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- One of the biggest problems I ran into
and this is really embarrassing to say on camera, was.
Its officially official, four weeks of going vegan
are in the books, and I'm so happy about my goal.
I have to thank you guys for challenging me
on my 30 days of keto video,
and we have to give a huge shoutout again to Thrive Market
for sponsoring this video.
One of the biggest problems my patients have
in eating healthy, is that it's expensive,
and with foods being 25 to 50% off on Thrive Market
they make it pretty reasonable to eat healthy.
Whatever diet you're following,
you can just click the category right there
on their website, and it preselects the foods for you
so you don't have to check the ingredients list.
And if you click the discount code
below on my description box,
you're gonna get 25% off your first order,
and a free 30-day trial, that's pretty awesome.
If you're already a member, all you have to do is
check your inbox, or your Thrive Market homepage
to see a special offer for you every single day.
How cool is that?
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Just to clarify, there are many reasons
why people follow a vegan diet.
Moral, ethical, environmental,
but information I'm gonna cover here,
is only what's related to nutrition, and health.
If you want me to talk about those other concepts
I'm happy to do so, drop me a line below
and it will make a dedicated vegan video to just that.
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A vegan diet can be a very healthy diet.
Whether you're young, old, somewhere in between
pregnant, nonpregnant, breastfeeding, not breastfeeding,
basically it's applicable to all life stages.
The reason I put that word canon there,
you can follow a vegan diet, eat vegan burgers
with sugary sodas, with gummy candies,
still be vegan, and that's not really healthy, right?
And I have to say, it's not the only healthy diet out there.
Some of the loudest voices in the vegan community
are quick to say that veganism is the only healthy option
that's not the case,
there are several other healthy diets out there,
for example The Mediterranean diet
that I'm personally a fan of, that are just as healthy,
if not, healthier than the vegan diet.
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I have to be honest and admit that
I don't generally recommend vegan as my first option.
I do know that its a restrictive diet,
and we know restrictive diets have high failure rates.
Plus, the benefits of a vegan diet, aren't that much better
than some of the other alternatives
that are simpler to follow.
When I recommend a diet,
I'm trying to create the healthiest diet,
but also one that's feasible and achievable
for my patients to face without disrupting their lives.
On the other hand, if one of my patients comes in
and wants to follow a vegan diet,
I'm totally in support of that,
I just have to make sure that
they're adequately planning their meals,
their supplementing when need be,
checking their blood tests,
and ideally having some guidance either from myself
or a nutritionist.
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The research behind health benefits
of following a vegan diet are substantial, and high quality.
If you're following standard American diet
and then switch over to a vegan diet,
you're gonna see improvement and chronic diseases
like diabetes, heart disease, strokes,
even an extension of life in some cases.
And what's most interesting is when we add
some animal product into the mix,
those outcomes still hold true.
That's why what I recommend to my patients,
is a plant focused diet.
Meaning that they should get the majority
of their calories from plants.
Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, healthy fats,
and a modern amount of poultry and fish,
with a minimal amount of red meat.
In fact, that's the diet I follow,
and recommend to my own family.
The field of nutrition research has ever changing
and as we get more information, more quality studies,
we, doctors and nutritionists alike
are gonna be able to give better recommendations
when it comes to a vegan diet, a plant focused diet.
All of this is susceptible to change,
but its important that we make the best decisions
with the knowledge that we have on hand.
The one thing that I can say with 100% certainty
is there's no such thing as a miracle diet for everybody.
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On day one, I was excited,
I was like, if I could tackle keto,
I can definitely do vegan.
So, when all of this stuff from Thrive came in,
I was unboxing, I was popping out food, it looked delicious.
The first point at which I had a little hesitation,
was when I ordered my first, at-home delivery.
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Buffalo cauliflower bites,
with some kind of not real mayo, and this is a wrap,
with vegan cheese, and unchicken.
What is unchicken?
I was having second thoughts,
and that's not like me.
If I set a goal for myself,
I'm gonna do everything in my power to meet that goal.
But for some reason when sticking into this vegan diet,
I was concerned about so many things.
The following week, I was leaving to MIT
for the leadership conference,
I was worried if they're gonna have vegan options available
for me, I was then traveling to Miami for a few days,
all these worries started bubbling in my head
and I was really wondering,
can I stick to vegan this entire month?
Why should I do vegan?
- Because it's more healthier for you, boo.
- You think so? - Yes.
- But 30 days' a long time.
- Just do it!
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- One of the first obstacles I ran into on the
vegan diet was undereating calories.
Now, I'm partially to blame here, 'cause I didn't prep well
and even at the opening of this video, I said,
"The healthy way to follow a vegan diet,
is to adequately plan your meals."
For the first two weeks, I have to be honest,
I didn't have much of an appetite.
I'm not a huge fan of just eating vegetables,
and rice, and beans.
So, I didn't have tremendous portions,
and because of that, I was calorie deficit,
I actually noticed some weight loss.
What helped me tremendously to make up those calorie deficit
is eating some of these snacks that Thrive sent over.
If I didn't have these snacks, I'd be undereating calories
the majority of the time.
Long days in the hospital, but I got my Simple Mills.
These crackers, gave me through some rough, rough days.
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One of the biggest problems I ran into,
and this is really embarrassing to say on camera.
The whole plane ride I'm sitting next to a doctor
my stomach is going (gurgles)
had to ask him to stand up like three, four times.
From day one, up until the last day of the diet,
I was having tremendous gas and bloating,
it's so embarrassing to say.
I mean think about this, I fly on planes,
I interact with patients for long periods of time,
I sit in conferences,
I can't just be sitting there with flatulent.
I did try and isolate some ingredients
to see which ones were causing
this gas and bloating combination for me,
but I couldn't find out what it was.
I normally eat brown rice,
I normally eat vegetables, and fruits, and beans,
I expect them to go away after four weeks,
but no, they stuck around.
I would have to say that the vegan diet
probably won't work for me long-term.
I just can't sit there with my stomach going (gurgles)
and me wanting to pass gas the entire time.
God, that's embarrassing.
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What I didn't know about veganism is that there are a ton of
up incoming options,
for those who aren't used to eating vegan.
There are specialty restaurants that just offer vegan foods
with no animal products
that remind you of foods that you may have eaten
when you ate animal products,
and I thought that was really cool.
On top of that, a lot of these restaurants
and even some of the products I got from Thrive
tasted delicious, because of the sauces.
Vegan sauces are on point.
I'm loving these blue chips,
but without some like sauce
like I'm really digging this primal kitchen,
classic barbecue sauce.
These chips just aren't cutting it.
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I've talked about on this channel
of decision fatigue.
Because you're constantly making decisions
and you're using your willpower,
its actually a finite resource.
What I noticed while I was following the vegan diet
was that, I lost the drive to go to the gym.
My work ethic actually suffered,
because I was putting such a strong emphasis
on sticking to vegan, when there were so many temptations
and there were things I wanted to eat.
I didn't want to hop on my spin bike in my bedroom,
I didn't want to go to the gym with my friends.
This is really unlike me, and it's an obstacle
I didn't actually expect to face.
When I went to the gym, I lifted fine,
getting to the gym was the actual struggle.
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At the time I least expected it
disaster struck, I got sick.
(coughs)
I started coughing, I got a sore throat,
I got a low-grade fever.
I went to see the doctor, I weighed the pros and cons
of starting antibiotics, of stopping the vegan diet.
I decided to stick with conservative treatment
and treat it like a viral illness.
One of my favorite hacks to treat viral illnesses,
actually, symptoms of the viral illnesses,
is green tea with manuka honey.
(gasps)
- [Woman] Patrol members be advised.
- Freeze, vegan police, vegan police.
- Apparently, honey is not vegan, what?
I guess honey is an animal product,
but man, I didn't force the bees to make the honey,
they make it on their own.
We didn't have to milk them for it, wait.
If you wanted to disqualify my four week vegan challenge
because I ate honey, so be it.
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I gotta say, at this point, I was rolling,
I was starting getting into the vegan vibe,
I was trying out new restaurants,
I was sampling all the delicious foods
that I got from Thrive,
and I was excited, I was getting close to the finish line.
But I will say one of the hardest things with the vegan diet
is peer pressure.
I mean, when I went out to eat with my friends,
they were annoyed to say the least
that we had to choose the restaurant
based on my eating preferences.
I did do a decent job at trying to pick out vegan options
in not so vegan places.
Look at this dedication.
Greek salad, no feta,
asparagus, fries. - [Woman] Oh wait for me.
- While I got this next to me,
while Keith is eating this. - [Keith] Mm.
- [Woman] And I'm eating octopus
- [Mike] ... is eating that, octopus.
(laughter)
What are you eating?
- Fish.
- The vegan struggle's real.
(playful music)
I wanna say I was really proud of myself,
and it's nice every now and then
to take a challenge like this,
and learn something new about yourself,
in fact, I want to tell you five things
that I learned not only about the vegan diet,
but also about myself during this process.
One, when I didn't plan well, I ate very unhealthy.
When I was at MIT for breakfast,
I ate Cinnamon Toast Crunch with almond milk, and a banana
every morning, that's not healthy even though it's vegan.
Two, I didn't notice a major change
in my energy level like I thought I would.
I mean maybe I had a slightly decreased energy level
but we have to remember that I was sick,
and in the beginning I was undereating calories
so I don't feel its fair to blame vegan for that.
Three, surprisingly I didn't weaker on vegan,
I was lifting strong and I felt good.
But what did suffer, was getting to the gym.
I really noticed a lack of willpower
when I was following this restrictive diet.
Four, when it comes to my body
I lost three pounds, I dropped from 203, to 200 pounds
so there was some weight loss,
probably from undereating calories.
But, despite losing weight, I didn't feel as lean.
I mean all those sauces, all the rice that I ate,
pasta, that contributed to the carb load
and probably made me feel a little bit pudgier than usual.
Five, this is the big one.
The real difficulty was my GI system,
I mean it was a mess.
The amount of gas, and flatulence, and bloating got a,
it's like gross to even talk about, but it was really bad.
If you have that with any diet,
there's no way you're sticking with it.
And I tried taking some over-the-counter
supplements for this.
It did absolutely nothing.
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If you're curious or interested in starting a vegan diet,
I don't want to dissuade you, in fact,
I want to encourage you.
Go talk to a dietician, nutritionist, physician,
someone who is well-versed with vegan diets
that way you could do it the healthy, happy, safe way
without hurting yourself in the process.
And please, reduce the amount of refined carbs and
processed foods that you're eating
because as more research comes out,
that's the stuff that causes diseases
and shortens your lifespan.
Now, if you want to check out a really cool playlist,
check out my nutrition playlist right here for some goodies.
Click here, and stay happy, and healthy.
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