Jared Six Vegan Transformation
MY VEGAN TRANSFORMATION
Hello, my name is "Jared Six" and I went vegan on the day that I turned 30. (Which was October 6th, 2008.)
Back when I first went vegan, there weren't as many vegans as there are today. (I had never even met a vegan in real life before turning 30.)
It was also strongly believed back then that vegan diets were deficient in protein, and that being a vegan would cause you to become really skinny and weak.
To make matters worse, I was already really skinny and weak to begin with, so I was nervous about going vegan, and a lot of the people who knew me were worried about me going vegan as well.
But I decided to go ahead and try it anyway, and within a month of being vegan, I felt so much more energetic that I started going for walks, and I ended up enjoying walking so much that I got rid of my car and started walking everywhere instead of driving.
I also felt a lot more "peaceful" on this diet, so I got into yoga, and my flexibility increased dramatically as well.
And even though I was underweight and I had just switched to a diet that many believed would be "impossible" to get bigger and stronger on, I started lifting weights with the hopes of finally gaining some healthy weight, and below are some pictures documenting how my body has changed since going vegan...
This is the very first yoga picture that I ever shared online, as well as a picture of me flexing my muscles that were both taken when I first started the vegan diet. And as you can clearly see, I didn't come into this diet with a lot of pre-existing muscle mass.
So if I'm ever a vegan with muscles someday, nobody can say, "Yeah, but you were already a muscular guy before you were vegan." and it would mean that it's not "impossible" to get bigger and stronger on this diet.
"Muscles Starting to Sprout"
This was me after being vegan for a year, and when I first shared this picture online, people who hadn't seen me in over a year didn't even believe it was real, and they accused me of just posting my head on someone else's body.
As my body continued to grow, even I was starting to wonder if what I was seeing was really me or just my head on someone else's body.
This was me after being vegan for 8 years, and if what they say is true about our bodies being completely replaced every 7 years, then I guess it would mean that my body is completely "plant-based" now.
I am currently 45 years old and have been on a completely vegan diet (no meat, dairy, or eggs) for 15 years now. (Or as I like to think of it, I'm 45 years old in "Human Years", and 15 years old in "Humane Years".)
My diet for the past 15 years has also been a mostly "raw food diet". (Uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouts.)
I also haven't taken any protein supplements in the past 15 years, and I don't even know or care how much protein is in anything that I eat because I don't believe in the idea that vegan diets are deficient in protein.
Someone could EASILY get 2 or 3 times as much protein as me on a vegan diet by just looking up how much protein is in different vegan foods and intentionally eating the foods that are high in them. (Or they could just take a "plant-based" protein supplement and get as many grams of protein as they could possibly want.) But I don't think it would be necessary to do all that.
To this day, I still hear people claim that plants don't have protein, or that plants only have "incomplete proteins" that we can't really use, or that plants have such a tiny amount of protein that vegans would have to take a protein supplement to avoid suffering from a protein deficiency.
And now that so many people are going vegan and showing what's possible, I believe that the new and accepted belief in the near future will be that as long as someone is eating enough calories to maintain their weight and energy expenditure, and as long as they are focusing on whole-foods, their protein requirements to be healthy should be easily met on a "plant-based diet".
I don't believe that I could have spent the past 15 years suffering from something as serious as a "protein deficiency" without feeling some actual "suffering" along the way. (Much less feel BETTER than I did 15 years ago.)
Plants aren't just a source of protein, they are THE source of it. And instead of eating animals who eat plants, or eating animals who eat animals who eat plants, I will continue to avoid eating animals by just eating plants directly.
HOME