I decided to go vegan almost 3 months ago. Something that my past self couldn’t have conceived. That version of myself also wouldn’t have considered giving up bread or cheese, and I gave up both well before giving up meat. My sugar addiction was much more difficult to break than giving up any of the other things, though.
The last 3 months have been great. I felt better going gluten free. I felt better giving up dairy. And now I feel even better. I’ve noticed a few things, good and not so good. I’ll start with the not so good.
I used to feel bloated fairly often when my colitis was active. I haven’t had that feeling in a long time. However, I sometimes look like I did back then. Because I’m running more, I’m also eating more. Some days I eat 4000-4500 or more Calories. That’s a large volume of food when all you eat are fruits, vegetables and very occasionally some nuts. When I eat a mixing bowl sized salad, a whole watermelon, a 64 ounce smoothie or some combination, it has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is an expanding stomach. I sometimes feel like the pictures I’ve seen of eating contests winners, belly bulging.
It’s a little funny since one of the reasons I got into running after the Army was because I thought I was getting a bit of a skinny guy gut. It doesn’t bother me so much now, because I know it’s all food, and it’ll pass. The part that I really don’t like is that after a huge meal, usually dinner, I’ve stuffed myself so full that it’s harder to breathe deeply, there’s just not room for my diaphragm to expand all the way. It’s also a little tough to bend over with such a full belly. But it usually doesn’t last too long. Maybe I should try to more evenly space my consumption throughout the day. If I’m going to have such a full gut, I’d rather it be later in the day, after going running.
Related to the large volumes of food I consume, my weight tends to fluctuate a lot more in a single day than previously. This doesn’t really bother me. It’s just interesting. When I wake up, before I eat or drink anything and after my morning constitutional, I’ve been as low as 153 lbs on two occasions the day after long runs. The most recent was Sunday, July 6, the day after running 21 mi with 4500 ft gain. After my last meal on Sunday night, I weighed 165 lbs. Over the whole 3 months, my highest weight was 168 lbs.
I’ve always been skinny, so 12 lbs certainly seems like a lot. At a bit over 7% of my body weight (calculated at either end of the spectrum), that weight loss would be enough for me to be medically pulled from some ultra’s that I’d like to do eventually.
It’s not that drastic, however, when I think about what actually makes up most of the weight. While I am eating a large volume of food, being fruits and vegetables, much of that weight is water and fiber. The fiber does it’s job and flushes waste out of my system. I rehydrate after running, but I wake up once or twice in the night to pee, and sweat some amount overnight, so there’s some lost water weight as well. I haven’t weighed all the food I eat in a day, but the daily effects on my weight don’t surprise me.
Moving on to the good stuff. I seem to recover faster. This is entirely subjective and anecdotal, but I’m convinced, and that’s all that matters. I can’t really compare to my first two 50k races, because I’ve trained much better this year.
I started eating this way about 2 weeks before my April 50k, which had 1000 ft gain. I ran another 4 weeks later with 2000 ft gain. I ran a third 4 weeks after that with 6500 ft gain. I started running again 2 days after each race. My first run after the April race was rough. For about the first mile, my glutes and calves felt like I was getting punched with every step, and felt like I was wearing lead soled shoes. My legs were better for the first run after the second race, just a little sore and heavy. After my third race, I was a little sore for a day. While my legs were kind of heavy for the first post-race run, I felt fine. By the weekend after each race, I was raring to go for a long run. I held myself back from a full distance long run to make sure I recovered, but I went longer than I had written on my training plan several months ago.
I also feel better when I wake up. For the last year or so, prior to going vegan, I regularly woke up with red, sore eyes. I’m not sure the last time it happened, but it was at least a couple months ago. Also, most of my life I’ve woken up with a generally unwell feeling. I imagine it’s not that uncommon, but it sucks and I won’t accept it as normal.
I can’t say that I’ll never eat meat again. I gave up eating animal products strictly for health reasons. The same sort of reasons I gave up gluten, followed by all grains, sugar and processed foods (there are many vegan processed foods too). Someday I may give it a try again to see if I notice any change. For now, I’m sticking with what’s working, fresh fruits and vegetables.