Results of Vegan December

January 2, 2010 – 11:58 AM

As some of you know, I decided to go vegan for the month of December just to try it out and see what all the hype was.  This morning was my final weigh-in for this vegan experiment and I must say the results were really impressive.

First off, those who know me know that I was born and raised a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy and maintained this throughout my entire 36 years.  I kept my weight somewhat under control until I got into the IT field which required me sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day with little to no exercise.  This has been increasingly catching up to me in the last few years and I could feel my clothes getting tighter and tighter.  We bought a Bowflex and an Elliptical Trainer and I started working out as much as possible.  Yes, I dropped a few pounds here and there but I knew my diet was holding me back from seeing the full results.  I love food and this was going to be hard for me to change.  My girlfriend took a nutrition class a couple of years ago so we decided to start changing a few smalls things in our diet (aka “baby steps”).  We started by replacing white bread with whole wheat, whole milk with soy milk, etc.  We started seeing some small results almost immediately but we still kept meat and dairy in our diet because I was very reluctant on totally getting rid of it.  This is all I “knew” to eat and I was afraid my body would start wigging out and going into convulsions (hey, it could happen..).  Finally, late this year I started reading a few health websites, watching a few horrible videos and decided to just go vegan for a while and see what happens.  I had nothing to lose at this point.  It was a major culture shock at first but got easier and easier as we went.  We had some awesome recipes from various sites to carry us through the whole month and I must admit that some of them even rivaled their meaty counterparts.  We ate everything from tacos to burgers to lasagna.  All were extremely tasty and in the end I can safely say that I was not missing meat or dairy at all.  Even now that the month is over I do not see myself going back to eating what I was previously.  Here are the main reasons why:

Noticeable results:

• Lost 11 pounds  (did not even exercise at all during the month so the results were just from the diet change)
• BMI dropped almost 2 full points
• Lost almost 2 inches from my waistline
• Feel healthier
• Look healthier
• Have more energy
• Sleep better at night
• Random asthma-like symptoms vanished

These are just what I noticed and I’m sure there would be many more if I would have done it more scientifically like getting before and after blood work for example.  But these are more than enough to be impressed and start considering a major change in your permanent diet.

Roll your eyes all you want – I know I did for 36 years – but there truly is something to this.