roccostark7

[roccostark7]

My vegan journey

Hey there! In this post I want to share my experience in becoming vegan throughout the last month. It was a quite impactful experience and helped me gaining new knowledge about my environment, our food industry and especially about myself, which is why I think it is worthy to share for people who try to become vegan, as well as the ones who doubt the lifestyle, especially those who are into fitness. And btw this is coming from a guy who ate meat for 24 years of his life every day.

But first things first, how did I come up with the decision to drastically change my eating habits just like that? It started quite spontaneous, as a friend of mine told me about a documentary called “The Game Changers”. This documentary is about the life of professional athletes, who also became vegan which helped them achieve career high achievements. But not only that, it also mentions the health benefits that come along with eating plants only. This was especially relevant for me since I suffered a heart inflammation at an early age and still haven’t found the cure to lower my above average blood pressure.

Damn, I thought. Okay, this sounds too good to be true, why not give it a shot? This is where I realized, that my current diet was fiiiiillled through the roof with animal products. I ate tuna on bread in the morning, chicken with rice for lunch, yoghurt with whey protein for dinner, and stuff like that over and over again. I was basically harvesting chickens, cows and fish throughout the whole day and that just because I tried to get enough protein into my diet, in order to complement my fitness and workout lifestyle.

But this post is not about animal cruelty and how we kill our environment with our current lifestyle, that’s a whole new topic itself. Here I will just talk about the benefits that I have experienced by trying out something that I have never done before. So, lets get into it. The first I had to do was finding plant-based alternatives for the stuff that I was eating before. And bruh, there are so many options that I never thought about. Just for replacing milk you can choose between oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, soy milk and many more. That solved the problem for my yoghurt replacement and the base for my protein shake in the morning. But what about the chicken? Lurking into the different corners of my supermarket I concluded that there are LOTS of meat replacements on the market nowadays. Mostly soy-based and surprise surprise, some of them even have more protein than actual meat. Just like with tofu, you can season them just the way you like it in order to perfectly fit into the meal of your choice. Plus: They hold longer in the fridge than meat and some options even tend to be cheaper.

To get in my carbohydrates I just bought the wholegrain version of the ones I used before: Rice, pasta, and wraps. (Okay it’s a bit boring but you can use sweet potatoes too!) Discovering all that during my first week, I became even more aware that veggies, nuts, and fruits will become my new best friends. I have never been a sucker for sweet stuff so replacing high sugar sweets with nuts and fruits wasn’t a big deal for me. And oh, I became addicted to hummus in the meantime but that’s a different story. But having all that nutritional stuff figured out, which was actually quite easier than I thought, it was all about the results in the end.

And the results came in faster than I thought! The first thing I realized was that I wasn’t that tired anymore after eating. It felt like I gave my body exactly what he needed, and I even felt energized instead of ready to sleep. I was able to hold my concentration for longer, meaning that long gaming sessions turned out to be even longer. Oh, yea and studying too lol.I started running more frequently and during the first week I already went from running 5km to 7km. Throughout the next weeks I was able to push that mark until 10km, which I never ever ran before (kinda proud tbh). Another thing that surprised me was how my body was able to regenerate, especially when working out. My muscles didn’t feel as sore the next day and I was able to push more workouts and running sessions into a week. I started to sleep better as well. Waking up in the morning wasn’t as hard anymore and I wouldn’t wake up at night like before. Not sure if that was due to diet or if my mind was just happy about saving at least some animals with my new habit.

Coming from all those positive things, there are certainly also negative parts, which you don’t think about at first. Most of them have to with discipline. When eating out with friends for example, or after a night out drinking, it became really hard to still vegan food sometimes, or to say no to that döner everyone is having at 2 am. Depending on where you live, having enough vegan options in restaurants is limited and you should prepare in advance with checking for alternatives if you really want to execute your new lifestyle in the best way possible.

Concluding my small but interesting journey I can say that becoming vegan is easier than you think it is. Nowadays you have a lot of options to replace your favorite food with delicious plant-based alternatives. You don’t have to be like me and switch your lifestyle completely from one day to another, but already two or three days a week are totally worth a try. Every person is different, and the results may also differ from person to person, but all I can say is that I saw some great benefits coming with it. So why not make a drive-by at the plant-based section in your supermarket? If you are interested in one of many vegan recipes, check this link out: https://www.reddit.com/r/veganrecipes/comments/pu06hv/simple_vegan_lentil_spaghetti_bolognese/

For more recipes and ideas, follow my pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/852658141958471707/

But until then, STAY HEALTHY GUYS!