Week 38: Plant based diet!!

Dear reader, 

"A diet consisting mostly or entirely of foods derived of plants"

A few weeks ago I talked about The Game Changers, this is a documentary on Netflix about athletes eating a plant based diet and being able to perform greater then other people. I have made major changes in my diet over the last year. I have stopped eating meat all together and I have been taking my alcohol consumption down. I have not had a drink for about five out of the nine months of the year. My plan is to take it down even more. But this week I am going to talk about food

I love to challenge myself, not only for this blog but also to see what kind of effect different things have on my life and what I can do to become healthier, stronger and live the longest life possible. One of those challenges is having a plant based month. Yes I am going vegan. It sounds harder then it does but I am going to take you on a week by week journey to see how it changed me. Because I have a city run coming up at the end of the month it would be interesting for me to see what it does to my training, recovery and end result. 

Getting prepared: 

You can't go vegan in one day, you need to prepare yourself to really understand what your body needs and wants with regards to food. I have a personal coach for my training and food for the last year and a half so she keeps me on track and gives me inspirations to keep discovering. It all starts out with having a good preparation. Because I have got meat out of my daily food routine for the last 9 months I have been used to being creative with my meals. 

I work in a restaurant and I don't cook every night I need to set out my meals for the week. I am able to eat plant based at my job so it will become easier over time. On the days that I am off from work I will be cooking my own food as well as prepping my meals for the coming days. I like to eat fresh and I like to cook, so making a short plan for what your week would be like makes it easier. 

Week 1: 

The first day was hard, because I am at work and I snack little things in between and I am not able to have all the foods anymore I was getting more grumpy and I needed to find different snacks to have. I also don't like trowing out food so the first week I allowed myself to finish some of the food I had at home but they needed to be replaced before the end of the first week. I was off for the three days straight. That doesn't always happen so it was the right time to start of cooking every day a vegan meal. 

Week 2: 

What a start to the week. I did a run, planning to do 8k but I got in a solid 10. The great thing was I did not feel tired or sweaty at all. It felt like it was nothing. I think for being on the diet for nearly a week now has changed my perspective and I think it would have major influence on my recovery as well as my final run. Cooking these vegan meals become more fun, you are making great things with fresh vegetables. Because I work in a restaurant I only really cook three days a week, the other days I take in my own food or I make something at my work. 

Week 3: 

This is the most important week. At the end of this week I have my run. I need to make sure that I have enough energy to keep myself going and make sure that the food I eat the night before would help me perform to my maximum capability. I do find it hard to snack once and a while, but overtime I realize that the willpower to snack goes a way. I am limited to my food but the enjoyment of an apple is far greater then that of a cookie. 

 

Before the run I felt confident, I knew that during my training my diet has helped me. During the run I was keep looking for the extra energy I had. The motivation to made my run so easy, but getting towards the end of the run I was able to gain pace and when looking back at the results I could see compared to the average that I got more energy towards the end. 

Week 4: 

This week I paced myself by eating plant based. The experiment was to see whether it would have influence on my run with training and with my recovery. For both it has had influence. I feel better during the run and after the run I did not feel as tired as normal. I kept eating plant based for breakfast and dinner. But during the time I had a hard time with snacks and other foods that I enjoy. I am going to keep up by replacing foods and ingredients that are plant based like butter and mayonnaise. For the future I am going to see how many things I can replace. 

Conclusion: 

Going plant based is hard and fun. It is hard in the way that you have limitations to what you are used to. It is fun with regards to cooking, I like to make my own food and it has made me being more creative in the way I use ingredients and trying out new recipes. Overall it was a fun experience and whenever I am going to go on a run or other fitness challenges I am going to prepare myself by eating plant based. More and more restaurants over these alternatives and cutting down on animal based products is a good idea. Whether you eat a lot of meat or not it is good to look at your pallet once and a while. 

Thank you for reading and enjoy your week. 

Franklin, Moments2Success