Attempt to Veg

When we last left off, I was not particularly excited to limit my animal product intake: this was a principal source of my nutrition! However, truth be told, I like experimenting with food and it's one reason I try different diets and tolerate extreme eating patterns...it's me going, "I wonder how my body will react if I..." I should note that I also like to test myself to see if I can handle something (like eating cranberries without any sweetners -- which I can!! And I like them this way!), but I probably get food poisoning (gentle and severe) more often than the average person.

Anyway, I decided to give the vegan diet a try. Except it wasn't vegan. It was more of a vegetable-fruit-flaxseed-salmon-maybe an egg-and quinoa diet. My vegetable and fruit intake sky-rocketed and my animal product intake plummeted. My feelings about this diet are positive overall, but I do have some negative experiences, all of which I will discuss.

Positive:

DIGESTION. Holy Mother, my digestion is AWESOME and this is a HUGE deal to me. Food does not hang around for long. I am able to feel empty and really, I encourage you to try a plant-only diet with ground flaxseed sometime. Not for long, maybe just a few days. But it is GREAT.

I really was eating too many eggs. It's nice to take a break from my old diet.

Not Sure/Neutral:

I am lighter. I may have lost 1-2 lbs only, but I feel that my body mass has changed. My muscle mass has gotten smaller. In some ways, it feels good to be lighter. I had been feeling swollen and large for a while and now I don't feel that way. I don't feel toned, but I don't feel huge either.

Negative:

Loss of energy, strength, and motivation. In the hospital, there are eight floors and my office is on the first. I used to climb stairs taking two at a time every day during my lunch hour. I would go from bottom to top 2-3 times a day. Lately, though, I've been making it to the fourth or fifth floor and have had to take a break. Yeah. Sometimes, if I have food in me, I can do it, but it still takes way more energy than it used to. I also used to do strengthening exercises before work (push-ups, squats, etc) and now I don't have the energy. Meat and eggs let me build muscle mass and maintain it. The calories lasted longer and gave me energy. Also, I actually wanted to exercise when I ate them. Now I'd rather read. I kind of miss the drive.

For right now, I like my partial-vegan diet. I'm not married to it and will deviate as I see fit, but for right now, it's all right. Like I said in the beginning, I'm an experimenter with food, so things for me change.