This entire month has felt like a sad Adele song, but instead of her singing it to her old lover, my stomach was singing it to food. Since the last time you were given an update, there have been lots of new developments in my weight, my diet and most of all, my entire outlook. There were things that I hated about being vegan before I started; but having been through it myself, I now understand.
The jargon
People tend to find it annoying how vegans always announce that they are. I experienced this firsthand when I was ordering food. If you want the people around you to stop offering you lighter forms of meat or cheese in exchange for your proteins, you will have to constantly explain to them, “No, I’m vegan.” Most often you will find that people don’t understand the limitations of veganism, so I had to explain it so many times I was very close to having cards made with a written definition. Those who do understand what vegans eat can eliminate the choices they would have offered and rule out certain dishes.
Eating out
I would love to say a special thanks to the staff and head chef over at Dish D’Lish for offering vegan alternatives to each meal. That small convenience saved me from breaking my diet many days, because it’s so hard to find. Restaurants on St. Maarten tend to have vegetarian options, but they often include cheeses and are prepared with butter. When doing this diet, it’s important to understand that being vegan is one of the harder options, as it is not popular enough to have garnered solid menu choices and sometimes I feel pretentious asking chefs to take certain things out. As a mild foodie, I tend to respect the chef’s right to creativity and I know that asking to substitute certain ingredients can insult a more temperamental chef. Indian restaurants have been my scapegoat as a majority of their meals are vegetarian and they understand the need for alternative diets based on religious and spiritual demands. Needless to say, I ate a lot of curried vegetable dishes.
Results
I know that everyone is expecting a reveal, but I will have to politely disappoint. What I can reveal are some of the weird things that happened to my body during the process. What wasn’t revealed to my readers is that I had a partner during the month. One of my friends agreed to be my guinea pig for the month, because he’s awesome like that. I was also noting the changes in a much older lady who wanted to lose weight. Both of my partners were able to lose more weight than I did. Their results were greater: my friend lost 15 pounds and the lady was able to lose a total of 12 pounds. I lost only five pounds, which is a bit disheartening. The goal was supposed to be this amazing 10-pound loss and abs. However, unlike my counterparts, I didn’t stick to my exercise regimen. But, even with my lack of exercise, I could see the changes in my digestive routines.
Disclaimer: The following may be a bit more than less-squeamish readers can handle; if so, please skip to the paragraph about changes.
I feel like I should mention these things to the female readers, because since I changed my eating habits, I have experienced a lighter period with very few cramps. At some point, I even forgot that I was menstruating, which is completely abnormal for me, but that’s not a bad thing. During week three, I took a few tablespoons of castor oil as a laxative and within an hour, I was glued to the vicinity of the bathroom. It is a common practice of mine to take it every few months to clean out my system and it usually takes anywhere from five hours to a full day to work, but this time the results were almost immediate. A lot of my digestive reactions worked quicker and a lot of times if I ate food that was too greasy for my body, it would be expelled in the same day.
Both of my partners got very sick in the beginning of the challenge as being complete meat eaters, their bodies initially rejected the plant-based diet. The older lady is still in the phases of her challenge. However, switching back to his original diet caused another less-drastic bout of sickness.
Physical changes
I used to be one of those people who claimed that anyone who wanted to lose weight and didn’t make it to the gym was only making excuses; maybe that is the case, but getting home at 8:00pm almost every day after having awoken since 6:00am double shifts kept me properly out of the vicinity of a gym. It is my belief that if I had gone to the gym and exercised more, I would have been able to lose more weight and regain definition. My partners did more in terms of exercise than I did and their bodies look much more different from when they started.
In addition to the loss of the weight, I noticed that I have been more aware of my posture, wherein I have traded my typical slouch for a more upright form of sitting and standing. Another thing I’ve noticed about my new body is that I have become incredibly sensitive to sugar, salt and seasoning on the whole. Every single flavour is now elevated and food I used to eat now tastes different since I have partially gone back to my old eating habits.
Mental changes
The most change came from my mentality. Before I started, there was so much scepticism about whether I’d be able to last an entire month without butter, cheese and raw fish, which are all very large parts of my diet. Within the last week, I was counting down the days until I would be able to eat whatever I wanted; but the day that I was actually free to indulge, I found there was no taste for it. After this experience, I would definitely recommend this eating habit for anyone. The health benefits are great and I’ve never felt more physically and mentally in control of my body.
contributed by Charlesea Joseph
