How can I ensure my body gets all the nutrition it needs after excluding meat and dairy from my diet?

I've been wanting to eat vegetarian for a while now, but having eaten meat for most of my life and not knowing any vegetarians, I still have many questions about how to properly transition from eating meat to becoming vegetarian. My family is not being supportive at all in my decision and this makes it much harder for me. They claim that meat and dairy are essential to one's health and that certain nutrients/properties required by one's body can only be derived from these food groups. I'd really appreciate some feedback and advice from vegetarians on here.

My family was that the same way...they didnt support my decision until they got used to it. As we both know, dairy and meat isnt needed for good health.

You can easily get the correct amount of nutrients by eating balanced meals...like eating protein, carbs and a veggie or fruit in every meal. Snacking keeps also. Snack on healthy foods such as nuts, rice cakes, apple sauce, etc.

get some books, or look on-line, do some research. find out for yourself what foods have what in them, and how much you need of it. after you get a good general idea of how much protein and b vit. you need and where your lifestyle can get them from, all you'll need to do is pay attention to your diet. just be concise of what your eating.

In my head i actually plan meals around things like vit. and minerals. "OK got the iron covered, and a bit of this to level out the protein"...but it still always works its way into an actual meal, not just a bunch of snacks thrown together.

to sum up. 2 steps..
1. find out what YOU need, and how you can get it on YOUR diet.

2. Pay attention to what you eat.

that's all there is to it.

Parents generally stick to their old ways and don't understand. Mine was never supportive. Check this link out it has many link to it as well to help you. It is a vegan link but take a look.

You can get protein from certain beans and nuts in the right combination. Leafy green veggies, particularly dark ones, have iron. It's all in how you combine the foods. You can get good info at vegan.org

Tofu has more protein than meat.

The protein issue is overblown. A stupid excuse to argue vegetarianism.

Eat tofu, (not in excess though.)

I eat a large amount of grains fruits and vegetables. Leafy darker greens are the best, but in the way of fruit I eat high substance lower water content fruits for nutrition.