Originally posted on 11th April 2020
Disclaimer: I am not a nutrition expert and I am not offering diet advice to anyone. This is simply my experience and my journey which is subject to change at any moment.
I have found it quite easy to ignore my health for most of my adult life. I have had short periods of improved health when I have returned to regular exercise, returned to commuting by bike, returned to running etc. but I have been unable to sustain these activities and lifestyle changes long-term. I am sure this is a fairly familiar story. Even when I think I believe in a concept, putting it into practice is a whole different challenge. I am a slow learner. We all know that no matter how much we exercise, if we eat shit food our bodies will suffer. But that doesn’t stop us from having that extra pint of ale and upsizing the pizza on a Friday night after a tough week at work. I shouldn’t have the slice of cake for Fred’s birthday but It’ll be ok. I’m going for a long ride tomorrow…. “what the hell! yeah I’ll have another piece, thanks”.
My key motivation for a lifestyle change was a strong fear of developing lifestyle related disease and wanting to reduce my blood cholesterol levels. I probably needed to lose a few kilos but that wasn’t my reason for going WFPB. There is a wealth of information about the whole food plant based philosophy from Dr Greger, Dr Esselstyn, Dr Barnard and for those with Netflix, the Forks Over Knives documentary, so I’m not going to bore you with the details of the diet itself. The key points for me have been eat more carbs (sweet potatoes/brown rice), more fibre, no dairy, no animal products, no added oil with a focus on whole foods. If I feel that I want or need something, eat the whole food.
Without consciously reducing portion sizes and without any intention to lose weight I have lost roughly 8-10kg over the past 5 months since going WFPB. I seemed to plateau at about 70kg but since riding my bike more this has now dropped down steadily to 67-68kg. Some staple foods have become, porridge/oats, roasted sweet potato, green smoothies with fresh kale, lentil soup, broccoli and home made hummus. In the weeks soon after deciding to make this major diet change Christmas was upon us. I had to be able to survive all the Christmas lunches so I decided to do this by making sure I had plenty of hummus, guacamole and carrot to eat at the shared lunches. The hummus and guacamole had no added oil or salt and I would also eat before going to these food focused social events. On the odd occasion when I would eat at a restaurant or bar such as my work Christmas function or a Birthday celebration I would stick to a vegan burger or vegan pizza with one or two beers.
Contrary to some of the comments from athletes in The Game Changers, I haven’t yet noticed any improvement in my performance on the bike. However, it is possible that one cannot feel improvements in fitness and that it will always hurt. I guess I will find out. My thoughts at the moment are on building my body’s ability to fight infection/virus’, especially during this COVID-19 crisis, getting better sleep and improving my recovery and building strength. Or more to the point, increasing my Functional Threshold Power (FTP).
Anyway, I’m off for a bike ride………..