I started the vegan diet almost 9 months ago on a whim. I had watched some documentary, liked what they had to say and figured what the hell, lets give it a try. Literally the next day and every day since up until last week I had stayed strict – no meats, animal products, etc. It was hard the first couple of weeks, particularly since my pantry was not stocked with the foods to handle this, nor was my cooking acumen, but it got easier.

Slowly I learned what to cook so I was not eating pasta every night. I ate a lot rice, beans and nuts. Of course my vegetable consumption went way up. After the first month my diet was super healthy and I would venture to say my protein consumption was probably at or above compared to when I was an omnivore. My protein intake was up mainly because I was paranoid about not getting enough protein so I paid special attention to make sure I ate the proper amount. Slowly I started yearning for meats and tried out the fake meats, the Impossible Meat and Beyond Meats of the world. They did it for me. If cooked properly, they are tasty and definitely a very solid substitute for the real thing. But one day I read a tweet implying they weren’t very healthy. Not one to take things at face value (especially tweets), I did my own investigation. I realized the author of that tweet was correct, in my estimation these fake meats were worse for you than real meat. Loaded with oils and other substances that are not good for you.

This brought me back to why I originally decided to go on the vegan diet, to eat healthier. After discovering this little secret about fake meats I decided to really figure out if I was eating healthier overall. Like most things in life, the answer was not binary.

There are a lot of good things I have taken away from being vegan. Fruit, vegetable and nut consumption is way up. My cooking skills are better. Processed food consumption is down (I have a lot to say about this but will save it for another day). I lost weight. There are negatives as well. It was tough to really feel like I ate enough, this was especially true during heavy training phases. Meals can be more time consuming to cook. You need to take supplements (B12 and protein for me). It is difficult to get 4 kids under 9 on board eating a vegan diet.

So back to why I am no longer vegan and what my diet now looks like. It really came down to the fact that I was not eating as healthy as I would like and I was not getting the calories I needed. I found myself eating “vegan” foods but that were not healthy, think chips, fake meat, etc. Why did I find myself eating these foods? It was because I could not fill myself up with the normal diet. I understand that I could have found options to better satiate myself, but it is hard when I have limited time and also need to cook meals for four kids.

All this being said, there is a lot to be said about the vegan diet. I will continue to implement a lot of what I learned and also abstain from most meats. In fact, the only meats I will eat primarily will be chicken and turkey. I would like to add fish but I don’t really like the taste. I will abstain from most egg product and dairy products as well, but may use some whey protein. I am glad I did my vegan experiment, only good came out of it, but it is not something I am all that interested in sustaining at this point.