I have eaten Chipotle for every single lunch this work week. This weekend I'm going grocery shopping and making some meal plans...because while I have no doubt I can survive on Chipotle alone, that's not the point of this experiment and I'm pretty sure the sodium content is unhealthy long term.
And, TMI update, it's really doing a number on me. I'm constantly bloated. I know it takes time to adjust. Five or so years ago when I was eating extremely healthy I remember being really bloated for a while at the beginning. Eventually I adjusted, but it does take a while. And it's unpleasant.
I'm never really very full. Fullness is a strange thing, though. When I'm full, I feel weighed down and gross. When I'm not full, I feel unsatisfied. There is no medium. Although if I had to pick one to feel for the rest of my life, it would be moderate hunger. Not the kind where you feel like your insides are clawing their way out of you or anything, just slightly hungry. In between meals hungry (or all the time hungry for me, now).
Today for dinner I had hummus with pita bread and tomatoes. I love hummus. I practically lived on hummus and tomatoes in England.
Generally though I feel really great. I'm not sluggish, despite the fact that I have a feeling I'm not really eating enough. I don't have that heavy feeling after eating. If this is how eating a diet without animal products feels, I would consider doing it for the vast majority of my meals. I'm only four days in so I can't say, "this is it!" for me or anything. But my energy levels are good, I haven't had any issues with an unsettled stomach (which I get all the time in warmer weather), and I'm finding that, while I have to remind myself, "I'm not eating that" when I want to reach for a snack, finding food to eat isn't very hard at all. And those moments are becoming rarer as I train myself to eat this, not that.
I thought it would be much harder to give up all animal products. Meat? No problem. I do love a good, mostly rare steak, but I could do it. I don't eat much chicken and find that when I order salads, I pick the chicken out. Milk by itself wouldn't be hard; I never drink it. I don't find that it tastes very good. But sour cream, cheese, ice cream, creamer (it's the only way I can drink coffee), smoothies, the occasional chocolate, honey, most beers (who knew, right?), white sugar (what??), mayo, most salad dressings...I really didn't think I could do it. It's overwhelming.
But when I stop thinking of it as, "what can't I eat?" and rather, "what CAN I eat?", it's really not so bad. Also, is it such a bad thing for me to not think of food as an enjoyment? I'm not saying eating has to be solely for the purpose of nourishment, but it also doesn't have to be a highlight of my day. Granted, there are times when eating is a part of an experience and I don't want to give that stuff up. But who says the only enjoyable foods have to contain animal products?
I'm not sure where I'll land on this. If I did decide to eat a vegan diet more often (I'm not saying I'd do it forever. I don't have the ethical convictions to keep this up every moment of every day, but I could certainly do it 90%+ of the time), it wouldn't be because of how I feel about animals. I don't have as much of a problem as others do with the meat industry. It would just be a healthy choice for me. And likely I would eat honey, white sugar, salad dressings, Guinness...I would just avoid foods with cholesterol.
I also wouldn't want to be a junk food vegan. Oreos, potato chips, packaged and processed foods...tons of these things are technically vegan, and also provide zero health benefits.
But, again, this is just day four. Perhaps by day thirty I will be planning my re-entry into the meat and dairy world with a carnivourous feast. Regardless of the outcome, I think I'll have learned a few things from this.
Loading comments...