Vegan Week Challenge - no, seriously, try it

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one100grand

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I know a lot of folks will be rolling their eyes or laughing at this idea. I was when my wife introduced this thought to me too, but when I did it, it put a lot of things in perspective for me that are a little alarming.

A little background about the idea - my wife works for a major healthcare organization and as a result is privy to a lot of unusual initiatives that some health nuts suggest. November is apparently Vegan Month (seems awfully hateful to put it amidst the celebration of greatest celebration of gluttony possible) and the folks in her office suite started throwing around the idea of going vegan for a month. Everyone was on board until they realized that it's a long month, so that got shortened to 2 weeks, then ultimately a week. She participated in it and at the end of the week had lost 3 pounds and was feeling very healthy. In December, we decided to take it upon ourselves to try it again and I have to admit that at the end of the week I was feeling pretty healthy and in good spirits - I even learned a few very disturbing things about OJ from Walmart.

So we've decided that for a week every month this year that we are going to be vegan. I want to make you aware that this is a big sacrifice for me - my birthday was recently and I ate pretty much meat and cake all day.

What vegan means - no meat, no cheese, no animal product whatsoever. I know it sounds pretty ridiculous, but it puts into perspective how many things we eat that involve animal bi-products that probably shouldn't (such as most brands of pickles and OJ from Walmart).

My reasoning for doing this is a combination of health, knowledge, and discipline. I want to improve my health in 2014, I want to learn about the things that I am eating, and I figure if I've got the discipline to forgo eating things I love to eat, what else do I have the discipline to do?

In 2014, my first vegan week will run from 1/20-1/26. I encourage you to join up and try this, even if it's only a day or two, or you could try vegetarian.
 
I also like to know what I eat. That's why I eat what I catch and kill myself as much as possible. I also weigh in at 130lbs when soaking wet, loaded with hunting gear. I don't do anything special to keep weight off, it's just really not hard to eat decently if you make a conscious attempt at it and do things that keep you off your butt
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=338662#p338662 said:
Goldfish » Today, 14:17[/url]"]I also like to know what I eat. That's why I eat what I catch and kill myself as much as possible. I also weigh in at 130lbs when soaking wet, loaded with hunting gear. I don't do anything special to keep weight off, it's just really not hard to eat decently if you make a conscious attempt at it and do things that keep you off your butt
I may be wrong, but at 130 and by the statements you made, I'd venture a guess that you are younger than 40 and probably less than 30. My point being that for most people, as you age, your metabolism slows, and that means you have to start making more of an effort to keep the weight off. Then as you age a little more, you start to encounter problems like back aches, sore knee or hip joints, etc. And just like the slower metabolic rate, this adds to the difficulty of keeping weight off because you can no longer be as physically active as you once were.

As for being a vegetarian, there's no danger of me ever becoming one. I enjoy prime rib, steaks, and a good burger too much to give them up. Although I will tell you that during the summer when my garden is in full swing, I have many meals that are made up entirely of the fresh things from my garden. OK, that's not entirely true, the butter and cornbread don't come from my garden. :oops:
 
I want to make it clear that I'm not championing folks becoming vegan or vegetarian on a permanent basis. I'll be very upfront and tell you that I think it's a silly lifestyle choice. But how much more do you enjoy a great burger when you haven't had one in a while? I found that the first time when I did this, I badly wanted to eat bacon and I abstained. When I finally ate the bacon, it was outstanding. I know I would not have had the level of appreciation for it without the week of no meat.

As for the Goldfish, I think it's great that you catch & kill most of you food. I try to do the same. I'll also tell you that some folks are blessed with a more active metabolism than others, the same way that some folks are blessed with better looks or better brains. I'd tell ya that I'm envious of the weight, but I'm pretty sure at 6'4" being 130 would make me look more than a little strange :shock: . I watch what I eat very carefully and I work out 5-7 times a week, twice with a trainer and 2 more times in a small group. My metabolism isn't great and it won't ever be, but I'm fortunate enough to be able to pack on muscle pretty quickly should that be my goal.
 
my thoughts are simple

1) your wife hacked your account
2) your hen pecked and your wife forced you to do this

EAT MEAT !!!!!!!!!!!! its tasty
 
I am going to do this!

But I am going to up this by one by also eating raw food for 1-2 days…….meaning uncooked veggies and what not.

If you know me, you know I sleep on my Webers. :LOL2:
 
I'm 30, and weighed more in hs than I do now because I had weight training every day back then
 
I wish you guys the best of luck. Idk that in willing to give up meat for even a week. But I understand about eating stuff that we shouldn't. It's called processed foods. I try to stay away from them. I haven't cut them all out yet, baby steps. Also, I'm picky where I get my meat from. Wal-Mart has the worst meat I the world. I try to get grass feed beef with no hormones. Raised natural. It's more expensive to eat natural beef & veggies, but if you rest proper proportions, the cost will work out to about the same for me. I eat too much usually.
 
If one were going to try and define what it is that makes one healthy or in good health certainly you would have to conceder firstly exercise and probably secondly what you consume,

The “experts” say the best way to lose weight and keep it off is a “low fat diet” in conjunction with “exercise” That’s it, it’s not a secret. All of the fad diets “Atkins diet” “South Beach diet” whatever may yield some positive results but there are a few things you have to consider. One is the weight in most cases is not going to stay off, you yoyo up and down and that’s very hard on the heart and the body in general, it’s actually worse than staying at a given weight even if it’s not your ideal weight.

The other thing is, you may have significant weight loss with one fad diet or another but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re healthier and being healthy is the goal, not just weighing less. The fad diets and alike often don’t let you consume things that your body needs, so in most cases you lost some weight but aren’t any heather as a result of it.

I just don’t know about the vegan thing. Your body needs some fat, it needs protein, it needs iron, and it needs calcium. I guess you can get most of those things by the vegan thing but there is nothing wrong with lean cuts of meat, in fact it has a ton of good nutritional value. Low fat diet and exercise trumps everything else. Stay away from Mickey D’s and exercise a few times a week and you will lose weight and be heather overall without having to give up everything you like. Just my 2 cents.......... :mrgreen:
 
We here have reduced the process foods by 75%. The Wife bakes cookies with ingredients we can read…sugar, eggs….etc. We try to buy things that don't contain High Fructose Corn Syrup or if we can afford it local produce and Im even going to say it……….Organic :shock:

The amount of hidden fats,sodium, and synthetic sweeteners in stuff is just too much in my opinion.

I eat meat, chicken, pork, fish every day…..every day! I think If I can skip meat two days a week it will not kill me and it will be the equivalent of a week out of a month.

If I had the option of growing my own food all year I would be all over it. During the summer we do great with the garden but in the winter we have no choice.
 
I too have freezer full of meat, but I'd be willing to give this a whirl, call it a cleansing diet or detox. Are we going to do this together to track progress?
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=338752#p338752 said:
Country Dave » Yesterday, 18:09[/url]"]If one were going to try and define what it is that makes one healthy or in good health certainly you would have to conceder firstly exercise and probably secondly what you consume,

The “experts” say the best way to lose weight and keep it off is a “low fat diet” in conjunction with “exercise” That’s it, it’s not a secret. All of the fad diets “Atkins diet” “South Beach diet” whatever may yield some positive results but there are a few things you have to consider. One is the weight in most cases is not going to stay off, you yoyo up and down and that’s very hard on the heart and the body in general, it’s actually worse than staying at a given weight even if it’s not your ideal weight.

The other thing is, you may have significant weight loss with one fad diet or another but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re healthier and being healthy is the goal, not just weighing less. The fad diets and alike often don’t let you consume things that your body needs, so in most cases you lost some weight but aren’t any heather as a result of it.

I just don’t know about the vegan thing. Your body needs some fat, it needs protein, it needs iron, and it needs calcium. I guess you can get most of those things by the vegan thing but there is nothing wrong with lean cuts of meat, in fact it has a ton of good nutritional value. Low fat diet and exercise trumps everything else. Stay away from Mickey D’s and exercise a few times a week and you will lose weight and be heather overall without having to give up everything you like. Just my 2 cents.......... :mrgreen:

I'm not suggesting this as a diet and I didn't mean it to come off as that. I also want to make sure that I say that it's not intended to generate weight loss - it just happened to coincide with weight loss in our case. I agree that cutting out processed food is an excellent step and is one that I've also worked on taking. Neither my wife or I have had fast food in the past 6+ months and I think we're both better off as a result.

As for the Protein sources on a vegan diet, here are the recommended things I found at a quick web search: quinoa, nuts, beans, tofu, leafy greens, and sunflower seeds. Speaking from experience, buy a bunch of raw nuts, they provide both fat and protein and are a healthy snack in general.

For sources of Iron on a vegan diet, here are the recommended things: soybeans, quinoa, tomato paste, white beans, cooked spinach, dried peaches, prune juice :shock: , and lentils. I don't know that I'll be doing prune juice, but quinoa is pretty tasty when you prepare it right - I'll make sure I post the quinoa recipe on here so those who are interested can try it and see what they think. It has a poor reputation in a lot of circles thanks largely to Bud Light...

For sources of Calcium: tofu, leafy greans, almonds or almond butter, tofu, navy beans, and broccoli are all excellent sources.
 
[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=338797#p338797 said:
panFried » Today, 09:49[/url]"]I too have freezer full of meat, but I'd be willing to give this a whirl, call it a cleansing diet or detox. Are we going to do this together to track progress?

Welcome aboard! I think you're looking at it the right way, I did it kind of on a whim before and really enjoyed it. I'd encourage tracking it if folks are willing and interested, I think it would help to discuss cravings and how you're feeling through trying this out. We did it from Monday through Sunday last time, but I think that doing Sunday through Saturday would probably make it easier...much the same as Jim I live to grill & smoke meat, so I don't want to give up a whole weekend of no BBQ if possible. I am starting vegan week from 1/19 through 1/25 with a healthy dose of BBQ the day before and after.
 
I’m not kicking the vegan thing at all,

It may be good for some people and I’m sure it has some health benefits. I know all of the process foods are not good for you and weather you’re a vegan or not, you should try and stay clear of them as much as possible.

It’s the whole giving up meet thing that I’m contending about. I think there are generally to kinds of people when it comes to what one consumes. You’re either health conscious or not. My point is, meat can be a big part of your diet and it doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination mean you’re not healthy or less healthy by having it.

Unless you’re slamming a few “Double Quarter Pounders with Cheese” 2 or 3 times a week lean cuts of meat are a big part of a balanced diet. I could never give up steak; I eat a lot of chicken and fish. That’s just me. I’m not trying to discourage anyone from trying the vegan thing; I’m simply saying you don’t have to give up meat in your diet to be healthy. The vegan thing is not for me……………….. [-X
 
I have a niece that has gone vegan to try and save the animals from being eatin . I tell her "your not saving them , they will die a slow death cause your eating their food ". I love our cows , one bite at a time. I like being on the thicker side , it keeps me from blowing out of the boat .
 

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