Veganism - Nubblies.net Forums

Ugly Bastard · 08-18-2010, 09:46 PM

Last week, I started experimenting with veganism and thought the experience might interest some of you. It started after I watched the documentary Food, Inc. It's not that I saw that film and freaked out and made some impulsive decision to become vegan, it's more than I saw it, was pretty grossed out and decided I'd like to try to steer clear of processed foods and commercially-produced meat as much as possible moving forward.

Since I was already going to alter my diet, I figured I'd see what it's like to be vegan for a few days more for fun and just to try something different than anything else. For the record, I don't have much of a moral dilemma with eating animals and any dilemma I have mostly deals with animals that have been treated inhumanely on their way to your dinner plate (think: veal). So the veganism thing is like 99% for health/curiosity purposes and 1% for animal rights or whatever. I only say that because I know some of you might be thinking, "veganism? That's something that only animal-loving hippies do!" and I don't want to be lumped in with that crowd as much as I can help it since my reasoning for doing this has almost nothing to do with compassion for animals.

Alright, with that said, a few observations:

1. It's fucking easy. Before trying veganism, I always viewed it as something that must be a complete pain in the ass and that your dining options are next to none. Trying it for a few days has dissolved this myth for me. There's really a ton of different stuff you can eat while on a vegan diet. For instance, today I made guacemole (ate with chips, obv) and a fruit smoothie (just put a bunch of berries in a blender with a splash of soy milk). For dinner, I went to this vegetarian Indian restaurant and ordered one of the vegan items on their menu which was a vegetable curry dish made with coconut milk. It was absolutely amazing. Like, I would eat that semi-regularly vegan or not.

2. Shitting is awesome. My bowels... my god my bowels. They are just delighted as a pig in shit right now. I used to only shit once a day like clockwork. About an hour after waking up, I'll take a shit, and that will be that. If I drank heavily the night before, I'll probably shit once or twice more throughout the day. On a vegan diet, I have been shitting no less than 3 times a day and each time it's just downright blissful. Big, loose, floating shits that just fly out of you and feel great on the way out. We all know what kind of shit I'm talking about because they're one of our most favorite kind of shits to have. I've been enjoying them 3-5 times a day since going vegan. Today, I woke up at noon and had shit, I kid you not, four times by 4:00 pm. I can think of two reasons why this is probably the case, a.) meat is hard on your digestive system and b.) vegetables are loaded with fiber. Being that I've cut out meat entirely and have been eating 10x the amount of fruit and vegetables as I typically do, it's pretty clear why I'm shitting my brains out.

3. Most alcohol is vegan so, you know, it doesn't get in the way of being an alcoholic.

4. I feel amazing. It's hard for me not to think that a lot of it is just in my head, but I feel really energetic and that my mood is heightened while on this vegan diet. I think it would be silly to attribute all of this to the diet, but I think you can attribute some of it to the diet. I also feel leaner and can tell I've droppped some weight. This weight loss is probably on account of just avoiding processed foods and doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with the veganism, but I'll take it.

I enjoy meat, cheese and eggs too much to ever do this full time which is why I'm only practicing a vegan diet on Mondays through Thursday lunch (basically half the week and then relax the standard on the weekends). I hope some of you found this interesting enough to give it a shot yourselves. I'd recommend just trying it for 3-4 days. That's all the longer you should need to do it to start reaping the benefits of point #2 which is obviously the best part.

If any of you are serious about trying this and are interesting in meal ideas, let me know and I can expand upon some of the things I've been eating.

08-18-2010, 09:46 PM	#1 (permalink)
Ugly Bastard Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 13,643 Internets: 247330	Veganism Last week, I started experimenting with veganism and thought the experience might interest some of you. It started after I watched the documentary Food, Inc. It's not that I saw that film and freaked out and made some impulsive decision to become vegan, it's more than I saw it, was pretty grossed out and decided I'd like to try to steer clear of processed foods and commercially-produced meat as much as possible moving forward. Since I was already going to alter my diet, I figured I'd see what it's like to be vegan for a few days more for fun and just to try something different than anything else. For the record, I don't have much of a moral dilemma with eating animals and any dilemma I have mostly deals with animals that have been treated inhumanely on their way to your dinner plate (think: veal). So the veganism thing is like 99% for health/curiosity purposes and 1% for animal rights or whatever. I only say that because I know some of you might be thinking, "veganism? That's something that only animal-loving hippies do!" and I don't want to be lumped in with that crowd as much as I can help it since my reasoning for doing this has almost nothing to do with compassion for animals. Alright, with that said, a few observations: 1. It's fucking easy. Before trying veganism, I always viewed it as something that must be a complete pain in the ass and that your dining options are next to none. Trying it for a few days has dissolved this myth for me. There's really a ton of different stuff you can eat while on a vegan diet. For instance, today I made guacemole (ate with chips, obv) and a fruit smoothie (just put a bunch of berries in a blender with a splash of soy milk). For dinner, I went to this vegetarian Indian restaurant and ordered one of the vegan items on their menu which was a vegetable curry dish made with coconut milk. It was absolutely amazing. Like, I would eat that semi-regularly vegan or not. 2. Shitting is awesome. My bowels... my god my bowels. They are just delighted as a pig in shit right now. I used to only shit once a day like clockwork. About an hour after waking up, I'll take a shit, and that will be that. If I drank heavily the night before, I'll probably shit once or twice more throughout the day. On a vegan diet, I have been shitting no less than 3 times a day and each time it's just downright blissful. Big, loose, floating shits that just fly out of you and feel great on the way out. We all know what kind of shit I'm talking about because they're one of our most favorite kind of shits to have. I've been enjoying them 3-5 times a day since going vegan. Today, I woke up at noon and had shit, I kid you not, four times by 4:00 pm. I can think of two reasons why this is probably the case, a.) meat is hard on your digestive system and b.) vegetables are loaded with fiber. Being that I've cut out meat entirely and have been eating 10x the amount of fruit and vegetables as I typically do, it's pretty clear why I'm shitting my brains out. 3. Most alcohol is vegan so, you know, it doesn't get in the way of being an alcoholic. 4. I feel amazing. It's hard for me not to think that a lot of it is just in my head, but I feel really energetic and that my mood is heightened while on this vegan diet. I think it would be silly to attribute all of this to the diet, but I think you can attribute some of it to the diet. I also feel leaner and can tell I've droppped some weight. This weight loss is probably on account of just avoiding processed foods and doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with the veganism, but I'll take it. I enjoy meat, cheese and eggs too much to ever do this full time which is why I'm only practicing a vegan diet on Mondays through Thursday lunch (basically half the week and then relax the standard on the weekends). I hope some of you found this interesting enough to give it a shot yourselves. I'd recommend just trying it for 3-4 days. That's all the longer you should need to do it to start reaping the benefits of point #2 which is obviously the best part. If any of you are serious about trying this and are interesting in meal ideas, let me know and I can expand upon some of the things I've been eating.