Gone Vegan

So I've decided to go Vegan. This is more an experimental thing than anything else...I'm not saying I will be a vegan for the rest of the life, but I wanted to try it out to see the pros and cons.

Let me first state I am only doing this for the supposed health benefits...nothing else. I do like animals, but I am not doing this as an F U to the beef industry. Nor am I doing it for any religious beliefs. It's simply to see how my body reacts and to see first hand the benefits of going on such a diet. The other interesting experiment I'm trying with this vegan diet is Body Beast, the mass gaining program from Beachbody. I know...they seem like polar opposites to try together, but I'd like to prove you can be vegan and gain muscle. I've now been vegan and doing the BB program for a week now and have gained 4 pounds amazingly, and here's the reason why: there's no calorie counting when Vegan. You eat when you're hungry. And I'm hungry a lot. So I basically am eating all the time. So we'll see how this continues in the next few weeks.

Vegetarian vs. Vegan

So what's the difference between being vegetarian and vegan? Vegetarians just cut out meat, while vegans cut out meat, dairy, and eggs.

The Drawbacks

Let's get the negatives out of the way. With a vegan diet, you'll be missing out on B12, vitamin D, iron, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids that come from your meat, dairy, and eggs. I'll get most of these by using vegan Shakeology (especially the B12, Vitamin D, and Iron). I'll also be using Fish Oil and Flaxseed to get my Omega-3's. However, if you don't use Shakeology, you can get some of these from the following sources:

Calcium: Leafy greens, almonds, broccoli, oranges, chickpeas, and soy. Salads each day should help cover calcium.

Iron: Spinach, pumpkin seeds, white beans, lentils.

Whole grain cereals have both these minerals too.

The Benefits

There are many nutritional benefits of going vegan. First, you're greatly reducing your exposure to a number of controversial nutritional components like cholesterol and saturated fat. If you eat seafood you'll also avoid mercury. Secondly, as long as you're not an unhealthy vegan who still eats fried and processed foods, it's very hard for a vegan to get fat. I've cut processed foods completely out of my diet, and already feel way better in just a week.

Protein

A lot of anti-vegans out there point out about the lack of protein in a vegan diet. It is true that by not eating meat and eggs, you're not going to get as much protein. However, protein has become WAY overrated in the fitness world. Over consumption of protein can actually be bad for you. According to Melissa Costello, Tony Horton's personal chef and vegan herself, as a society we are eating 3 times the amount of protein we need for our bodies to build muscle, repair and recover. She also states that when our bodies are working at their optimal and balanced states they utilize protein much more efficiently rather than when they are overloaded with nutritional stressors like caffeine, sugar, and processed foods.

You can get plently of plant based protein from beans, nuts, seeds, veggies, and grains, which are also easier to digest and more bioavailable to the system than the hard to digest protein from animals. Our bodies don't have to work as hard to break down plant protein as it does animal protein. A vegan diet should still get you the .8 to 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight that's required in a healthy diet.

My Diet

I'm very structured and bland when it comes to my diet, so I have a pretty simple vegan diet that I borrowed and tweaked slightly from Wayne Wyatt over at teamripped.com. I bascially eat 5-7 meals about 2-3 hours apart. Here it is:

Breakfast

- Two cups of plain oatmeal, with banana, raisins, flaxseed, and blueberries.

A.M Snack

- Banana, apple, almonds, whole carrot

Lunch

- Black or Pinto beans and brown rice (1 cup each). I also sometimes wrap this in a whole wheat tortilla.
- Apple, 2 whole carrots.

P.M. Snack

- Organic Peanut butter sandwich with whole wheat bread.

Post Work Out (I usually work out in the evening after work during the week, but if it's a weekend I usually do it in the morning or afternoon.)

- 1 scoop Chocolate Vegan Shakeology, 1 tbsp of peanut butter, 1 scoop of Vegan Sunwarrior Warrior Blend Raw Protein (the Sunwarrior protein tastes AWFUL by itself, so I have to mix it with Shakeology).

Dinner

Full blown vegan meal.

Late Night Snack

Strawberries, blue berries, mushrooms, chick peas.



So there it is. What are my week 1 impressions? Not going to lie, by going cold turkey with a vegan diet, I was in a bad mood for the first few days. The week 1 transition was a little rough with my body not used to getting some of the processed foods that I ate before. However, towards the end of the week I did start to feel a lot better, with more energy and even a little stronger. I'm interested to see if I have any significant strength gains during this second week of lifting heavy with Boby Beast. I'll keep posting updates of how the vegan experiment is going weekly.