When I stopped eating meat 4 years ago, I discovered that there were several problems to solve in my diet before I became a happy vegetarian.

1. Meal composition (or: "where's the beef?")
2. Broadening your palate (or: "Ugh, this menu has nothing for me now.")
3. But me want lift heavy things (or: "Is the gym even worth it now?")

I'll take these in order.

Meal composition

Don't just go and drop a block of tofu where your steak used to be. I mean, if you can do that on day one and be happy, good for you! But the truth is, vegetarian mains are diverse and offer various entry points for the curious omnivore.

In order of easiest to adapt to for the common meat eater:

1. Meat substitutes - Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, etc.
2. Seitan - Wheat gluten, cooks up into lots of different textures and is remarkably good at satisfying like meat does, without the "made in a lab" feel of option 1.
3. Tempeh - Fermented whole soybeans. Doesn't get much healthier and it grills up, crumbles onto tacos, etc. Nutty flavor that holds its own.
4. Tofu - This was the challenge for me, personally. Flavor is bland. Texture like wet chalk. Cooking properly transforms it though, and sauces (or marinade) really absorb into it.

I would start at the top to introduce the idea of meatless living, then work your way down. Trying something like tofu at a decent Chinese place is a great way to see its potential, then you can try to replicate at home.

Broadening your palate

Avoiding meat, for me anyway, really becomes about expanding your food choices rather than limiting them. For example, I couldn't really stand the taste or smell of toasted sesame a few years ago. But, I would run into this on various menus, sometimes without knowing it was going to be all over the dish. Well, I love it now. Some of those incredible meals would have been off limits to me and I would have been on the "I'm a vegetarian, so give me the macaroni and cheese, please" train. And that is not the way to happy vegetarianism. I am still working on liking more mushrooms (because talk about another bunch of ingredients ya can't avoid easily), and I mean it — I am working on it. I try meals that focus on mushrooms, I find preparations and varietals I like and make them at home, I really push myself to try to find their texture less off-putting, even though it still kind of is. But ya know? Some chanterelles cooked in some butter with garlic? Tossed with fresh pasta? For. Get. A. Bout. It.

Getting in shape as a vegetarian

I won't push this too hard, because it is still a bit contested, but there seems to be a lot of research showing that muscle growth happens quite successfully at lower protein intake levels than the typical meathead approach would suggest. I see reliable sources suggesting a max of 2g per KG of body weight. This is a good bit less than the 1g per LB of gym lore. Also, amino acids (the building blocks of protein) seem to be good no matter where they come from, provided you are eating a diverse enough diet. So make sure you are eating a healthy, well-rounded diet and don't avoid the options listed in the "Meal composition" section above, and you should be all set. Oh yeah, and this is vegetarian, not vegan, so hello, whey all day.

Oh yeah, and —

Don't forget that you can introduce some troublesome veggie proteins into your meat dishes while you warm up to this idea! For example, Mapo Tofu is a dish with chunks of tofu and ground pork. It is so good and you will be like, wow, give me more of those tofu chunks! You could also mix some grated tempeh or tofu in with your ground beef for taco night. Each step gets you towards liking more things, which makes it easier to cut out other things you used to rely on.

Go eat them veg.