I'm in the exact same boat. Although I would call myself "vegetarian-ish" as my breakfast still consists of greek yogurt almost everyday. Out of my 10 other weekday meals,8 are probably vegetarian (Veg chili, thai curry, a good stir fry). Weekends, I'll enjoy some good bacon and eggs after a long run, and try to limit my beef to good grass fed steak once every two weeks. I'm also a sucker for good cheese, and love my oysters.

So I'll go out my way to reduce my meat intake, find ethical sources, but I'm in no way cutting it out. I can manage my weight well with this approach, while also feeling mentally sharp and not feeling like I'm ever craving anything or missing out.

Is that why vegans as invasive questions about non-vegans food and generally treat them like they are murderers?

It's easy to deal with in time but I just keep in mind it is them and not me.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Veganism is an eating disorder for affluent people.

Think we need a comment of the day/month(/year?) for this post.

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-Bryan Journey
Travel Blog | Training Blog | Facebook Page

Hi there!

Bringing my opinion to this thread for what it matters :)
Going vegan from an omnivorous diet, you are going to see some changes in your athletic performance. But you would see some changes anyway no matter what kind of new diet you would pick.
I am not vegan but when I started to eat more fat and less carbs I noticed changes and I logged everything. Calories, macros, some of my micros, my sleep quality and my general form. I would compare that data to my exercise data (FC, RPM and so on) and check what I could adjust.
I do not want to sound like I micromanage what I eat. I just did it when I modified my diet. So try it and tell us how it goes.
Also be sure to get everything you need from your food :) My little advice here is that if you need to much complement to compensate, your diet is worthless. Might sound harsh but a diet that needs too much powders and other types of supplement is not a good diet. I talk about supplements, not complements ;)

My last remark : if you go vegan for a better environment care, you'd better try to eat local. You are not going to have everything you want every season, but it is much planet friendly that going vegan. And if you miss some food you can try to grow it. For example I grow my own avocados instead of buying some that used super tankers to come from Mexico or Peru. The food I miss the most is banana T.T

100% agree on this one!

I've never met a vegan in person who pushed their views, called someone a murderer, or wanted to take away your meat. That being said, I've seen terrible comments and much intolerance from both meat-eaters and herbivores over the years on social media. I feel like the general population has lost its civility towards each when using social media or other platforms such as this one. Whether it's conversations/debates regarding food, politics, race, religion etc, the mainstream has become downright awful to each other. Even on this thread there are a few unhelpful and rude comments. Would you say these things in person to a fellow athlete? Probably not...….I'm not trying to lecture, but it has gotten to be so disappointing how cruel we are to each other when we sit behind our phones, ipads, and laptops. Can't we just be polite and civil to each other even if we don't understand or approve of someone else's beliefs?

My husband hates that I participate on here once in a while because not everyone is nice.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Have you not been to ST before? Welcome to the Thunderdome! Two men enter... one man leaves! Two men enter... one man leaves!
Two men enter... one man leaves! Two men enter... one man leaves! Two men enter... one man leaves! ....

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In search of the righteous life... we all fall down

LOL....it's a rough crowd :-)

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Like I said, helpful to learn to take deep breaths and just walk away. Lol

Its true. I recently stumbled on a QR facebook post in which water-boy chimed in saying everyone on ST were snowflakes. He had to leave and was banished to the recesses of facebook I guess haha

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Use this link to save $5 off your USAT membership renewal:
https://membership.usatriathlon.org/...A2-BAD7-6137B629D9B7

Serious question, what are your views on hunting?

I'm know the general view of hunting is country folk with no teeth in the woods praying on poor animals. But really for the most part, its a source of food and be a chance to be in nature. One of the goals is not to let the animal suffer both for ethical (no suffering) and practical reasons (trying to track down an injured animal sucks). The animal isn't abused like farm animals as it lives a free life. As for health reasons, at least venison (deer), it is a far healthier option than beef or other red meats and its truly 100% organic/free range etc.

The health, ethical and outdoors reasons are why I picked up hunting but our local deer recently started getting Chronic Wasting Disease, so I have stopped.

So you've never met a vegan?

Since you asked me, I am personally against hunting as I don't need to harm the deer in my backyard in order to feed myself and feel good. "if we could lead a happy and healthy life without harming others, why wouldn't we?" - one of my favorite quotes.....That being said one of our favorite humans happens to be a hunter and we respect each other's beliefs/choices. I also used to train for marathons with a moose hunter (his tribe was steeped in the tradition). We used to joke about me being vegan and him being a hunter. But he was always game (no pun intended) to do my workouts with me and it was fun to push each other.

I would say if you eat meat, hunting is the much better alternative to buying meat that originates from a factory farm (in the US over 90% of meat is from big ag/factory farms). I agree that hunting is more humane and probably a lot healthier and cleaner. (aside from the cruelty, the filth and disease is shocking from what I've seen on many undercover videos inside factory farms)

Just a gentle reminder, Patrick Lange 2x Kona champion is a vegetarian. So he's doing something right. Maybe it's not everyone's path, but it can be done in sport.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

I've been vegan for almost two years, and really try not to mention to people that I'm vegan if I don't have to in large part because of the stigma people seem to have with it. Most of the time I just say I don't eat meat or dairy, and that's only if I'm out to a restaurant and it's not clear what all is in a specific dish (most of the time it's meatless dishes where it's not clear if it contains cheese).

Same here regarding not telling people due to the stigma. Sometimes I actually tell the waitstaff I'm allergic to dairy instead saying I'm vegan. It's not a total lie as I will feel awful and get inflammation in my joints if I do have dairy. But it creates more of an incentive for the kitchen to not screw up and add cheese to a vegetarian dish.

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

FYI You can have your deer tested for chronic wasting disease, and in many places, it's required. I hold on to the meat and do not consume it till I get a negative result back. You submit the head to your local fish and game authority, and they will take care of testing. Typically, it isn't that expensive or may actually be covered by the state at no cost to you. You can also increase your odds of a negative result by harvesting younger animals if you only care about meat as the risk of a positive goes up significantly with age. Infected animals often display evidence of neurologic dysfunction (stumbling, confused, listlessness) and poor body condition (emaciated, disheveled appearance) so you should avoid harvesting animals that may be showing signs of CWD.

Maybe keep the hunted deer meat testing discussion out of the vegan thread...

So what would be the worst for you? Eating from a cow that was killed 30km from where you live, who fed 10 people and had the carbon footprint of a farmer truck which did those 30 km? (I assume the people eating is responsible and buy from a local farmer that raises his cows in grazing land thus limiting the carbon footprint of cattle farming).
Or eating an avocado which comes from the other side of the world not always from Fair Trade, used a super tanker to arrive to your local market and thus participated to the death of the planet and species?

The true thing is that eating local until an a clean alternative to petrol is found is the only viable way to preserve what is left. And once you choose to eat local you see that eating vegan is unsustainable for the body. But this will never happen because people are often to spoiled to accept that they are not going to eat whatever they want whenever they want. And often the argument is : why should I make the sacrifice if my neighbour doesn't make it...

I'll still take the avocado. It will be on a tanker along with millions of other consumer goods we purchase that are made overseas such as your phone or whatever device used to post this message. I'm not here to get into a pissing match about local food and carbon foot prints or throw stones at anyone. I never do that. No one is perfect. Eat what works for your lifestyle/beliefs. Do the best you can. For the record I eat a ton of local veggies, local plant-based products and support as much local food as possible. It's not that hard. But yes I do buy avocados, coffee and bananas (fair trade/organic always for everything possible).

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

That is awesome that your favor local.
But you see here is the point : ". It will be on a tanker along with millions other consumer goods we purchase that are made overseas such as your phone or whatever device used to post this message. "
I do not want to force anything on anyone too and even if I could I wouldn't because it is always better when the other person do it from him/herself.
You are right I own a phone and a computer. The computer was offered to me 7 years ago and the phone is 5 years old. I bought it before I learned about footprint and I agree it would be very difficult to live without. I am trying to save them. But I became a engineer and I am working on batteries in order to find a better solution than lithium (well basically we have some but not ready for market as it is unstable).
But I digress.

From what you said : imagine if everyone was doing the same effort as you do and was limiting his electronics, that would be the end of super tankers and polluting stuff like those because it would become unsustainable. And maybe we would find ways to grow avocadoes and other specific ingredients locally. If people were willing to make the sacrifice for a specific time it would solve so many issues.

No one is perfect indeed, but some can try to improve whatever they can to improve the future.

Edit : some errors here and there :/

This thread has really gone south. The original poster just wanted some advice on going vegan. That's all.…

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

Maybe carbon foot prints should be a conversation in the lavender room. I'm game ;-)

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Death is easy....peaceful. Life is harder.

He's not a triathlete, but he's vegan and an athlete.

https://twitter.com/meatymcsorley

This ^^^^^

I find it incredibly disappointing to enter a ST thread on a topic I would either like to learn from or contribute to... only to find two thirds of the comments are from haters. These demeaning comments don't help promote the usefulness of Slowtwitch and are in no way helpful to the person who legitimately wanted helpful information. This behavior only discourages many athletes from contributing. The words you speak or type not only reflect on you but they also affect you.