Everyday Vegans: MEET DREW

I met Drew a few years ago when we were on a Worship Team together at a church here in the Austin area. He commented on my very 1st post and told me how excited he was that I was making this lifestyle change! He shared his blog with me, and i was SO excited to have him share the 1st 28 days of his Vegan switch with all of you! His point of view is obviously different than the LVL but it is very entertaining and enlightening! I hope you enjoy! Be sure and visit Drew's Blog (Link Below). 

**We would LOVE to hear from you. Please share your story with us lovely.vegan.ladies @ {gmail}.com**

LVL

Amy 

This Ain’t a Diet; It’s a Lifestyle!

It occurs to me as I write this that I am neither a lady, nor am I what most people would consider “lovely,” but I am in fact a vegan. I guess one out of three at least qualifies me to be a part of the discussion, and I’m happy to have the opportunity to share some valuable information that my wife and I have discovered during our journey. Hopefully most of the readers here will be able to overlook my complete lack of fashion sense and will find some form of encouragement by reading about my family’s recent lifestyle overhaul.

We are vegans . . . and I can personally testify that it is a responsible, affordable, and practicable way of life. A few months ago, I probably would have been among those who tend to categorize veganism as weird  attention-seeking behavior or an idealistic, but unsustainable, life choice. As Amy wrote in her initial post, very few people are well informed about what it means to be a vegan, and because of that, there’s a stigma attached to it. To be brutally honest, the fear of what people would think was my wife’s and my biggest cause for hesitation, and even as we wrap up month two of the transformation, we still aren’t quite sure how to broach the subject with certain friends and family. I guess that will get better with time as we discover new ways to communicate the reasons behind our choice.
That brings me to a description of our particular brand of veganism. You will not find us at a local PETA rally advocating for animal rights. In fact, I might be one of the world’s only vegan hunters (more on that in a moment*). We did not make this decision to save the planet, though I’m always pleased when I read the statistics on the reduced carbon footprint, the additional grain available for impacting third world hunger, and the many other environmental benefits made possible by a vegan lifestyle. [This is a good source: http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/environment.html]

My wife and I initially  made this choice for health reasons alone when we became aware of the overwhelming body of medical  research that suggests a plant-based diet as the single most effective way to avoid heart disease,  hypertension, Type II diabetes, most types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. If you haven’t yet seen the documentary, Forks Over Knives, I strongly suggest checking it out. This stuff has been out there for decades, but the American marketing machine is so distracting that very few people are aware of it. As I write this, my family and I have been living a low-fat
vegan lifestyle for the past six weeks, and though you can learn more about the back story on my blog at http://www.risetomanhood.com/plantbaseddiet/, my main goal is to share some of the most helpful things that we’ve learned as we’ve made the transition to a low-fat, plant strong diet:

1. Being a vegan takes planning and forethought.
After our insecurities about how we would be viewed when we “came out” to the non-vegan
world, practicality was our next biggest concern. I was really doubtful that we could plan and prepare four to five meal/snack options per day without completely busting our household budget. The catalyst that finally helped me to view it as possible was Rip Esselstyn’s book, The Engine 2 Diet. Rip includes recipes for vegan versions of everyday meals, he offers guidance regarding pantry and
fridge makeovers, and he even provides a meal-planner and accompanying grocery list for those
who need extra support to get through his 28 day plant strong challenge.

Though the first shopping trip was significantly more expensive than what we had been used to
(about double) because we had to stock up on necessary but longlasting
staples, we’ve found that our weekly grocery bill is now very close to what it had been before. Sometimes it’s even less. Every Sunday afternoon my wife and I sit down to peruse vegan cookbooks, checked out from the library or loaned to us by friends, and we plan out breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, and sometimes dessert for each day of the upcoming week. We tally the necessary ingredients, and one of us makes the trip to the local H.E.B. grocery store, where we’ve been able to find almost everything that we need. Every now and then we have to make a run to a specialty grocery store for an item or two, but these are elective items that we could forgo if we wanted to.

2. If there’s not at least one person in your household who is willing to cook A LOT, it’s going
to be tougher to live as a healthy vegan.
We’ve found a few good options around town for dining out, but these only account for about one
meal in thirty. Chipotle, Subway, and Jason’s Deli have some great vegan options that we’ve really
enjoyed. However, if you also want to keep an eye on fat content, processed ingredients, and your
pocketbook, start compiling a list of homecooked recipes that you really enjoy. Some of my
favorites are listed in the comments section of my blog. Rip’s guideline for every ingredient you purchase at the grocery store is that the ratio of total fat/calories cannot exceed 2.5 grams/100 calories. The real work is done while reading labels in the grocery aisles.

3. Vegans can be serious athletes.

Tough Mudder 2013

If you read Rip’s book, you’ll discover that he was a top triathlete while eating a vegan diet. Several
other high profile athletes have also discovered the benefits of eating this way: Dave Scott, Carl
Lewis, Martina Navratilova, Tony Gonzalez, Venus Williams . . . need I go on?
I CrossFit twice a week, I play indoor soccer in a local league, and I’m training for my second Tough
Mudder obstacle race in October of 2013. I cannot afford to eat in a manner that does not
adequately support muscle growth and maintenance. My CrossFit coach was initially very
concerned about my protein intake when I told her about our choice to go vegan, so I started
counting daily protein grams to appease her. Though there are a lot of differing opinions about the
level of protein intake that is truly necessary for an active person, I’ve settled on 1.3 grams of
protein/kilogram of body weight as my target**. This means that as a 195 pound
man, I try to eat 115 grams of protein daily. This goal is easily achievable most days, and I do not use supplements of any kind to get there***. If this is a concern of yours, it just needs to be a factor in your meal-planning process.

4. Young children can adapt to a vegan lifestyle.

 Drew & Family at Disney World

We simply are not willing to have our kids (ages 9, 8, and 6) eating different meals than we are eating just to avoid a potential conflict. That’s not how we parent. When we decided to go vegan, we sat them down and discussed that we were going to eat much more healthy meals as a family. We asked them to be willing at least to try everything that we put in front of them, knowing that we would quickly find out if each recipe would be a winner or a loser. We promised them that we would not repeat the recipes that they really did not enjoy, and we let each of them request specific meals during our weekly planning sessions. We have been remarkably surprised at how adaptable they have been and how their palates have changed along with ours. My kids LOVE tofu “yogurt” parfaits, veggie chili dogs, and baked vegan chimichangas! Just remember, kids will tend to rise to your expectations of them. Give them the opportunity to surprise you. We have not forced our kids to refuse conventional meals when they are eating at parties or with
friends and family who are not vegans. We allow them to eat whatever they are served, but we feed
them vegan meals at home and pack vegan lunches and snacks for school.

5. You can be healthier than you ever imagined by making this single change.
Though my family’s goal in changing the way we eat was never motivated by weight loss or
appearance, those things have absolutely changed for the better. In six weeks, I dropped from 208
to 195, while gaining significant strength, endurance and recovery ability! I’m killing CrossFit
workouts on a weekly basis, I can recover adequately enough to go play an indoor soccer game a
few hours after having completed a CrossFit workout, and I’m running like I never knew I could. The
other day I went out for an impromptu run because I had a bunch of pent up energy. Before I knew
what had happened, I had run about 6 miles. I wasn’t really all that tired, but it shocked me so
much that I forced myself to stop. It’s amazing what eating real, wholesome food can do for your
level of fitness! Granted, I was already training regularly, but the fuel that I was putting into my body
catapulted me to the next level.

I could probably keep writing for several additional pages detailing how excited I am about this change in our lives, but I’ll force myself to stop once again.

I’ll leave you with some incredible resources on which we’ve come to rely for meal-planning support:

http://engine2diet.com/
http://happyherbivore.com/
http://ohsheglows.com/
Visit the sites, and get the cookbooks.

You’ll find out just how easy and tasty vegan cooking can be!

Disclaimers:
* I have been a hunter for years, and I am convinced that eating the meat from wild game is 1000%
healthier than eating most of the factory farmed junk in your grocery store’s meat and dairy sections.
No growth hormones, no genetically modified organisms, no forced cannibalism, no cramped living
conditions. Because we believe that animals taken in the field have lived a healthier, more peaceful life than your average chicken or dairy cow, we feel OK about supplementing our vegan diet with wild game ONCE OR TWICE PER MONTH. It still contains saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal proteins that we are trying to avoid in our daily regimen, so we use it very sparingly.

** Formula for protein target: Weight in pounds/2.2 = weight in kilos. Multiply by 0.8 for a sedentary
lifestyle. Multiply by 1.0 to 1.5 to range from active to hardcore
strength or endurance training.

*** Though I do not use protein supplements, I make sure that our whole family gets a supplement of
nutritional yeast mixed into regular meals several times per week. It provides several important
nutrients, but the main concern is adequate intake of Vitamin B12, which cannot be obtained from plant sources.