How does a long time meat eater become a vegetarian?

How does one motivates oneself to become a vegetarian? What are the health benefits to become a vegetarian? What are the best supermarket (in Canada) to buy vegetarian food and ingredients? What is the vegetarian lifestyle? What are the activities, sports that compliment a vegetarian lifestyle? Is there a vegetarian culture?

(Please answer vegetarian only)

Let's start from the top, motivation. What motivated me was finding out exactly what was happening to get meat on the table. The atrocities these animals go through is unthinkable. As for health benefits, a balance diet is still essential, but not having the high fat protein does help a get deal. I'm not sure about supermarkets in Canada most supermarkets here in the states carry meat substitutes, natural food stores are a good place to find them also. I'm sure there is a lifestyle out there but for most vegetarians it is just business as usual. All sports I would imagine. I don't know if I'm qualified to answer the last question, perhaps a sociology professor. The sites below should help.

I am a vegetarian and when i meet new people who aren't the first question they ask me is what do I eat if I am a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian doesn't mean not being able to eat tasty food. Try out indian restaurants they have all kinds of good vegetarian dishes. and I do not belong to any vegetarian culture because i don't think it exists. All sports and activities go with a vegetarian lifestyle. You substitute the meat patties with boca patties or soy hotdogs. Go to sprouts if you want to do grocery shopping for a vegetarian meal.

I was turned off by meat when I got pregnant so I just picked up protein in other foods.

Well, one day my husband and I said "I could stop eating meat right now". And we did !

Educate yourself about meat and what happens to it before it appears on your table. I used to be in the meat industry and I have been a vegetarian for twenty years.
Learn about nutrition, which foods contain the essential nutrients and which are unhealthy.
Consider the treatment of animals in industrial farming, the chemicals and growth hormones that are injected into them to produce a quicker profit, you eat these.
There is no separate vegetarian lifestyle, it is not abnormal.
But you will feel healthier and look healthier and smell healthier.
The **** of carnivores really stinks.
What would you rather step in dogshit or horseshit?
And remember that the strongest animals are vegetarian, the gorilla never eats meat.

i just quit

I'm a vegetarian and i'm curious to answer this question.
The difficulty of following a vegan diet prevents some people from believing it to be worthwhile. In particular, some find the label-checking, substituting for non-vegan ingredients, or taste differences necessary for a vegan diet burdensome or impractical, especially in many western cultures. When avoiding animal products is particularly impractical, some vegans evoke the "as far as is possible and practical" clause of the diet's definition.

In shopping, veganism requires checking the labels on all packaged foods, since many products have an animal product as a minor ingredient. Partially easing the burden, some labels explicitly state whether the food contains animal products, and the longer the diet is followed, the fewer labels that need to be read if the results are remembered. Several ingredients that occur in packaged goods, such as casein, are not recognized as non-vegan by most people, adding another difficulty for new vegans.

In cooking, ingredient substitution or avoidance becomes necessary for many dishes, especially in western diets that often use dairy. Certain vegan substitutions for non-vegan ingredients (such as some egg replacers) do not perfectly mimic their animal-based originals and may not work well in recipes expecting the animal-based ingredients (such as omelettes). Such substitutions can affect the recipe results鈥攁ltering such aspects as flavour, texture and appearance. Some vegans find it more effective to use recipes designed to be vegan counterparts of non-vegan dishes than to simply subsitute individual ingredients into non-vegan recipes.

Many health supplements (vitamins, minerals, herbal alternatives, etc.) are placed inside capsules made of animal-based gelatin. Online retailers have emerged selling vegan alternatives to such products, and vegan-friendly multivitamins and supplements can now be found in most health food stores and online.

A majority of medications and dietary supplements contain a number of ingredients that are derived from animal sources such as magnesium stearate, stearic acid, gelatin, lactose, and many more. When the medicine itself is derived from an animal source there may not be acceptable substitute, especially in life saving drugs like antivenom. All FDA approved drugs sold in the United States are animal tested, as animal testing is a requirement for drug approval for U.S. markets. Additionally, in some hospitals, Catgut in sutures and non-vegan latex gloves are used. Many vegans allow small amounts of animal products in medicine than in any other product category, believing that its use does not conflict with the definition or spirit of veganism due to the lack of substitutes.

In addition to foods and medicines, many household products like cosmetics, toiletries, household cleaners, pesticides, and cement contain either animal ingredients or ingredients that have been tested on animals, as well as animal-sourced coloring agents like Cochineal.
Vegans are recommended to eat foods with vegan B12 added (such as fortified soy milk, fortified margarines, or many commercial breakfast cereals), certain brands of nutritional yeast, or take dietary supplements (a good multivitamin will likely include B12 in sufficient quantities).
In very severe cases, parents practising what were sometimes described as forms of veganism have been charged with child abuse for not providing adequate nutrition. Vegan mothers who do not obtain adequate vitamin B12 in their diet while breastfeeding can cause severe and permanent neurological damage to their infants. Related studies note importance of early recognition of significant maternal vitamin B12 deficiency during pregnancy and lactation in vegetarians is emphasized so that appropriate supplementation can be given and irreversible neurologic damage in the infant prevented.

You say a prayer, write out your last will and testiment, and head for the garden.

No, a true vegetarian doesn't eat worms either!

The vegetarian lifestyle is no different to anyone else. I cant help you with shopping as I am not Canadian.

As for motivation, I recently read of Sir Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda.

They were sitting at the table eating roasted lamb, looking out the window at their lambs playing in a paddock.

At that point they realised they could not eat meat again, a decision the same as most vegetarians/vegans make.

It may take up to a year, you can't cut meat out of diet 100% over night, first you cut pork, red meat, then chicken and then fish.

I'd suggest that you do a lot of reading on the topic of vegetarianism and a healthy lifestyle. Spend a at least several months studying this topic and discovering if this is a good move for your personally. Also, visit a doctor, preferably a naturopath, to discuss the potential transition from a meat eater to a vegetarian. Once you decide to make the switch make sure that it is the right move for you. Hope this helps.

read Diet for a Small Planet. It should help to motivate you and answer many of your questions. =)