More and more people are switching over to vegetarian lifestyles, for various reasons. These reasons may include health purposes, wanting to improve the state of the world, or ethical reasons. A few years back, people had many excuses for not cutting out meat. There were claims that a vegetarian lifestyle wasn’t healthy since you wouldn’t get enough protein. Or that it wasn’t easily accessible, since many places didn’t stock vegetarian foods or protein sources. Nowadays, these myths have been debunked. There are loads of plant-based proteins out there, and more and more vegetarian and vegan products are hitting the shelves each day.
That doesn’t mean you should become vegetarian – it’s not for everyone – but it does mean it will be easier if you would ever want to try it. Making the switch in lifestyle can be highly beneficial if done correctly. If you need further motivation, going vegetarian was listed as one of three ways to extend your life expectancy in this article. While there are many benefits to going vegetarian, you probably have no idea where to start. That’s what this post is for. Give it a read and then make the change.
Stick to your current diet
When making the change to a vegetarian lifestyle, you should try to stick to your current diet as much as possible. Minus the meat, of course. What we mean by this is that if you are following a specific diet – such as a high fat, intermittent fasting, or a keto diet, you should try and keep that while becoming vegetarian, at least at first. Cutting out meat is already a big change in your diet, and you don’t want to confuse your body by making many changes at the same time. Luckily, various keto vegetables make it possible for you to maintain your current diet or lifestyle.
Start slowly
If you go cold turkey and immediately cut out meat, you’ll likely struggle. Your energy levels may dip, you may feel hungrier than usual, and you’ll have cravings. All of these things make it very likely that you’ll relapse and give up on the vegetarian lifestyle. So, how do you effectively make the switch? Start by doing Meatless Mondays, which is a worldwide initiative to get people to lower their meat intake. This is a great way to slowly start eliminating meat from your diet while learning to make some new vegetarian recipes. Over time, you can increase the number of meatless days per week until you have a full vegetarian lifestyle.
Monitor your food
Once you’ve made the switch, it’s important to start monitoring what you eat daily, as well as the effects it has on your body. Changes in diet also lead to changes in energy levels, sleep, and even your skin. Keeping track of these things will allow you to see patterns that can help identify what food you need to eat more or less of. You don’t need to go out and buy a food journal – just track it via a note-keeping app.