More Help needed in several part ?
Recently I went from lacto-veggie to vegan eating and was most pleased with myself. It is where I want my eating to be and I felt fantastic. It didn't last long before I thought I would die if I didn't have some dairy. Have any of you experienced withdrawl from dairy? Is this normal? How long should I give it or will it ever go away because it's all in my head? I gave up only after a few days and was not happy with myself. Pitiful attempt.
I was following the eating advice of Dr. John McDougall which is virtually a no fat diet. I don't have a lot of weight to loose but would like to loose some. I think I got bored with my eating and couldn't see the exciting spice and variety available to me. Does anyone else struggle with this?
My meat eating hubby and two meat eating children are reluctant to let go of their diets. I am trying so hard to be happy with that but as the primary meal maker I often have unhappy faces looking upon me at meal time and I get very frustrated. Any advice here would be appreciated.
Then lastly, I love veggies but mostly in a raw state. Cooked broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, eggplant, spinach, asparagus almost make me gag in a cooked state. I don't want to be such a closed minded person to the veggies. Have any of you ever struggled with this same issue and overcome it?
Thanks for the input.
For me, the best way to change my diet is slowly. So when I first gave up meat, I gave up beef, but not all at once. I gave up ribs, then a little while later hamburger, then ground meat...you get the idea.
With dairy, I would try the same thing. It might help your family too. For instance, you could keep eating dairy but just only give up dairy yogurt and eat soy. Then you could gradually move to soymilk or cheese. With my nephews and niece, we changed their milk a little at a time -- 1 tablespoon of soymilk, then the rest regular milk and just kept changing the proportions over time.
You could also focus on foods where you won't notice it missing so much -- like mashed potatoes with soymilk won't taste that different, whereas grilled cheese with soy cheese is very different.
You could also focus on foods that don't have any dairy -- like Asian dishes or Indian dishes that use coconut milk.
Giving up dairy is no easy task, but it is an important one I think. I like McDougall's principles, but I don't find the recipes that tasty. I have had great success with this site. And my favorite cookbook is Vegan with a Vengeance. It's a great resource and none of the recipes make you miss dairy.
Good luck.
Vegan Dr. Bernard in his book "Breaking the Food Addiction" states that dairy is indeed addicting. So experiencing "withdrawal" or at least missing it and craving it is probably normal. I hope it gets better for you over time.
I'm not sure what you're saying in your last part. You enjoy raw veggies but not cooked? Is there a problem with that? Why not eat your veggies as a salad and just go with that?
Eating lots of raw veggies is actually a pretty good thing; 98% of them are better for you that way. So, go ahead, shovel 'em in. :P
Just remember, there are a few veggies, I can think of spinach, carrots, and tomatoes off the top of my head, that actually benefit health-wise from a very light steam or heating. It enhances the absorbability of some vitamins by breaking down the fiberous materials that your body has to work around to get at the nutrients. With spinach, it gets rid of some of the oxalates, which block the absorbtion of calcium and iron from the vegetable. (Most of the oxalates will remain intact however, so don't rely on spinach to provide any sizeable portion of your calcium or iron needs. Kale is much lower in oxalates, so it's a more reliable source for both.) And of course, processed/cooked tomatoes provide larger concentrations of lycopene; eat them with a bit of oil to enhance it even further. (Think a good traditional slow simmered, olive-oil drenched marinara sauce... drool.) So, pig out on the raw veggies, but try to find a few good side dishes every once in a while that feature a gently cooked veggie that you really enjoy.
Just for the record, raw foodists, please don't ream me. :P I will say that the majority of vegetables are infinitely more beneficial when consumed in their natural raw state. And organic is always a great idea too. :P