Thursday, December 9, 2010

Vegan Challenge

I recently challenged myself to eat as a vegan for a week straight. I wrote down my daily menu and my thoughts about the end of each day. Overall the experience was worth the experiment. The extra energy I had during the week was almost enough to convince me to put down the steak and milk forever, but not quite. I have certainly reduced my meat and dairy intake since the week and I plan on eating more and more plant food. 

I love meat, and I love dairy, and I still  know they are nutritious. It is also worth noting, that while I experienced more energy throughout the week, my body was still telling me to eat meat. I can not exactly tell you how that is at this point, but when I did start eating meat again, it felt good. My body felt stronger and I felt more grounded. I am still processing through the transition to and from a meat eating diet, and I can not put it together into a clear thought yet, but when I can, I will. Here is my menu for the week.

DAY 1
BREAKFAST:
·         1 packet of organic apples and cinnamon instant oatmeal, made with almond milk rather than water.
·         1 sliced banana in the oatmeal.
·         1 tall glass of orange juice.
·         Coffee with almond milk.
SNACK:
·         Jamba Juice Strawberry Soy Protein shake.
LUNCH:
·         Vegan “Boca Burger”  with whole wheat bun/pickles/tomato/ketchup/mustard- MISTAKE #1 *
DINNER:
·         Fake Vegan “Chicken” burger with whole wheat bun/pickles/tomato/ketchup/mustard- MISTAKE#2*
TEA TIME:
·         1 cup of chamomile tea.
·         ½ of a pomegranate.

* Day 1 was full of mistakes as you can see. Both mistakes had to do with fake meat products. I had heard that they were tasty and provided a lot of protein, which is tough for vegans to get. After reading the 25+ ingredients on the package of these items I decided that a heavily processed item like this could not possibly be healthier for me than a piece of real meat. Additionally, they really do not taste like meat and I found that I could get the same amount of nutrition from the source ingredients in the products. For example, I would rather eat black beans and a salad, as opposed to a “black bean burger” with a million other random ingredients, like soy protein and isolated textured vegetable protein, inside of it to make it look and feel like a burger.
However, having said all of that, I still felt really good at the end of day 1. I had a lot of unusual energy at night and was able to go to sleep well.
For the remainder of the week I stuck to some core principles:

1.       Don’t eat any pre-packaged product that has more than 5 ingredients in it.
2.       Don’t eat any fake meat products.
3.       Focus on getting the right amount of protein and everything else will pretty much fall into place.
4.       Make sure that some of the food you are eating is fortified with Vitamin B-12. You really don’t need a whole ton of this stuff, but you do need it, and cannot get it from just consuming plant food. Good sources are some cereals, almond milk, some Odwalla drinks. 

DAY 2
BREAKFAST:
·         1 packet of organic apples and cinnamon instant oatmeal, made with water.
·         Chopped banana in the oatmeal.
·          1 green Odwalla “Superfood” drink.
COFFEE BREAK AT WORK:
·         1 black coffee
LUNCH:
·         Fried tofu/ green curry with potatoes, onions and mini corn at a local Vegan friendly Thai restaurant in Foster City (Basil Cha Cha).
·         Brown Rice.
·         Water.
DINNER:
·         Roasted sweet potatoes, zucchini and mushrooms.
·         ½ Avocado with balsamic vinegar
·         Raw corn on the cob.
·         Handful of large green olives.
·         Tall glass of Orange Juice.
SNACK:
·         Almond/raisin/peanut butter/seed/raw oats bar that I made in the food processor. I was making a snack bar for the next day, but decided to eat one as I felt I still needed some extra protein for the day.
TEA TIME:
·         Chamomile Tea.
I realized after day two that I would need a snack in between breakfast and lunch so I made the almond snack bar for the following day. It was delicious and worked out perfectly. After day two I started to feel like a machine. My body was operating at a level that I haven’t felt in quite a while. I was thinking clearly and just had a ton of noticeable new energy overall. I also decided that I would really rather make my own lunch, rather than rely on a restaurant, as we really have only one Vegan friendly restaurant in Foster City. Sure every restaurant has at least one thing you can get, but I just wanted more control over everything I was eating and I certainly wasn’t going to eat Thai food every day.

DAY 3:
BREAKFAST:
·         1 packet of organic Maple Syrup instant oatmeal, made with water.
·         Orange Juice.
COFFEE BREAK AT WORK:
·         1 black coffee.
·         1 banana.
SNACK:
·         Almond/raisin/peanut butter/seed/raw oats bar.
LUNCH:
·         Handful of green olives.
·         Hummus.
·         2 Carrots (dipped in the hummus)
·         ¼ of an English Cucumber.
·         ½ Avocado.
·         1 Odwalla Soy Protein drink (enriched with Vitamin B-12)
DINNER:
·         Roasted Mushrooms with balsamic vinegar.
·         Tomato/bell pepper/garlic gazpacho.
·         Toasted whole wheat bread with olive oil and sea salt.
TEA TIME:
·         1 Cup of Chamomile Tea.
·         ½ of a Pomegranate.
Day Three was the first really perfect day of eating. I finally found my groove and felt full all day, with tons of energy. I started noticing that I the items I was eating were starting to taste better and I wasn’t even thinking about eating meat anymore. It might not seem like much food, but I was seriously full and felt great. Something interesting I noticed is that when I am full of plant food, I stop eating, when I am full of animal food, I never know when to stop; I just keep eating until I get sick of the flavor. Something about my body just understands when to stop eating this stuff, and I guess the desire to eat it just isn’t as great. A big juicy steak makes my mouth water, carrots and hummus does not, but is ultimately just as nutritious and enjoyable once I am eating it and especially after I am done eating it.

DAY 4:
BREAKFAST:
·         1 packet of organic apple and cinnamon instant oatmeal, made with water.
·         1 small glass of almond milk.
·         Orange Juice.
COFFEE BREAK AT WORK:
·         1 black coffee.
SNACK:
·         2 cups of raw almonds.
LUNCH:
·         ½ pound of Kale salad with avocado/flaxseed oil/red onion (whole foods)
·         1 Odwalla Soy Protein drink (enriched with Vitamin B-12)
DINNER:
·         Faro with Olive oil
·         Roasted French Beans with olive oil and Sea Salt
·         Roasted Zucchini.
·         Apple Juice cut with water.
TEA TIME:
·         1 Cup of Chamomile Tea.
By day four I was completely in the groove and had made the complete shift over. I started actually cutting back a little on things. I realized that I had been eating so many vegetables to try to make up for the “missing” meat in my diet. I found that I could now reduce the quantity of each item and still trust my body to tell me how much I needed to eat. I think I had been overcompensating for my perceived (greater) and actual (not as great) reduction of calories.
Day 5:
BREAKFAST:
·         1 packet of organic apple and cinnamon instant oatmeal, made with water.
·         Orange Juice.
COFFEE BREAK AT WORK:
·         1 black coffee.
·         1 order of hash browns w/ketchup.
LUNCH:
·         Whole wheat flat bread.
·         ¼ English cucumber.
·         2 mini packs of Hummus.
·         1 Tomato.
·         1 Avocado.
·         1 Carrot.
·         Water.
·         5 large green olives.
DINNER:
·         2 pints of Allagash White Ale (…What? Beer is Vegan!)
·         Garlic Fries (Whilst watching Ultimate Fighting Championship Fight Night)
DAY 6:
BREAKFAST:
·         2 pieces of walnut whole wheat toast with Olive oil.
·         Tomato
·         Coffee with Almond Milk.
·         Small Orange Juice.
LUNCH:
·        Skipped lunch.
DINNER:
·         Hummus.
·         Tomatoes.
·         Cucumbers.
·         Tortilla Chips.
·         Coffee.
·         Apple Juice.
TEA TIME:
·         Chamomile Tea.
DAY 7
BREAKFAST:
·         1 Walnut Whole Wheat Toast with olive oil.
·         Grapes.
·         Apple.
·         ½ banana.
·         Orange Juice.
·         Coffee.
LUNCH:
·         Kale salad with avocado/ 2 tbsp flaxseed oil/lemon juice/red onion.
·         Apple Juice.
DINNER:
·         Beginning of Phase 2 of Experiment, added in Fish and Eggs for the next week. Still abstained from all dairy and Beef/Pork/Poultry (made an exception for Turkey Day).
·         Sashimi for Dinner!

As I said, overall the experiment was a total success and has absolutely inspired me to make drastic cuts to my meat consumption, I had no idea what it has been doing to my energy. I lost 10 solid pounds during the week and I have kept it off for 3 weeks since I stopped the experiment and actually lost 3 more pounds since then. I did not have a goal to lose any weight, but it was an added bonus. The reduction in portion sizes and just eating less meat in general has helped as well. This is the celebration steak I had when I added meat back into my diet:



A local, Grass fed, boneless, rib eye, with shallots and garlic, Mimolette, Blue and Parmesan cheese. Medium rare. It was perfect. I would have normally ate this in one sitting, but I could only, or only wanted to, eat half of it. I ate the other half chopped up in a sandwich the next day. Making meat a side dish is tough, especially when it tastes so good, but the health benefits of eating mostly plant food are obvious.

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