Hank: It's a new year, and it's the opportunity for many people
around the globe to take on something new, try a challenge, or better yourself in some way. People
choose the vegan diet for many different reasons, mainly because of animal welfare,
but also to be kinder on our environment. There is also though some health benefits to lowering
our cholesterol, lowering our blood pressure, and also reducing our risk of type two diabetes.
It's always been a diet that I'd be interested in, I've always wanted to try it. I've never
been a vegan or a vegetarian in my entire life. Yes, this is going to be a massive challenge for
me, and I am 100% going to make some mistakes along the way, but I'm going to do my absolute
best to stick to the strict regime of the vegan diet. Now, I'm going to be doing some weekly vlogs
over on the GCN Show so you'll be able to see how I'm getting on what recipes I'm cooking. That
should be interesting. As well as being curious, I'm also curious about the physical aspect too,
if my body changes in some way or another from the start of the month to the end of the month.
I'm going to be doing certain tests throughout the beginning and at the end. On episode two,
you'll be able to see the results so stay tuned to the end of January. Help me
with the quest of going vegan for a month is this, yes, our GCN Plant-Based Cyclist book.
I'm going to be using this to help me through some of those menus on a day-to-day basis, but
I'm also going to talk to the author of the book, Nigel Mitchell World Tour nutritionist, hopefully,
he can give me some tips and tricks. Enough chatting about it, I better head to the kitchen.
Before taking on this vegan diet, my favorite breakfast was a full English breakfast,
eggs, bacon sausage, the full works, but as of today, it's out with the old
and in with the new. Before I start, I should probably get some advice from a professional,
Nigel Mitchell. Let's catch up with him. I've got a whole host of different questions for you.
Hopefully, you can give me a head start and some top tips when it comes to going vegan.
What would you say my first steps when it comes to even thinking about going Vegan?
Nigel Mitchell: I think really the first things is looking at what are your motivations for
doing this and for a lot of people, it's really thinking about the environment, it's thinking
about animals. It's thinking about why is it that you're wanting to make these changes and being
quite clear about it. For you as an athlete, then really because you're doing this for a month,
the primary thing there is going to be mainly around protein and ensuring that you're getting
good quality adequate-protein, is look at mixing different vegetable proteins together.
A mistake could be let's say, currently for breakfast you have porridge with milk and some
yogurt on it and you just went straight away to have porridge made with water,
you're losing out in all that dairy protein but if you were to use instead let's say
soya milk, then you're getting really good quality protein from soya diet that
contains all of the essential amino acids. Hank: I'm curious to find out is, one,
can I lose that Christmas weight I've been putting on since a year ago and also can lose
those weight but also can I hold on to the lean mass I've got or maybe even build some muscle
without having the protein source that I'd been used to, which has obviously been through meat?
Nigel: Yes, there's no problem at all in substituting the animal-based protein for
vegetable-based protein. Again, within the book, we've got some tables looking at different protein
amounts from different vegetable foods so that you can ensure that you're getting adequate protein
there. When we are looking at losing body fat, increasing lean tissue, then to lose the body fat,
we need to be in a negative energy balance. We go into a negative energy balance by either
eating a little bit less calories or by increasing our physical activity or a combination of both.
Now the problem can be is that if we're not going in the right stimulation for
the muscle-- If you're doing some strength work, then that is telling the muscle fiber
to actually look to, if not necessarily grow but at least maintain. The protein then becomes
really important in but it's helping that regeneration and that restoration of the
muscle. I would imagine that if what you're doing by going onto your plant-based plan that
you're putting out all of the animal-source foods, then the biggest things that you're
really changing there is going to be some of the proteins and the fat side of it.
That probably would not compromise the carbohydrates that much. The same with
a plant-based diet, you can really achieve all of the carbohydrate that you require from that.
Again what I tend to recommend is that we look at whole-type of food approaches. For example,
using things like quinoa and rice. Again one of the recipes in the book is around mixed grains.
You mix these grains together. Again we get really good carbohydrate but also because these are all
grains, we're getting protein and we're getting vitamins within it as well. It's more complete.
There's some of the examples in the book that can help with that there.
Hank: That is absolutely amazing. It's just for January but I'm going
to see how I get on and hopefully, move into February if we see good results.
Nigel: When I had the research I did for the book, I did a very strict plant-based diet for
three months and before that every single meal I had, had some animal product in it.
Everything, it'd be yogurt or egg or whatever, everything.
It really fundamentally changed the way that I eat in that I'm not a vegan but I eat so much less
animal-based foods than what I used to do. This is just by choice now because I just--
I mean one of the things you were saying to me before was that you're not great at cooking
and the fact that it challenges you around the cooking is a really positive thing.
Hank: Thank you so much, Nigel. I'll catch up with you after I've got my blood results and after I've
tried a few of your recipes. One thing you're going to want to see is in there in the fridge.
Every cribs' show it's always interesting to see what's in someone's fridge. The alcohol can stay
there. I don't know how much of it will get drunk, a few beers, they're vegan I think. A cheesecake,
that's not vegan, cheese, yogurt. More cheese, I've got some cheddar in there, sausages yes,
definitely not vegan. Cod fillets, not vegan. Chutney is always good with the curry. Olives are
vegan, they can stay. One thing I have got though that is vegan is a vegan block. I don't know
where that came from. Vegan mayo, I don't know where that came from either but that can stay.
That can go. British beef, they've got beef on them. Well, that was awkward. My fridge
is officially vegan. Oh, that's not vegan. Now my fridge is officially vegan and it's pretty empty.
I better go to shopping. Yes, my fridge has become very empty. I'm on the way to the supermarket
to replenish my fridge with vegan food. I'm not going to go in there blind, no. I've
enlisted in some help and that help is coming in the form of my mom. She's been a vegan for getting
on 10 years and every one of those 10 years, she's tried to persuade me to go vegan to see the health
benefits but also to just have a healthier diet. Here we go. I'm off to go shopping with my mom.
I've made it here to the supermarket and as I said before, I'm going to introduce you to, well,
you've seen Hank's dad and why not see Hank's mom. I've got some expert advice, someone who
knows more about veganism than most people. You've done 10 years of vegan, haven't you?
Speaker 3: 10 years, yes. 15 years, a vegetarian, and 10 years, a vegan.
Hank: How long have you wanted me to go vegan? Speaker 3: A long time.
Hank: A long time. I guess now is the time. You're going to show me some tips and tricks,
what to get and well, hopefully, I can go away from the sausages, the bacon
and we'll go for vegetarian and vegan sausages. Speaker 3: Some nice meals, we're going to make.
[music] Hank:
My first vegan shop is done. It's quite a success. I definitely needed mom's help and advice because
I'm shopping for a whole different diet. A diet that I haven't tried before. Some tips and tricks
definitely helped an awful lot. I'm going to get home now and show you guys
what we ended up buying. Mama, thank you very much for joining me, giving
me some vegan tips and tricks and- Speaker 3: Thank you. Really fun.
Hank: Fingers crossed to me cooking. See you, mom. Speaker 3: All right, Hank.
See you. Hank: My shopping is complete
and it looks a lot more vibrant, a lot more color which is one of the top tips
that Nigel gave me. Quinoa seeds, flax seeds, got chia seeds as well. I wasn't
allowed sausages but I was allowed vegan sausages. I can still have my pasta bolognese.
Top tip from Nigel, tofu, fruits, and now the key, swapped out the dairy milk and the
added oat milk. The only thing left to do is try my hand at some cooking
and put that back in the fridge. [slurp sound]
Second day as a vegan.
It's my second day as a vegan and at the moment, it's all been pretty good, pretty happy actually.
That's a good thing. What I probably should mention though, is that I'm using a WHOOP. Now,
this is going to track my sleep, my strain, and a whole host of different things. Now one thing
that Nigel Mitchell did mention is that if I track my heart variability, he'll understand
if I'm doing a vegan correctly. Basically, what it means is if I'm getting good sleep and I'm
rested because I'm getting the right nutrients in. I'll be using a WHOOP throughout the month to be
able to track that to make sure I'm getting the right new nutrients in. At the moment
well, my sleep's looking pretty good. I had eight hours of sleep, 92% performance
and recovery is the one I'm probably going to go off because that basically shows me
how much recovered I am. I'm at the moment, 45% recovered. Not too bad, hopefully, it will go into
the green and I won't go into the red. Well, now is the time I should probably have some breakfast.
It's 9:00 AM and before I go on my ride I need a coffee.
I've gone for the gray oat milk, barista edition. I'm hoping that's going to help
and the almond milk. We'll see which one tests better, I reckon.
I'm not a barista, boy, do I like a good coffee. First up,
almond milk. Taste one. Next up, the oat milk.
I've got my oat and I've got my almond. Let's try the oats. That is up there with the dairy.
You're here to stay. You might be wondering what I'm taking out as a snack. Now I have been eating
a lot of fruit in my smoothies. I've been taking them out on the bike.
I generally think that a banana is a really good snack when out on a train ride but I've also been
taking gels and sport nutrition products. Now Enervit, the partners we work with actually,
these are vegan. I can still take the gels I've been used to. There we have it, fruit, a few gels,
and a few bars and I'm good to go. There's also the homemade recipe of the energy balls that Nigel
Mitchell's come up with and I'm yet to try them. I think today is the day that I open up that menu.
I'm a couple of days into my vegan challenge and it's all going pretty well.
I haven't broken any of the vegan rules, I haven't eaten any dairy,
meat, or fish. It's going pretty well but I haven't really been experimenting with my cooking
skills given I've only really done stir-fries and smoothies. I'm doing the smashed avocado
and it says for breakfast but I'm doing it as a
lunchtime snack. [music]
It's been now four days in. How I'm I finding the vegan diet, you may ask. Pretty
good. I'm enjoying the challenge. It's very different to what I've been used to.
I've been used to, to be honest, just putting in meat, veg, and some carbohydrates in the oven and
getting out but I feel like the vegan diet makes me think a bit more about what I'm going to cook.
Planning meals is a big thing when it comes to vegan. I guess it's been quite fun
experimenting in the kitchen and obviously using the Plant-Based cycling book, I've been able to
learn how to cook vegetables that I didn't really know how to cook before like stews.
I never really did stews so now I'm on stews. At the moment, things are pretty good given four
days in. We'll see where that goes. In order to get all my vegetables in, I've done some research
on the internet to find somewhere that delivers vegetables right to my door and as it happens,
I've just come back from my ride and I found a box of vegetables. Given I did have to pay for
it but just £15 and look what I've got. I've got a whole host of different vegetables here. I've got
butternut squash, I've got carrots, I've got cabbage, I've got mushrooms, garlic,
definitely parsnips or turnips, potatoes, leeks. I've got also some herbs, broccoli, peppers.
I've got a whole array of different things. I'm going to make these into
probably a soup but I guess I can have some experimental cooking with it, to be honest. If
you ask me, that is a win. Off to the fridge and then to the kitchen. On a pretty brisk morning,
I've come to the end of seven days as a vegan. Yes, of course, three weeks to go still but
nevertheless, I'm pretty happy. I've had a lot of smooths. I've had some pretty delicious meals and
snacks too and it's not as difficult as I first thought. It's still a really big challenge though.
I've done some good research. I'm going to continue my research on a vegan diet throughout
this month. I've done a body check so I know what I'm starting with, what my blood componentry is,
and also my sleep variability working with WHOOPS. At the end episode at the end of the month,
I'll be able to go through and find out if there's been any changes. If I've
gained weight, lost weight, lost energy, gained energy, or if generally, I'm feeling maybe even
healthier. Well, we'll see at the end of the episode. Don't forget though, I'm going to be
doing a GCN Show vlogs every week so you'll be able to keep up with how I'm getting on.
Don't forget though, the vegan diet isn't for everyone but, if you're a vegan or you're
doing Veganuary with me then let me know in the comment section below. Chuck in some recipes.
I'm going to need every little bit of help. Thank you so so much for everyone who's
commented on the GCN Show, who's commented because it's for sure helped especially
those coffees. The oatmeal coffees are amazing and who knew, vegan panachocolate. Thank you.
If you enjoy the video, then don't forget to give it a big thumbs up. I'll see you at the end of the
month or every week at the GCN Show. Take care. [00:18:54] [END OF AUDIO]