For the last month, I'd stopped taking a multivitamin and instead have only been taking a daily B-12 supplement.  Since then, I am just exhausted ALL the time!  I think I'm eating well - plenty of beans and nuts for protein.  I'm worried that I might not be getting enough iron and might become anemic.  So I'm going to go back to my multivitamin (which includes B-12) and see if it makes a difference in my energy levels.

Hi Rekabeka!  It takes a lot of dark green leafy vegetables to satisfy iron requirements (especially for women), and I had the same problem after going veggie.  I felt great for a while but then started getting fatigued easily, even though I've been doing mostly superhero for months.  I am renting from a lady who works in a Health Food store, and she reccommended Floradix iron supplement. It's a liquid and it tastes really good.  You take 10 ml twice a day.  I started feeling better after taking it, and it's completely natural and vegan!  There are some B vitamins in the supplement as well.  I would check your local health food store for it.  It's a bit expensive, but it works well and goes down really easily!!  Here's a website just so you can see a picture, but I bet you can get it for cheaper than the website offers!   http://www.healthsuperstore.com/p-flora-floradix-iron-herbs.htm


You definitely can get enough iron on a vegetarian diet, but a lot of people who are starting out have a difficult time until they really get the hang of it.  You really do want to eat A LOT of veggies and greens, probably more than most of us are used to : ).  I've been doing this for 8 months now, and I'm just now getting more comfortable with everything.  And I do take supplements, but not many.  Honestly, I just take a B-complex when I remember and the iron supplement I just reccommended.  And I don't know how long you've been at this, but honestly, being vegetarian has worked wonders for my complexion, energy and overall health.  It's amazing!  So good luck, and try the iron supplement for a bit.  When you finish the bottle (It lasts about a month), you can either get more or re-evaluate how you feel and get more when you start to feel sluggish.  All the best!

I know how you feel! I have Narcolepsy so I am fighting to stay awake allll the time. I'm in the process of figuring out which foods work best for me, but I do feel that a multivitamin does help me more than if I just take my b-12. I'm on prescription medication too, but I don't take it everyday. I'm trying to figured out if it is possible for my diet to alleviate this illness enough that I can get through life without the meds. I know that the diet has worked for other autoimmune disorders, so maybe...

Maybe you could even try just taking a b vitamin instead of the multi so that you aren't getting too much of everything? It's hard figuring this all out, but we'll get it! And don't forget, leaving out the meat is the best thing you can do for your body! Don't give up on that, you'll get through it :)

P.S. What about that whole macrobiotics thing and the eating foods that aren't in season? I haven't been much into that yet, I'm still learning, but could that have anything to do with how you're feeling?

I thought about the whole macrobiotic thing and how Alicia talks about how eating foods not grown in our climate can sap your energy.  I don't know if I'm ready to go that far yet - I mean, I live in Iowa.  Eating locally works well in the spring/summer/early fall, but what kind of fruit/veggies could I eat in the dead of winter?!  Generally, I do need to up my intake of leafy greens - that might help, too.

Have I mentioned that I have two kids that are plenty old enough to sleep through the night (7 and 4), but don't?!  I can probably count on one hand the nights I get a full nights' sleep in a month...but that can't possibly be a contributing factor, right?  

I know! I live in Kentucky so it's the same kind of thing. The winter is just... Yeah, nothing grows here then. So Idk about that yet.

Sleep deprivation is the worst. THE WORST! It causes all sorts of problems. Do you know why your kids aren't sleeping through the night? If they can't, of course, neither shall you.

Update - After going back to the multi-vitamin, my energy levels have increased significantly.  I don't know what vitamin or mineral I was missing (or if it truly was the weather to blame), but it works for me.  When this bottle is gone, I'll start looking for a vegan multi.

Crystal - Part of the reason the kids don't sleep well at night is that they still share a bedroom - we only have a two-bedroom house.  We really need to look for a new place (easier said than done these days, I fear) - a boy and girl can't share a room forever...