For me it was not that hard because I was married to a vegetarian (still am actually). She never thought I would switch, we would go out to eat and she would order salad and I would order steak. I’d have to say it was somewhat of a gradual change since we rarely had meat at home. My advice follows:

1. Don’t think that just because you are a vegetarian means that you have to eat salad all the time. This is the biggest myth I had to get my co-workers and friends to understand.

2. Go with ethnic foods when you feel like it. Think about all the Chinese, Italian, and Mexican foods that have no meat at all! See if you like Indian food.

3. Pasta is a staple of my diet, but so are beans. I agree with a previous poster that you don’t want to just want to go heavy on carbs, but if I am at a restaurant with meat eaters spaghetti with marinara is a staple with me.

4. Get used to meat substitutes. Not just veggie burgers but also I think the fake lunch meats are quite good. I also like the fake chicken patties.

5. This is the most important. Becoming a vegetarian for health reasons is very good (that’s why I did it at first) but also remember that doughnuts are vegetarian! You still have to be careful what you eat and avoid processed sugars and corn syrups. I lost weight and lowered my cholestorol the first year I was a veggie (it’s been three now ) but have gained recently because of eating lots of dessert.

It’s like anything else in life that is worth doing, you have to make a commitment to it. I occasionally miss having a hotdog at a baseball game (isn’t that gross??) but mostly the thought of meat makes me kind of ill right now. I don’t think I’ll ever be going back to eating cows and chickens!