Why I Went Vegan

Watch my video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/HZM-fiyfXeY

I remember going to a Tony Robbins event about 19 years ago and the third day of the event was on nutrition and health. The theme was we don’t eat things with faces. That is 2 eyes and a mouth. I thought whatever at that time. That was around the same time that Dr Adkins died from heart disease obviously by his high intake of meat.

When I was trying to get healthy about 8 years ago, I watched the Netflix film Food Inc where they showed the different animals including chicken, cows and pigs that were fed corn and other items that were not in their natural diet to fatten them up. They also showed how the animals were killed and processed which soils the meat in adrenaline and feces. It grossed me out at the time, but I was not going to change my diet at that time. 

It was a Tuesday afternoon In May of 2019, I watched the Netflix film What the Health. It was very similar to Food Inc, but they focused on the health benefits of eliminating meat including losing weight, reduction of chance for stroke and heart attack. That hit home hard as I had introduced avocados to my diet to help my health, but my father died due to prostate cancer. He had a couple of strokes in 2009 and my mother had a stroke at the gym in 2016. I gained 40 pounds since my parents moved in with us in September of 2016 and never before saw my weight above 265. My back was hurting a couple of times a year. My feet were hurting a lot and I was tired of the pain that was enhanced by my heavier condition.

The most I weighed was 276 and I was going to the gym multiple times a week, but my weight was not going down. I knew that if I wanted my weight to go down, I would have to change my diet and this was the sign. I did not wait for a weekend or the next day. I made the decision on that day to stop eating meat and dairy. 

To cut out meat and dairy was a strong choice as I loved milk, chicken quesadillas from Taco Bell, and cheese on everything else. I cut it all out. I bought unsweetened Almond Milk. I decided that I was not going to eat cheese at all in hopes to eliminate my high cholesterol. I do not even want to try vegan cheese. And with this decision, my weight quickly came below 270 and by my birthday in August I was under 260. 

That doesn’t seem like a lot, but I was feeling the difference and the week before I watched What the Health on Netflix, I hurt my right knee pretty bad. I did not go to the gym much during that time. I had to quit paying basketball because my knee hurt so bad. By August, my knee was feeling much better and after working outside one weekend, I was dehydrated, but my weight came down to 244 which was the lowest in over 3 years. I knew this was water weight, so the next week my weight came back to 258 and is now down to 250 a week later.

I still don’t go to the gym more than 4 days a week with moderate workouts. I feel better about the direction my health is going. I keep saying that I will eat shrimp tacos one of these days. When I go for them, I end up passing that restaurant to go to Chili’s for a salad, chips and salsa with a margarita. I still go to Taco Bell often, but not to order from their vegetarian menu because everything on it has cheese and sour cream. I order a spicy potato soft taco and a bean and rice burrito with no cheese on either item. My cost per visit is either $3 or $4 depending on the time of day I go. I go to Chipotle more often now to have a vegetarian bowl and love the flavor. I appreciate rice and beans more. 

For the first time, I feel confident that my health is improving regardless of how much I workout. I can see my weight getting down below 200 pounds for the first time since college and I believe I have reduced my chance for cancer, stroke and heart attack tremendously. 

That is why I chose to go vegan. Watch Food Inc and What the Health on Netflix. There is plenty of flavor in the world that does not require eating meat. You also won’t feel bloated after eating and feel like you need a nap if you go vegan too. Now if I could stop drinking soda, I would really turbocharge my results.