JohnTheVegan 101 - An Intro. to Why I'm here

[JohnTheVegan]

Hey all, I'm John. I'm vegan (9 years, lacto-ovo veg for 8 years before that). Hence, JohnTheVegan.

 

I liken it to John the Baptist, only, not at all similar.

 

About 2 years ago, my son was born and I took paternity leave for 3 months. Besides getting almost no sleep in that time, I became something of a slug. After years of bike commuting, on and off running, rock climbing, and generally making good food choices, I found myself on the couch watching hours of Super Nanny and eating the most convenient food options available. The only priority beside's my son, his mom, and my cat was sleep.

 

Dinner? A box of cereal. Breakfast? A box of cereal. Lunch? Cereal. Oh, we have bread? PB and J then. Take out? Pizza. 1 large just for me. I drank my (increasing) weight in lo-carb Monster, Mt. Dew (sometimes diet, but rare), and Diet Dr. Pepper thinking that was the way to stay awake.

 

Surprise, they didn't really help. They just made me immune to caffeine in large quantities, crave more sugar than i normally did,  and helped me put on weight.

 

I went from 150 pounds (which, frankly is a little too light for me. i looked freakishly skeletal) to 182 over the course of that first year. 

 

In the past year, I made some half-hearted attempts to turn things around (using the Weight Watchers method of point counting), skateboarding (broke my arm, first time I injured myself skating in 20 years of off and on skating), walking, etc. I didn't really have a drive to lose the weight or change my habits, just a sense that i should. 

 

A few months ago, I started getting back into skateboarding  - skating every day on my lunch break, trying to actually get better at it (I've always been pretty terrible). My weight got down to 172, but then the humidity and high temps hit and I went to staying inside on my lunch break. Throw in a trip to visit my parents where i ate a loaf of cinnamon bread a day, nearly an entire crumbcake and well, I'm back to 180.

 

In a early July, something changed. A flash, a click, a switch - enough was enough, I didn't like how I looked or felt and I wasn't going to feel any better reading blogs on my lunch break. I started using the elliptical, gradually increasing my time and distance and calories burned. I started to look forward to my lunch break because I couldn't wait to do my workout.  I'd probably have been happy doing that, but then I stumbled on this site a few days ago.

 

It. Is. Awesome! (but, you know that already).

 

So now I'm all signed up and I look forward to cheering others on in their quests.

 

-John

[Silver Wolf]

Welcome to this Very. Amazing. Site! (But you knew that's what it is already.)

 

A question: do you fear the plague? Or do you just like that picture?

 

I'm vegan too, which can sometimes feel a little uncomfortable around here, but there are more of us lurking around and the truth of the matter is, the food focus here is more on good, wholesome, real food than on legumes/grains vs. chicken/fish/eggs. A plant-based diet has far more in common with a paleo diet than a SAD diet.

 

Good luck with your goals!

[JohnTheVegan]

Thanks, Silver Wolf!

 

Especially for the acknowledgement that it can feel a little uncomfortable around here being vegan. I did some poking around the forums and definitely felt that way. And agreed, it does seem that the focus is really real vs processed.

 

p.s. Fear the plague? I love the plague! nom! nom! nom!