You can be healthy eating a vegetarian diet. It's just harder (significantly) then it is for us omnivorous types.
A personal note... _ALL_ of the vegetarians I know are either unhealthy or fat. I think the problem is that junk food is so readily accessible and without proper meal planning with restricted food options... you tend to grab that junk food quite often simply because it's easy. It's funny that the vegetarians I know (and I know a few) rarely seem to eat veggies - except my aunt, who is buddhist. But then she barely eats overall and is the only skinny vegetarian I know (the rest are fat while she is unhealthy and can't even go on a long walk due to no energy).
I also think that a lot of people have a big problem eating a diet high in fat and carb's. I don't know the exact science behind it, so I don't want to spread misinformation. But I do think that people who eat high fat high carb diets tend to become fat.
How about whey protein powder for supplementation? Check out places like proteinfactory.com that allow you to customise your protein powder if you aren't comfortable with protein coming from milk (whey, casein, etc.) - they have egg and possibly other protein blends available. I am sure other sources are available.
If I were to go vegetarian, I would track my calorie intake and ensure I was getting enough protein and healthy fats/vitamins etc. I am no vegetarian, but I like to workout and keep some idea of what I eat, so I currently use fitday.com to track my dietary habits. I know there are better online tools available, but I have been using fitday for years and wouldn't want to lose the data.
I would like to spend my food budget on more ethically treated food - organically farmed foods, grass fed beef, honestly free range chickens etc. but can't afford it.
I have a list of sites in BC where you can buy food direct from farmers, but most want you to buy in sides of beef, which are for me too much to store... and I wouldn't know how to properly cut it up etc... Being in BC and you being in Alberta, I don't think any of my links would help you... although a quick google search would probably net you some good farms to purchase from in Alberta.
Best of luck with the new lifestyle!
|