WARNING: The info below may contain elements that sound like complaining, but i promise it's not. It's moreso a feeble attempt at humor and it's all true.
I've tried to go vegetarian before, but i quit b/c i didn't know what to eat. This time i've done my research, and though i've only been a vegetarian for a little over a week i've discovered and tried some recipes for vegetarian meals that i actually like using morningstar farms products. (thanks to some of my more experienced vegetarian friends).
I love animals, but that's not the reason i decided to go vegetarian. It's moreso because im getting tired of every food being declared dangerous. Elevated levels of mercury in salmon, eat beef (which i wasn't particularly fond of anyway) and get mad cow etc. Being vegetarian seems healthier and i've always wanted to grow my own food!
My problems are:
1) Lunch- my school has no vegetarian and definitely no vegan friendly FOOD. No lie and no exaggeration, if you go into the sub line and ask for a vegetarian sub, you get this huge sub roll with lettuce, and cheese. Or you can have a salad made of lettuce, pickles and more lettuce. They have cheese pizza but run out of every day leaving me to get my pickle salad. -_-. This wouldn't be as bad if they at least let us use a microwave, but they won't. So instead of simply heating up some of my leftover stir fry from last night, i sit down every day to home made gormet pb%26amp;j or pickle salad... I've been considering offering to donate a microwave to the school, but i doubt they'll allow it. What are some easy non-needing-to-be-heated things i could bring for lunch?
2) I run track. I would just not eat lunch and wait until i get home, but we have practice everyday so i need to eat. Last time, i made a salad from home (which didn't include pickles thank God), but my metabolism is really fast and I made the bad mistake of bringing nothing else. I figured salad with "chik'n strips" would be enough. Well, by the time we were like 10 minutes into our 30 minute WARM UP- meaning we hadn't even gotten to the workout, i was burned out. Are there any nutrients should i be focusing on getting so that i'm not ready to pass out by the time i get to practice?
3) As i've stated, i am a teenager so i've never really had to spend money on food before, but now that i am im realizing why i'm always hearing complaints about food prices. It's expensive! Like i said i'd like to start a garden but it's freezing out right now. What foods would you suggest buying that are nutritious and not super expensive? Should i buy more raw foods and produce and just mix them wit rice and pasta to "stretch" them or stick with frozen stuff?|||I'm a fellow teenager who is starting the switch to pescetarianism (almost like vegetarianism, except I'll still eat fish and seafood). Plenty of my friends are vegetarians or pescetarians, and a lot of us like to run. I've found that a hummus sandwich with some veggies on it (pea pods, carrots, and tomatoes are tasty) gives me a fair amount of energy but since, like you, I'm not a lifelong vegetarian it still feels like there is something missing. Snack-able carbs like pretzels and crackers fill up that leftover hole. I am a big fan of Wheat Thins since the slightly nutty wheat taste makes them seem more filling.
Some of my friends also have leftover vegetarian dinners for lunch. Grill or stir fry tofu and vegetables and put them in a wrap or something similar the next morning. Depending on what flavoring you use while cooking, this should taste good even cold.
I don't know if this exists, but I assume there is some sort of tofu based "deli meat" that could replace the turkey, bologna, or roast beef sandwich of past lunches.
Also, I'm not a big PB %26amp; J girl myself, but if you want to spice that up, some of my friends bring granola bars to lunch (Nature's Valley Oats 'n' Honey if the kind we have) and break them up into the sandwich so it has more substance.
As for salads, try adding nuts or seeds to the top, or something like croutons. I'm not a big fan of raw tofu, but if you like it then that would also be a good thing to add to the salad to make it more filling. Cheese or salad dressing can do wonders, too; sometimes if I think I should be full after a meal, I feel more full even if I didn't eat that much more. I also like to add fruit (e.g. mandarin oranges, Craisins, and apples chunks) to green salads to mix it up a bit. For a track participant, adding bananas would be smart, but you probably already know that.
If you like cold pizza, you could always bring some of that from home too.
If the thermos idea is a possibility, try bring ravioli/tortellini or something like that from home. That would be nice and filling. The tofu and veggie stir fry is also tasty. Also, vegetarian sweet potato and bean chili is very filling, as is this harvest bean pasta salad that is great hot or cold. Let me know if you want the recipes and I'll dig them up.
Hope this helped! Let me know if you think of anything, since I'm trying to make the switch as well.
***ALSO I just saw "Ciara E" give this answer to another vegetarian-related question: 'Quorn is really good and taste quite a lot like meat. You can also get really strong tasting mushrooms that are almost the same sort of flavour as meat.' I googled Quorn b/c I had never heard of it.... http://www.quorn.us//cmpage.aspx?section=WhatIsQuorn ."|||eat the pickle salad ive had it b4 and its not bad|||The other answerer had the right idea. A good insulated lunch box %26amp; thermos will give you a lot more options. Some good clean proteins are nut butters, beans of all sorts can be soup, chili or incorporated into salads or made into hummus. Mornigstar is great though a bit spendy . Check out some veggie sites for recipes for foods you already know you like. You can make a bean and cheese dip like a seven layer dip and pair it with whole grain chips or crackers and some other veggies. String cheese is easy and fast. A mock egg salad can be made from firm tofu. I make a mock chicken salad with a meat substitute and vegan mayo with some almonds, pickles. red onion and celery.|||It's not that fresh vegetables aren't good for you.. they're very good for you! But in the winter months when it's a bit difficult to get good fresh produce, it's the perfect time to use lots of winter veggies and grains and legumes. Potatoes, carrots, radishes, sweet potatoes, onions... try making a veggie stew. Very yummy. Add beans, lentils, and rice, to make whole proteins.
As for heating it up at school, try just getting a good thermos instead. This allows you to bring whatever you like and you don't have to worry about warming it up since it's already hot. A nice stainless steel double-walled thermos can work great. Be sure that it has enough capacity and a wide mouth so you can fit a lunch in there. Some of them are just designed for your morning coffee so they are slender and long - you don't want that, unless you feel like having watery soups every day for lunch.|||I became vegan as a teen specifically for athletic performance.
It wasn't my intention to be vegan, I just did my research on performance, digestion, nutrition, human biology, etc. and decided that animal products were slowing me down because they are not meant to be in my body -- it's like putting diesel fuel into a gasoline car, it will still work, but not very well at all.
First of all, if you can't cook, well, yeah, that takes practise like everything else. Experimentation, practise, trying new things, reading recipe books, taking cooking class, getting tips from others etc. It doesn't happen overnight.
Okay, so the type of food you should be focusing on for athletic performance is *QUALITY* food. That is, fresh, natural, organic, real unprocessed food. Forget about packaged foods, prepared foods, manufactured foods... think more like fruits, vegetables, legumes, beans, whole grains... etc. etc. I used to eat tonnes of pasta for my fuel but found that eating more from my garden was giving me far better performance than eating pasta (difficult to digest processed food). But, hey, pasta is easy and cheap, right? So, eat pasta, just add lots of veggies to it and gradually eat more veggies than pasta. Switch from pasta to whole grain organic rice. You will also find that your body will need time to adjust too. You might start eating healthier and for better performance, but since they are 'new' foods to your body, there is kind of a learning curve while your body learns to expect these new foods etc. Eat at least 20-40% raw foods -- the more the better. Baked yams and sweet potatoes with flax oil are great. Don't forget about your 'good fats' such as flax and hemp seed oils and etc. You need good fats. Cut out all dairy -- that stuff is BAD for you and performance. Not good for performance at all.
Anyway, send me messages with any specific questions. I did 15 years of bicycle racing, and 10 as a vegan, not to mention other sports and activities too. Remember, Carl Lewis the runner? He went vegan for athletic performance too.|||Well whole grain is definetly something you want to incorparate into your lunch. Whole grain takes awhile for your body to completely break down, so that way your body is always getting nutrients from it. Brown rice, steamed or cooked vegies, POTATOES!, some fresh fruit like apples and bananas has a good amount of nutrients. Definetly get a thermo. Also focus on protien, vitamin D, and calicum. Take a bottle of soy milk and that would be perfect XD. Stay away from stuff like milk, eggs, and cheese because those take a lot longer to break down and could end up giving you cramps. Beans may give your more cramps. Take cooked whole soy beans, those taste amazing. XD you'll be on your way to running faster and feeling better in no time.
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