Today marks 6 months since I quit eating meat and dairy. February 9th was the last day I ate meat intentionally (one known slipup since).

It hasn’t been super easy, but honestly, it hasn’t been all that hard either. I expected that I might make it a few months and then I’d give up and go back to my old diet, but 6 months in, I can honestly say I don’t have any plans of changing back.

Since I went vegan I’m down ~16lbs, I was down more, but have crept back up over the past month without much exercise. I am hoping to get my weight loss back in gear this week as I am going to get back out on the bike, even if it is raining (or maybe I’ll setup the trainer again?). My biggest vice is I started allowing myself to drink soda again, I need to cut that back out.

I have cheated here or there, mainly bread or something that has egg, or perhaps milk, in it, but only a couple of times over 6 months. I definitely go out of my way to avoid dairy/egg based products. The one time I ate meat, was an accident. We had made tacos, both meat, and plant based. When I went to have left overs the next day, I couldn’t tell the containers apart and ate the wrong one. I definitely could feel it in my gut for a few days.

The only real thing I haven’t avoided as a vegan is honey. I don’t have a problem eating honey, and unless something changes, I will not try to avoid it.

If you’re thinking about trying to change your diet, give it a try! I eat a lot better than I did for the first 42 years of my life, have far more flavor and variety in my diet, and am as healthy as I’ve ever been. I don’t feel sick and bloated after eating, I don’t get sluggish. All around I just feel better.

On February 10th, 2020 I flipped my diet 180 degrees and switched to being vegan. The goal was two fold at the time, 1) lowering my blood pressure, and 2) lowering my weight.

So it’s been another two weeks since my last post on my vegan life change, so I figured it would be a good time to follow up on progress, struggles, and plans.

In November 2019, I took a Friday off to drive down to Memphis Tennessee to pick up some things for my Jack Daniel’s Collection, on the way to/from I listened to some episodes of The Forward, a podcast from Lance Armstrong. One of the guests on an episode was Rip Esselstyn, author of the Engine2Diet book, and the 7 Day Rescue diet. You can find him in documentaries such as Forks over Knives and The Games Changers, as well as at PlantStrong.

I wasn’t actually thinking that I would be changing my diet or trying anything new, but the conversation that Rip had with Lance was intriguing and motivated me to look further into what Rip was preaching. The short of it, Rip preaches the benefits of following a whole food plant based diet. Basically Vegan everything, but cutting back, or removing, processed foods. After my road trip I got back and purchased Rip’s book, The Engine 2 7 Day Rescue Diet on Kindle. This was Mid-November, right before Thanksgiving and the Holidays. I decided I was going to read the book, and once complete, I would give this diet a chance.