The Diet Jouney - Part 2

In part one of my journey series I described how I employed low-carb diet to successfully shed a lot of weight and kick start my exercise.  In this one I want to go into my journey from a low-carb, meat-centric diet to one that is now wholly plant powered.

Which brings up a point around motivations.  One of the key drivers underpinning my dietary choices has been the daunting task of managing my weight.  While I enjoy being fit and care a great deal about both animal rights and the sustainability of our fragile planet's ecosystem, much of my drive has come from a delightfully vain desire to look good. Or look the best I can in any case.

With this as a major motivator, I was happy with a lot of the changes that had taken place with my body. Gone was the chubby cheeks, flabby arms and budding man-boobs. To achieve this I was running three times a week, doing some weights at the gym and eating (somewhat) moderately.  However my dilemma was that I was stuck in the dreaded "fat and skinny" zone.  As demonstrated by the photo below, taken not long before I went vegan:

Fat and skinny

It is clear that while I'd lost a lot of weight, I was carrying a lot of fat around my belly.  Not exactly the 6-pack that men aspire for.  So I had plateaued at this point, the tummy fat wasn't going to budge, it was here to stay. If I wanted to break out of the deadlock with my body, I needed to change it up a gear.  Since I wasn't prepared to starve myself or try out another fad diet (no shortage of those around), I needed something sustainable.

Enter the vegan super athletes!

Inspiration comes in many forms, for me it was in endurance athletes.  Check out this photo of Rich Roll, plant powered ultraman extraordinaire:

Rich Roll - spot the difference much?

Now he isn't some 20-something who is just naturally buff, this is a 40-something year old family man who has transformed himself into one of the fittest people in the world, the plant powered way.

This got me thinking.

So I started researching and the more reading I did, the more people I found who were plant powered and amazing athletes.  I've mentioned Scott Jurek before as another example of someone who has achieved prominence as a vegan athlete.  I started the tally up the pros and cons and decided this was something that really meshed with me.

The positives:

• I don't have to control portions.  Quite important since I suck at it.
• I was able to eat a much wider variety of foods than when I was low-carbing it.  
• I don't have to think about it too much.  Just eat lots of plants of different types.
• It feels "right" to me.  The moral choice to not eat meat just agrees with my psyche. It feels like a load has been taken off my spirit/soul.
• It has proven to be a healthy choice for top athletes.
• Finally, it is a lifestyle change, not just a diet or shortcut.  It is sustainable over the long term - this is possibly the most import of all the points.

The negatives:

• I wouldn't be able to have cheesecake any more.  On second thoughts, this might be a positive.
• Eating out can be a right pain in the ass.  That said, I probably shouldn't be eating out so much anyway.
• I wouldn't be a cool meat-eater any more. Oh for shame! I'd have to forgo the extremely masculine task of hunting my prey down in the meats aisle of my local Tescos.  

It wasn't such a hard choice to make when it came down to it.

So how is the 6-pack going?  Quite well thanks - 5 months in and the flabby belly is nearly gone. No photos though, I think this post has quite enough manly-ness already :)

Instead, here is a fry up I made post long run yesterday, proving once again that being vegan is never without variety!

This is my new version of a fry up - garlic spinach, fried mushrooms and onion

Day 6 - Plant Powered

This evening I had a food breakthrough! Thanks to a recipe from Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run (brilliant book, highly recommended) I've finally managed to make my first really yummy vegan meal.  Sure, I've bought some nice meals, and enjoyed a variety of delicious vegan food in the past week, but this time I made a complete meal that worked!

I decided to try out Scott's Long Run Pizza Bread recipe and this time I made sure I got all the ingredients right.  I made a special trip to the shop to get all things not in the cupboard, including spelt bread, tofu, miso, nutritional yeast and seasonings. I then followed the instructions precisely and voila! Success!

Messy, but looks promising

Some tofu "feta" added and 15 minutes in the oven later they turned out great (no professional photography here, clearly):

Not too bad! Tasted pretty awesome too

All said, I'm just so pleased, since I was despairing that I'd never get the hang of cooking anything well. Previously my most complex dishes involved nothing more than 4-5 ingredients, no measuring and a touch of luck.  This has been quite a journey already, and there is lots of room for improvement in the future.

Now, I did say this was the athletic vegan and I haven't mentioned my running much yet.  Mainly focused on getting nutrition right first. Also, my nagging injury from my last long run has limited my options.  Excuses aside, I went for a medium paced 10km run today and it went pretty well all said.  It was very windy and I wasn't pushing myself, but I was only 1 second a km off my PB.  So I'm pleased with that.  Tomorrow is my long run; this time I'll do 5km laps of a park that is 5km away (aiming for a total of 25km).  Let's see how my new plant powered body holds up.

Day 3 - The Same, But Different

A full 3 days into my new programme and how are things going?  Well, that's not as easy to do as you might think.  Trying to separate any actual changes from things that would have happened anyway is quite difficult. Which changes are purely mental and which are physical?  No idea yet.  Maybe I'll never know.

Anyway, the food side is going well – breakfast was the Maca stuff, which is honestly nothing really special as far as I can tell.  Maybe continued use turns you into superman, time will tell.  Lunch was vegan fruit and oat biscuits, since I couldn’t be bothered trying to find something that wasn't full of animals. The biscuits were nice and oaty, which is really all you can ask really.  Finally, dinner was a revitalised version of Monday’s chili, which was vastly improved through the addition of some of my missing ingredients.  

On other fronts, I’ve been feeling a little snacky.  This isn’t unusual, so I’m going to dismiss it for now. Energy levels seem fine, neither up nor down.  I did a short 6km run to test out my calf (no pain, yay!) so that bodes well.  It was an extremely easy run, but it did feel good.  Very much looking forward to getting out for something a little quicker and longer.

All said, not an exciting day food wise.

What is interesting, is reading Rich Roll’s book “Finding Ultra” which I’m enjoying  thus far, about a third of the way through.  The idea that someone can find their passion at age 40 and then go on to do all the amazing things Rich has done… Well, you can’t help but feel a little inspired.  I’m not sure I have his level of inner drive to go above and beyond (hey, I don’t mind a bit of comfort zone) but I can admire it and perform my own scaled down version.  Both Rich Roll and Scott Jurek convinced me that vegan is compatible with being strong and healthy; they are both exactly the sort of athlete I’d like to become.  Well, “become” is a bit strong, perhaps emulate is more apt.