Just to clarify - Vegan and Vegetarian

I just thought I should clarify a couple of things, since a fair number of new people are starting to read and follow my blog:

If it was up to me, I would definitely be VEGAN. There is absolutely no question about it.

As I just wrote to my friend Roni, I would be vegan to be honest, but I don't see at the moment how I could accomplish this with my silly allergies :(

I wanted to clarify that the reason why I decided to do my "GoVeg" (Go Vegetarian) pledge for January as a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian is simply because I do not know enough yet how to get certain nutrients that my body needs (considering my allergies) using a Vegan diet.

For the "Lacto" part, I take the skim milk at the moment for the protein and calcium.

I do not eat yogourt.
I do not eat ice cream.

I'm lactose intolerant actually (have been for a few decades, and I still don't do well with Lactaid either).

It's especially bad with yogurt and ice cream made with milk, and I really have to watch how much cheese I eat and I've been eating much more lately and I don't like this either. I know that it's starting to upset my stomach.

I cannot take calcium or vitamins or iron (pills) either, they cause me a lot of stomach upsets.

I've tried many times in the past to help supplement my food intake and it's always the same nasty problems :(

I cannot handle most chemical ingredients in packaged food either, so mom and I do all "home cooked meals" using fresh ingredients, all from scratch. But a lot of our meals have lean meats in them.

I do not eat in restaurants, other than the very odd take out or order in (= a few times a year only) - which we do very seldom, because my stomach can't handle it either, and you never know what ingredients are used. I have too many sensitivities and allergies to risk it. It's a waste of money and I get ill, so it's not worth it.

So, I know that I do and feel better on a meatless and lacto-less diet.

As for the eggs, I really don't usually eat much eggs or egg whites (maybe once a week or once every other week max), but I've had to increase that now to several times a week, because I can only eat so much beans, etc, as I have explained in my previous post - I have a hard time stomaching eating so many eggs, it's a real turn off :(

I definitely feel better in many ways, but I do not like having all this cheese and eggs. I didn't realise until this past week how much I don't really care for those - I just never ate them often enough in the past to realise this.

But in the end, I need to make sure to get enough protein, calcium, iron, etc, in, but it has to come from foods, not 'supplements'...

So, I am looking to eliminate milk, cheese and eggs from my diet entirely, but not being able to take soy or tofu products and no 'supplements', and not having so many beans (all sorts) either.

I am not sure on how to accomplish this and getting my proteins in/make sure to have a balanced nutrition at this point.

It's a work in progress, what can I say!