I Could Never Be A Vegan…

…until I became a vegan.

Washington, D.C. has always been home to me. Even though I spent four years in Towson, Md. and five years in Frederick, Md, I spent my childhood and pre-teen years in Northwest D.C. When I moved back to this city three and a half years ago, I was looking forward to experiencing the life and culture as an adult – everything from arts and music to special exhibits to food and drinks.
Moving into my own apartment a year and a half ago – and right around when I decided to jump into life – is when things started to get much more fun. I could come and go as I wanted to and could leave a little more of a mess than I could when I lived with family.

Especially in the kitchen.

Food is such a big part of life and I’m all about food and the kind of experiences you can have when you play with your food. However, I’m still working on having patience when it comes to making food. Moving into my own apartment meant I was making food for and feeding one person as opposed to three or four when I lived with family. A party of one meant I was taking shortcuts with my meals. Cheese, crackers, and fruit (yes it’s delicious but it’s not exactly balanced) or pasta and sauce became the norm. It was pretty simple and would fill me up. Plus, the food wouldn’t go bad and I wouldn’t get bored of eating it days in a row.

However, all of the fat and carbs led to feeling sluggish, gaining weight, and not thinking straight. I stopped drinking cow’s milk about ten years ago but still loved cheese and yogurt and ice cream…who doesn’t?! I was perfectly happy with being vegetarian – 99% of restaurants had a vegetarian option or I could easily make one out of their menu, I could bake with ease, breakfast was my favorite meal of the day.

Life was great.

In the fall of 2015, my mom told me about a medical study that the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) was conducting. They were studying the thermo effects of food and were screening for participants. Conveniently enough, their offices were located seven minutes from my house. It felt like a sign. A 12-week study where I would either continue with my current diet or would have to become a low-fat vegan. There would be structure and support so I had to become vegan, I would be able to fully embrace it and, if by the end of the 12 weeks I felt like it wasn’t for me, I could return to my original diet.

So, I gave them a call.

There’s something exhilarating and nerve-wracking about screenings. You don’t know what the criteria is which makes it feel like a bit of a gamble. You could say one thing that doesn’t fit and be kicked out of the running. You also have to answer truthfully. They must have liked whatever I said because I was cleared to move to the next step of the study. The research assistant explained that I would need to come in for an initial appointment with some of the research team. After the initial appointment, I would have to track my food intake for three full days – not altering my diet – and once that was complete would return for the initial physical exam.

Once the three days were up, I returned to PCRM for the four-hour long physical assessment where they monitored my metabolic resting and active rates five times over the course of the assessment. Four hours later, I took the top envelope from a stack and opened it to see my fate.

I was going to become a low-fat vegan for the next 12 weeks.

Talk about excitement and terror. This was happening and there was no turning back. I agreed to take part in a sub-study at Yale which required me to travel for one night to New Haven. Similar to the PCRM assessment, I couldn’t change my diet for the Yale study. February 4, 2016, after all of the pre-study assessments were completed, I began an adventure that, as cheesy as it sounds changed my life. (Is it okay to talk about veganism and cheesiness in the same sentence?)

…to be continued because a 12-week study, and a year long and counting experience can’t be summarized in a single post…