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I Became an Overweight Vegan By Not Getting Enough Complete Protein, So Now I’m Trying Amazing Grass Protein Superfood…

After 5 and a half years of being a vegan, I have now come to the realization that the skeptics were actually right, in their concern that I wouldn’t get enough protein. But not in the way any of us expected:

It’s not that I ever became weak, lightheaded, or underweight.

Instead, my dyshidrotic eczema and allergy and sinus problems went away, and for the past 3 years, I have remained an overweight vegan.

Whereas for the first year or so of being a vegan I did lose weight, getting down to 156 pounds and size 31 pants, and I am not back to being over 170 pounds and am now only able to fit into a few pairs of my 32 size pants. And by the way, I’m not tall: I’m 5′ 9″.

My vegan weight gain has occurred for more than one reason…

First, these days there are vegan options for everything, including ice cream; which my wife and I were eating nearly every night as a “reward” for making it through a never hectic day raising two kids, while both working our full-time jobs, plus running our side hustles (including doing SEO for a major university, running two YouTube channels, and managing this blog).

Second, I was overeating. My first year of being a vegan taught me that I could ultimately eat as much of any vegan food I wanted, and I would still fit into my size 31 pants. But eventually, I started gaining my pre-vegan weight back, and I never went back to eating sensible portions.

And third, this whole time, without realizing it, I have never consistently been getting enough complete proteins…

Last Sunday after church, I happened to meet a personal trainer while our families were at Starbucks at the same time. His name is Mark Glesne and he explained to me that initially, I was losing weight because my body wasn’t getting the right kinds of protein, so I was losing muscle mass.

But eventually, my body bottomed out on being able to extract its protein nutrients from my muscle, so it has since went into famine mode, therefore producing extra fat as a back-up plan to survive on.

So for the past week, I have been researching and experimenting on what exactly these “vegan complete proteins” are.

I thought peanut butter was good for protein… nope, it counts it as fat.

I thought broccoli was good for protein… nope, my body counts it as carbs.

Instead, “complete proteins” look more like this:

A can of chickpeas and a slice of Ezekiel bread.

Chia seeds and almonds.

Rice and beans.

So in theory, I must make it a daily priority to pack in as much complete proteins as I can, so that my body will recognize that I am now consuming enough, so it will stop producing the same level of fat and build muscle instead.

I have decided to make an investment in Amazing Grass Protein Superfood, since it contains 27% of my daily complete proteins, consisting of 20 grams.

If you’re in the same situation as me, you can click on this click to buy Amazing Grass Protein Superfood for the lowest price on Amazon.

I look forward to seeing if greatly increasing my amount of protein will actually cause me to lose weight, as I am currently an overweight vegan.

Amazing Grass Protein Superfood Pure Vanilla Description
  • ALL in ONE Nutrition Shake
  • Daily Plant-Based Nutrition
  • One Scoop. Stir. Smile.
  • 20g Complete Protein • 7 Alkalizing Greens
  • 2 Servings Fruits & Veggies • Wholefood Nutrition Shake
  • Gluten Free • No Sugar Added
  • USDA Organic • Non-GMO
  • Kosher

This organic, all-in-one nutritional shake thoughtfully combines the alkalizing farm fresh greens with nutrient-dense fruits and veggies plus 20g of plant-based protein. With a smooth vanilla flavor and satisfying texture, this superfood combo is a convenient way to get the whole food nutrition your body needs with an amazing flavor your taste buds will love.

Nutrition Made Easy

  • 7 Alkalizing Greens: Wheat Grass, Barley Grass, Alfalfa, Spirulina, Chlorella, Broccoli and Spinach
  • Protein: Pea, Chia, Quinoa and Hemp
  • Fruits & Veggies: Beet, Carrot, Sweet Potato, Goji, Acai, Banana and More…

The Amazing Grass Promise

Amazing Grass organically grows & harvests the most nutrient-rich greens on their family farms in Kansas & craft them with the highest quality plant-based ingredients curated from like-minded farmers around the world.

Honestly Grown. Thoughtfully Harvested. Simply Enjoyed.

Promotes Lean Muscle • Satisfies Hunger • Nourishing Energy • Aids Digestion

Suggested Use: Add one scoop with 12 fl oz. or more of water, milk or smoothie.

Best kept in a cool, dry place after opening.

Free Of

Gluten, GMOs, added sugar.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Other Ingredients: Protein Blend: (organci pea protein, organic hemp protein, organic chia, organic quinoa), Green Food Blend (organic wheat grass, organic alfalfa, organic barley grass, organic spinach, organic spirulina, organic chlorella (cracked cell-wall), organic broccoli), Fruit & Vegetable BlendOther Ingredients: Organic vanilla flavor, natural vanilla flavor, xanthan gum, organic stevia, organic madagascar vanilla.

All flavors used by Amazing Grass® are Organic Compliant, All Natural, Kosher Pareve and Vegan. Not a low calorie food.

 

1 Comment Posted on Health, vegan

Vegans Don’t Get Enough Protein and the World is Still Flat

Take a look at me in this corny picture I took yesterday using a self-timer and a tripod.

Vegans Don’t Get Enough Protein and the World is Still Flat

If you saw me, and didn’t know who I was, would you think to yourself, “I wonder if that guy is getting enough protein…”?

Chances are, you see a guy who really doesn’t have weight to lose or to gain in order to be healthy. And that’s the truth: For my age and weight, I am perfectly in the “optimal” range.

I’m 34 years old, 5’9”, and weigh around 153 pounds (I fluctuate between 148 and 155 throughout the year).

But back in 2008, I peaked at 178 pounds, which according to the chart, put me in the “overweight” category.

Vegans Don’t Get Enough Protein and the World is Still Flat

So now that we’ve established I’m not underweight, or overweight, why is it that in the past few years, people have asked me if I’m getting enough protein?

After all, that’s not something people typically ask each other:

“Are you getting enough protein?”

In fact, I challenge you to name 3 people you’ve personally known in your lifetime who weren’t getting enough protein; excluding people with eating disorders or people dying of a disease- neither of which apply to vegans like me.

My guess is you can’t think of even one person.

Yet we’re obsessed with making sure people getting enough protein. Meanwhile, the irony is that we’re getting too much protein in the form of meat, which leads to cancer and/or diabetes.

But the moment people find out I’ve been a vegan for about 2 and a half years (and a vegetarian for more than a year before that), they feel compelled to make sure I’m getting enough protein.

Why is that?

Because we’ve collectively been brainwashed to believe that without eating animal products, we will not get enough protein.

In reality, vegans easily get enough protein from 6 easy sources: veggies, fruit, nuts, seeds, beans, and grains.

And again, look at me. How am I not living proof that vegans get enough protein?

Vegans Don’t Get Enough Protein and the World is Still Flat

Granted, if all I ate was white bread and apple juice, I could see the concern. But that wouldn’t be a healthy, balanced diet. To me that’s the equivalent of someone who “experimented with veganism in college.”

However, they failed because they weren’t actually getting enough all around nutrition, instead, they depended on processed foods.

It’s simple: I eat plenty of unprocessed veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, and grains.

I don’t have a gym membership. Instead, I simply take at least two 10 minute walks each day, as well as ride my mountain bike and go for runs throughout the week.

I don’t count calories. I don’t go hungry; I eat as much as I want. No portion control.

And I’m very happy.

Plus, I’m actually healthy. At least that’s what Dr. Thomas John of Vanderbilt Primary Care told me back in April when visited him for a check-up.

He even confirmed I’m getting enough protein; though I didn’t bring up I was a vegan until after he had already told me diagnosed me as healthy.

Now consider my former life. I was more than 30 pounds heavier. I had dyshidrosis; a medically incurable skin disease related to eczema.

http://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/thomas-john-md-ef5bcddd-b461-41b1-bca4-92667ef8049a-overview

I had constant sinusitis, sinus pressure, headaches and acne.

Of course, now, those are all a thing of the past.

Why would I ever go back to that?

http://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/thomas-john-md-ef5bcddd-b461-41b1-bca4-92667ef8049a-overview

This is what works for me. It’s not for everyone. However, I’m living proof it’s not crazy, but instead it’s a quite effective lifestyle.

I feel there’s a decent chance some people glanced at the title of this post and assumed I was “finally admitting vegans don’t get enough protein.”

http://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/thomas-john-md-ef5bcddd-b461-41b1-bca4-92667ef8049a-overview

Nope.

Actually, I’m showing how outdated it is to believe such a concept. It’s as crazy as still believing the world is flat.

http://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/thomas-john-md-ef5bcddd-b461-41b1-bca4-92667ef8049a-overview

Bonus:

Check out this video I made about what I refer to as “The Protein Conspiracy”…

Also, here’s a professional article, 8 Great Sources of Vegan Protein.

Plus, Vegetarians Can Expect to Live Longer, Study Shows.

1 Comment Posted on Health, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

I’m Mr. Clean When It Comes to Personal Hygiene

Cleanliness is next to obsessiveness.

Danny Tanner was OCD about cleaning his full house.  Howie Mandel is insane in dealing or not dealing with germs.  As for me, I am obsessed with feeling clean and fresh in regards to my own body.  If I had to go a full day without taking a shower, brushing my teeth, or clipping my fingernails (they grow very fast; I have to clip them every five days), then it would pretty much ruin my day, like a canker sore.

 

I keep an extra toothbrush, toothpaste, and pair of nail clippers with me at work.  As well as in my car.  Heckler from the crowd shouts out: “Well you better get used to feeling dirty!  That baby of yours is going to be puking and peeing on you every day…”  But that’s different.  To me, that’s more of an external situation.  I’m obsessed with the internal.

What I get on me, I can clean off and be okay with.  It’s what comes out from within my body that bothers me.  Knowing that sweat is constantly slowly seeping out of my skin and that bacteria in my mouth begins festering again the minute I finish brushing my teeth.  Yikes.

 

And truthfully, this obsession has a lot to do with my extremely strict diet which is based around “clean eating”.  The way I see it, the foods I put in my body either make my insides cleaner or dirtier.  It’s typically hard for me to eat a big greasy hamburger because I imagine the liquefied, digested fat leaking out my pores.  What a nightmare.

 

Surely everyone is at least a little bit OCD somehow when it comes to cleanliness.  This is mine.

*Unnecessary ethic information: Both Bob Saget and Howie Mandel are Jewish.

 

2 Comments Posted on Health, People, Uncategorized

The Glory of Eating Out: Entertainment, Activity, and Ignorance of Calories

Eating food can easily become entertainment, in of itself.

This Saturday, my wife will finish her final class for her Master’s program.  We’ve been anticipating this day for a year and a half- specifically, we’ve been planning to go somewhere nice for dinner to celebrate.  Though we’ve had our sights set for months on Stony River for a good steak dinner, we remembered recently that we don’t really like steak.  So we instead have discovered a quaint “only in Nashville” sort of place that looks to be more our speed: http://www.12southtaproom.com/

Something I’ve been realizing now more than ever is why eating out is fun.  There are obvious reasons for this, like not having to cook, set the table, or clean the dishes.  And the fact that when you eat dinner out, you have many choices of what you will eat.  All valid reasons.  Yet very obvious.

Here are more subtle reasons:

Environment: Whether or not you truly are a “people person”, or are one and just don’t realize it (People Watching 101), part of the allure of going out to eat is to be around people you don’t know, who serve as background noise and sometimes accidently, as entertainment.

Of course aside from the strangers we like dining near (not with), there also is something soothing/weird in looking at the random memorabilia hanging on the walls- whether it’s old pictures of sad, creepy looking people from the 1920’s, a goofy moose head, or a canary yellow guitar that Tom Petty used to record his Wildflowers album in 1994.  Ultimately, whatever it is, it’s something else to look at.

Activity: Eating good food that we enjoy is more than just about “getting full” or about nutrition.  It’s simply a fun activity.  Yes, we could make the same menu items on our own (with enough Internet research for recipes) and they may taste similar.  But aside from the fact that we’re not cooking it, there is something fun about having someone else serve you.  When someone else waits on you, it gives a sense of “I deserve this” (Password).

Ignorance to calories: Yes, we are overaware that fast food is a killer.  But we turn a blind eye to the nutritional facts at nicer restaurants, essentially all of them.  Even when the meal is low-fat, and even more difficult to pull off, low-sugar, it is still almost guaranteed to be high in sodium- which is linked to heart disease and hardened arteries.  But no matter how nice the restaurant it is, it’s pretty much given that there’s at least 75% of your daily sodium in the meal, at best.

And of course, the serving portions are typically at least twice to three times what a meal should be.  But turning a blind eye to all these nutritional facts makes it much more fun.

So go now, and celebrate, with strange wall decorations, quirky people sitting at the table next to you, and a meal prepared by the salt gods.

7 Comments Posted on Health, People, Recaps, Uncategorized

Why Betty White Doesn’t Look 88 Years Old (Yes, She’s a Vegan)

Thank you for being a host.

For me, no episode of SNL could ever be funnier than when Justin Timberlake hosted his first time in 2003.  But finally, thanks to Danish-Greek American actress Betty White, someone has come pretty close.  In fact, her hosting job earned Saturday Night Live its highest number of viewers since November 2008 when John McCain hosted and Tina Fey snuck off the set of 30 Rock to parody Sarah Palin.

It’s not necessarily easy to keep me laughing with TV shows and movies that are supposed to be funny.  But watching sweet little Betty White for nearly 90 minutes was the most consistent “LOLing” I’ve done since the first time I saw I Love You, Man.

Every skit was hilarious: “Delicious Dish”, “MacGruber”, “She’s a Lesbian”, “Scared Straight”, “Thank You for Being a Friend”, “CSI: Sarasota”, “Census”.  Which means all the hype leading up to Betty White’s hosting gig, including the facebook petition and the countless Internet articles speculating her success at hosting, actually were worth it.  Betty White as host of SNL will be right up there with Christopher Walken’s “VH1’s Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult” (“more cowbell”) in the SNL Hall of Fame of our minds.

And I was so amazed to find out that Betty White is 88 years old.  It’s natural to say, “But she doesn’t look 88 years old…”

I know that’s what I always think of people I see on TV who are celebrating their 100th birthday.  No one who is 100 looks 100.  But what does 88 years old look like?  What does 100 years old look like?

Eighty-eight looks like a 68 year-old who hasn’t taken very good care of themselves.  For example, perhaps a regular smoker who after their retirement doesn’t continue to live an active lifestyle both physically and mentally, nor do they take deliberate notice of what they eat and drink.

It involves some circular reasoning: People who look young for their age are usually in shape- and because they are in shape, they look healthier and younger than most people their age- and because choose to stay in shape as they get older, they tend to be the ones who live to be the longest- and they tend to become the longest-living and youngest-looking people.

Enter Betty White, a vegan.  While I could never be that disciplined, I do recognize it’s no coincidence that she’s still so full of life.  And spunk.

On top of that, I’ve learned that people who continue to look younger than their actual age in their younger years, continue to look younger in their older age.  Like Dick Clark (80), Chuck Norris (70), Harrison Ford (67), or Johnny Depp (46).  So of course, genetics is a big part of it.

It’s sort of like a man’s receding hairline.  I’ve noticed that by observing the hairline of 21 year-old man, it is easy to predict how much hair he will have at age 40, 60, and 80.

Looking back at pictures of a young James Taylor, he already had a receding hairline going on.  By his 40’s, he was pretty much completely bald on top.

Robin Williams, who I would say best represents the average American man’s rate of hair loss, showed very minimal signs of balding when he made it big with his sitcom Mork and Mindy back in 1978 at age 27.  But by the time he did One Hour Photo in 2002 at age 50 (one of my favorite “scary” movies, though most people I talk to don’t feel the same way), it was clear he was losing some hair, but that he would not be going completely bald in his adulthood.

In other words, whether it’s a general youthful appearance or an extremely slow rate of hair loss, these “signs of youth” are obvious when a person is a young adult and they stay that way throughout the rest of their lives, given they take care physical and mental care of themselves.

So that’s why 88 year-old Betty White looks like she’s 68.  And why so many 68 year-olds we know look 88.  And most 100 year-olds look 70.

But most important isn’t how old or person looks on the outside, or even how young they feel on the inside.  What’s most important is how young a person’s body thinks it is- which is largely controlled by how well they take care of their own body.

Because what good is it too look younger than your actual age your whole life only to die at age 60 (while “feeling 30”) because of heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure?  All of which could have been prevented or severely slowed down by carefully limiting sodium (meats and packaged/processed foods), sugar (other than from whole fruits), and saturated fats (animal fats, not fats from nuts and oils).  And replacing them with fresh produce, high fiber, plenty of water, and regular exercise.

I want to be like Betty.

And one more thing… Now that you’ve read my take on Betty White, why not read my perspective on: being a dad.  That’s right- parenting from a dad’s point of view.  I have been documenting my thoughts as a dad since the week we found out my wife was pregnant.  I formally invite you now to read my “dad blog”:

dad from day one