Thoughts on a 100% Vegan Year

I have decided to move from a roughly 90% whole food, plant-based diet, to 100% for at least the next year.  Why?

Reason #1:  Food!

I love to eat food, alot.

I love to be healthy.  

Plants allow me to eat alot and be healthy.

Animal products make them mutually exclusive.  

Everything good that I need to feel great, run far, and be healthy is found in plants.

Meat and animal products offer nothing additional that I need, but instead add calorie density and excess animal protein--with NO fiber to digest it all.

Reason #2:  It's Working!

My body responds very well to a high carbohydrate*, low fat, high fiber, complete plant protein, high water diet.  I cannot eat animals for even 10% of my diet without feeling sluggish, bloated, and tired--my allergies get worse (rhinitis), mucous increases, I don't sleep as well, I crash in the afternoon, and I run like a sloth.  Do I have an abnormal sensitivity to animals?  I don't think so.  I had all sorts of symptoms before, but I thought they were normal, as many people I see at the hospital do.  Now I realize I don't have these common symptoms unless I eat animals.  

*Simple and complex plant sugars:  Fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, brown rice, oats, beans, quinoa, Ezekiel Bread, etc.

Not refined sugars:  High Fructose Corn Syrup (which is in alot of stuff), granular sugar, "white" floury foods, etc.

Reason #3:  Feast not Famine

All other "diets" tend toward restriction and restriction never lasts.  This even applies to vegans that are carb-fobic and end up eating high oil/fat vegan pseudo-foods.  This high-fat, high-protein, high-calorie, low-carb approach inevitably leads to binges and throwing in the towel--like many "paleo" dieters who are under-carbed.  I want to stuff my face with foods that satisfy and nourish--nothing accomplishes this like tons of watery, sugary, fibery fruit!  Embracing the fruit.  Spiritually, a lifestyle with restriction and control at the core is not life-giving or sustainable.  Spiritual vitality is about abundance, freedom and feasting on goodness.  The only reason to count calories on a whole foods plant-based diet is to make sure you're getting enough calories.  Carb up, I say!  No one ever got fat eating fruit!

Reason #4:  So why not 90%?  Why the need to go 100%?

If my 10% non-whole foods intake right now was lean fish and egg whites, for example, I wouldn't be writing this post.  But it ain't.  I have a couple bad habits that in themselves aren't the end of the world, but they serve the function of keeping other incongruent practice's feet in the door.  For example, I drink a 20oz bottle of zero-calorie soda most days.  That false sweetness confuses my brain and body and makes it much easier to grab junk on impulse.  There is no purpose for the 10% of non-whole calories I eat many days.  For example, if I'm running at 2500 calories a day and I eat a 250 calorie Milky Way, 10% of my intake did nothing for my nutrition, but instead confused my otherwise thrilled and thriving brain and body.  I am 10% mal-nourished (mal=bad).

"So just eat junk once in a while as a treat.  Why you gotta be so hardcore?"

I can't.  "Once in a while" means nothing to an addicted brain.  "Once in a while" usually means, "whenever it is readily available."  And junk is everywhere.

I do well with goals and clear areas of sobriety.  Unlike alcohol, I need food.  The foods to me that are analogous to alcohol, that I can totally live without but don't control well when consuming "once in a while" are all the pseudo-foods and rich animal products....all of which are foot-held by seemingly unrelated habits like soda drinking.

Reason #5:  It's Really Working!

I've been contemplating a thorough, year long experiment for some time now, but the news I got today confirmed it!  Each year at Allina Health we get a full workup in partnership with Life Time Fitness.  This is required if we want health insurance and it can lower our premiums depending on our score.  Last year I scored 84, being deducted 8pts for high body fat % and 8 pts for high Triglycerides/fat in the blood.  I got the full dollar credit, but still this was alarming.

Today I got a score of 100!

• Weight dropped 37lbs from a lifetime high to my weight of 15 years ago
• Body fat dropped 8.7% into the low risk range.
• LDL/HDL Ratio dropped by .2:1
• Total Cholesterol dropped 25 points to 121
• BP dropped from 131/88 to 121/71
• Triglycerides dropped 109 points from 200 to 91!
• Glucose dropped from 87 to 80
• Resting Heart Rate dropped from 69 to 56

This will be an adventure.  I'm glad I have a base of knowledge, recipes, and habits that will make this last 10% doable.  Still, it will be a challenge, mostly socially I suspect.  But, what the heck, we only live once.  Enough writing.  Where's the watermelon!?