Performance-enhancing veganism

Running performance, that is. I (Suzy) have noticed quite a difference in my running abilities since starting what I'm sure Brandt will refer to for the rest of his life as "the vegan incident." I on the other hand feel adjusted; my body feels cleaner (even my sweat is cleaner!), and I've noticed a significant improvement in my endurance. I am not one to jump to causative claims. But I couldn't help but notice the correlation of this diet to dramatically improved frequency and distance in my running.

One performance of mine that has not been enhanced, however, is drinking performance. As someone who enjoys the occasional (ahem...weekly...ok, maybe sometimes more than that) wine/gin martini indulgence, I can no longer drink from the bottomless glass that I've enjoyed since college. Some of this is due to lack of vegan food at cocktail parties, no doubt. Curious to see if I was an outlier, I entered the vegan blog realm. It seems others have experienced this same reduction in alcohol tolerance (clearly not a bad thing as I now am learning to be much more careful with my portions and pacing of beverages). There are also claims that this is due to increased absorption efficiency, something that seems pretty likely since my calorie-intake and the macronutrient composition of my diet has not been drastically altered.

We'll see how running and alcohol tolerance, 2 things dear to my heart, play out for the rest of the month. Halfway there!

Nutrition Nut: Suzy's Rebuttle

If you saw poop on your steak, a worm in your apple, or mold on your (not blue) cheese, you'd say, "ew, gross." No wait...you'd say, "what the f***?! There's shit in my steak." Either way, you would put your fork down. We allow ourselves to be blissfully unaware of what we're eating. Unless we can see the "ew gross-ness", we don't care. It crushes my wholefood-, nutrition- loving self (who also likes to get coffee in the West Village) that at some point where our food comes from and what benefits or harm it brings our bodies ceased to matter. And, I hate to crush dreams out there, but we do eat to LIVE. Not a hippie notion--fact.

Anyone who has ever seen me unable to put down my spoon when faced with a bowl of ice cream (or guacamole) can tell you that I am not an advocate for food losing its celebratory and sentimental value. There is nothing survival-focused about my love for red wine, antipasti platters, and the looks on others' faces when they say, "Sweet Baby Jesus, that tastes DELICIOUS." Food brings people together in a way that nothing else in our culture does (clearly, I'm making the leap to count wine as a food here). But when did also caring about how that food will affect your physical and mental function become such a terrible idea? We should always care. I'm not saying that every little morsel you consume has to be the most healthful choice you've ever made, but health and wellness should be major factors each and every time you decide to taste, chew, and swallow.

I am here to put on public record that Brandt does love fruits and vegetables (GASP!). Just as much as I do (GASP! GASP!). In fact, when asked what he would like from the grocery store, vegan things are most often on his list: beets, almonds, oranges (three gasps is excessive, I'm sure you're on to this).

While I don't believe this month-long experiment in veganism will for a lifetime turn me away from yogurt, cheese, and pastries, why not spend a month figuring out how my body fares without animal products? I believe that there are alternatives to eating 24oz (6 day's worth) of meat in one 15 minute period. And my initial thought on this blog was that it would be a good way for us both to be creative in exploring those alternatives. And it also wouldn't hurt to catch Brandt up on vegetables missed during his past few years of ordering beef with a side of bacon.

Meat Head: Brandt's Explanation

Do you see those pictures up there? They look great, don't they. They're my meals from our trip to Miami--bone-in ribeye medium rare with cheesy, creamy potatoes and Macallan 21 from Council Oak; cheeseburger with french fries and Diet Pepsi from Casola's. Now I could write you a paragraph about where the food was sourced from, and I could tell you the fries are fried in organic oil. I could tell you the steak comes from a small farm not 10 miles from the restauraunt and I could tell you the scotch was aged for 21 years (21!). But I don't have to because when you look at those pictures the only thought your brain can put together is "Sweet Baby Jesus, that looks...DELICIOUS." If that beautiful slice of heaven found its way to a table near you, you'd know what to do. Now if on the other hand you were faced with some strange mixture of wild grains and weeds, or "vegan snacks," you would want, no you would NEED a full adjective ladden paragraph before you even considered letting it near your mouth, and you would certainly need the explicit promise of some kind of health benefit before you'd even consider investing in a bite.

I say all of this to give you an idea where I stand on the issue of veganism, lest you be confused by my presence here. I am firmly of the mind set that "I didn't climb all the way up the food chain to eat leaves."

Now frankly I don't have a good reason for why I agreed to do this. I attribute it to whatever genetic defect it is that makes me prone to random road trips, bad ideas, and a general inclination to say "sure, why not" when faced with a unique proposition. I am also so far behind a healthy lifetime level of vegetable intake that this really can't hurt. Plus it will give me a conversation topic while waiting for coffee in the village. Most importantly though, what the hell anyway, "why not."