How I did it: First step was to analyse my actual meat & fish intake and to see how much I had to change. Didn't turn out to be that much after all. Then I started choosing only the vegetarian options when eating out (which is quite easy in Belgium because every place has at least 1 dish with just vegetables). The trickiest part is to start cooking without meat or fish, but once you get experimenting with lentils, chickpeas etc, you'll find yourself loving it :)

Lessons & tips: Do it slowly and gradually, don't feel bad when you can't avoid meat or fish straight away. It's a process, and not a religion. I'm against the idea that a vegetarian has to refuse everything which has a little bit of meat/fish in it, sometimes you just have to concede.

Resources: I got "How to cook everything vegetarian" by Mark Bittman, but it's a bit too technical for my liking.
There's a good Flemish website (www.vegetarisme.be) with recipes that I like, I'm sure there's lots more info on the internet in English.
Apparently the book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer is very convincing even for carnivores!

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May 22, 2011, 05:43AM PDT | 0 comments | 6 cheers