Why I decided to Go Vegan

Never in my life I would have thought than one day, I’d go vegan. But sometimes, life has its way to push us toward uncharted territories… Why I decided to go vegan

I have recently decided to go vegan and gluten free for a number of reasons. The main one being health. A few months ago I started to experience migraines on a weekly basis. Almost 4 days a week I was having various degrees of a migraine. They usually started with a feeling of nauseousness and a feeling sense that everything was too bright. Shortly after this sensation the massive headache would start. I began reading online about natural ways to go about treating them. One article lead me to try a diet restriction to see if the migraines were diet related. I tried a pretty extreme version of the restriction by not eating meat, eggs, dairy and gluten. If you haven’t tried this it is not for the faint of heart. I felt worse at first with a lot of digestive discomfort along with extreme hunger. The first week the migraines did not go away but I had heard that it can take almost a month before any real benefits are realized. After the first week the headaches started to go away. It wasn’t long before I started to feel much better. Increased energy, stamina and improved sleep were one of the biggest benefits I received.

Things I learned

The biggest mistake I made in the beginning was not getting enough calories. We as modern human beings are used to getting a lot of calories in a small amount of food. It is hard to get the idea that if you are eating raw and organic foods that are not processed and generally whole, we need to eat a lot of them. In a small bag of Sun Chips there are almost 400 calories. It would take 4 bananas to equal that amount of calories. I don’t know why we feel it is strange to eat 4 bananas in a sitting but it just seems strange. Imagine how much more your body gets out of 4 bananas than a small bag of chips. My suggestion is to eat a lot. My body went through some pretty strange withdrawal/detox symptoms. One of the worst ones was constant itching at night. After a week or so that went away. The amount of waste I produced definitely seemed to decrease because I pretty much couldn’t buy anything in a container. They make plenty of vegan and gluten free products but they never seem like they are that healthy for you. Although they can be a life saver in a pinch, I try not to buy them.

Waste

The part of my waste production that did increase was food waste. Our compost bin would fill up quicker than ever with banana peels, orange peels, apple cores and all kinds of leafy excess. With this increase of raw food waste came fruit flies. Too many to count. I would suggest putting a glass with a small amount of wine in it next to the compost and where you keep your fruit. It will catch them. Its the only thing I have found that helps. Overall I believe it was a very good choice and I don’t plan on going back anytime soon. I have tried slowly implementing meat, dairy and gluten back into my diet to see if the migraines return… and they do. Almost every time.