Vegan(Plant-Based) for a month and now what the FCK next !#@? Was it a Game Changer?
I have led a pretty unhealthy lifestyle for some years specially working in technology and marketing sitting in front of laptop for long periods of time and going to many networking dinners so I decided to take look in the mirror and make a few changes.
First I decided to cut back on booze except for the low alcohol beer once in a while then I started to look at how I can make improvements to my health so I’ve tried all sorts, from polyphasic sleeping to trying diets like keto, various fasting diets and applying advice from cutting edge genetics research from Harvard Professor David A. Sinclair who’s discovery into Sirtuin proteins show how they can help repair and reverse DNA damage caused by our lifestyles and environment.
Overall I am much healthier and lost 6 stones/40 kilos in the last 12 months and my kids say I look younger now than 10 years ago, so something is working.
I have been having great fun trying biohacking. Some experiments work well, while others don’t so much. As I’m trying all these methods I’m beginning to find the balance of all the advice thrown at me from a zillion ads, people and documentaries that is best for me.
After watching a number of documentaries like Cowspiracy and The Game Changers I was interested in seeing what health effects going 100% Vegan for a month would have on me. I wanted to see first hand if what Game Changers claimed was true.
First a bit of background: I might add that I grew in Argentina and I was brought up understanding that being a vegetarian meant a person who only eats fish or chicken instead of beef! I would also add that not eating beef or watching football every week, or even day, meant you were not a REAL man, so I ate a lot of it!
I started my journey by speaking to other Vegans and looking at how they cope without all dairy and meat products. Fortunately, because of the awareness around the environment and how modern farming affects global warming negatively, there was a lot of information and choices which weren’t around a few years ago.
So I went to the supermarkets and started to purchase a lot of alien foods, like all the dairy alternatives which do not come from a nipple. I’ll be honest some Vegan products are awful and should not be on the market because they give newbies the wrong impression. A bit like the first low alcohol beers, which in my opinion taste horrible compared to the new ones available.
I was still trying to push my body, I wanted to keep up the hard training and also the fasting I was doing. My fasts were typically 16-hours off with an 8-hour window to eat, with a couple of 36-hour fasts thrown in. It was going ok, but I started to suffer from tiredness and fatigue so I decided to quit fasting for a couple of weeks and try eating some breakfast to enable me to get some more energy.
My energy did improve a little but I was still not experiencing this sudden rush of energy which was mentioned in these documentaries and articles which I had been led to believe all along. I was becoming more skeptical day by day but I kept going. By the end of the third week, I started to wonder if this kind of diet was for me. Before you ask, I was taking daily supplements to provide me with enough nutrients and vitamins, so it wasn’t that.
What was actually interesting was how I was able to cope without any meat or dairy and I honestly started to look at meat with a little bit of disgust, especially lots of it being served on a plate, like some kind of monument to being a macho man. Looking at the effect meat has on the environment, I did feel guilty I hadn’t looked into this sooner in my life and tried a bit harder to understand the bigger global impact meat and dairy consumption was having on our planet.
I found I genuinely loved my new-found meatless dishes and that I was really looking forward to having some of my favorites like glass noodle stir fry with lots of fresh chillies, Thai green curry or some of the latest meat-free burgers.
However, my energy levels were still not great and I started to miss some gym sessions and just felt super tired and sleepy. I tried to increase some nutrients and cut back on Dirty Vegan foods which are highly processed, but nothing seemed to help. My body was missing something.
About a couple of weeks into my Vegan journey, I watched another documentary called Forks Over Knives that came out in 2011. This was probably the best all-round documentary that gives a non-extremist view and well-balanced facts based on a huge survey conducted in China which then became the best selling book called “The China Study”. The health and environmental benefits of a whole plant-based diet are incredible and you cannot ignore that the information is out there if you know where to look.
In my journey to find a nice healthy balance, I realised being a Vegan was a little bit too extreme for most and it made it difficult to get together with friends and family. For example, enjoying sitting down and having fun talking about life and comparing the taste of food.
Also making people feel bad for eating meat just by calling yourself a Vegan because of all the stigma that comes with the Vegan lifestyle. Being around people and trying different foods from different cultures is also super important for our minds and social needs. Checking with every restaurant if their food is 100% Vegan or not makes most kitchen staff fear for their lives, just in case something was touched by a meat or dairy product!
“Rome wasn’t built in a day”, evolution takes time and patience. Enjoying a broad range of dishes from all over the world from amazing cultures is also a very important thing to value. The saying “When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do” refers to the importance of adapting yourself to the customs of the people who are in a certain place or situation to behave as they do.
Ok, so fast forward to the last week of my experience and I’m now beginning to really dislike the limitations of the diet. I’ve grown up to like some things and we can’t switch years of habits overnight and nor can the world. For example, I tried every kind of Vegan pizza and you just can’t beat a little bit of Mozzarella. I also miss the taste of a juicy steak, sorry there I’ve said it! I honestly believe the extremism of the Vegan diet starts to counteract some of the benefits it portraits.
So what now!? A flexitarian diet? Well, I just had a slice of real pizza with real mozzarella and oh my god was it good!
Here’s what I will try and do to see how I can make my diet more sustainable for myself, my social life, my health and the environment. I am going to eat red meat only once per week or only as a treat with family and friends. I will eat mostly plant-based whole foods and swap dairy to plant-based products where I honestly don’t taste the difference, for example, I love a hazelnut skinny latte more than a ‘normal’ dairy-based latte. I won’t have the meat burger if there is a plant-based one which I love the taste of. I will start to fast again because it gives me energy and I know I’m helping my body regenerate fresh new cells to reverse and reduce damage caused by my previous lifestyle and the environment.
When I do eat meat I will do my best to understand if the meat source is as ethical and clean as possible and limit overall consumption at no more than 20% to 10% of my total food consumption.
Who knows, maybe as the world evolves into eating less meat and following a diet rich in whole plants it will go a lot further to reduce the impact on the environment than a lower percentage of the individuals going 100% meat-free. “Researchers said there will need to be a global shift to a “flexitarian” diet to help keep the global temperature increase from breaching a 2C limit agreed by governments.”
I now spend most of my time working on #tech4good projects and looking for further projects which tick the box from a positive social and environmental impact/benefit. I started working with the organisations Climate Focus and Planet Super League almost a year ago now. I’ve been having incredible fun learning about the environment, people, business, cultures and how much needs to be done to make things better for all of us.
Right now I’m working on a new and exciting awareness project called #FCKFood we are looking to bring awareness around how our relationship with meat is changing to billions of football fans across the world. Together with an incredibly talented team, we have put together a very likable group of lads to form the FCKFood Squad. They all have polar opposite views of meat consumption and a big appetite to learn about the impact their diet has on their health, the environment, and their social lives. However, sometimes the lads just have fun and that’s cool, learning is meant to be fun!
A big part of why I’ve done this Vegan experiment was to have a first-hand perspective and therefore have a valid point of view. I look forward to trying more and more plant-based foods but not denying myself from foods I’ve grown up loving which I can’t give up just yet!
A Flexitarian diet is more realistic and social, changing habits can’t be done easily overnight. It’s a marathon, not a race!
Make sure you check it out! www.fckfood.com
