The Seven Day Plant-Based Diet

There’s a growing trend of people switching to a plant-based diet in an effort to battle health concerns. With more and more meat alternatives hitting the market, its becoming increasingly easier to ditch animal foods and go strictly plant-based. Even the big time fast food companies are getting in on the act with Burger King creating the Impossible Whopper and KFC serving up the Beyond Fried Chicken. Even Dunkin Donuts is changing up the way they’re doing breakfast sandwiches to offer a meat alternative. With most days, I’d fight my way through a zombie filled haze until I could get home to relax. After a few documentaries and hearing the benefits of a plant-based diet, I went all in. Just how much of it is true?

First, they say a plant-based or vegan diet greatly improves your daily energy and alertness. This is the most important discovery of the change in diet. Within 2-3 days of being meat free, I was feeling the effects and difference in energy. No, it won’t give you the kind of energy a child with a sugar rush achieves, but the slow lethargic method in which i struggled through the work days quickly subsided.

Maybe the first day or two my body was still processing the foods from the day before, but by the end of day three it was like night and day. On top of that, my sleep at night was more consistent. Before, every night’s sleep would be full of tossing and turning, turning the tv back on to fall back asleep to, and getting up multiple times to use the bathroom. Now, I wake up in the morning with the tv off and minimal sleep interruption.

Next the claim that it helps your body recover and process foods faster. Another great plus, if it happens, but does it? After years of playing recreational sports all the way up until my mid-20’s, I’ve put my body through hell and I was never “in shape”. There are days the cold weather gets to me the most. So how would my muscles react to the lack of protein I’m not getting with meats?

A week in and I’m already feeling the difference. Yes, I still have my aches and pains but the noticeable difference is walking up and down stairs and getting up from the couch. Just seven days and I no longer have to brace myself to get up or take the stairs one step at a time. By no means am I a seventy year old man in terms of movement, but taken care of myself I have not.

Now there are days where I feel like getting up and being active. Even at times, I don’t have to torture myself with going to the gym I actually want to go. I actually want to be up and be active.

Of course, there’s the myth that a vegan diet is so much more expensive than traditional eating. I won’t deny paying for plant-based meat alternatives cost more than beef and other meats but that doesn’t mean my grocery bill has gone up hundreds of dollars. The thing about this diet is while the alternatives are more costly, the urges for snack foods aren’t as frequent. Yes, I’ve walked past foods at the store and thought ‘man I could go for one of those’ but as I approached the one week mark I became more consciously aware.

Instead of reaching for a Slim Jim to snack on at the gas station at almost $2, I could grab an apple for $.75 or 99 cent bag of peanuts. Each time I reach for a snack food in-store I’m saving money so paying a little more for the meat alternative still balances out my shopping.

The main reason people think the switch costs so much isn’t a result of the diet itself but the initial shopping bill. Switching to a plant-based diet is no different than grocery shopping for a new house/apartment. Nothing costs as much as the initial grocery bill because you’re buying everything from scratch. You don’t have a cupboard full of the foods you need or can throw together quickly so yes, it does seem expensive but in the end it balances out.

The most important part of any diet change is how it will make feel. Will it be something that helps you get back on the right track or be a slow and torturous weight loss. So far, so good with one week in the books. Of course as the days go on it will be harder to ignore the foods that are all around. However, with a new found fascination with creating new foods I’d never cooked before, going plant-based has been the best decision I’ve made in a while. I’ve lost six pounds and don’t feel like such a zombie. If ever you’re considering the switch, I 100% endorse this diet without the bs sales pitch of biased opinion.