low carb for nearly vegetairuan, is it possible?

[MamaChocoholic]

I am an ex fussy eater and vegetarian, having recently (2 years ago) tried to introduce fish into my diet. I need to lose some wright and the arguments behind low carb make some sense, but is it possible if your diet is mostly veggie? I try to eat fish once or twice a fortnight, but don't enjoy it, and hate meat, cow's milk, eggs any way except scrambled. My protein is mostly soya, nuts and cheese.

Anyone got any suggestions where I should look for menu suggestions?

It's not possible to low-carb healthily because everything in a vegetarian diet, with the exception of dairy products and eggs are carbohydrates. With your dietary restrcitions you'd end up living on scrambled eggs and cheese.

My suggestion would be to calorie-count and significantly up your exercise levels. Make sure each meal includes a vegetable protein element, some fat and use high-fibre Low GI wholefoods as the starchy content. Avoid heavily processed foods, fake meats, artificial sweetners and anything containing a lot of salt, sugar and other preservatives. Drink plenty of water. Weigh out what you're eating carefully rather than guessing, space the meals out well during the day so that you have a steady stream of energy to burn. And then get moving.

Rose Elliot's book "The Vegetarian Low-Carb Diet" is a good starting point for veggie low carbing. The first half of the book is all the stuff you need to know about vegetarian low carbing, FAQ ect & the second half is lots of recipes. Good news that you like soya as you can base many recipes around tofu.

With my diet today I realise I also like nuts and beans, good protein there. I've been trying to do high(er than normal) protein rather than low carb per se and do find a handful of nuts is more filling than a few biscuits.

I'll look out the Rose Elliot book next time I'm in the library for more ideas.

I do genuinely prefer whole foods, but there is an amount of processed food too, as meals have to be toddler friendly (so white bread not brown, for example). I'm not going to do food weighing having had issues with food before, but am trying to change how I eat instead. I am doing more exercise, a little detour on my cycle commute to work, swimming at least once a week now, but hard, again, to fit much in around kids and work.