Sooo... You want to be a vegetarian? (Part 1- The Basics)

I have recieved a couple requests to write about how I eat and plan my vegetarian meals. Most people are suprised that I eat so, well, normal. For some reason people percieve vegetarianism as costly and dificult, with hours of planning and analizing your food. And while you can do that..... you don't really have to. I've decided to do this post in a few sections to help all you budding vegetarians (and friends and family of vegetarians) plan and eat in a way that is both healthy and cost effective. First I'm going to give you some basics, than teach you a bit about the nutrition behiend vegetarianism, and finally give you a few basic rules to live and eat by.

First, Vegetarianism should:

• Taste good
• Make you feel happy and healthy
• Give you enough energy
• Allow you to eat with friends and family on a regular basis
• not be boring

Vegetarianism should not:

• Make you feel like gagging when you eat
• Make you tired
• Make you lose an unhealthy amount of weight
• Force you to always eat alone
• Force you to eat the same thing every night
• be a bad experience

And you should know there are a couple of different kinds of vegetarians

• Vegan Vegetarian- Avoiding all animal products including meat, eggs, dairy, honey, leather, wool, etc.
• Lacto Vegetarian- Avoids meat and eggs but will eat dairy aand honey
• Lacto Ovo Vegetarian- Avoids meat 
• Pescatarian- NOT a vegetarian, but still an alternative eating style. Avoids meat but will eat seafood and fish.
• Flextarian- Also called partial vegetarian, eats a mostly vegetarian diet with meat every once in a while.

ON TO NUTRITION!!!!