For those of you that have been following my twitter feed i have been experimenting with vegetarianism over this last nine days and have to report a quite dramatic effect to my physical well being..
The inspiration for this has been reading and listening to @zentriathlon and @richroll on both twitter, blogs and podcasts. Essentially these guys talk about the vegan lifestyle they follow and the fact that they can perform and recover for amazing endurance events while following this diet.
Rich Roll proving this beyond any shadow of a doubt in the recent Epic5 undertaking where he, along with @jasonlester completed 5ironman triathlons in 5 days on each of the 5 Hawian islands. Truly Epic!
My motivation for trying this was experimental, my ACL injury has meant that i am not able to train as much as i want to or would like to and so i had noticed my weight creeping up. I have been swimming a lot, relatively speaking, but it doesn't have the same calorific impact as running.
I have always eaten a lot of fruit but decided to eat more vegetables than i currently do, this is easier than you think with plenty that you can eat raw. Lunches took on a different complexion with wraps/pitta breads being replaced with a single wrap and a box of raw veggies. Fruit still plays a large part in my diet but is now balanced with veggies. This has meant that my carbohydrate intake has also been reduced.
As a diabetic this is probably the most interesting aspect of this as my insulin levels have been dramatically reduced while keeping blood in tolerance levels. As an example my Novorapid doses today have been 3units with breakfast, 3units with lunch and 2units with dinner. Very small doses and a direct result of the change in diet.
This is reason alone to continue with the diet then i consider the other benefits, I have lost 5lbs in weight, i feel great physically and mentally know i am doing the right thing.
I'm going to continue with this over the coming weeks and see how things progress. If my energy levels remain unaffected, my diabetes and weight under control then this is something that will stick...
