https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 07 Jun 2026 07:57:59 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1274458 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 16:09:36 +0000 Baby Boy Mom 1274458@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was veg for many years and then became pescatarian. That was the time my body felt the best. At the end of my first pregnancy I had to introduce some red meat and in small amounts it was fine. When I was pregnant with my second LO I craved red meat a lot, probably because I was also still nursing. I was really looking forward to being pescatarian again, but alas this LO has MSPI. After being essentially vegan for a couple of weeks I felt horrible and so have been slowly introducing more meat into our diet. I can't say I love it by any means but until LO weans it is a necessary evil. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1274393 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:45:10 +0000 deerylou 1274393@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Former vegan; I currently eat about 75% vegetarian. My body accepted the reintroduction of meat and dairy pretty well - red meat was a little challenging, at first. I have never been able to load up on dairy products, so I still limit my consumption, drink almond milk over cows milk, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1274361 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 15:34:31 +0000 honeybear 1274361@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Crystal: I have a few favorite cookbooks I riff off of. The most accessible ones are published by Betty Crocker (search "meatless" or "vegetarian" in Amazon). My BC books are old, but I imagine the newer versions are generally of the same ilk: not-super-fancy, but substantial soups/salads, casseroles, one-pot dishes, etc. I recently purchased Martha Stewart's "Meatless" book, and I think it's a pretty solid starting point, too. </p> <p>@dojo: One thing about cooking with a baby in the house: I think it's hard for a while, no matter what you eat/prepare. I felt like a total failure as a cook for probably a year after LO was born. Cooking was something I used to enjoy spending time doing, and suddenly it was just another chore that took too long. It gets so much easier to cook once the baby stage is over and you can get your toddler involved (or set them up with something else to do while you chop onions). </p> <p>Oh yeah, and I like the smell of bacon, too. On the very rare occasion when I do make it, I make myself some fake bacon as well. I usually don't eat meat substitutes, but BLATs are just too delicious! ;) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270899 Tue, 10 Dec 2013 01:04:27 +0000 dojo 1270899@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@nana87: That's part of my problem too where I just have certain preferences for foods and then other things that just gross me out for whatever reason. </p> <p>@Torchwood: You make a good point about not wanting to vilify DH. I think that is part of the reason I'm considering it. Plus even though I agree with the moral/ethical reasons to be vegan/vegetarian lately I feel like maybe I don't feel as strongly about it anymore. I'm sure I would continue to eat primarily veggies anyways.</p> <p>@MoonMoon: I agree with the compromise aspect. In an ideal world I would probably eat primarily vegan. Eating fish was a compromise for me but it certainly made eating out a lot more easy and it lessened the amount of time spent thinking about what I could eat. Did you just jump into eating eggs/dairy or do you only have them occasionally?</p> <p>@Dagny: I am afraid of feeling like a failure to myself. I hear you on the bad timing - I have had grand ideas of eating super healthy since LO was born but I hardly have time to cook a meal in the evenings and most of the time it's all carbs and not enough veggies anyways. I wish my husband cooked (or liked) more vegetables it makes it much harder!</p> <p>@Mrs.Someone: Do you think your body was just missing the protein? Sometimes I'm glad I eat fish because as a vegan I struggled to always get very much protein - I could only eat so many beans...</p> <p> @Greentea: What is the anti-inflammatory diet? I'm intrigued.</p> <p>@honeybear: That's the way I've always been - I will cook meat for my husband and I actually kind of enjoy trying new recipes but I've never really wanted to eat it. Oddly I love the smell of bacon but I'm never tempted to eat it (but maybe that would change if I actually remembered what it tasted like :wink: ) </p> <p>@Mrs. Jump Rope: That is what I'm afraid of! I dread the idea of my body reacting badly to anything if I try other meats again. I try to do the same thing with cooking meals that I can adapt to being veggie-friendly while still offering meat/eggs/dairy to LO and DH. Did you get sick the first time you tried to re-introduce meat or did you notice it over the course of time? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270545 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:47:50 +0000 Mrs. Jump Rope 1270545@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Strict vegetarian for 13 years; slowly started adding chicken back into my diet when I was pregnant in 2011. I eat chicken maybe 1-2x a month, and that's being generous.</p> <p>I got SICK. It was like my body didn't know how to break down the meat or something. If I eat something cooked with red meat (like my nana's vegetable soup is made with beef stock) my stomach goes hay-wire. It's bad.</p> <p>That said, my kid eats whatever she wants. If we have tacos, I make a side of rice &amp; beans and have that in my taco instead of ground beef! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270483 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:05:23 +0000 Crystal 1270483@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@honeybear: do you have any recipes you'd like to share? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270422 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:26:20 +0000 honeybear 1270422@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've been sort-of vegetarian for a long time (double digits in terms of years). By that I mean I eat fish and dairy, but not meat or poultry. I also like to cook (most of the time!). </p> <p>Since getting married and having LO, I have cooked meat for my family occasionally, but I don't have any desire to eat it. I do think, based on my experience cooking for them, that eating meat can make some meal prep a little easier. It's ridiculously simple to broil a steak or roast a turkey breast (none of us eat chicken). But even if I do that, I still have to make vegetables as a side dish, whereas vegetarian cooking lends itself readily to all-in-one dishes. I don't always serve casseroles or one-dish meals, but I'm not above dumping a bunch of veggies and cheese in an omelet, making a salad, and calling it dinner occasionally. ;) </p> <p>I find the all-in-one dishes mean my LO eats more veggies, so I like that aspect of it, as well as the convenience of not having multiple pans and baking dishes to wash on time-crunched evenings. The key for me was to find vegetarian recipes that don't require as much hands-on time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270392 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:13:26 +0000 Greentea 1270392@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am a pesco-vegetarian. I have been vegan and vegetarian in the past. Follow your intuition! I eat an anti-inflammatory diet and I feel so much better. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270382 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:00:53 +0000 Mrs.Someone 1270382@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was vegetarian for about 4 years, but eventually my digestive system revolted. It was super easy to go back to eating meat, my body was happy to get the protein. Most people have to go back slow and steady though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270306 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 18:14:06 +0000 Dagny 1270306@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was vegan for three and a half years before I got pregnant with our LO. About a month and a half into my pregnancy - I wanted meat. Like craved it constantly! At the time, I was so exhausted with fatigue and morning sickness, I just did what my body told me and started eating meat, which lead to eating other animal products as well. I wasn't thrilled about it, but wasn't beating myself up over it either. A couple weeks after our little guy was born, I didn't feel such a strong craving anymore and I felt like I wanted to go back to eating vegan. Pretty bad timing, haha! I simply couldn't manage to eat vegan again when I was relying on my mom and husband and could barely eat enough, period. Here I am, LO is almost 8 months old now and I've had a few attempts to eat plant-based again but haven't been able to stick to it successfully. On one hand, I'm happy about the experience because it has made me less extreme and I now feel like I will be happy with a mostly plant-based diet. On the other hand, I feel like a failure. </p> <p>At this point, I'm starting to think more about my LO since I would like to raise him eating mostly plant based. I'm hoping that motivation will allow me to focus more on our families diet. </p> <p>It is SO hard! I wish my husband cooked more plant-based food, but it's just not gonna happen. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270295 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 18:09:46 +0000 MoonMoon 1270295@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Former vegan, current vegetarian. In an ideal world, I would eat animal free all the time, but I couldn't devote that much brain/emotional energy to thinking about food any more. I don't eat meat or fish, but I find that eating some dairy &amp; eggs has made my life easier, though I feel it's a compromise if that makes any sense? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270266 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:57:52 +0000 Torchwood 1270266@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was a vegetarian for 3 years, and chose to go back when I got married. DH is a huge meat-eater, and I'm such a picky eater that trying to figure out meals was going to be hard. Plus I was concerned about how to explain to kids why mommy doesn't eat meat for moral reasons, but daddy does, without vilifying him.</p> <p>I had no issues reintroducing meat. I went fairly slowly, just in case my stomach wasn't happy about it, but I think I could have jumped right in with a steak and been fine. As for making the paradigm shift, I'm sort of abnormal on that sort of thing. Once I make up my mind on something, it's like I never felt any other way. Deciding to go back was a little tough, since I felt guilty about it, but once I made the decision I was fine with it. And I try to buy humanely sourced meat whenever possible. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270257 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:54:25 +0000 nana87 1270257@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I call myself a vegetarian: I've been one since I was 4. I had issues with the texture of meat (and still do with some non-meat foods, like large mushrooms, melted cheese that is super stringy, etc), and when I figured out that meat was animals, I was totally thrown off of it, and it was easier for my parents to go with it than fight me at every meal time since they had trouble getting me to eat meat in the first place.</p> <p>But I've started experimenting with a few things in the past years that don't bother me texture-wise: some seafood and fish (as long as it isn't too fishy-tasting--like, I like scallops, which have a tofu-like texture to me, but not salmon, which smells gross to me. I like raw tuna but not tuna cooked or in salad. weird!). I like some salami and cured meats--it has a texture similar to cheese for me. I don't mind bacon as long as it's small. </p> <p>So, clearly I'm not an exclusive vegetarian, and I know some vegetarians (particularly ones that are so because of moral/ethical reasons) would sneer at me or whatever. But the thing is, I'm not reliable enough in what I like and don't like yet to say that I'm a full on pescetarian or anything else--I usually just take bites off of other people's plates at restaurants or share dishes that have things I might like. I still eat completely veggie 90% of the time (especially now that I'm pregnant--I've barely had anything not veggie since I prefer raw fish to cooked).</p> <p>I really don't think there is anything wrong with changing, especially since it isn't a moral thing for me. I mean, I've been a vegetarian for 25 years so it's a huge part of me, but I think it would be so much easier I could just learn to like fish reliably! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/past-and-present-vegetarianspescetarians-i-need-your-input#post-1270205 Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:37:03 +0000 dojo 1270205@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>OK so a little background info: I currently eat nearly vegan most of the time but also eat fish and I will eat baked goods that may have a small amount of dairy or eggs in it occasionally. I went vegan when I was about 16 years old and then started occasionally eating fish/seafood about 5 years later mainly because it just became easier to order food out and it was the only meat that I really missed eating. Since then I tend to eat mostly vegan but I do enjoy eating fish (maybe 1-2 times a week). I don't really pick apart ingredient lists too much anymore but I do have sensitivity to dairy so I stay away from that. </p> <p>Here's my question: If you were vegan, vegetarian, or pescetarian in the past and went back to eating meat (all or just certain types) what was that experience like for you? Since having a baby I am starting to think about ease of mealtimes and how to help simplify our evening dinner routine and I don't know if I am totally against the idea of eating some meat again. I also don't know if I really like the idea all that much and I almost feel like I would be disappointed in myself somehow (if that makes sense). I feel like it has been a part of who I am for nearly 15 years so it seems a little surreal to even consider changing. </p>