diet. Please help make this process easier for me and I am always looking to meet great people.

Welcome Janine!

Congrats for making the decision to go vegan! Hopefully you will find plenty of support here. It is hard when you are starting but there are tons of resources on the internet. So google away! I can certainly relate to not having others around you interested in this healthy lifestyle - I am alone too. As for vegan protein it is simple: beans, nuts, seeds, veggies (especially greens), tofu, soy products, etc. I am short on time at the moment, but just do a search for 'vegan protein' and you will find a ton of info all right there for you. How much protein you need depends alot on your lifestyle and how much physical activity you do - but it is usually not nearly as much as most would have you think.

Good luck and feel free to post any questions. The group has been a bit quiet, so feel free to liven things up! lol!

Shanasy

Janine

Good for you! Like you, I started eating a vegan diet about a year ago knowing no one that is vegan ina family of carnivores. It has beena journey for sure and though I would not (yet) call myself a full fledged vegan I do stick to a strict vegan diet and try to make compassionate decisions every day.

It is difficult in certain arenas- work funcitons, family functions, etc. where people don't understand. I try to educate in a non confrontational way and help people gain better undererstanding of the ethical and environmentally friendly reasons to be vegan. The hardest thing for me is to handle others anger (I don't get it-- I am not angry with others for the choices they make- at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own conscience).

I think the thing that has helped me the most is sharing great vegan food with anynone that comes into my home and also through my blog (http://theveganversion.com). Vegan food can be anything from five star to comfort food and delicious!

I hope you find support here and congrats on your decision!

Lee

Awesome Janine! I went vegan over a year ago and have not looked back. "Where do you get your protein?" is a cliche question in the vegan community, that we hear from omnivores all the time. The funniest part about that is that protein is so easy to get from plant foods - all food has protein in it, you mostly just want to make sure you're eating a varied diet so you get a "complete protein" (all the necessary amino acids. Legumes are very helpful in that, if you can eat beans. A bigger concern for vegans, probably the biggest, is getting vitamin B12, which is hard to get from vegan sources. There are several brands of vegan B12 supplements out there. Vitacost.com and Amazon both carry vegan B12 supplements. Vitamin D is also a concern.

The best resource I know for nutritional concerns is http://veganhealth.org/. Jack Norris stays on top of the current research on nutrition and its implications for a vegan diet and keeps the site updated. It has the best advice on how much B12 to take, how to get enough protein, and plenty of other nutritional concerns for vegans.

Hey Janine~!
Colinski is right on.

Here is a great start to get you on your way to cooking great vegan food:



Once on this site, click on Blog Roll 2010. It will list hundreds of vegan blogs, many of them with outstanding recipes!

Good luck and remember that you can't change the world in a day (even though you want to).