Have you ever wondered if a plant-based diet is for you and if it will improve your health? So did I! Recently, I watched a documentary called Game changers, a documentary on athletes who claim a plant-based diet helps to improve health and recovery. Afterward, I thought ‘let’s try it for a couple of weeks to see if I feel any difference’ and see how my body changes. I’m not big on eating meat in general (especially after having watched the documentary Eating Animals), but occasionally I like to so I just don’t want the option taken away from me. Then I thought to myself, I could challenge myself for two weeks and see how it goes. Who knows, I may fall in love with the feeling it creates for me.
So for two weeks, I committed to eating mostly vegan and fully vegetarian. If there was a little egg or cheese in my restaurant meal, I didn’t send it back. I planned on recording every meal every day, but I missed recording a few meals. To be honest, I felt a little embarrassed taking pictures or filming what I ate when out with friends. Forgive me, I am new to all this!
How I felt going in:
When I first began this challenge, I felt a bit lethargic, low energy, and often bloated. I would force myself to get out of bed in the mornings to go to work. Even after a cup of coffee, I would still feel kind of… blah. After lunch, I would hit a wall and would just want to take a nap. Especially if the meal included meat. My diet wasn’t poor by any means. I find that I tend to have a pretty balanced diet, but I also do not restrict or limit myself. I would eat what I wanted to eat but within reasonable proportions. Even still, I found myself feeling bloated and gassy immediately after meals. Sometimes it would last until the next day.
How was my body affected?
Three days in, I went to the climbing gym with some friends and got roped (haha get it?) into staying nearly 6 hours, closing out the gym. At the beginning of my session, I didn’t particularly feel any different. I sport climbed for about 2 hours before going over to the boulders for a little bit. On my way out, a friend I hadn’t seen in a while (thanks pandemic) showed up and talked me into staying longer to climb with him. I didn’t have much left in me, but I didn’t say no, nor did I really want to.
Honestly, a lot of us are craving human interaction at this point and will take it where we can! Putting around on some easier climbs, my skin felt tender, but surprisingly my muscles and tendons felt like they had a little bit more gas in them so I kept going. Then I tried something a little more around my flash (onsight – being able to finish a climb on the first attempt) level and I did just that. Flashed it! 4 hours in and I was cruising. I felt strong and exhilarated, like a second wind, so we moved on to harder problems! Whether or not this was an effect of a plant-based diet, I was excited to see what a full two weeks had in store for me!
On day 4, my stomach felt a bit funny, bloated, and gassy. Unsure of what to do, I reached out to a couple of friends who were plant-based for some advice. I wanted to see if they had gone through this before, which the majority of them had during their transitions periods. Relieved to hear I wasn’t alone, I asked them for some tips on getting through this stage of the process and these are the two tactics I decided to implement.
What I Implemented
- Cooking most vegetables as some raw vegetables are difficult to digest and can irritate the digestive tract
- I reflected on all the other times I had stomach pains and noticed that fairly often they were usually meals that consisted of raw kale or other raw cruciferous veggies like broccoli, which now makes sense… So moving forward, I cooked those
- Taking a probiotic
Once I integrated these into my habits and it was smooth sailing from there.
What I noticed after two weeks of eating a Plant-Based diet:
The Good
- I felt lighter and less sluggish
- Had more energy
- My mood had been better
- It wasn’t very difficult finding vegetarian or vegan options
The Less Than Ideal
- Still felt occasionally bloated after some meals
- I had to eat a lot more to feel satisfied and fulfill my calorie count for the day
- Eating fully vegan when eating out proved to be a bit difficult
- Hence committing to eating mostly vegan but fully vegetarian (kept the cheese and eggs to a minimum and no milk)
The main difficulty I ran into was on the Saturday halfway through the challenge. It was my aunt’s wedding and she was serving banquet-style Chinese food. The food is served family-style on a giant lazy Susan, and everyone at the table shares. Not exactly conducive to a plant-based diet. There wasn’t much that I was able to eat (veggie eggroll, tofu lettuce wrap, veggie dumpling). The Xa Xiu was calling to me, but using all of my willpower, I refrained and opted for some grape juice instead… if you know what I mean…
Conclusion
All in all, I didn’t find the challenge too difficult. I wasn’t craving meat, at all, except at my aunt’s wedding. Foods that I ate were equally as delicious as meals I would have eaten if there was meat and I didn’t find myself seeking it out.
My biggest concern when starting this challenge was finding options when eating out but to my surprise, this really wasn’t a problem at all. Most places had some sort of vegan or vegetarian option which made things really easy for me.
Physically, I felt like I had more energy. I was able to work out for longer periods, lift my body more effortlessly on the climbing wall, and overall felt stronger while working out.
Other than the occasional bloating, I felt more awake, more aware, and like my brain was firing on all cylinders. I don’t believe I will ever go fully plant-based, but this challenge and the documentary have inspired me to keep my animal-based eating to a bare minimum.
Honestly, even though the challenge itself is over, I feel like I’m going to eat this way for 90% of my meals. I didn’t realize that there were so many yummy plant-based dishes available at restaurants out there!
Click the link at the top of the page to see the video!
