Clean slate, People.
After my forced, jarring cleanse for a colonoscopy last weekend I’ve decided to go plant based for as long as I can take it.
It’s not great. I don’t like the feeling.
I’ve been at it a week. The shift into a vegan diet has been abrupt, I guess, but I didn’t think it would feel like this. I feel like a bag of beans. Maybe because that’s what I am. Literally eating too many beans.
I’ve always had a healthy fear of carbs because in my mind and in reality, if you are not careful with them you will put on weight. The shift into eating a lot of them makes me a little crazy. Even though I’m eating whole foods like brown rice, beans, nuts it still feels gross to me. Protein seems difficult with this diet when I’m used to eating fish, meat and chicken. I feel bloated and gross and uncomfortable in my body. Which is not a good indicator that I will stay on this diet. I’ve done worse to alleviate that feeling.
In the past, I’ve done coke, speed and started smoking to avoid feeling like that. Of course, in retrospect, those were excuses to do coke, speed and smoke. I know that now.
I guess my body will adapt and I can do a little research into how to eat correctly while doing this.
I eat pretty well in general. I was just slipping into habits that almost seem self-destructive. I had been on a meat run. I am genetically predisposed to high cholesterol and I already have a bit of the heart disease. I take a statin but still, I got into a ‘fuck it’ mentality and I was just eating a lot of meat. I know some people think cholesterol doesn’t matter but it does. I know people think clean meat is good, but it still clogs your heart. I was also eating a lot of sugar and I guess no matter how fit you may be that doesn’t mean you won’t get diabetes. I was just in a rationalization rut and I wasn’t pulling out. The colonoscopy was my portal. Clean slate.
People always bug me about meat. They say things like, ‘how can you eat animals when you have cats?’ Well, I’m not going to eat my cats AND cats eat animals. They have to. We forget that because we feed them animal mush and dried animal bits that don’t look like animal parts. Also, I don’t have a pet cow or chicken or a salmon run in a moat around my house. I think that would make me feel differently.
I’m not committed to a vegan lifestyle or point of view. I just wanted to feel it. I’ve done this before. Even though I feel physically uncomfortable I think it may be affecting my mind, in a positive way. I can’t prove that but maybe.
My energy is better when I wake up for sure. I feel a bit lighter emotionally and a bit more forgiving. Could that be not eating meat or dairy for a week? No idea.
Truth be told, my primary incentive for doing it is prep for a blood panel tomorrow. I want to see if it affects my numbers. I’m cheating, kind of. I’ll let you know what happens. I’ll stick with it for a bit.
Today I talk to Radhika Jones about being editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and the necessity of public intellectual discourse in the face of, and as a response to, the normalization of American fascism. On Thursday I talk to Dave Franco about his life and his new film which stars his wife and my old co-star, Alison Brie.
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
