How did you transition your diet?

[subaru]

It seems like such a huge change and one that I struggle to comprehend because it changes, well, the basis of my diet.

Looking forward to your replies!

One meal at a time makes it pretty easy.

So for lunch, rice and beans instead of meat. Pretty easy for that one meal.

I am going to look up recipes. I love rice so that's one stage done!

Just sharing my experience.
When I started to cut down on meat, I often become hungry between meals. Increasing carbohydrates could not prevent it.

I suspect what did it for me was when I substituted meat with boiled eggs. and gradually reduce it's intake. I also suspect the reduction of meat intake has to be accompanied by reduction of oil consumption. Now I (my body) can go without meat for weeks without a fuss, but I (my mind) often tell me that I need to take some meat for healthy balance... frankly, I am not sure if the view about balance is correct, although I know it's not important..

oh btw, I am fairly certain my choice of diet does not hinder my endeavor to reduce lobha, dosa, moha ... but certainly, insisting to others that my choice is right, does.

metta dude

[BlkMettaCat]

Just sharing my experience.
When I started to cut down on meat, I often become hungry between meals. Increasing carbohydrates could not prevent it.

I suspect what did it for me was when I substituted meat with boiled eggs. and gradually reduce it's intake. I also suspect the reduction of meat intake has to be accompanied by reduction of oil consumption. Now I (my body) can go without meat for weeks without a fuss, but I (my mind) often tell me that I need to take some meat for healthy balance... frankly, I am not sure if the view about balance is correct, although I know it's not important..

oh btw, I am fairly certain my choice of diet does not hinder my endeavor to reduce lobha, dosa, moha ... but certainly, insisting to others that my choice is right, does.

metta dude

This has been my experience as well. I'll have to look into reduction of oil and see if that works for me.

[samseva]

Well, carnivorous/three portions of meat per day and vegetarianism/veganism are two extremes (non-derogatory). There are many alternatives in the middle.

The belief that we should eat three portions of meat every day is absurd. I only eat one meal per day, so I also only eat one portion of meat daily, but if I were to eat three meals a day, eating only one portion of meat would be a very valuable alternative. Maybe that could be a good first step to transitioning?

[subaru]

This has been my experience as well. I'll have to look into reduction of oil and see if that works for me.

oh ya one more thing before I forget.. If it's my aspiration to relinquish the attachment to the taste of food then it might be beneficial for me to understand the role of condiments in my food.. I suspect it's not easy to dis-associate condiments from food because it has been there for thousands of years... but if I try then I am one step closer to better understand myself...

[rowboat]

Hello all,

Apologies if this has been asked elsewhere, but I am curious how people that became Buddhists transitioned(if they weren't already) to vegetarianism.

It seems like such a huge change and one that I struggle to comprehend because it changes, well, the basis of my diet.

Looking forward to your replies! :)

Vegetarianism has been part of a general shift to improving my overall health, which is not to minimize the ethical dimension to eating meat. For a long time I'd been eating one meal a day, but I was also in the habit of snacking in the evening as well. (As if that doesn't count.) As part of a long term effort to return to endurance athletics (nordic-freestyle skiing, long distance running) I learned about books like Eat & Run by ultramarathoner Scott Jurek. Soon I began to look at food strictly as fuel. (And in order to stave off habitual cravings for unhealthy snack food, as a bit of gamesmanship on my part, I have purchased the foods I used to snack on, and I keep them around, and they just sit there uneaten and unwanted.)

To view one's food as fuel, it's important to know roughly the amount of calories in all of the foods you eat. This is easy. There are hundreds of books and websites listing the caloric values for every food under the sun. Then you determine your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) or the amount of calories you burn in a day while sedentary. Factoring in the calories you burn (with age, weight, sex, and the degree of one's physical activity in any particular day as variables) pretty soon your point-of-view about eating will be much more utilitarian and less about sensual enjoyment.

When you're in training it becomes apparent that meat is simply one source in a long list of available proteins, and from there it's easy to experiment and discover for oneself that plant proteins are the superior alternative.

[BlkMettaCat]

This has been my experience as well. I'll have to look into reduction of oil and see if that works for me.

oh ya one more thing before I forget.. If it's my aspiration to relinquish the attachment to the taste of food then it might be beneficial for me to understand the role of condiments in my food.. I suspect it's not easy to dis-associate condiments from food because it has been there for thousands of years... but if I try then I am one step closer to better understand myself...

True, condiments are very important. They can make bland food much more palatable to the taste buds. I personally, tend to use a lot of pepper on my food for a bit of a kick. I'm definitely attached to sweets, probably because of my childhood but i'm working on breaking those habits.