This Crazy Vegan Experiment: Preparations (Episode 1)

I have a tendency to be overzealous about most things -- start strong and quit a couple weeks in --, but health, physique and fitness have never been a thing I've sunk my teeth into and let go easy.

I'm quite eager to begin this crazy vegan experiment, but I don't want to ruin the ceremony of beginning on January 1.  Plus, I know I need to consult some professionals to make sure I approach this the right way.

A couple months ago, I had a blood draw conducted to measure a variety of things.  I have the beginning markers of Hashimoto's Disease (an auto-immune thyroid disease), but I had also just gotten over a violent random bacterial infection which showed I had jaundice (among other things), and my doctors wanted to ensure I had returned to normal a couple weeks later.  I had; and I also now have a baseline of my blood chemistry to use as the "beginning" point of my journey.  I will get my blood drawn again on July 1 2015, and (as close to) January 1, 2016, to measure any kind of statistically significant shifts in my bio-feedback.

I've also arranged to take tomorrow off of work so that I can have my body composition measured for the first time [by a professional] ever.  I'm actually so not looking forward to hearing the results that I intend to ask them to put them in an envelop and hand them to me, and I'll open them at some later point in time.  I will have my composition tested once ever 3 months.

The most recent workout I did with Coach D

In addition to measurements and such, I have hired a second PT team that will focus on the physical aspect more than the therapy (although I still definitely need both).  This, to help further my recovery from an L4/L5 and L5/S1 disc injury event.  My trainer (who adamantly requires me to call him "Coach"), Danny, has been nothing short of amazing in just the 3 weeks I've seen him.  He's kicked my ass more times than I can add up in the past 3 years.  And the best part is that my back is not only dealing with it, but I'm having less tightness, actually.... which means it's working. :)

So, basically it's just all-around good news in terms of getting this ball rolling, preparing properly, and ramping up to handle this next phase of my athletic pursuits.  I think I am finally ready to start back up where I left off on January 28, 2013, when my back went.

In other news, though... some obstacles.  First of all, January 1 will be smack dab in the middle of two of my best friends visiting for a month from Sweden.  We'll be on the road all over the place, touring California.  So workout opportunities will be strained, as will food complications.  But by then, I plan to be prepared and armed with everything I need to know to make the right choices for my plan.  

Which leads me to my current second obstacle:  balancing my macro-nutrients.  For all this time, I've been trying to limit sugars, be cautious about what carbs I put in my body, quality fats/proteins etc.  For the most part, when I was training, I was able to stick to a 40-40-20 spread (40% calories from healthy carbs, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat).  But I drafted my first meal plan (which I thought was very balanced) and it came out to 50% carbs, 30% fats, 20% protein.  Upon researching, I think 20% protein (a little over 90g) is fine for me.  Whilst I want to build muscle, I do not need to be body builder status..... yet :)  But trying to limit carbohydrates (particularly sugars) is a struggle when planning meals around a biodiversity of plants.  I will err toward lower glycemic fruits, but one thing I need professional advice on is whether I can truly eat a varied diet and still achieve the physique goals I have.  After all, sugar is sugar... and I can only eat just so much tofu to bring up my protein and bring down my carb intake.

So far, my January plan is to have oatmeal, hemp hearts and homemade almond milk for breakfast, a piece of ezekiel toast with black bean spread and a tomato for snack, a protein green smoothie for lunch, a vegan protein bar & pumpkin seeds for snack, and then a big thing of tofu, squash, broccoli and garlic sauce for dinner.  I'll be supplementing with glutamine, an herbal immune support and garlic tabs, and I'll eventually probably add vegan protein powder to my oatmeal and spirulina to my diet somehow (barf).  All in, that's a 2,000 calorie meal plan, which I think is more than sufficient energy intake to compensate for my workouts.  Again, though; I will need to have a professional take a look at it.

I normally would take this time to spell out my fears or forecasts of difficulty.  But part of me doesn't really want to think about it; I kind of just want to take it one day at a time.  I'm mostly afraid my digestive system will not adapt well to the plant sugars (I struggle to digest cruciferous things, lentils, hummus, etc).  So I will need to make sure to supplement myself properly with enzymes, and spend the next 6 weeks easing myself into foods.

I'm not just going vegan, but I'm going "whole foods" vegan -- nothing processed.  No soy cheese, no tofu sausages... CLEAN vegan.  Clegan! :D I'm investing the money to go all organic / non-GMO.  And because I know I will have days where I am just hungry -- not "real" hungry, but wanting to kick back and eat something that isn't green -- I will need to uncover approved desserty snack foods for those days.  I'm thinking raw protein or granola bars (I can store them in the freezer), air-popped popcorn, and god knows what else.  It's hard to find high protein/low-fat/low carb vegan food sources.  Or, at least it has been a challenge as of now.  And I worry about making sure I get the right amount of iron and other micronutrients.  I worry about being moody.  I fortunately have so many hippie and food allergy friends here in LA that being accepted socially will be no issue for me, and I have an abundance of vegan restaurants (that are DELICIOUS, mind you!) to choose from....  but trying to control an athlete's diet on top of food restrictions might just piss me off until I get it down to a science.

In any event, I am committed to this.  And I am looking forward to sharing what I learn along the way.

Why I'm Adopting A Vegan Diet for all of 2015 (all the while remaining a competitive athlete working toward gaining muscle mass)

It actually started in 2012 when I decided to try clean eating for the first time.  Up until then, I was your classic, misinformed American twenty-something.  History of yo-yo dieting, only eating diet foods and low fat options, blah blah blah.  We all know the story.

Over the course of the past few years I have taught myself to cook, adopted an entire clean eating life-style, and have gotten more into the notion of micro-nutrient profiles instead of just basic macros.

But recently, with the progression of my back injury healing, I have taken up 2-a-day workouts again, and have decided I am ready to dedicate the next 6 weeks to dialing in exactly what I am feeding my body, how I am training it, and trying to engineer my outcomes.

On my birthday, I bought a Vitamix.  I thought it would be a fun and healthy toy to motivate me to push forth; blaze new trails, reinvigorate the process, etc.

Well, it did,  And then some...

I got into sourcing my produce from Farmer's Markets.  I had elected to take a month off of volleyball training to focus on my gym sessions and cautiously monitor my back.  This freed up my weekends, and I found a great joy in picking up fresh product from farmers, and then going home and blending it into a meal right away.  And this meal became an art and a hobby for me; I realized that produce that normally gave me digestive issues (either by type or quantity) no longer did when I ingested them in smoothie form.  I assume its because the produce is being broken down into its most bio-available source requiring minimal enzyme processes in the digestive tract, but I am no expert so who knows. I also transitioned from shopping mostly from Trader Joe's, to exclusively from Whole Foods, purposefully selecting only organic, non-GMO products. It was for fun, but it also felt right; I felt like I was doing something lovely for my body, and respecting it.

But then I went further.  After successfully completing a 1-month stint of incorporating green protein smoothies into my diet, I began to wonder if I could take this another step further.  Could I replace dinner with a smoothie too?  If I used homemade almond milk with my cereal in the morning and ensured my snacks were plant-based (vegan) and supplied necessary macros like fat and carbs in the right quantities, could I go full-time vegan?  What if I bought a juicer to supplement my afternoon snack with a shot of more produce?

So I began the easiest, most accessible research I could start with:  Documentaries on Netflix.  Netflix has a vast library of nutritional documentaries on hand.  I watched The Gerson Miracle; Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead; Food Inc.; Hungry for Change; Forks Over Knives; and Crazy Sexy Cancer (Vegucated and Chew On This TED Talks are next on my viewing list).  What I began to realize is that this is something I believe in, and exactly what I've been looking for for over 7 years.  Something I could inspire myself with -- an art, a hobby, and a means to help achieve the physique and health I want -- all the while expanding my knowledge and creating a new career option for myself.

So I've decided to make an experiment of myself, much like countless others before me. I intend to go to the Library later this week and rent The China Study and any other materials I can get my hands on, and I signed up for information on beginning my studies to get my certification from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition.  From what I have thus far researched, it may be possible that with specific practices and enzyme supplements, I might be able to bypass (and perhaps "cure"?) my digestive issues with certain vegetables.  It will take a lot of careful research to determine exactly how to get all the proper macros I need considering as I want to be building lean muscle mass while I do this, and I will need to spend a lot of time tooling and re-tooling menus so that I am never left wondering what to do.  The goal is simple:  a whole foods, plant-based diet.  No crap "vegan food" with soy fillers and other junk.  Whole foods.  Plant-based.  Plain and simple -- the amino profiles for protein are easy to develop by educating oneself and combining plant-based sources.

I will be dedicating the balance of this year preparing for this ultimate New Years Resolution, and I will be purchasing a Omega Juicer for myself for Christmas :)  And I have decided that I will allow myself every right to opt out if I find I need to stop to figure out a better plan of attack given what I learn, or if I struggle too immensely with addressing and combating digestive complications.  But one thing is decided:  I will 100% be dedicating at LEAST 30 days to this diet.  Thus, I will have the first month's menu and battle plan figured out, and then I will repeat it in February if all goes well, while developing the following month's diets.

So, allow this to be the first of many posts on this new journey -- the struggles, the changes, the recipes, and the challenges of trying to develop a physique on a whole foods plants-based diet.  I will be seeing my doctor to have a full blood panel done, as well as other tests to establish a base-line.  And then I will test myself again after 30 days, 90 days, 180 days, and 360 days.  I have no real underlying health issues from which to measure progress, but I trust the stats will improve regardless, and in conjunction with reporting on other mechanics like body fat %, lean muscle mass %, sleep quality, strength, and other things..... I think it will be able to paint a picture of what these documentaries are trying to convey.

So... 45 days to plan, 365 days to execute.  Here. We. Go. :)))