Newbie

Hello

I am newly vegetarian/vegan. One week to be exact. I have had a headache since. Is that withdrawal from animal proteins? lol

I also am doing a body building program which I've been doing since 1 November this year. I'm following BFFM. I am doing this mainly for fat loss but I also want to gain muscle at the same time.

I am female and weigh 194 lbs and am 4'11" so I have a lot of weight to lose. I have type 2 diabeties and early stages of kidney disease because I did not control my diabetes (both of which are under control now) which is why I have gone to vegetarian/vegan.

I am using a soy protein powder which I am having twice a day as a protein shake with no fat soy milk. I am stumped as to how much should I eat and what should I eat for me personally for my height, weight and exercise needs. I know I should eat 5-6 times a day. I want to make sure I get enough protein to meet my weight lifting needs. I don't want to eat high fat. I am scared that eating nuts and seeds will be high fat. Don't I have to eat them daily to get the nutrients I need?

I am also taking Udo's Choice oil daily spread throughout the day. I am also taking EPO, a multi vitamin, a B12 vitamin, a calcium vitamin and a Woman's Iron vitamin (I a borderline anaemic).

I really would love some advice and info about how I should go about this. I want to do the right thing for myself and I want to keep on doing the weight lifting. Maybe someone could suggest what I should eat during a day to meet my needs??

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Welcome!

Before talking about your questions in detail I think you should read some topics about protein, nutrition and supplements.

Concerning your intake of medications ad supplements I would say: Take a condition of taking none of them as a goal and try to reach this goal slowly (in month) as long as this is okay with your health (diabetis, kidney disease).

What is the reason for your epo-intake?

Maybe two little advices:

1. As long as yout diet consists of a great variety of vegan food and of course is unprocessed (little white flour, sugar!), it usually has little fat, enough protein and a lot of healthy carbs, fiber, vitamins, minerals and more. Don`t worry so much about getting enough. Looking at the diseases you already have you should better worry about getting too much...

2. Always remember: A disease does not come from the lack medication

Welcome!

Welcome flowerdale.

Flowerdale, welcome!

If you are a new vegan, please pick up the following book. It is essential and has all that you need to know about being a healthy vegan:

"Becoming Vegan" by Brenda Davis and another author but I forget her name.

Many people here went vegan for primarily health reasons, like high blood pressure, cholesteral etc and they are much healthier for it and wouldnt look back. Anyway, you may want to also contact the Physicians Committe for Responsible Medicine. They do lots of research on how a vegan diet can realy be the solution for diabetes, etc. Their website is www.pcrm.org.

Finally, in addition to your health, here is another reason why you have made a great decision to go vegan:

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=meet_your_meat

Hope that helps!

Natalie

Welcome!

Before talking about your questions in detail I think you should read some topics about protein, nutrition and supplements.

Concerning your intake of medications ad supplements I would say: Take a condition of taking none of them as a goal and try to reach this goal slowly (in month) as long as this is okay with your health (diabetis, kidney disease).

What is the reason for your epo-intake?

Maybe two little advices:

1. As long as yout diet consists of a great variety of vegan food and of course is unprocessed (little white flour, sugar!), it usually has little fat, enough protein and a lot of healthy carbs, fiber, vitamins, minerals and more. Don`t worry so much about getting enough. Looking at the diseases you already have you should better worry about getting too much...

2. Always remember: A disease does not come from the lack medication

I have read alot about protein, carbs, supplements and nutrition and how each works and effects the body. There's a lot of controversy out there about how much protein and how often, that supplements are good/are no good and everbody says "their" way is the best way in regards to nutrition. So I am quite confused to say the least. And I believe doing weight lifting requires a more optimum diet as compared to someone who does no weight lifting.

My health professionals would "hit the roof" so to speak if I decided to stop the medications. My "goal" is to stop all my medications eventually. But diet and exercise has to come first and then it will show up on blood tests - then my health professional team would ok me stopping the medication.

My reason for EPO intake? Bitch factor! On a scale of 1-10 - I'm off the charts. Taking EPO reduces the bitch factor down to 1 or none.

In regards to my diet. I don't have any white flour products or sugars (even before I changed to vegan) or anything processed for that matter. Real whole food is best.

So basically what you're saying is it doesn't matter whether I weight lift or not, eating a variety of vegan foods would be fine?

Thank you for your kind welcomes!

Compassionategirl.

Thank you for those links.

I am loading the video now. I already know what they do - it's unforgivable and heart wrenching.

Hi Flowerdale, welcome to our forum

I am newly vegetarian/vegan. One week to be exact. I have had a headache since. Is that withdrawal from animal proteins? lol

Actually, it might be, but there are a lot of other posible reasons for a headache Some people experience withdrawal symptoms for a short time, like getting off a drug.

Make sure you drink enough. I don't know the exact stage of your kidney damage, but if it's an early stage, you still can drink lots of water.

Other reasons i can only guess - did you change anything else in the past week? Medicaments? Sleeping pattern?

I have type 2 diabeties and early stages of kidney disease because I did not control my diabetes (both of which are under control now) which is why I have gone to vegetarian/vegan.

 

I am using a soy protein powder which I am having twice a day as a protein shake with no fat soy milk. I am stumped as to how much should I eat and what should I eat for me personally for my height, weight and exercise needs. I know I should eat 5-6 times a day. I want to make sure I get enough protein to meet my weight lifting needs. I don't want to eat high fat. I am scared that eating nuts and seeds will be high fat. Don't I have to eat them daily to get the nutrients I need?

Don't worry about getting enough protein. The high protein diet for athletes is a good part myth. Especially as your main goal is fat loss, not muscle gains, you don't need exaggerated amount of protein. A healthy, wholesome diet will provide enough.

It's discussed controversely if high protein intake is detrimental for patients with kidney disease or not. I think it doesn't help and probably is harmful, so my advice would be to go for a balanced vegan diet with an average protein intake.

Nuts and seeds are high in fat, but also high quality nutrition. Eat up to a handful every day, more is not necessary. Sprouts are very good source of protein and other nutritients while low in calory, ideal food for dieting. Grounded flax seeds are the best vegan source of fatty acids.

I am also taking Udo's Choice oil daily spread throughout the day. I am also taking EPO, a multi vitamin, a B12 vitamin, a calcium vitamin and a Woman's Iron vitamin (I a borderline anaemic).

What is EPO? I only know this as erythropoetin, but i doubt you mean that...

I really would love some advice and info about how I should go about this. I want to do the right thing for myself and I want to keep on doing the weight lifting. Maybe someone could suggest what I should eat during a day to meet my needs??

Weightlifting is a good idea. It helps maintaining and gaining health and will help your goal of weight loss better than any other form of exercise.

As you're still a beginner, don't exaggerate. Learn correct form of the exercises and put it as first priority.

Don't get too excited about your diet. Don't overanalyze. Eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits, along with some legumes, tofu, whole grains, salads etc. Eat lots of raw food, it's great for weight loss and healthy

Have fun and success, keep us updated on your journey

Love and peace,

Daywalker

Welcome flowerdale.

I am newly vegetarian/vegan. One week to be exact. I have had a headache since. Is that withdrawal from animal proteins?

Not sure what exactly causes it, but you're not the only one. I had some headaches, congestion and other random symptoms for the first few weeks, too. I even had a couple days of flu-like achiness. What helped for me was eliminating bread/rice/pasta/cereal temporarily. Also, lots of water and naps helped with the detox.

Do you find yourself wanting to eat like eight meals a day? That happened to me at first and I'd get headaches if I didn't eat as soon as I got hungry. I was seriously freaking everyone out with how much I was eating, and not gaining any weight. No clue why - maybe it was just my body adjusting to real food vs. the fast food and crap I'd been eating previously, and craving nutrition. I'm back to a normal meal schedule now and feeling good overall, but that first month was crazy.

Daywalker

I think it was withdrawal symptoms. My headache has near disappeared. I am drinking lots of water. That's one thing I always do. About 2-3 litres a day. And yes it's early stages of kidney disease so it's okay to still drink water - thank god!

Yes I read alot of information about animal protein and kidney disease something I wish my doctor had told me. He said I would need to stay on my medication for LIFE! That's what he thinks! lol. So going vegan and eating plant-based proteins is the right thing to do.

What is EPO? I only know this as erythropoetin, but i doubt you mean that...

No. lol It's Evening Primrose Oil. Evening Primrose Oil is extracted from the Evening Primrose plant. It's a source of gamma-linolenic acid. The health benefits include helping to lower blood cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, reduce anxiety, assist with pre-menstrual symptoms such as irritability (bitch factor!), bloating and breast tenderness and maintain healthy skin. Also a source of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids. But as I'm eating nuts and seeds I shouldn't need the Evening Primrose Oil anymore as I believe nuts and seeds have gamma-linolenic acid and omega 3 and 6 essential fatty acids in them. Is that right?

Don't get too excited about your diet. Don't overanalyze. Eat lots of fresh veggies and fruits, along with some legumes, tofu, whole grains, salads etc. Eat lots of raw food, it's great for weight loss and healthy

I'm not so stressed about it now. I will be fine. Thank you Daywalker. You've given me lots of great advice.

Hi Michelle

My headache has just about disappeared so I believe it was withdrawal symptoms. I have eliminated all bread, pasta and cereal but am still eating rice. I didn't intentionally do this it's just happened. I wasn't eating much bread and pasta before anyway. And I'm drinking lots of water. And I sometimes sneak a nap in the afternoon anyway. The benefits of not working lol. I am feeling quite good today.

I normally eat about 5-6 small meals a day anyway so I haven't really noticed wanting to eat lots during the day. Before I started eating vegan last week I was eating Body for Life style. Six small meals a day. A portion of lean protein (animal) and a portion of complex carbs for each meal plus veggies/salad for 2 of them so I was eating healthy (so to speak). But I was having a lot of egg whites, like 8-10 a day so I was eating a fair bit of protein and then stopping the meat products cold turkey (excuse the pun) so I believe that would have brought on my headache which lasted the week.

Anyway thanks for your advice.

Welcome! Good to hear your headaches have gone away.

The "drink lots of water" advice has worked well for me. I used to get headaches but drinking more water has cured about 90% of them

flowerdale,

Veg sources of omega 3's are pretty much only in walnuts, hemp seed and flax seed. And only flax seed really has enough to balance out all the omega 6's people get in other foods. I try to take a couple spoonfuls of flax seed oil twice a day. If you buy some make sure it's refrigerated whereever you buy it, and if it tastes horrible that means it still went bad somehow. It should have a neutral taste.

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but I don't think rice is good for diabetics. I think the glycemic index is too high? (It digests too fast, makes too great an insulin rush??) I know three lifelong vegetarians who ate quite healthy and yet have developed diabetes who also have eaten rice almost every day of their life. You might want to look into the glycemic index of foods and try to select foods on that basis. (I could be wrong, not a doctor, been a long time since I looked into this.)

Also please know that vegans need a B-12 supplement. I'd recommend a liquid supplement, although without it, it can take a few years) or many decades) for problems to develop.

Detox is for real and it does cause headaches, body aches, etc. I didn't get any when becoming vegan but when I fasted for a week I got a headache for the first time in many years.

Thanks for the welcome Will!

flowerdale,

Veg sources of omega 3's are pretty much only in walnuts, hemp seed and flax seed. And only flax seed really has enough to balance out all the omega 6's people get in other foods.

Thanks Jay. I think I'll get some flax oil so I don't have to worry - cause I certainly don't want my bitch factor to rise again lol. Unfortunately hemp seed and all like products are banned here in Oz so I can't get any of that. Wish I could - it sure is a great high quality protein.

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about but I don't think rice is good for diabetics. I think the glycemic index is too high? (It digests too fast, makes too great an insulin rush??)

I only eat brown rice Jay and only 1/2 cup cooked daily. The GI of brown rice is 55 so it falls just under the low GI category and white rice is classified medium GI at 58. So there really is not much of a difference is there. Anyway, I'm just going to see how my blood sugar readings go while eating vegan with the brown rice and then make a decision whether to stop eating the rice or not.

Also please know that vegans need a B-12 supplement. I'd recommend a liquid supplement, although without it, it can take a few years) or many decades) for problems to develop.

I am taking a B12 supplement in tablet form but I have noticed that the soy milk I have has B12 in it. It unfortunately doesn't say how much but I'm going to find out so I may not need to take the supplement. So what difference is there between tablet form and liquid form?

I appreciate your advice Jay thank you.