By : Mike Pool
June 6th will be 6 months as a vegan for me. I can clearly remember myself teasing my sister when she went vegetarian for a few years as a teenager. I loved meat. Two large strip steaks and a 6 pack of beer too often would be my dinner after working a 12 hour day on a hot roof. But something happened in early December of 2011. I had some routine blood work done and the results were scary.
At the young age of 25 I was about 80 lbs over weight. My cholesterol was high as was my blood sugar,triglycerides, and liver enzymes. My doctor started talking about cholesterol lowering medication and even a pill to help control my blood sugar. I was also told I had all the symptoms of pre-diabetes and was a candidate for insulin-resistance. I denied any medication and vowed to lose some weight on my own to help lower my levels.
Now something else worth mentioning was that about a week before the blood work I watched a movie called Earthlings. This was the first time I really become upset over the way we treat our earthly companions. The next day when I went to eat a chicken breast I damn near puked. I decided then I wouldn't eat meat for a while. It was easy at first, in fact surprisingly it was the easiest thing I had ever given up. I kept telling myself that when summer came I would only eat locally raised organic fed meat and that I would eat meat on holidays only. This helped ease the fears of my friends and family that were worried I would become nutrient deficient.
Christmas came and I was really looking forward to eating some chicken wings. I ate five and they were delicious. My alcohol buzz helped me stomach them and put the slaughter thoughts away. The problem was that I paid for those wings. Heartburn kept me up and it wrecked havoc on my digestive system. For the first time I was aware of what meat does to my body.
After that night and through extensive research I dropped milk instantly. I could no longer handle the thought of drinking that horrible liquid ( not for cows ) or what the casein was doing to my body. Two key sources for me were the movie Forks over Knives and the book, The China Study. Slowly but surely eggs and cheese became non existent in my life.
After 3 months of this lifestyle change I had more blood work done. I was shocked. Everything went down to safe levels. Triglycerides dropped more than 350 points. Cholesterol 45 points. My blood pressure was an all time low. I also dropped 30 lbs of weight. To date I have lost 45 lbs. in five months. My acne disappeared, my energy level increased, my protein level was actually higher than when I was an omnivore, and my b 12 serum level was maxed out. The only thing I supplemented was vitamin d prescribed by my doctor, because I live in new york and am a fair skinned Dutch fellow. Two more weeks of vitamin D and I am off of it for the summer. Further blood work will determine if I have to take it again when the winter comes.
I am 100 percent sure that this will be forever until the day I die, I will not consume animal products. I started for health reasons, but now it is also for the animals. Give up eating meat and you will be amazed at how compassionate you will become. This fall I am going to school to become a registered nutritionist. I am also raising my 2 young children vegan. This is the way we were truly meant to eat and I am going to tell the world. Very slowly people are waking up to the dangers of meat and the unethical treatment of animals. It is my belief one day the world will truly be peaceful to our companions on this planet. If we don't change things we are hurting ourselves, the animals, and our planet. What are you going to do to change this?
PS. If every one of us inspired ONE person to go meatless imagine the difference we could make in ten years time. I am going to collect inspirational vegetarian/vegan stories to share with everyone. If you think your story will inspire others, please share with me by sending it to info@veglov.com. I will post your stories on this www.veglov.com blog. I believe everyone has his/her own story, I think it must be great when we can share our stories and inspire others. Let’s make the world a better place. ~ Xiao Kang.
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