I'm trying to focus and do get some work done but
I'm finding it very, very, very hard to do so.
I still feel a hunger pang and I feel headache-y, and I feel a bit brain foggy,
and my vision is a bit like, blurry.
Unfortunately, I forgot that tofu is also egg tofu. So basically I can't eat this.
And I ordered eggs, so now my food is tainted.
So I've tried many different diets and 1 diet you guys keep asking for is the vegan diet.
So I'm going to try it out in this episode.
The vegan diet is becoming increasingly popular over the last few years.
People have made the change due to health reasons, environmental reasons, as well as
ethical reasons because there's this whole movement against animal cruelty in the food industry.
In a nutshell, the vegan diet is a plant-based diet that excludes all forms of animal products.
And that doesn't just include meats. It also includes your dairy, so things like cows milk
and cheeses, includes eggs and even honey.
Basically anything that is produced or is a by-product of an animal.
One of my biggest concerns with this diet is eating out, because I think as a vegan,
you almost have to be hypersensitive and aware of what goes into your foods.
Things like the oils they're using, whether there's butter or whether they might have
put chicken stock in your food.
You don't know, so you always have to keep asking.
And I think that that's just an added pressure to this diet.
I'm really curious to see how this vegan diet is going to work on my body and whether or
not I might actually start liking this lifestyle despite all the concerns that I have, I'm really excited.
So without further ado, lets go!
Good morning! It is day 1 of going vegan.
Usually for breakfast, I would have myself an egg and some oats,
but this morning I'm gonna be having a vegan protein shake instead.
And I think that one of the biggest challenges is going to be to cut out dairy and egg for me,
because it's quite a big part of my diet. As well as meat because I eat quite a high
protein diet naturally.
I'm going to be having this vegan protein shake.
See the difference in the nutritional content is that the vegan protein shake always has
a higher amount of carbs.
This is what it looks like. It's green.
I have a bunch of blueberries.
And then I also have some almond milk.
Gonna add in some natural peanut butter.
Also have some flaxseeds.
And there you have it, my vegan breakfast.
Not too sweet, it's nutty. There's a lot of texture to it because of the fruit and the flaxseeds.
I really like it. If you like the taste of the ground and wheatgrass, and spinach,
then this is like heaven in a cup.
Okay so I just finished my shoulder workout and I'm now at the Clicknetwork office.
And normally after a workout, I have a high protein meal.
I eat a lot of chicken breast and veggies and some carbs,
but today I'm going to be having Daal.
Daal is actually an Indian dish. It's made mostly of lentils, spices, potatoes, celery
and this is a very common Indian dish.
My mom actually made this for me and we made a huge pot of it,
and she put it over some rice. And I'm gonna have it with some spinach.
Hopefully this fills me up.
I think the biggest challenge I'm gonna be facing is to get used to not eating so much protein.
Here I do have the protein but it's definitely not the same.
I would say in this amount, I'd probably get about 13 to 15 grams of protein?
Compared to chicken breast where I'm gonna get a good 30 to 40 grams of protein from
about 150 grams of chicken breast, which I usually eat.
I know that a lot of vegans actually say there's a lot of protein in the plant-based foods,
which I agree.
You can get the protein but is it gonna be enough?
And I'm gonna put it to the test for the next few days.
So I just finished like my vegan meal, and I've been doing some work for the past like
10 minutes, and I'm still feeling super hungry.
I didn't realise that I finished the whole thing.
But this is like definitely not very filling. Perhaps I should've brought a larger portion.
Luckily I brought with me an apple, so I'm gonna have this.
Oh no, is this diet gonna make me hungry?
Maybe I should've brought more rice.
I am starving and I just wanna grab my chicken breast!
But I can't have this. I'm also contemplating having some Greek yogurt,
but this is also not part of my vegan diet.
So for my little snack today, I'm gonna be having some chopped bananas
and I'm gonna have it with some almond butter.
So this is so nice, and I wanted to have more of it so I planned to have it with some Meiji
crackers that were lying around my kitchen.
But then I looked at the ingredients list, there is butter.
I guess I won't be having this.
So yeah, you gotta be very careful. I guess like if you're a vegan,
you gotta be almost like extra OCD.
So I just got home, it's about 10:30pm and I have not had dinner yet.
Was thinking of grabbing some foods but I didn't wanna break my diet and there were
also some tarts at the table.
But honestly I was super hungry, and I was tempted to eat
but I stuck to my guns
and I was like "No, I'm not giving up this vegan thing. I'm gonna do it all the way."
So I was able to pull together my vegan dinner.
I'm having tempeh, which is basically soy beans.
And I'm having it with some veggies,
spinach and pretty much the daal that I had from this morning. And I put some white cabbage on top.
I'm just trying to make sure that I get as much fibre in as I can.
Because I am definitely not full from today.
My assessment about being vegan for day 1 is that not that much change in terms of my energy levels.
But I will say that I did feel hungry a lot of today.
I don't know if it's because I have been running around a lot, or the fact that the vegan diet
doesn't provide me enough energy.
Then again, it's only been day 1 and I am excited to see how I do for the next few days.
Good morning. I just finished training my clients this morning and I have not had any
breakfast because I was kinda in a mad rush this morning.
I was feeling really tired. Didn't really wanna get out of bed.
I did manage to grab a banana before I headed out.
I did go to the cafe and tried to get breakfast there but everything has some animal product in it.
The annoyance of trying to get a meal and just having to say 'no' to everything is just
frustrating.
We're really busy today.
So we ordered some Grab Food from Simply Wrapps which is only like the best salad and wrap place ever!
This is honestly my favourite health food and like salad wrap place, because there are
just so many options. It's pretty value for money and they always give like a huge portion size.
Look at the size of this wrap. Just look at it.
It's like literally the size of my face.
I got myself some mesclun salad and inside I have romaine, zucchini, beetroot, celery,
chickpeas, pumpkin, and tofu.
So I'm getting my protein source from tofu and chickpeas today.
And I just think that this vegan diet is super not-filling.
And I ate the entire wrap,
and I don't usually finish my entire wrap.
I'm actually looking for food so I actually found this organic chickpea puffs
and this is vegan friendly.
It says on the back.
I'm so hungry that I resorted to snacking.
This diet is definitely one that you have to graze a lot.
You definitely have to keep snacking and eating.
It's day 4 of going vegan, and it's a Sunday morning
so I'm on my way to train my Sunday morning clients.
But I must say that on this vegan diet, I am feeling a lot more lethargic than usual.
I don't have the same amount of energy and I can't attribute it to just the diet because
I did have a very busy week.
But at the same time, I did constantly feel pretty hungry throughout the past 4 days.
And I never felt satiated after a meal so perhaps I need to eat in a higher volume?
This morning I'm having some almond milk, so I'm gonna drink this to give me some energy.
And then I'm gonna go to Grandma's house.
I have not told her that I'm going vegan so I feel so bad because she probably made me
some rendang or something and I'm probably gonna have to say no.
Definitely, if you're going vegan, you have to plan in advance.
You must tell people like, "I'm vegan" or prepare your own food and go.
Grandma: Why you cannot eat meat today?
Tyen: Because I'm going vegan.
You see she makes such nice chicken rendang and I really cannot eat it.
Grandma: You should've told me, I would've done something for you.
Tyen: It's okay, Grandma. It's okay, don't worry.
Alright so this is my lunch for today. I'm having veggie, tofu, broccoli and carrots.
And Grandma actually made this potato dish for me.
And then she made some basmati rice as well.
Alright, vegan day 5, and for breakfast I'm having some oatmeal, some bananas.
And I'm gonna put in some cinnamon.
It's a Monday and I'm on my way to the gym to kick start my week with a workout.
I'm gonna rely on carbs for most of my workout today.
Today is a very simple, like cardio and abs session, so I just a quick sweat before I
get on with the rest of my day.
Alright, so I'm just done with my workout. In terms of my energy levels, I do actually
feel that I had a lot more energy this morning working out.
And I guess that's actually due to the increase in the amount of carbs that I was eating.
I ate fruit before my workout.
I just think that with the fast sugars, I definitely would have more energy
and I kind of expected this.
I think regardless of whether or not you're on the vegan diet, definitely having carbs
before your workout gives you the extra energy to push even more.
Alright I'm having a little afternoon snack.
I'm having some kiwi and apple.
I don't think I've had so much fruit in a week in such a long time.
Morning, it is day 6 of the vegan diet and I have got to say that I don't think I wanna
continue this diet?
This morning, I felt super, super, super bloated. A lot of water retention
and I don't know what it is but I jumped on the treadmill after I trained my clients.
I tried to like sweat out all the water retention but my stomach just feels really bloated and
it's kind of uncomfortable as well.
I kind of did a bit of research about Veganism and the first week of going vegan.
And this is a very common trait that a lot of people going vegan first experience.
So it's not really sodium because I'm not really adding salt to my foods.
But it's more like the high fibre diet.
Because of the increase in fibre, you gotta drink a lot of water and not only that,
soy bloats you. The increase in the amount of sugar bloats you.
So my body is not used to all of these new factors and it's definitely responding in
a way that's bloating me, it's breaking me out.
In general, I don't feel like that lightness that everyone is experiencing.
Alright so I'm in school right now and I'm in between classes and I'm experiencing a
really bad brain fog.
I have a bit of a headache. I feel really lethargic, very tired.
I'm trying to focus and do get some work done but I'm finding it very, very, very hard to do so.
I've tried to supplement with coffee and caffeine, but I still feel a hunger pang, and I feel
headache-y, and I feel a bit brain foggy, and my vision is a bit like, blurry.
And I feel as though as like I need to eat something a lot more substantial.
And that's really weird for me because I do feel like I'm eating enough fats and enough
protein in my diet.
And I am eating a lot of volume, I'm trying to drink as much water as I can, just to feel full.
But then again, I still don't, and I am having a huge struggle right now trying to focus.
And I think to continue doing anymore work, I'm definitely gonna need to eat.
Okay, so this is my 'Cai Fan' (Economic Rice).
Unfortunately, I forgot that tofu is also egg tofu so basically I can't eat this.
And it was just a second nature for me to order egg.
So I accidentally ordered all these so now my food is tainted.
I guess the only thing I can eat now is the veggie, and the rice.
I'm just about done with my leg session after school.
I feel super strong today.
I was lifting weights that I haven't lifted in a very long time.
And I just felt extra motivated. I attribute that to the higher amount of carbs that I'm
eating, but that being said, throughout today, I was feeling constantly hungry.
No hate to vegans, but I could pretty much eat a cow right now.
Post workout meal and I'm at Simply Wrapps again.
This is my second time this week. This is totally not sponsored but Simply Wrapps,
you are definitely one of my favourite salad places in Singapore and I am in love with
your salads and your wraps.
I just wanna put it out there.
So I'm done with my week of going vegan.
I think that it was just really hard for me to maintain especially when I was going for events.
And when there were social gatherings whereby they just give you food that you kinda just have to eat.
It's not like I just wanted to indulge and make it like a cheat day, but the food is
there and you know, you're celebrating with your friends.
The last thing you wanna do is excuse yourself to go to the nearest salad place to buy a
salad and eat in front of everybody.
I was so hungry at that point of time, that was the day I really identified why it was
difficult to go vegan.
And I think that there are definitely options for you, but I think that just in terms of
Singapore it's not readily available to me.
Do I wanna restrict myself when I'm hungry? No!
If you're hungry, you should definitely just go and eat.
This is not even about finding the healthier option, if you know what I mean.
It's actually about finding the vegan option.
I feel that you're in so many situations, you're able to find the healthier options,
but a lot of the time that might not necessarily be vegan if you're trying to go on the vegan
diet, so that was actually the real struggle for me.
One of my biggest gripes of this diet was the fact that I felt constantly bloated throughout.
My body doesn't react very well to eating beans and legumes.
When I was eating so much of beans and tofu and vegetables, things that are super high
in fibre, that definitely kind of affected my digestion.
It did make me constipated and it made me very gassy and bloated.
Maybe I'm experiencing a lot of difficulties with this diet because my body is not used
to it, and it's now in kind of like a little adjustment period and I definitely have to
wait a lot longer for me to fulfil the full effects of this diet.
So my assessment of it might not be 100% accurate.
I do think that I gained a bit of weight on this diet because I was just constantly filling
my body with carbs and sugars, and wasn't getting the proteins and the eggs that are
fat burning foods for my body.
If you think of the term 'balanced diet', you wanna have a balance of protein, carbs
and fats that are right for your body and right for your fitness goals.
However, I was really just filling my body with a lot of carbs and not getting enough protein.
My fats were a bit higher because of the sources of protein I was getting from.
Overall, I don't think that the vegan diet is a balanced one.
And I don't want any vegans watching this to get angry with me.
I know there's a lot of variety to your diet and I know that you feel very strongly about
the philosophy behind your diet, but I just gotta say that as a girl, living in Singapore,
who's rushing around and trying to find food outside, I do personally find it such a challenge
and I do love my chickens, I do love my fish.
I absolutely love having eggs in the morning so I'm not ready to give that up for this diet.
After going vegan for 1 week, I can safely say that this diet is not sustainable for me.
Overall it is a challenging diet living in Singapore because your options are limited outside.
I think that if you're going into this diet, looking to lose weight specifically, then
you'll be solely disappointed because it's not the diet to lose weight.
I personally have this friend who actually went on the vegan diet for 2 years and it
screwed up her hormones so badly, she went to the doctors and he was like "No, this diet
is actually not one that works for your body. You are deficient in this, this this vitamin..."
She had to go on shots and it took her so long for her body to recover, so I think if
you're actually going on this diet, definitely consult like a dietician or your doctor first
because it's not one that works for everybody, especially if you have certain deficiencies.
So that's all I have for today's episode.
If you're practicing vegan or you've tried this diet, do comment down below your thoughts
and experiences because I'd love to learn more.
And if you guys don't already know, we've recently launched our first line of No Sweat merchandise.
So we have some yoga mats and resistance bands, it's gonna help you kick start your fitness journey.
Plus if you order our merchandise, you also get a handwritten note from me, as well as
some Clicknetwork keychains and stickers.
And if you guys have ordered our merchandise, firstly, thank you so much.
Do let us know what you think, we'd love to get your feedback.
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Take care, bye!