Friday 4 March 2011

Veganism

Recently in my bland and uninteresting life I've befriended some vegans, after questioning them about it and hearing their fully unbiased accounts of how amazing veganism is I decided to give it a go, nothing to lose and potentially lots to gain!

If you didn't already know, veganism is the practice of rejecting the use of any animal related product from their lifestyle, dietary veganism which I am referring to in this post is removing any animal related product from my diet. e.g. no meat, no eggs, NO HONEY, etc.

As a 6'2, 14 stone athletic man I eat a fair amount, I pillage the kitchen throughout the day until supplies are low then I hunt the local domestic animals until my hunger is satisfied. Well... slight exaggeration but I do eat a lot.
The main problems I saw with turning vegan was that:
a) I could hardly eat anything,
b) there would be no variety in what I ate!

What I quite quickly found was if you look hard enough you can replace a lot of the things you eat on a normal diet with 'vegan friendly' foods, there's Tofu and Quorn that replace meat which is basically all you need to put with your vegetables and rice (whatever) for a balanced diet.
Although I used to hate dark chocolate because I was used to the sweeter confectionery choices such as Mars bars, Milky way bars etc now dark chocolate has become a luxury!
Fruit and vegetables are still obviously allowed, most of my meals consist of couscous (I'd recommend Quinoa over couscous as it has basically more protein), hummus and various vegetables/spices. Pitta bread is pretty good for lunches but there are far better meals you can cook if you have the time, for example I had spaghetti bolognese (soya beans that taste like yet, are not mince) for dinner tonight and yesterday I had a roast with quorn sausages.

The pros I've found so far even though I've only been vegan for a short time are noticeable fat loss - people were saying my cheekbones were more defined after just a week and I have lost a significant amount of body fat and become more 'toned'.

The cons thus far are just really I miss fried chicken and bingeing on random foods, not enough to give up completely but just enough to shed a tear every time I walk past KFC.


To make it clear, I have no ethical issues with slaughtering animals for consumption, obviously I am pro organic livestock farming etc but don't feel strongly either way, I'd be more interested to find out if animals actually have a concious thought as we do or not before I make a judgement on whether or not we should be cooking 'em.

5 comments:

  1. In a way, having less choices, you start to appreciate different tastes more, and actually end up less "picky." Well, maybe anyways :P

    More than anything, do what YOU are comfortable with, being 100% Vegan or 100% anything is near impossible. Being conscious of your choices in life, being aware of your impact on the world, it's all good.

    Whatever happens, i hope you have fun with it :) After 4 or so years, i'd say i do. And i've met plenty who do too.

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  2. Yes you deffinatly start to appreciate different tastes more! That's probably actually one of the best parts about it!

    You've been vegan for 4 years? nice!

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  3. Imagine how good meat will taste after a few years. Keep it up dont give into temptation!

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  4. Not something I would do, but to each their own. Have fun with it!

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  5. I heard the opposite HaigoR! One of my friends who has been vegan for a while now said he was physically sick last time he tried to eat meat!

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