I recently began working out twice a week in the morning with a friend who I like to refer to as “The Rabbit” being that he’s been a vegetarian for years and more recently began a vegan diet. He’s training for a marathon and already didn’t like meat so he just never ate it but he also believes that dairy products make him feel sluggish during training and the obvious answer was for him to cut them out of his diet and become a vegan. While he doesn’t like the term “vegan” because of the negative connotations associated with it, that’s exactly what he is regardless of his preference of being known as a “plant-based eater”.
Anyway, while working out one morning he told me I’d never make it three days as a vegan due to my great love of all animals products especially cheese. Someone challenging me? Ha! “I’ll make it three weeks,” I said with a grin. And so began my temporary foray into the world of “plant-based eaters” and some of the trials and tribulations they encounter on their own personal journey.
While I already have a diet which consists of a large number of vegetables compared to the general public, I also have a diet which consists of the most amazing food product ever–cheese. Now, I’m not a milk drinker or an ice cream eater but I absolutely adore cheese. From the get go I feared that the worst part of this diet experiment would be the lack of this wonderful treat but I was only half right…
The biggest challenge for me was simply that almost everything you buy in the store from breads to energy bars to trail mixes generally contain some sort of animal product such as eggs or milk. So basically if you want to eat vegan you have to make almost everything from scratch. Thankfully I like to cook so this wasn’t a huge deal but it certainly made for double duty in the kitchen as I had to make things for The Wife and The Rooster and then myself. I tried to make items which were easily combined after the fact (stir fry) or items on the grill such as grilled veggies for me and meat products for them.
I tried to get a wide-ranging mix of vegan items including food purchased at restaurants, purchased in the stores, and made from scratch. My single biggest friend throughout all of this was tempeh, a fermented soy cake packed with protein and supposedly “meat-like”. While tempeh is nothing even close to being a “meat-substitute” it gets the job done even if it does take an inordinately long amount of time to prepare through browning and sauteing in some tempeh flavor killing sauce. My second most leaned on items were protein packed bulk food items such as cashews or soy nuts mixed with dried fruits (cranberries mostly) and garlic sesame sticks.
Some of the pre-made purchased items I used were:
- Larabars (the vegan ones) as they have very minimal ingredients (sometimes 3 or less) and nothing artificial.
- Tofurky deli slices which I used with Vegenaise and lots of vegetables (usually salad mix, tomatoes and avocado). This was surprisingly not as bad as I expected.
- Daiya “cheese” which I noted on Twitter, “smelled like a goat’s belly button,” much to Daiya’s disgust. While it tastes fine on pizza, it doesn’t taste or act like cheese like they claim. Even though it doesn’t melt like real cheese or taste like cheese, at least it doesn’t contain soy.
- Field Roast Grain Meat Co. sausage which contains no soy and is basically just fats and vegetables. It browns up in the frying pan well and tastes good enough that The Wife and The Rooster were happy to eat it too!
Aside from paying attention to what ingredients were in items I purchased such as breads and using some of these other items to boost my protein I really had to make very little change to my diet aside from the lack of cheese. While some vegans pay attention even to the beers they drink I ignored that all together. The fact that some beer manufacturer may have used animal product in the glue on their bottle label or finished it on some dead fish doesn’t matter to me. Plus I like Surly too much to give it up. In addition if I was out to eat and I asked for a vegan entree I played “don’t ask, don’t tell” and just ate what was provided as I felt I did what I could to ensure I wasn’t eating animal product.
Results:
- 17 lbs lost in 21 days.
- I felt better for the first 15 days. A lot better. The last few days I’ve been extremely tired. I don’t know if it’s related or just a result of poor sleeping due to allergies keeping me congested at night.
- I will continue to keep up the “plant-based diet” at least a few days a week simply because of the weight loss and the better feelings.
- The ability to state that I unequivocally believe that vegans are crazy and that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, should give up cheese especially when the alternative is so awful.
If you’re interested I have about 15 pictures of meals saved on Flickr with some descriptions of what they included. While some meals were repeated from leftovers or were forgotten the photos will give you a pretty decent idea of what I ate during one meal of my day over the last three weeks.
What do you think about my 21 day experiment? Are you a “plant-based eater”? Do you find vegans to be generally annoying? Do you try to avoid animal products in your store-bought items? Perhaps you have some other issue which requires you to avoid some other items in your food. What are you experiences with shopping and cooking? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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May 30th, 2011 at 8:15 am
great article. I am not sure I could ever give up bacon or cheese! I do love vegetables but I dont think I could do a diet such as this over the spring and summer haha. TIME TO BBQ! Great job on sticking with it!
May 30th, 2011 at 8:19 am
I also do my best to be a plant-based eater, but agree 100% that there is no compromising on cheese. Having developed lactose intolerance in my early 20′s, I don’t drink milk and only have ice cream when I’m prepared for the potential side effects (that being said, in the last few years I’ve noticed less problems so maybe the LI has departed as mysteriously as it arrived?).
Lately I’ve also been going through a ton of eggs – fried eggs over multigrain pilaf for a great grab, go & eat in the car breakfast during the week, hard boiled eggs on salads, hard boiled egg & cheese for breakfast any day…
The biggest thing about vegetarians & vegans that stumps me is why they seem to try so hard to find meat replacements (soy crumbles/curls, tempeh). My stance is that if you want meat that bad, make peace with what it takes for it to make it onto your plate, eat it sparingly and savor its goodness instead of compromising on something that doesn’t come close to representing it.
Finally – good job on taking and completing the challenge, Bill!
May 30th, 2011 at 10:43 am
Congrats on finishing the 21 day vegan challenge!
May 30th, 2011 at 10:53 am
“I felt better for the first 15 days. A lot better. The last few days I’ve been extremely tired. I don’t know if it’s related or just a result of poor sleeping due to allergies keeping me congested at night.”
This may be due to a lack of protein. We have a couple of vegetarians in our family and they had to start eating fish and seafood to get enough protein. You may start to loose muscle mass eventually if you were to keep it up the vegan diet.
May 30th, 2011 at 11:02 am
C&V, it could be but I was meeting the daily recommended protein intake so I can’t be sure.
May 30th, 2011 at 11:20 am
Bill, wanna celebrate by going to Fogo?
May 30th, 2011 at 11:27 am
dm, only if you’re buying.
May 30th, 2011 at 11:52 am
alas, I will be unemployed, again, in 14 short days, so I’ll have to pass.
May 30th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I like a challenge, but I think this one would have been too big for me. I’ve never had an interest in a vegan diet and don’t plan to start one now. Cool to read your perspective though!
May 30th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
Ron white has a fun one on vegetarians. http://comedians.jokes.com/ron-white/videos/ron-white—vegetarians/
Glad to hear you find it has been worth all the effort. Do you feel that simply eating proper portions of your normal diet and exercise would have not given the same results? Men tend to drop weight really easily, especially initially, so I’m not sure your weight loss is out of the ordinary by any means.
It sounds like you did it kind of cold turkey. if I was going to change my eating habits that drastically I would probably phase it to get a little more body acceptance. I wouldn’t expect a feeling change just from different food. It is more likely to be due to weight loss.
How was the wife acceptance factor? Did she find any down side to your little project?
May 31st, 2011 at 12:54 am
Awesome, dude! So glad this went well and that you’re sticking with it for a bit. Agreed that vegan cheese is horrible. I ate at a vegan restaurant in New York and the meal was basically ruined by too much “cheese” on the entree (it was basically a lump of gooey salt). We eat (normal) cheese but sometimes struggle to find variants made without animal rennet.
Re: protein, you can easily get enough on a vegetarian diet without eggs (our diet), though no dairy makes things tricky. The South Indian diet in particular includes lots of lentils and yogurt for protein. Note that by enough protein, I mean enough to live a healthy life, but not necessarily enough to be a body builder.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:11 am
The lack of protein might be counterproductive to working out. You can get soy protein powders that would help. Not sure what you are going for in the working out but you need protein to add mass.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:52 am
Power to you man. I think after about 13 hours, I would drive down towards Northfield, shoot a cow and eat it right there in the field. Sounds like a horrific way to live.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:55 am
I think you should atone for this by only eating meat items exclusively for the next 3 weeks.
May 31st, 2011 at 8:57 am
UWTM had us over for ribs last night. I gained three pounds in 24 hours. No, I’m not kidding.
May 31st, 2011 at 9:18 am
Please tell me you used some Bella Pepper on those ribs.
May 31st, 2011 at 9:24 am
lefty, I’m all out but thankfully UWTM had some and yes, it was used.
May 31st, 2011 at 10:02 am
Yeah, I am about out as well and have found that I just can’t do the “hot” version of it because it’s just a different sauce that isn’t very hot relatively. Going to place another order this week.
May 31st, 2011 at 3:24 pm
The food looks very yummy! Do you have any recipes to share? I think I might just do the plant based diet a couple of days a week, too. It would do Mr. R a world of good, too.
May 31st, 2011 at 4:36 pm
I understand that occasionally eating nothing but fruits and veggies (no starches or proteins) for 3 days only is good.
May 31st, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Sandy, says, “…occasionally eating nothing but fruits and veggies…”
A very good source (one I sleep with nightly) tells me that fruits and vegetables are “FREE” in the new Weight Watchers Points Plus system – all you can eat! Bill may be on to something!
May 31st, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Bill is God ! With that comment do I win: Tickets, hot sauce, a date with MSPD, a book, a TRIP?
May 31st, 2011 at 8:48 pm
MSPD and I had a date this week but he canceled. Something about going to DC for work at the last minute. I think it was just an excuse.
June 2nd, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Heh.
June 6th, 2011 at 9:31 pm
I heard Dr. Neal Barnard talk about his 21 day vegan diet. I want to loose weight, therefore I will try this. I like meat and fish so I will not stay on this program for life. If I can loose the weight I need to, I will split the week 3 day vegan/4 day meat eater. What you said is in line of what the Dr. stated. This will be interesting. Thanks for the article! Enjoyed it.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:29 am
Maureen.
It is lose. I have never understood why this word is so chronically misspelled. The only thing more annoying is when people add apostrophe’s where they don’t belong.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:40 am
lefty, you spell like shit too. Give it a phucking rest.
June 7th, 2011 at 8:50 am
Hey, just because I am also lose with my grammar, it does not make it right!
June 7th, 2011 at 10:19 pm
God help us, lefty and I have something in common. There are spellings and grammar mistakes out there that drive me nuts. When my son was young, he invented the term “unemployed apostrophe” for the apostrophes which are sprinkled amongst plurals.
June 8th, 2011 at 8:52 am
Sometimes I drive by the Dino’s Gyro’s in Plymouth. Those signs cost around 10 thousand dollars, but nobody did an “unemployed apostrophe” check before ordering the sign. What a kumquat.
Funny, the preview of Sandy’s post said, “God help us, lefty” I was pretty sure I was going to get ripped on like usual.
June 8th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
“Funny, the preview of Sandy’s post said, “God help us, lefty” I was pretty sure I was going to get ripped on like usual.”
Lefty, intelligent + outspoken = TARGET
If anyone says I called you intelligent, I’ll deny it.
June 8th, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Sandy?
First we find something in common, then you compliment me?
Well, I did read an article that there is still snow in the Sear’s parking lot in St. Paul as of yesterday. I think that proves there literally is a snowball in Hell given yesterday’s temperature.
(and if you need further proof, go try to get tabs at the DMV upstairs at that Sears and call me if you disagree that it is not actually the real Hell.)
Hey, a pig just flew by my window!
June 8th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Looks like I made your day!
Thanks for not saying I “complement” you. That would have been creepy.
June 8th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
It would be even creepier if I said you complete me.
…so I won’t say that.
June 8th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Yes, indeed!
June 10th, 2011 at 7:01 am
[...] week, just days after I stopped eating like a rabbit, I was supposed to meet up with the renowned McDonald’s loving supreme foodie of the world [...]