A blog post

My So Called Vegan Diet: Week 2

Posted on the 17 November, 2008 at 12:35 pm Written by in Personal

I promised my sister that I would go meat free for the month of November. I already gave my account of how week 1 went. Here’s week 2.

I still haven’t given up the eggs and frankly, I don’t think I will. Everytime I eat them, my sister reminds me that I’m eating an undeveloped chicken fetus swimming in its protective amniotic fluid. It doesn’t deter me. I still love my scrambled eggs.

I ate less beans this past week which my body loved since it practically cured my flatuence. On the flip side, not eating enough beans made me feel as if I were missing something from my diet. I’ve been eating more veggie meats and tofu, although they both lack enough protein for me to function. I had a protein deficient headache one day this week and it wasn’t fun.

On Sunday, I thought I was getting sick. I had a killer headache, my muscles were aching and my stomach felt weird. Yet, I wasn’t coughing, nor did I have a sore throat. Odd since those are the signs that I’m getting sick.

On Monday, I started to feel better. I determined that I wasn’t getting sick, instead I had “overdosed” on raw cashews. I ate too many of them on Saturday. Most of the things I ate on Saturday had raw cashews in them.

  • I had a tofu strawberry “yougurt” that I made that had raw cashews ground up in the mixture.
  • Then for lunch, I had tofu spinach patties, again with raw cashews ground up in the mixture.
  • Then, I pigged out on at least 1 cup of raw cashews as I watched re-runs of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1 on Saturday night.

So what did I learn from week 2?

  • Even vegans have to eat things in moderation. Just because raw cashews are good, it doesn’t mean that they can be eaten in huge quantities.
  • Beans aren’t the only things that contain protein. It can be found in other foods.
  • There are tons of alternative out there to take the place of your favorite meat and dairy products. I just have to remember to choose a variety of things to eat.
  • Maybe the vegan lifestyle isn’t for me. However, I’m enjoying being vegetarian. Being meat and dairy free is doing wonders for my state of mind and my body.

More next week when I recap Week 3.

photo courtesy estaticist

  • http://www.themose.ca mose

    Hey Leesa

    Good for you -

    But, as mentioned the student I have here (a BIG TIME VEGAN) runs into the issues you stated above all the time. There are only just so many sprouts and bark ya can eat.

    I say – keep da eggs. And add fish.

    Fish=good

    meat=good (in moderation)

    balance=real good

    Don’t go crazy. Our bodies like all sorts of stuff – we were meant to eat meat. We are after all carnivores.

    http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/carn_herb_comparison.html

  • http://entrepreneursbreakfast.com Dina

    Hey Leesa,

    I too attempted to go meatless over this past summer. I was on this quest to get my wacky hormones back on track, and so I had bought a number of herbal cleansing regimes from a great company called http://dherbs.com.

    Part of their total system cleanse involves a suggestion to omit meat from the diet and replace with beans, whole grains and veggies of all kinds.

    Like you, I was more or less in hell while attempting this. And the craziest thing was that on a diet of lentils and veggies, I COULD NOT SLEEP at all! I just felt nervous and unhappy, slightly buzzy and headachy, pretty much all the time.

    So I figured I’d better compromise. I still wanted the herbal kit to have some effect… and I figured if I was trying my best it was better than not trying at all.

    So what I’d do was cook up a big vat of some type of bean dish for the week, have lots of nuts and nut spreads and things on hand like you did, and also stock my fridge with things like organic cheese, organic yogurt, eggs, and lowfat meats (tried to get hormone and antibiotic-free if at all possible).

    For the rest of the week, I’d do my best to have my lentils or hummus or whatever bean dish I was eating with a bit of yogurt, and if I was really feeling terrible, with a small amount of the organic cheese. Beans and cheese, in the old days, is what they used to call “two incomplete proteins put together to make a complete protein.” For dinner I’d do more of a bean type dish, with a small bit of meat, or something no meat if I was feeling okay. Snacks would of course be things like fruit and peanutbutter, or trail mix, or homemade granola with tons of nuts and sesame seeds and things like that.

    (By the way – I always keep a small bag of sugar-free trail mix with me for when I’m out and about – otherwise if I go for more than 3 hours without eating this desperate feeling comes over me and I’ll either start driving all funny or end up in the Mickey D’s drive-thru or something.)

    So, between this, and the vast quantities of salads and cooked veggies that I’d stored up for myself, and the running, I did pretty good.

    However, after some months, I got tired of doing this, and my effort to do the Skinny Healthy Dina diet has declined – and my freaking waistline has of course increased!!

    So I’m trying it again. Sort of. I give myself one day off per week to eat whatever the heck I want.

    I enjoy hearing about how you’re doing – let me know what type of diet you end up settling on. You’re doing a smart thing, and listening to your body. It will tell you what it needs!

  • Pingback: Vegans and Protein | Christopher Kusek, Technology Evangelist

  • http://skyyogastudio.com Emily

    Actually, it has been long hypothesized that we were meant to be herbivores – and the appendix’s purpose originally was to digest chlorofil from plant sources.

    As for “protein deficiency” I would look to the US’s over consumption of protein, which has caused many health related issues. In general we, as a nation, get too much protein (esp from animal sources) and fat – look at the NIH and CDCP websites. You aren’t supposed to take in more than 23 grams of protein or so per sitting (it wreaks havoc with the digestive system).

    And as for how much protein you need – depending on what you are trying to do their are formulas to figure that out. If you are actively working out, trying to put on muscle you multiple .37 by your body weight – so 55 grams for a 150 lb person (studies are in conclusive if marathon runners and body builders need more than this). One full block of tofu (depending on brand and firmness) can give you 24 grams of protein, almost half of what you need – and edamame isn’t far behind with 10 grams per serving.

    Headaches, can be a common sign of food allergy. Cashews are a big culprit. I tried a raw diet on a whim once (it isn’t far off from my 20+ years of being a vegan) but most things are cashew based. I didn’t know I had an allergy to them until that point.

    Congrats on trying something new – this is meant to slam anyone – just to help you have the confidence to give this a try and stick with it for a little. Adjustment is normal when you transition and make life changes. As for the eggs – I know the whole you’re eating a “chicken’s menstraul cycle” may not deter you – so think about the cholesterol too (or at least do egg whites as the majority of your eggs in the morning).

    Good luck and continued success.

  • http://www.alexaclark.com Lex

    Leesa,
    wow what a challenge. Good for you for listening to your sister and not bouncing back with descriptions of all the sources of her food – consider the plight of the poor broccoli ripped from the ground!

    I’m actually chiming in to offer a couple of suggestions based on our annual cleanse and experience growing up with vegans.

    If you are having problems with beans, try to be gentle about introducing soy, tofu, soy milk, edamame and other legume food into your diet. My spouse essentially overdosed on them during one of our one-month vegan diets and now he simply can’t eat them at all. That is much more restrictive than you might think since soybean oil are in many off the shelf products.
    Now, he did OD – he started and ended each day with a soymilk + fruit shake with extra soy protein powder and ate tofu-based stir fries for lunch and often dinner.
    So, please take it slow and easy when bringing those processed proteins into your diet.

    Also, most of the vegans I know graze all day long. They are more likely to eat something every hour or two than to focus on 3 main meals. As Deena suggested, they all carry around snack packs – apples, trail mix, dried nuts & berries, protein bars – to have something when they get hungry or headachy.

    That’s a lot of feedback from someone who isn’t vegan or even vegetarian herself. I hope there is at least something useful in there for you.

    The best advice I can give? Have fun with it, remember to introduce new challenging foods gently and look after yourself.

  • Nelson

    Good for you for making a change.

    I went vegetarian in September and have been vegan for the last 5 weeks. Fortunately, I had the assistance of weekly appointments with a nutritionist and a balanced meal plan created by research doctors to follow with frequent blood work. This change was part of a research study on the effects of diet on cholesterol. The study is over but I am still vegan because I like the changes that have occurred in my body and the effects on my energy level, among other things. Some of the good benefits include lowering my cholesterol, planning my meals and reducing the fat around my mid section. I also spend less on food now as a result of cooking at home more and buying food in their whole form rather than buying prepared or processed products.

    Sure, Buddha was a vegetarian and he was fat so you can get fat as a vegetarian or vegan. Eating more calories than you burn off will make you fat. Oils and nuts have a lot of calories so pig out on them and you will get fat. There is also the gaseous byproduct of incorporate more fibre in your diet as food ferments in your intestines. That lessens with time but the fibre is good for you and it is what is missing in the SAD diet (Standard American Diet). Paulo Coelho, among many others, says that life is about control and discipline. Knowing my food inputs and its effects has been good for me.

    I have high cholesterol, which hasn’t been a problem for me so far at age 43. However, my father had his first heart attack at age 47 and died when I was young. My paternal uncles have all had heart attacks and heart disease. I saw what was in my genes. I didn’t want to start taking medication for the rest of my life. I wanted to make a lifestyle change to control my cholesterol levels.

    I now plan my week in advance for my diet and I became a list builder, going shopping with a list and planning my meals. It’s a subconscious behaviour now. I was a scavenger food eater prior to my change in diet. I would not know what I would be eating for lunch in the morning going to work and would start looking for my lunch around 12noon. I would eat out for dinner because I didn’t know what to make and didn’t want to cook. The food choices became what was available within a certain geographical radius when I became hungry and were often poor choices based on price, availability and convenience. I save more money on my food bill now planning my meals and cooking at home than as a scavenger eater.

    My friend incorporated more nuts, barley, oats, vegetables and fruit into his diet during the same time period with a similar research study and he is now effectively controlling his type 2 diabetes and sugar levels through diet. He still loves his meat and cheeses and is an excellent baker, but he eats it all in moderation. He still has a slowly reducing midsection but his sugar levels are under control.

    I am not a fundamentalist vegan, but I am a convert to healthy food choices and see the effects that a change in food inputs have had on my health. I will eat eggs and may eat some meat occasionally. It can be isolating being an outsider when invited for dinner. Simply incorporating more fibre and whole foods into my diet, shopping with a food list, controlling portion sizes, reducing empty calories like sugar and refined starches and eating good fats has made a change in my body. I have noticed that some of the body fat I have always had around my waist has tightened up in the past two months. I eat large volumes of food and maintain my weight with the same levels of physical activity. That volume of fruits and vegetables breaks down into alot of water and I am urinating more. It’s been a good change.

    I have to start my own blog on this.

  • http://www.TheHealthyFoodReview.com Melanie Jordan

    Hi Leesa,

    I salute your effort. I was vegan myself for a year about 10 years ago and then “relaxed” a little more to vegetarian, and then found that the optimal solution for me, that I’ve lived with easily for 8 years is flexitarian–fish 1-2 meals a week; egg whites, far free or low fat cheese. A handful of turkey meals a year as “treats”, otherwise veg, never red meat (haven’t eaten it in 15 years).

    As a fellow active person, I found that was the best way to get the health benefits and energy I needed to live my life.

    There are a lot of ways to get the protein you need–veg meats and chicken substitutes from Boca, Morningstar Farms, Health Is Wealth can usually be doubled up on in portion size because they are so low fat and low calorie compared to the real meats–you should be able to makeover all your comfort food favorites easily that way. There’s really nothing that can’t be made over to its healthiest plant-based version.

    Also nuts are essential for health, energy and protein for everyone. I eat a portion and rotate different kinds regularly.

    Social situations, traveling and well meaning friends who are going to ask you 50 times “how do you get your protein” are always the toughest.

    I invite you and your readers to get two free chapters from my book “Have Your Cheeseburger And Keep Your Health Too!” on my healthy eating flexitarian eating style, and check out the various healthy food product reviews as resources I do via my blog The Healthy Food Review–I think anyone interested in going meatless full-time or from time-to-time will find it helpful, and comments are always welcome.

    Regardless, I wish you the best of luck with your eating choices and feel free to e-mail me or tweet if I can help!