Our body’s favorite signaling mechanism is pain or suffering. Eat too much, you get a stomachache, drink too much booze and you get a headache. Sleep too little and you must drag your sorry ass around all day. I am learning to listen to more subtle cues.
Old me…headache, take a pill, new me…headache, drink more water. I am not pill adverse just a little more pill avoidant.
Most pain is caused by inflammation. My inflammation was caused by an allergic reaction to animal proteins. The complete avoidance of these proteins has reduced my NDAID consumption from multiple times per day to multiple times per month.
As I continue to listen to my own body language I continue to develop new opinions. I believed my aches and pains were caused by an inflammatory response to my allergies. I have since been able to tell the difference between injuries, allergic reactions, and deficiencies.
My newest revelation on my vegan journey is to hear when my body screams, I’m deficient! It felt like my reaction to animal protein. I felt weak and achy, just not as bad as with eating a regular western diet. Going up and down stairs was annoying more than painful yet I knew something wasn’t quite right. So I took ibuprofen. When that had little to no effect, I was concerned I was missing something.
When I started this journey, I did my due diligence and researched how and where I could get all my nutrients. My biggest concern was where would I get all my proteins? I never had to ask before I knew my meats, eggs, and dairy came preloaded with proteins. I soon found out it was relatively easy to replace animal proteins with plant proteins and they were in all the things I enjoyed anyway. The problem was going to be getting enough. I needed, based on my athletic dreams and body weight I was going to need around 80 grams of protein a day. 100 grams of cashews would yield about 18 grams of protein. Chicken breast has about 30 for the same serving size. A typical serving size of nuts is only 30 grams therefore I needed multiple sources. There are plenty of other sources, but most have the same issue, there isn’t the amount comparable to meat in a single source. Potentially this would lead to deficiencies in the amount of protein I needed each day. When I started, I was almost scientific on making sure I got what I needed, but laziness and distractions got me off track sometimes. If I fail to have my daily requirement on protein I usually don’t notice until I mess up a few days in a row. When it happens, I feel weak and achy. It’s most noticeable walking downstairs but luckily, I don’t need pain meds. I usually can remedy the situation with a vegan protein shake with a few added nuts and seeds.
