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Ex-vegan, current vegetarian needs some help to get back


GinsuFrenzy
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Ok, I have two problems. I'll make it brief.

 

I just finished a U.S. tour and after a year being vegan, I had no choice but to slip back into vegetarianism. I didn't beat myself up for it because I was practically starving to death for 2 weeks with the lack of healthy options at restaurants and the lack of grocery stores in site throughout the midwest especially. And the grocery store route was way too expensive and wasteful when it came to purchasing vegan/health options, but most importantly I didn't travel with a stove or microwave to cook anything (minivan only). Anyways....

 

Anyone have any touring advice when it comes to staying vegan, and most importantly... HEALTHY. I'm done with stopping at Chevrons and picking up salty potato chips and frito dip. What does one do in a country full of fast food exits on freeways and slaughterhouses galore?

 

 

Second problem is..

 

After 2 years of being meat-free, I've learned time and time again that soy just doesn't agree with my body. Even one glass of soy milk now will just wreck me, and tempeh and tofu are no exceptions. Edamame I've found is just as bad. I will spend a whole week farting my brains out, and the stench it produces is even more ludacris. I'm finding the only diet that works with my digestive system and makes me feel good is organic lacto-ovo vegetarian. Basically, my question is.. if I hate rice and almond milk and soy has fucked me up so bad.. what substitutes are there left? And without soy products for protein (whole protein, all 9 amino acids which soy has) what can I substitute? I'm rather skeptical on consuming only nuts and beans, as they're not complete proteins but I'm sure it is possible. I eat vegan 90% of the time but these issues are just finally starting to bug me out.

 

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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It's too bad you couldnt find much to eat. I'd probably get sick of taco bell and subway, those being the only fast food places i know I can get something vegan. Though i find it easy to deal with burrito and italian places too. I'd probably buy a lot of fresh produce as well, travel with cereal, and refried beans and chips are not too bad. You could consult happycow.com to find some veg places wherever you are going, but not everywhere has places.

 

I think we have some people here that dont eat soy, and I posted a link to an interview with a dietician, and she said its very possible to eat no soy and be vegan. Ive found out that with beans you should avoid eating starchy, high sugar foods (pretty much fruits) before you eat the beans, give about 2 hrs of space inbetween the fruit eating and then bean eating. That will help with gas. Sprouting beans also is good, and the smaller beans like mung beans I find more agreeable than larger beans. I think nuts are pretty good protein. You'll probably get recommendations for hemp protein, possibly pea and rice as well since they come in powder form.

 

By the way welcom to the forum, and thanks for posting!

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Thanks.

 

Yeah believe me, 2 or 3 times of goin to Taco Bell was enough for me. Shit quality food, and everytime I get a ''beef and potato'' burrito and ask to substitute the beef for beans, they just charge it the same but add beans for extra charge. Place is a damn rip off and the guacomole is even worse. Subway is just as rotten. Bread is always stale, and very few of them other than up and down the west coast offer the veggie patties, which are all not vegan anyway.

 

Ah well. I find it much easier to eat vegan at home most of the time and be a touring/traveling vegetarian when options run out. I wish it was a perfect world. Some people can manage on potato chips and bean dip. I'm over 6 feet tall and 190 lbs. I need my fresh veggies, lean protein and healthy fats so I don't get sick and feel like crap all the time.

 

P.S. I noticed you like ExC, haha I actually asked Scott and Ian some of these questions and they were at a loss of words in giving advice because of how rough they had it eating out on the road. I guess I'm not alone in that way.

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I've met a bunch of vegans that have cycled all the way accross the country...some with very very little money. Depending on the routes you take there are tons of pruduce stands that tend to be extremely cheap(even compared to Walmart in many cases) especially in the south, and the midwest...which can allow you to allocate most of your money for the more expensive regions. As for taco bell...a bean buritto may be shit but its better for you than anything with cheese...bars a another good way to get around it...cliff/luna bars are dirt cheap on ebay(less then $.50 after shipping for mine)...anyway my cycling buddies said it wasn't tough at all...it was dealing with the hillbillies that gave them trouble

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When I travel, I take a stock of vegan meal-replacement bars with me, and get fresh produce on site. Also, you can find vegan options in Middle Eastern, Mexican and Chinese restaurants (though I admit, the latter can get pretty monotonous: I was in Kansas City for two days (beef capital of the US!) and ended up in the same Chinese restaurant both days (eating pretty much the same thing!)

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Ohh cool you could talk to them. I know I saw some picture of them eating those quaker oat packages while touring...you could eat those, but i agree its pretty hard if you are just on the road a lot. I guess you could luck out and your destination have a lot of vegan options such as New York

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Ohh cool you could talk to them. I know I saw some picture of them eating those quaker oat packages while touring...you could eat those, but i agree its pretty hard if you are just on the road a lot. I guess you could luck out and your destination have a lot of vegan options such as New York

 

Hah, funny you mention Nyc. That's actually where I broke down and swung back vegetarian. It's weird because I actually didn't eat pizza whatsoever for 2 days while we were there. I vowed to stay vegan. Then last day we were there I was so fuckin starved and sick of paying 13 bucks for black bean pastries and parsley leaves at gay ass ''vegan friendly'' restaurants. I got a vege-pizza for that price at an even more fancy restaurant and it was 3 times as filling. The hard part about tracking down vegan-friendly restaurants and random grocery stores is exactly that.. hard. I spent 2 weeks calling my mom to have her get on happycow.com or whatever and list all the locations and numbers for me. It was a nightmare. Most of the places downright sucked too and were a pain to get to depending on what venue or hotel we ended up at.

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I didnt have a hard time, and I never went to any of the places on happy cow except vegan palate. I went to some cuban place, had indonesian food, did some grocery shopping, mediteranian. Pretty good. I need to have another food tour through there to hit up some of the known places. Even the McDonalds has the vegan option. I read its pretty good.

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New York is cluttered with not just vegan friendly restaurants but vegan restaurants...honestly if I was a carnivore I don't think I could eat in NY without accidently winding up at one of the vegetarian/vegan restaurants...they have a rediculous number of them...surely you could have simply asked someone in person

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good luck on your trek back to Veganism. Maybe we'll be able to here some more Vegan Uprise tracks? Unless this isn't Luke from Sleep Terror....then I'll feel stupid. But, usually when it comes to cities like NY all you really have to do is ask the locals where some good veggie hot-spots are.

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