This is new to me, since I only made the change to vegan at
the beginning of the month. For the longest time I have been struggling with
the act of eating animal produce when I am such a huge animal lover. On one
hand I am a true believer in the natural food chain, science. On the other hand
we as humans have come along far enough now to know how to survive without
hurting animals unnecessarily. When science is used to degrade quality, pump
our foods full of chemicals, hormones, and unwanted nasties. I’m not going to
drone on about all the bad stuff that happens to animals behind closed doors;
we’ve all seen it, it makes us all angry, and if it doesn’t upset you at least
a little then you’re not human!
So I’m just going to simply list a few of my reasons for
swapping to a vegan lifestyle, bearing in mind that for me it is a huge step to
take after being a meat and two veg eater for 35 years.
For the Animals
Aside from my fear of flapping wings and creepy crawlies
scuttling across my face in the middle of the night, I am the hugest animal
lover. During the school holidays we would take care of the animals on my sons
school farm, even then I could never eat the eggs we were offered because I
knew the chickens they came from. Running around with the rabbits, ducks, chickens;
it’s like being at one with nature. It helps make you whole. My father was a
farmer half of his life, the other half he continued his worked at multiple
cattle markets. I used to help him
during the holidays; rounding up the cows and sheep; we’d always visit one of
his farm pals on the way home. Oh yeah, I talk to animals in the street as if
they can understand me, to which I get weird looks but I don’t care! I always
feed the squirrels and the ducks. I hate spiders and moths (check above
statement!) but I won’t kill them if they get in the house, I always make the
hubby collect them and release them outside.
For the Health
Benefits
My body has been all over the place for years, especially my
hormone levels. When you think about animal products, the majority have all been
injected with hormones, and we put that into our bodies! No wonder mine went
wonky for so long! I have always been a huge beef, cheese and ice-cream eater
so there lies that problem. Now, I make my own ice-cream as and when I need to.
I have been overweight for the majority of my life and my
goal is to use this change as a way to take more control of my size. Many diets
have been tried before and it always comes back to the same thing; eat well,
eat balanced, don’t skip, don’t meal replace, be active, drink water, boom! As
we’re on the subject, my highest weight ever was 310lbs on a 5ft 2 frame, never
again!
For the Nutritional
Boost
I have always been a huge fruit eater, for over 25 years I
would only eat a handful of different veggies (potatoes, carrots, onion, peas,
tomatoes), and never salad. It’s the texture of raw produce and the feeling of
chowing down on some grass had always put me off, made me feel nauseated. My
goal is to tick one new food off my list every few days, including the ones I
know I didn’t like before! We all know that our taste buds change with our
diet. Two years ago I was taking powdered vegetable capsules and I found that I
was starting to crave broccoli and sprouts. Because it was in the powder capsules
my body got used to it and wanted more. At the same time I also introduced
courgette, peppers and spinach. So by removing animal produce from my diet I am
forcing myself to eat a wider range of plant based produce, one step at a time.
Not to mention the fact that most are jam-packed with vitamins and minerals;
that’s a bonus for our bodies; including hair, skin and nails.
My Challenges
Meeting my daily protein target (currently at 140g) without
animal produce is harder than I thought it would be. I used My Fitness Pal to
track my intake and I have always been a huge believer of the high protein low
carb when it comes to macros.
More protein, builds muscle, burns fat, calories burn faster.
Less protein, burns muscle, leaves fat behind, calories burn
slower.
Depending on my day I reach between 60-85g, aside from
eating soy products daily, I struggle to hit it.
This week I burned out 6lb of muscle mass and gained 2% body
fat which is bad!
Would love to hear from you
☮ ♡
& ツ
Brightest
Blessings
☆☆☆
