How A 2 Year Vegan Diet Helped Me To Have A Better Diet
Updated: Apr 4
I want to share my experience with how a vegan diet helped me have a better diet overall.
What is veganism? According to the vegan society, “Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible —all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives.”
The vegan diet helped me to lose weight. One of my reasons for trying it was to manage my weight better. I read many books and watched many documentaries. Some that turned my stomach and exposed the practices of the food industry. Other documentaries showed research behind the scenes and how it affects the body.
My opinion comes from the same squeamish girl who doesn’t like to eat fish with the head and tail still attached. In America, we get so used to food being processed for us that we can easily make it at home. A vegan diet helped me to realize how food in America is not in its natural form.
The documentaries are very eye-opening. They can make you not want to eat certain foods again. There may be cons to knowing where your food comes from, but there are pros to understanding the power of good nutrition.
I followed the vegan diet for two years to see if it could help me with my struggling weight loss journey. In those two years, I fell off the bandwagon a few times. Every time I adopted the diet, 20 pounds would fall off within 2-3 months. I couldn’t believe eating the right foods could help me lose weight so fast.
It was like I stumbled on some miracle for someone who seemed to struggle with exercise alone. I also had better biometric readings at my yearly health screening. Eating vegan appeared to be the cure-all for the health goals I was seeking.
However, experts don’t tell you that dieting can be time-consuming, especially for those with bustling family lifestyles. I struggled to make meals that required more prep time constantly due to cooking more, fruits, vegetables and legumes.
How Do Vegans Have A Better Diet
I was a big follower of top vegan expert doctors during this time. One doctor that I followed wrote a book called "How Not To Die” by Micheal Greger. This book was one of the best health books I have read. It had precise data from experiments on the foods we eat and how they can combat inflammation, which is the cause of some of our leading diseases in America.
A vegan diet helped me understand that I didn’t know what eating healthy was or how a healthy meal should look. The vegan diet helped me learn to eat nutritiously. Dr. Greger believes in a plant-based lifestyle. A plant-based lifestyle focuses on eating food that comes from plants.
He says, “The closer foods look when harvested, the better.” This food includes whole grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, seeds, and oil. A vegan diet helped me to incorporate more of these foods.
I would try to eat oatmeal for breakfast or some avocado toast on a typical day. For lunch, I would eat a salad. For dinner, I would try to make sure I had three options on my plate. Vegetables, legumes, and grains would usually make up my plate. I would try to snack on fruit throughout the day for snacks.
The thing about eating non-processed food is the cooking time. It took time to make this food unless it came from a can. I like to cook a big meal and eat leftovers, which would keep cooking down to a small amount during the week.
The average person cooks and prepares food a few times weekly with a vegan diet. That’s when I realized that holding to this diet wasn’t sustainable any longer. Of course, I could prepare meals, but that wasn’t a luxury I had then. A vegan diet helped me to eat better, but not with time management.
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How The Vegan Diet Helped Me Eat Better
A vegan diet has helped me eat better while making more intelligent decisions. Now, when I am sitting and planning a grocery list for the week, I can think about my meals and see how to incorporate plant-based foods. Since this experience, I learned how to ensure more daily servings of plant-based foods are consumed.
Not to mention, I lost the craving to always have a piece of meat on my plate. I learned how to incorporate healthier recipes into my cookbook. I loved learning to make hearty soups to make you feel warm and cozy during the cold winter months.
The biggest takeaway from going vegan is that it never hurts to try new things. By going vegan, I learned so much about food and nutrition. I made new recipes, had better health readings, and learned about the importance of nutrition. Changing my diet for two years was not easy. It was challenging to go against my cravings.
I encourage you to try new things and learn to live without some of the wants we have to have. A vegan diet helped me gain perspective and self-discipline. One of the most common things people said to me when I was vegan was, “How did you do that?” and “I can’t live without meat.” But, unfortunately, sometimes we can go without what we need.
Who knows, one day, we may go without it and have to eat what we may not want. An excellent example was during the pandemic when COVID–19 started. People panicked and purchased lots of food ahead of time. I remember going to the grocery store and having fewer options available.
Self-discipline never hurt anybody; it made them better. So, I encourage you to go out and try new foods and shake up your diet a little.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Our body is a holy temple. A vegan diet helped me realize how my body was misused. Let’s take care of our insides the way we do our outside. Let’s find a way to be intentional regarding our health. If you like this article, you may want to read the next one, “3 Ways To Fight Inflammation and The Best Foods To Eat” You can also check out my inflammation grocery guide for a list of things to buy while shopping. If you have enjoyed this content, please subscribe for more.
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