Going Vegan = Epic FAIL

This is way overdue. With all the racing there have been better things to write about.  I tried going vegan, I really did.  The first week went really well.  I was committed enough to order vegan at Benjy’s during a first date (there wasn’t a second date after the vegan thing, oh well).  Then the beginning of the end came.  Going out to eat would prove to be my down fall.  I went out with the improv crew after a show at Third Coast Comedy.  After catching much shit from the guys about “this vegan thing”, I ordered a portabella mushroom cap “burger”.  Thinking it was a mushroom cap instead of a meat.  Halfway through I noted to the guys this was the best vegan burger I’ve had.  That’s when it realized what I was actually eating was a normal burger with diced mushrooms mixed in. 

A couple days after the Space City 10 Miler I got pretty sick.  No food sounded good, but I was able to run so I didn’t think too much of it.  Then I had to take a day off work.  So I made a smoothie and added some protein powder.  After downing a few glasses I felt a bit better pretty quickly.  I’m not sure if it was lack of calories, protein or something completely unrelated.  The second to last week of October I had a full social calendar and went out quite a few times.  Every time, I ended up with a meat centric meal.  I kept up the vegan thing at home and lunch.  The last week I went off being a vegan about every other lunch and I felt great again.  

I have no idea if going vegan and getting sick had anything to do with each other.  I did miss eggs and cheese quite a bit.  Going forward I will probably fall back into my limited meat diet.  My next food challenge is in December to finally kick my diet coke habit.  Hopefully it goes better than this did.  

Going Vegan (sort of)

Anyone who knows me at all knows I have no philosophical argument against eating meat.  Beef fajitas from Lupe’s Tortilla is pure heaven in your mouth.  My favorite go to meal to cook for guest is cheese ravioli with chicken in a cream sauce sprinkled with bacon bits.  However, one thing I’ve noticed is the more I run the less I desire to eat meat.  I crave veggies.  When I go to the grocery store, as I walk through the produce section, random veggies seem like must have items.  Couple this with reading Scott Jurek’s book Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness and I decided for the month of October to give being a vegan a try.  

I’ll confess up front I was going to try in August, even buying a few vegan cookbooks.  I then realized I had a ton of meat in my freezer.  So the plan was to stop buying animal products and use up what I had.  September was the month-o-vacations.  Between going back a week to Charlottesville, Va for my friend’s wedding and going to Colorado for 10 days, I knew I would be going out to eat most days.  That was not going to be a recipe for success.  

I also know I won’t be able to go 100% vegan this month.  I still have several non-vegan items that I’ll use up but most of them are things like chicken broth, milk chocolate, and evidently Worcestershire sauce has anchovies in it and is non-vegan.  The only real meat I have is 8 chicken wings in the freezer, and a half a quart of whole milk leftover from some recipe.

So this month I stocked up on various bean, lentils, and grains.  Bought tofu, tempeh, hemp and soy milk, nutritional yeast, and all other kinds of items for the first time ever.  We will see how it goes and how long I last.  I’m pretty good at the grocery store as I already eat very little processed food, but going out to dinner is going to be rough.  That is when I usually get all the great grilled meat items I don’t cook in my condo.  We’ll see how it goes and in a month I’ll update with how it has affected my running and such.