I know we have a lot of vegans on this board. So let me first say that this thread is not about bashing vegans or their way of life. It's about me trying something new and the results of my experiment.
Last year we had a thread about going vegan or being vegan or something like that. In it I commented that I admire people who go vegan, because that takes a lot of self control. (I'm sure Wilson or Z can dig up that thread, but I can't find it.)
This year I will be 33 years old. I have a bucket list of 100 things I want to do before I die. One of those things is go vegan. So I decided to try it, because I ain't gettin' any younger.
My goal was to eat strictly vegan for 21 days. In order to support me, my sister went vegan with me. She is allergic to milk, and she loves vegan food anyway, so this didn't bother her.
My Diet: I thought I'd be super bored with my diet, but my sister showed me that is not the case. She brought home all kinds of vegan food. We ate a lot of veggies, fruits and quinoa, but we also got down on pasta, homemade breads, desserts and other delicious things.
I hate milk, but a lot of the things I wanted to eat had milk in them, so we had to find a way to make (or buy) a vegan version that didn't have milk in it.
I did miss the taste of meat, so I ate a LOT of Bocca. I actually enjoyed the taste of it. I also didn't drink any pop or any other carbonated drinks. I only had tea, lemonade and water. I didn't have any refined sugar either. I used stevia to sweeten everything.
The Positive Effects: I lost 25 pounds in 21 days.
I had a ton of energy and I felt really good. I was much more active. I was laser focused. I actually wrote a 100,000 word novel in 21 days. I didn't feel sluggish at all. I went from sleeping 12 hours a day to sleeping 6 hours a day.
My skin cleared up. Before I had this really nasty black spot called "the mask of pregnancy" around my mouth. It came from drinking too much soda and eating too much acid. It itched and burned like a mofo. But it's nearly gone now.
I'm going to contribute the clear skin to me laying off the soda for 21 days, and not the actual vegan diet. Anyone can lay off of soda and get their skin cleared up. That's not much of an accomplishment.
Moving on.
I ate a lot less because I got full quickly. I will contribute this to eating clean, although I know that I didn't need to go meatless to do it. But now I can eat a saucer full of food, get full and stay full for hours. Before, when I was eating junk, I was constantly shoving things into my mouth. Candy, cookies, pies, cakes, fried food, chips - you name it. If it was horrible I'd eat it, I'd love it and I'd go back for thirds.
I would also eat really late at night. Sometimes I would eat at 11 or 12 midnight. I stopped doing that, and capped my food intake at 7pm. The first few nights my stomach would growl around 10pm, but I would just drink water and go to bed. Eventually that stopped happening.
The Negative Effects: I. Had. A major. Headache.
It started about 14 days in and it didn't stop for a week. I kept taking aspirin. It would go away for a few hours and then come back with a vengeance.
I thought it was because my body wanted junk, or maybe I was detoxing or something. Finally it got so bad I went to see my doctor.
He told me I was protein deficient.
Surprise!
So today and for the next week, I have to eat as much protein as possible. He told me I needed to eat animal meat. I wondered if I could stomach it because I hadn't had it in 3 weeks, but my stomach was quite happy with that baked chicken I shoved in my mouth. And my steak wrapped in bacon. And the chicken tacos I'm going to eat tonight while I'm gaming.
What I Learned: I can control myself around food. I used to think "Omg I could never do that." Yes I can. Aside from the withdrawal symptoms and the protein deficiency it actually wasn't bad. I enjoyed my new diet.
But my body needs animal protein. I can't go full vegan. I applaud anyone who does, but I just cannot do it.
I do plan to keep eating a lot of fruits and veggies, and I will still eat Bocca. But I'm keeping chicken and bacon in my diet. I missed bacon. I missed it a lot. I ate fake bacon but there's nothing like real bacon. I also missed cheese. And sour cream. And cheese. Vegan cheese doesn't taste anything like cow cheese. I'd rather have cow cheese.
I'm not going to eat the weight I lost back on. I'm going to find a way to balance out my diet so that the weight stays off.
I didn't have to go vegan to get clear skin and lose weight. My goal wasn't even to lose weight. That was just a pleasant side effect. But I did learn a lot about food and my relationship with it. It's shifted dramatically. I like my new relationship with food, and I plan on keeping it.
Food and I don't have a love affair anymore. We just do booty calls.