After being vegan for a year, about 6 weeks ago I decided to take a break. After looking at my diet and my goals, the vegan lifestyle was doing more harm to my health than good.Here is how it came to this point....
While dieting for the Alamo Showdown Classic, I hit a serious weight loss plateau. I was eating about 1500 calories a day, and burning more than 1000 and the weight wasn't coming off. Now, I know what you're thinking, that I was building muscle, but no one builds muscle that fast! After being stressed out for weeks, I came across an article that talked about the dangers of eating to much soy. It can have some negative long term effects on your health, including thyroid issues and cancer. This was shocking to me! I was eating Tofu 4 times a day and the protein powder I was drinking was also soy based. All together, about 90 percent of my diet was made up of soy, or a soy based product. Once I read this, I knew I had to do something, so I immediately gave up soy and started to eat chicken, tuna and eggs. Almost immediately I started to feel better.
It's important to note that there is nothing wrong with eating soy. Eating it a few times a weeks isn't going to hurt you, but having it make up almost all of your diet (like I did) will. I would like to go back to the vegan lifestyle sometime soon, but I can't until I find a way to do it without eating soy for every meal.
Also, I decided to become a vegan for health reasons. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes all run in my family. Being vegan forced me to look closely at labels and scrutinize everything I put into my body. I've made huge lifestyle changes that have helped me become a healthy person, all thanks to being vegan!
