Dining Out Tips for a Vegan/Vegetarian

Don't be Scared to Eat Out! 

When I sit wondering what my next blog post will be about, a topic always comes up! Something that I have realized from talking to my non-vegetarian friends is that they feel like if they became a vegetarian or vegan, they would lose the opportunity to eat delicious food and restaurants. A common misconception is that restaurants do not have alternative options. The truth is however, that you just have to do a little research... Or, read this blog post. 

I went out to eat last night (the first night since I am a vegan)! My family and I went to a local restaurant in a quaint, historic, small town. To get ready, I looked at the menu online beforehand. It definitely helped with alleviating awkwardness!

I sat down at the restaurant the moment of truth came! The waitress walked over and asked me what I’d like to eat and when everyone ordered homemade pasta (which contains eggs!), I proudly said “black bean burger with a side of steamed veggies please!”. But, of course, life is not always as easy as a bowl of cherries and next came the real test: dessert time. I looked at the menu, and the options were: Caramel double chocolate brownies, homemade red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting, strawberry shortcake. “Great”, I thought. “Maybe on the off chance, one of those won’t contain eggs”. Turns out that they all did, and guess what, I was the lame one at the table who ordered a fruit cup! Yes, I said it. A fruit cup. And, I’ll be honest, when I happily (but reluctantly) ate my fruit salad, my friends did not judge me! They were impressed. So, next time you’re out, be proud to be different.

Something else that I have learned, is to eat a snack beforehand if you know that you are going to an annual barbecue festival. Granted, you probably should not go to the barbecue festival if you have the choice, but if not, then you can even bring a sandwich with you.

Last week when I went on a camping trip, I packed a load of healthy snacks even though my friends were packing a lunch for me. So, being vegan requires preparation beforehand. At your grocery store, grab the produce that is on sale for that week (last week it was carrots and strawberries). Then, wash and prepare them. So, peel the carrots and chop the leaves off of the strawberries. Put them into a Tupperware container and the next time you are on the run and need a snack, you don’t have to worry about the effort to clean the carrots etc. I also pre-measure an ounce of nuts and place them in snack bags and store them in my cupboard. So basically you are making your own 100 calorie/ 1 serving snacks. Moral of the story? Be prepared ahead of time and make grab-and-go snacks.

Third, don’t be afraid to ask the waiter for their vegetarian or vegan suggestions. It never hurts to ask for dairy-free or vegetarian meals because the waitresses know what they are talking about! A trend that I have gotten into is asking the person taking my order what a common vegan item is. At Starbucks this morning for example, I asked what the most common soy milk drink was and the answer was “an iced soy chai tea latte with an drizzle of vanilla syrup and a shot of espresso”. Without the barista, I never would have thought of that! It was delicious and low fat (by the way!). Then, at  Bodo’s, a famous local bagel place here in town, the cashier taking my order said that many people order a hummus and olive spread sandwich on a whole wheat bagel – and I threw on bean sprouts for the fun of it.

I hope this helps!

My First Experience as a Vegetarian

On December 11, when I decided to become a vegetarian, I thought that I was merely giving up meat. That would be easy right? Making a lifestyle change is never easy and requires time and careful planning, so I’m writing this post to provide some tips that I wish I would have known. Meat obviously provides protein and so do plants. The technical definition of protein, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is

“Any of a class of nitrogenous organic compounds that consist of large molecules composed of one or more long chains of amino acids and are an essential part of all living organisms, especially as structural components of body tissues such as muscle, hair, collagen, etc., and as enzymes and antibodies”.

 Protein is essential for growth and repairing our bodies and it also makes you feel satisfied after eating. If you wonder why they make protein shakes or protein bars, it’s a low-calorie way to stay full longer. Once you take meat out of your diet, you need to replace it with an equal protein. Otherwise, you’ll make my mistake in not understanding why I was so hungry all the time.

Instead of looking for proteins, I looked for anything that looked good in a college dining hall: carbohydrates and fats. Pizza, muffins, ice cream, cereal. These things aren’t bad – in moderation. But, eating pizza once a day, or even three times a week, builds up, and trust me, you’ll experience weight gain. To be honest, I did not know what was wrong with me. How could I be exercising 4 days a week, getting 7 hours of sleep, and gaining weight as a vegetarian? So, I went to a nutritionist that UVA offers. For free! College students! You are paying for all of the services that your university provides for you like a nutritionist or counseling services! Use them! Anyway, I told my nutritionist and she had me take a picture of everything that I ate for 4 days. Now, this is how you become truly accountable: with pictures. Because you can’t lie about how many mashed potatoes you truly ate, or exactly how large that frappucino was. From that, we took running totals of the amount of grains, milk, protein, carbohydrates, and fats that I was eating over a long period of time. Turns out that I was eating three times as many carbohydrates and half as little protein. My main problem was: how do you get non-meat protein in a dining hall?? It’s practically impossible! Turns out that it’s not! Read the next blog post to find out!

So be careful and don’t make the mistake that many first-time vegetarians make. Takeaway: replace meat protein with plant protein.