What I've learned eating a plant based/vegan diet
Hey Steemians! It's almost been 3 years since I started eating a fully vegan diet, and since then I've learned a lot. Not only about food, but about myself. On this post, I want to share with you my experiences to hopefully help others who are discovering or eating a plant based diet!
So to start, I've listed these aspects as bullet points, and will touch on each one in greater detail throughout this post :)
- My emotions, intuition, and inner voice are heightened when not suppressed by animal products.
- We are told we need more protein than we truly do. Protein is a non-issue as long as I get enough total calories.
- Carbohydrates are my friend, and are super efficient for my body.
- I've tried so many new foods, and realized there is a seemingly endless amount of new foods and meal combinations to experience.
- My digestion is much better, and my body feels overall lighter.
- Eating healthy meals is easy once you find your staples, and cooking my own meals is the easiest way to eat healthy.
My Story
To give you a better understanding of my journey, I grew up eating the standard American diet, and regularly ate chicken, cheese, pepperoni, milk, eggs, and bacon, although I was never really a big fan of red meat or seafood.
As I grew older into my twenties, I started listening to conventional fitness "wisdom" and focused on increasing my protein intake to "get into shape". Through this process I began consuming protein bars and shakes filled with milk, as well as an increased amount of chicken in order to reach my "protein requirement".
Eventually I found the low-carb diet, and began eating pretty much nothing but animal products. I was eating bacon, burgers, and cheese all day everyday, but because I was losing bodyfat due to ketogenesis, I thought I was in the best shape of my life. Turns out I was unaware of the issues of what was going on inside my body, and a few years later I decided to do a 7 day cleanse with my brother and a friend of mine.
What happened next changed everything for me.
This 7 day cleanse consisted of only eating fruits and vegetables. We got the idea of doing it from hearing about people who only eat fruit, so we decided hey let's try something similar for a week. We ate mostly apples and bananas during the day, and at night cooked a veggie stir fry.
By the end of the week, we all lost a lot of excess fat and water weight, and I began feeling so much lighter in my body. I remember being outside on our back deck and feeling the sunlight hit my skin and thinking, "I AM the sunlight!" Haha it was intense.
Fast forward two months later when our boss took us out to eat, and I got a burger and fries. Afterwards I felt sick to my stomach and my brother and I both decided to become vegetarian. It was so much pain associated with that burger compared to the light and free feeling we had during our cleanse, and we both knew it was time to make a huge change.
Two years later, I met my girlfriend who brought the idea of veganism into my life. I had been vegetarian for two years prior, but didn't ever think about how cheese and milk are still the same animal proteins and fats that are in meat. It took about 1 second for me to realize I needed to become vegan if I wanted to maximize my health and vitality.
This is where it got hard. I was constantly removing foods from my diet because they had dairy or eggs in them, and I didn't have many options to replace them with. The first 6 months was extremely challenging, as I definitely wasn't getting enough nutrients because I wasn't eating enough.
However, this process led me to try a ton of new foods! As I had been a picky eater before, my palette was pretty much just used to pizza, macaroni and cheese, chicken tenders, and pb&j sandwiches. This process opened me up to try new foods such as avocados, artichokes, tempeh, beans, nutritional yeast, kale, and more!
What I found is that my body started craving these natural foods, partly because I felt so light and comfortable digesting them. It was all starting to make sense as I could feel these foods were integrating with my body.
As time went on, I began developing my own staple meals and finding plant based snacks that resonated with my body (and tastebuds). I've increased my awareness of many different types of foods and also how my body responds to them, which has led me here to this post to share my experiences!
Below I'll mention specific aspects of my experience eating plant based, as I believe this is truly the healthiest way to eat and would love to help others who are interested in plant based nutrition.
Emotions, Intuition, and Inner Voice
I've experienced so much growth in the last few years, and I attribute it to following my intuition and taking action on what's authentic to me. I've noticed that I have become extremely sensitive to my own feelings and thoughts after removing animal products from my diet, which shows me how they have acted as an energetic filter throughout most of my life. I believe this because animals raised for food suffer throughout their lives, and that energy is found in their flesh and byproducts and passed onto us. By removing this energetic suffering, fear, and pain from my diet, I am no longer transferring them into my body and am allowing myself to sit with my own true emotions and feelings.
I Easily Get Enough Protein
The whole idea that we need sooo much protein is a marketing ploy to sell more animals. After not worrying about the amount of protein I've been getting, I still have the energy to go to the gym and build muscle. All without having to cram chicken breasts and protein shakes down my throat. There is so much evidence out there now that eating a plant based diet sufficient in calories will provide us with all the protein we need. If we think about it, cows and chickens get all of their protein from plants, so why not just go to the source ourselves?
Carbohydrates Are My Friends
I used to believe carbs were bad for me, that they'd make me fat and that I should restrict them. Well turns out this isn't true at all! We store carbohydrates in our muscles and liver as glycogen, and by living a normal active lifestyle we burn this sugar extremely well, so eating more carbohydrates allows us to just refuel our glycogen stores. One might conclude that this myth was created by the animal agriculture industry...
So Many New Foods
Since becoming vegan I have tried so many new foods that I didn't even know existed. I've had cheese made from cashews and nutritional yeast. Tempeh made from fermented black beans. And even fungus tacos that were amazing. Expanding my palette and the types of food I've tried has truly enhanced my life and well being, and creates a ton of variety when I go out to eat, (gotta go to the right places though!)
Improved Digestion
Meat takes a lot of energy to break down and digest, and by switching to plant foods my body can more easily digest my meals. I no longer go through stomach pain or feelings of food sitting in my stomach for hours, but instead feel light and free after a meal.
Finding Diet Staples Is Key To Success
After experimenting with many foods, I've eventually found some staples for my lunch, dinner and snacks. I love cooking a stir fry with pinto beans, tomatoes and onions for lunch, and making sweet potato wedges and broccoli for dinner. This has made my life so easy because I finally have consistent meals that are easy to make and are easy to digest.
My experience with plant based foods has totally increased my well being, and it is my hope that you'll find some value in this post and try some new foods today :) If you have any questions or want to talk about plant based diets, let me know!
Much love!
Bryan Divisions
Hey congrats! I've been vegan for nearly a year, I was pescatarian and vegetarian before make the plunge into veganism. But it's the best decision I've ever made.
I'm a decent cook, so finding recipes wasn't much of a challenge, the real challenge was replacing cosmetics, and making better choices when buying clothing. Everyone is different though, I'm glad it's going well for you 🙂
Like your post. Thank you for shearing
Thanks for checking it out!
I'm about to hit my 2 year mark as being a vegan. Still get constantly asked where i get my protein ahah ;)
You would think this question would have died already! So crazy people still ask where vegans get their protein. As long as we EAT and vary our diet, protein should never be a problem! Super you made the change to vegan, I will be checking out your blog. I hope the name indicates that I will find lots of baked goods on your blog! I loooovvveeee baked vegan goodies.
Nice to meet you @vegetarianbaker
Baked goods are my specialty, but I have a wide array of recipes. :)
I can see you can make a lot of things :) Nice. I may be testing your banana bread recipe soon! 2 of my favs, bananas and bread :)
I have followed. Feel free to do the same @megnteglbjaerg
ahha exactly! I feel that most people are conditioned to believe that they will never get an adequate level of protein..it's been such a marketing push in the last ten years.
agreed. Its not protein in a vegan diet that should be the topic of conversation and being vegan doesn't necessarily make you a healthy person (just like any other diet) but if people want to talk seriously about what the negative aspects of a vegan diet may be, they definitely shouldn't start at protein, then the conversation is already lost!
Ahah right! We can tell them, "the same place gorillas, rhinos, elephants, and cows get protein!"
I love that. I need to remember that. :) I can be as strong as a rhino easily :)
Awesome post, Bryan! Thanks so much for sharing your journey. It's wild to look back on our lives and question the sources of certain "facts" we thought were true(Milk--it does the body good) Elephants, Rhinos, and Apes all do quite well on their plant-based diets. Onward and upward!
I know..it's pretty crazy to think about how I used to eat compared to how I eat now. Haha I could never go back!
I can totally relate to that!
I love it! So great to here people sharing their personal stories of how mindful eating changed their lives; by far the best tool to motivate others to do the same I would say.
Loving your music as well. I'd love to add you to the collection of conscious music that I travel with and share, if that's cool with you. I can DL from YouTube videos and such, or if you want to send me whatever you'd like to spread.. I share music with 100s of amazing humans every year, from those at #anarchapulco, to the Rainbow Gathering, to a variety of communities and events around Turtle Island.
Upvoted, following you, and putting you on my vote-bot :-)
Thanks Kenny! And that's awesome of you to share my music. You can definitely download off of YouTube, but I'm on Spotify and iTunes as well. I'm definitely interested in traveling and experiencing festivals around the world, I'm sure you're having a great time! Just followed you too man much love
Very good post! I have been a vegan for over 2 years now and woudnt change it for anything. Thanks for sharing :)
That's awesome! And I totally agree, there's no going back haha I feel so much better.
Thanks for your comment! Same here and meaning to go on :)
Vegan for 3,5 years now and I fully back everything in this post. :)
Awesome man, yeah it's great to see how healthier people become! The movement is happening!
There is some interesting research into the phytochemicals in plants. Some of these phytochemicals up-regulate longevity genes. Some berry and seed extracts can extend life span 28%. Ive resonantly become interested in things found in food and herbs that up-regulate longevity genes. Ive started writing about what I'm finding so if you are interested here are the links.
https://steemit.com/technology/@tombot/can-biohacking-double-lifespan-1-0
https://steemit.com/health/@tombot/can-biohacking-double-lifespan-2-0
Awesome this is interesting! Thanks for sharing!
Congratulations. I tried being vegan for 2 months while also detoxing heavily. I thought why not just do everything to improve my health. I failed as I am back to eating meat. Cooking meat dishes for my family was quite a challenge during the 2 months period - I tasted everything but did not swallow the food. I believe in eating plant based but I do not live alone. :) Changing eating habits for an entire family has been hard. I caved.
I must say though that I felt fantastic. I take plant based vitamins but I know that is not enough.I am glad I came across your post because now I have a new resolve to start again. Thank you.
That's awesome to hear and I'm sure must be difficult! One meal or one day at a time is a great place to start. Glad to hear you've gained some inspiration from my experience.
Yes indeed - nice advice. Your post was a great reminder and I have started again!! Thank u
That's amazing news! You can do it!
Whoa the part on "Emotions, Intuition, and Inner Voice!!" That is so true and rarely gets discussed since there are so many reasons people eliminate animals products from the environment to animal welfare to traditional discussions on physical health. The best supporting resources out there are personal ones, that share the specifics of how the individual has benefited. Glad you shared your perspective and became Vegan : )
Yes thank you! To me this is the most important role plant based nutrition has. Of course we create a greater balance for the rest of the planet when we choose vegan food, but we also increase the connection with ourselves. For me this was the most important role plants have played, so I'm glad to be able to showcase a different angle and benefit to this way of eating :)
Very good! I have been vegan for over 10 years now - It's clearly the correct diet for humans, of that I have zero doubt. I share posts on vegan recipes and activism from time to time - it would be great to pool our wisdom! upvoted and followed.
Followed you too, I'll defnitely be on the lookout for your posts! The more experiences we can share the better!
Great, thanks! :)
A very good post! I have never had the courage to become vegan ,may be because I am afraid to change my habits or not find an alternative . But it's a good idea to began with 7 day cleanse as you have done, i think it will encourage me to go to the next step.
Definitely..with all the options for food in our lives we are presented with so products that just aren't aiding our well being. A great way for us to begin the journey is letting go of one food or drink that we know isn't really meant for our biological system ahha i.e. cow milk, cigarettes, alcohol
I believe the more fruits and veggies on our plate, the more in alignment with the earth our diets become.
Such a well written and interesting account of your journey to veganism. I have no doubt it is the healthiest way of life and would love to become vegan myself. I guess I'm just scared of doing it all in one go, cutting out foods and failing! I have however cut down a lot on meat and increased veggies so maybe I'll get there in baby steps!
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! Yes I would definitely start with one meal, for example an awesome lunch or dinner meal that you enjoy and can work into your life. From there you can start adding snacks and eventually replace all your meals with plant based nutrition. It took me awhile to get a hang of it but the best perspective is to look at what you're adding versus what you're removing from your diet. It goes hand in hand with the potential of positive reinforcement. You're making a great choice!
I'd suggest making a slow transition, theres some great meat alternatives in supermarkets that taste just like real meat, and you cant go wrong with some good tofu for stir frys. As you said its all about baby steps, make sure you get enough calories as the number one reason people turn back is that they underestimate how many calories they really need. Good luck!
Beautiful written :)
Go vegan!
Great to read stories of more and more vegans around the world .
was indeed my wisest choice I even made.
I really relate to your saying "I believe this because animals raised for food suffer throughout their lives, and that energy is found in their flesh and byproducts and passed onto us"
hello congratulation :) I just upvote your post ..
please upvote my post..
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That true there are so many food taste so delicious, vegan diet can be really differentiation!
Have a lovely day !
@kam.ila
Yup! There's an endless world of food to explore :)
Such a well written and interesting account of your journey to veganism. I have no doubt it is the healthiest way of life and would love to become vegan myself. I guess I'm just scared of doing it all in one go, cutting out foods and failing! I have however cut down a lot on meat and increased veggies so maybe I'll get there in baby steps!
That true there are so many food taste so delicious, vegan diet can be really differentiation!
Thanks for sharing.
wow. this is really nice. thanks for sharing @bryandivisions
No problem, thanks for checking my article out!
Nice post. Very informative and useful to the reader. Good work and good content. Will continue to follow. Enjoyed your post. Need to lose weight. Will definitely hook up with you to learn more and inquire more on vegetarian diet.
Just followed you too! Yeah please ask, if I don't have the answer I have a ton of friends who are also plant based, who have a range of experience from the environment implications to the animal cruelty aspects, as well as diet and nutrition.
interesting info
Thanks man
Can certainly relate to much of your post. Where is that last picture from?
Craggy Pinnacle off of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville :)