Thoughts after one month of plant-based eating

I wasn’t overweight. I ran regularly. My cholesterol was fine and I didn’t think plant-based eating would help my folically-challenged pate in any way.

So why ditch meat and dairy?

Age forty (and then forty-one …) makes you think about the future a little differently, because there is less of it to ponder.

My goal wasn’t to live forever. It was to think about what gives me the best chance to have high quality of life — health and vitality — well into old age?

So I started to research.

Now, I’m no food expert. I’m a marketing director and copywriter. So, do your own legwork and reach your own conclusions and disclaimer and consult your physician and offer not available in Croatia, etc.

A couple of sources I found were so compelling they forced me to change my eating habits. Because if I didn’t change, then I wasn’t acting in concert with what I believed to be true. And that would annoy me even more than the incessant laugh track on the Disney Channel shows my kids watch.

The first source is a book, called Blue Zones, which researches the lifestyle and eating habits of certain sub-sets of the population that live longer, healthier lives. Great read.

The second source comes from Rich Roll, who was an overweight and overworked lawyer who turned 40, switched to plant-based diet and now competes in triathlons and other insane activities. He hosts a podcast, and episode 140 features an interview with cardiologist Dr. Robert Ostfeld about the eradication of “lifestyle disease.” Warning: the interview is highly rational, convincing, and kind of jarring, but hopefully in a good way. It was for me.

I guess I am mostly a vegan, though I have always disliked that word. It smells like incense. I will have an egg here and there. I will probably eat a little meat on special occasions.

I have no plans to join a commune and sell bead necklaces for a living.

For me, eating plant-based is a direction, not a religion.

Friends and family

After a couple of weeks of eating plant-based, I started telling a few people.

Two things happened:

Some immediately asked, “WHAT ABOUT PROTEIN?!?”

The protein message has been pounded into us. It’s amazing, and a testament to the power of marketing, how much we feel we need meat and milk to get protein. Many of us have no idea why we believe that. I didn’t know why I believed it, but I did.

You can read about plant-based protein here, or in five billion other places online.

Other people looked at me like I had spontaneously sprouted a disturbing growth on my face, which made the people very uncomfortable, but they wanted very much to act like they were not uncomfortable.

“Oh, really,” they would say, and look at the ground or the sky or anywhere but my theoretical face growth.

“Hmm. That’s nice. Oh look, it’s time for my IRS appointment. Can’t miss that. OKseeyoubye”

What’s been good

Most everything, really. I may have lost a pound or two, but that wasn’t really a goal. My wife has joined me in this change (thank God, since I can barely cook microwave popcorn) and she’s lost more than I have. So that’s great.

One weird thing has happened. I am a “highly amatuer” runner. That means I run to burn off stress and fat and have no additional goals. I don’t want to get up in the middle of the night to line up and run 26.2 miles. I don’t want to run 10 miles in a pack. I want to run 5–6 miles, 3–5 times per week, pretty slowly, and call it good.

Forever, my pace has been between 9:00 and 9:40 minute miles (I told you I was slow). After a couple of weeks of eating plant-based, I didn’t feel like I had really worked out after my runs. So I went faster the next time.

Now my pace is between 8:00 and 8:30 minute miles. Still not blazing, but better without any extra effort. I can prove only correlation, not causation. But I’ve been a nine-minute-miler forever and now I’m not, without trying.

I can’t say I’ve really even craved meat or dairy, which I thought would be an issue.

What’s been bad

Bloat. Working on it, trying some probiotics. Let’s just take the air out of that discussion (sorry, couldn’t resist) and leave it at that.

Wrapping it all up

Again, for me, this about quality of life, about giving myself the best shot at vitality for the long haul.

It’s a completely selfish endeavor.

It’s great that I’m not contributing to animal abuse and the other things more fervent vegans espouse, but I’d be lying if I said that was really any kind of motivation.

Food gets people really fired up and I’m in no mood to argue. Find what works for you and go for it.

But if you discover the diet that regrows hair, let me know.