By now everyone has a pretty strong standpoint when it comes to vegan diets. 

Whether you love or hate the idea of a vegan diet, I ask you to set your predetermined favoritism and read this with a completely open mind. Focus on the outcome in conjunction with your goals. 

It all started when Hillary and I were planning out the next step in our fitness goals. We both agreed to start clean bulking to gain healthy size and muscle. Somewhere along the path of research, I came across a discussion about this documentary called "What The Health" on Netflix. We decided to watch it.

If you haven't already, we do suggest watching it. Although we do not agree with many of the correlations they make, there is a ton of valuable information.

My Dad is a vegetarian and we always joke back and forth with each other about what is wrong with the other's diet. I made a very clear that I would not be giving up meat anytime soon, as he said on the opposing side. 

Although after much self-reflection and mental growth, due to learning from mentors, I had to start venturing outside my comfortability. So after watching, I decided to do a self-experiment.

First I ate meat and dairy heavily for an entire month while also lifting heavy in the gym 5-6 days a week. Over the course of the month, I gained 16 pounds, my lifts increased in weight, and I was looking much larger all around. Doing so did put some pain in my back. I've always had a bad lower back so I'm sure the added weight I was lifting was mostly responsible. Although meat and dairy cause inflammation inside the human body which was another reason I was excited to experiment with being a vegan. 

Remeber gaining weight, size, and strength was my overall goal.

Next was to try a month of veganism. I must admit, it is very difficult to figure out what to eat the first few days. It took me about a week to really get close to any kind of routine. I also decided about 2 weeks in that I couldn't do %100 vegan because breakfast was very hard to figure out what to eat without the protein source of eggs. So technically I was vegan for 2 weeks and ovo-vegetarian for 2 weeks, I added egg whites only. 

Luckily for me, God has blessed me with an unbelievable partner, Hillary, who takes incredible care of me with grocery shopping and cooks pretty much every meal. 

But the results after the month were very intriguing. I had maintained my strength in all lifts while gaining strength in some as well. The pain I was having did seem to concede, not sure if it was all the diet or just a matter of time. As far as size went, I did lose the larger appearance I was gaining the month before. Also, my weight dropped a staggering 6 pounds! That's "staggering" because I was still eating a ton TRYING to gain weight!

I am very excited to write this for a couple reasons. One because I was able to accomplish what I set my mind to without cheating, other than the egg whites. It is a very dignifying feeling when you push yourself to new limits. We should all drop our fists and stop siding on only one way of thinking. I was so blinded by my own prejudiced I am honestly embarrassed and ashamed to look back at my previous way of thinking.

Another reason is that of the knowledge I gained. I can now knowingly inform others of what is to be expected as well as urge weight loss clients to try a vegan diet. If I lost 6 pounds while trying to gain weight, I can only imagine some of their results with trying to lose. I also will be able to help them with what a daily diet looks like, how everything tastes, and how to get through the struggles they will face. 

Overal I have currently decided to eat in between these 2 diets. This is due to the fact that I am still trying to gain size at the moment. I have fallen in love with some of the vegan recipes but also love a medium rare steak which I feel gives me the size and strength I'm looking for. 

What I would hope people take away from this post is that you must experiment with your body and continue doing what works for you. Don't be stubborn and think "well this is the only way I do things" there is always room for change and improvement. Make sure whatever it is that you do choose is congruent with your personal goals. 

Thank you for reading.