Veganism changed my life

Hi all

So glad I found this forum, it's always great to share and learn everything about veganism+fitness.

All my life I felt awful, I had no energy and every time I tried some physical activity it was very strenuous to me, even if I wasn't too much overweight.

My life began changing when I became a vegetarian. I started to get more interested on diet and noticed how if affected my overall wellbeing in a dramatic way. It took me some time to become a vegan. After 6 years being a vegetarian I became a vegan and quickly adopted raw veganism (80-10-10 style) and it was by then that I found a real interest in exercising regularly. The fact that diet made me feel better contributed a lot to start working out.

Sadly, about 18 months later I ended up falling off the vegan wagon, and went on and off vegetarianism for about 3 years. I see how the poor diet also contributed to me stop doing exercise, it was a vicious cycle, hard to break, since i felt bad and that contributed to me making poor choices in other areas of my life.

About 2 years ago, feeling so crappy, I made the decision to start lifting weights again, but made poor choices in diet (I was doing a paleo-keto diet with a lot of animal fat), combined with overexercising, after a few months I crashed.

I knew something was really wrong and I began moving towards fruits and vegetables to heal myself.

Then, about 1 year ago I became a vegan again. Nothing compares to this diet in terms of well being.

For the past months I had been practicing yoga, acrobatics and some martial arts. For some reasons I had to quit those classes and began lifting weights again 2 months ago, even though I still practice a form of martial art once a week.

I made adjustments on my diet following some guidelines from Brendan Brazier's The thrive diet book, and even if some principles were similar to things I had seen before, I guess the fact that he's a top athlete really inspired me.

I made up my mind about lowering my body fat (it had been 20% for over a year), and now I'm finally seeing results, results that I never believed I could achieve.

I'm very excited about it and I hope I can keep improving my fitness level and my diet everyday. I also find motivation in being able to be a healthy and fit vegan, so the world can see how great this lifestyle is.

I'm always looking forward to learn more and if I can share my own knowledge with others it is a great pleasure.

Thank you for this forum!

Veganism for the win!

welcome back to the lifestyle!!

Brazier's books are really good. Combined with Whole/China Study, a bit of Mike Dolce thrown in and of course I'm about 1/2 through the new Shred It! book.

I like to think of myself as a living, walking advert for whole-foods, plant based lifestyle especially around those my age and even younger who are like "what the hell is this guy doing!?!?!?!"...

:

This is me practicing a backbend

http://i59.tinypic.com/2mpbp54.png

Hi there,

I'm not yet a vegetarian or vegan, I've just begun to think about a more plant based diet in the past couple months and I'd love advice. I like how going vegan has changed your life. I began thinking plant based because I'm tired of being tired and not well all the time! I always have headaches, body aches, etc. Anyway, my problem is that I don't really know where to start...I've actually gained a bit of weight since stepping away from the animal protein and I'm sure it's because I'm a bit lost. Was thinking about getting the new Shred It book, but not I'm not sure if that's a good place to start. Thanks.

Maybe you could start saying what you eat? It's easier to suggest changes that way.

typical day would be Breakfast:2cups black coffee,Ezekiel cereal with cashew or almond milk and a bunch of berries. Lunch: sandwich made with Ezekiel bread, natural peanut butter and berries. Afternoons can be tricky...I might have a smoothie or pick at stuff like cottage cheese with natural peanut butter,or a little bit of cheese. I should mention that I don't think cheese is a very good option for me,but I do love it. Dinner can be quinoa, kale and chickpeas or it could be that I'm starving and didn't plan well and end up with pizza. Night time is particularly difficult for me. I don't keep a lot of junk on hands, but I'm usually hungry and grazing. Also, I have a husband and 3 kids that avoid veggies whenever possible. If I don't want to deal with the dinner fight they may have something different from what I'm having, but I'll most likely pick at their dinners also. Before I was a 3 meal,2 snacks a day mostly protein (animal, whey, yogurt). My goal was building muscle and leaning out. I'd still very much like that, but I had noticed that although I felt better than when I just ate whatever I wanted, I still didn't feel "well". I spent much of my time wanting a nap or fighting headaches. Thank you for your advice!

This is me practicing a backbend

 

http://i59.tinypic.com/2mpbp54.png

That is awesome. Is that from practicing yoga?