How Going Plant based can Save the World

Being in the fitness industry you hear your fair share of diet and fitness crazes. Also being a curious creature I’m willing to try anything twice, three times if I like it. Needless to say, I’ve tried a lot.

There was the cabbage soup diet that left me starving everyday (wouldn’t recommend that one) and the fun moon bounce shoes as a workout. Yes, you read that correctly, moon. bounce. shoes…there are actual classes for them!

Google it.

Of all the crazy off the wall diet and fit class fads, there has been one that seems to not only work for me, but has it’s hands in many of the long standing “diets” of Keto, Paleo, and 4 week body to name a few.

Why I chose Plant Based

There are three main reasons I chose plant based that I believe to be important. Not just for the individual looking to become healthier, but for society as a whole. Plant based is easier on the digestive system, it gives an easy foundation to live off of, and most importantly, it’s healthier for the earth.

Your digestive system

Let me start by saying everyone is different in how your body reacts to things. So when talking about food intake it is no different.

From what I have found through my own experimenting as well as years in teaching others nutrition, most people have had similar outcomes.

Animal products in general but mostly animal meat, is harsher on the digestive system than eating a green salad with lentils. While the salad can pass through the digestive system easily, meat takes longer to digest.

This means longer time in your body, making it work harder and feel heavier. Some people even take days to digest one meal containing meat in it, let alone if you eat meat with every meal daily.

Warning: gross information ahead

This is part of the reason why the average human has about 17 pounds of dried fecal matter in our bodies at any given point.

That’s kind of disgusting, or it could be seen as a good thing. Now you can subtract 17 pounds from the scale and feel better about your weight. Just kidding.

If you’d like to learn how you can become more plant based I have a few guidelines for you at the end of this article.

Easy Foundation

One big fail I have found with many fad diets is you find yourself almost scrounging for different things to eat so you don’t end up eating the same meal over and over again. I’m not a cat, I enjoy variety with my food.

With a plant based lifestyle there are so many possibilities.

You also get to decide how much plant based you want to be. For example, I still eat eggs, fish, cheese, and occasionally chicken. Those are obviously animal products but I still consider myself plant based.

Why? Because most of the food I eat on the daily are foods like leafy greens, veggies, beans, seeds, oils like olive and MCT, and fruit.

I will eventually phase out chicken but, I need baby steps. I grew up eating red meat so I need to make small changes for my own psychy. Fish I believe I’ll always eat.

What about protein intake? Great question and there are some people I have met that need an extra amount of protein for their bodies but for most of us, we don’t need as much as you think.

Did you know human breast milk has the least amount of protein in it than any other species of mammal? It’s true and it’s because (well, one reason anyway) your body takes what nutrients it needs from the food we eat.

Say you’re eating a salad with spinach. If your body needs protein it will take the protein from the spinach and discharge everything else from the leaf. However, if your body needs more vitamins it will take the vitamins and discharge the protein.

Isn’t your body magical?

Reducing your carbon footprint

My last and final point is perhaps the most important. With new technology and medicines you don’t hear about plagues wiping out populations or famines destroying cities anymore.

This means our popultaion on this planet is expanding at an exponential rate. A growing population means more mouths to feed means more food needs to be produced.

The meat industry is a booming industry since so many of us eat meat daily, but it is also a biohazard.

Did you know the waste that comes from animal farms has more greenhouse gas emissions than cars, trucks, trains, and planes put together.

What’s worse is biohazards like cars and trucks produce CO2 emissions while animal waste creates methane, a chemical known to be 23 times more potent in warming the planet.

The more meat society is demanding means the more livestock farms needed to fuel our bodies. Fuel that we can easily also get from healthier options like beans, broccoli, and spinach.

I’m not saying stop eating meat. We as humans historically speaking have always had meat as part of our diet. The difference is we used to only have meat sometimes, not with every meal everyday of our lives.

PLUS it saves you money! meat is expensive stuff.

If you ‘d like to learn more on this subject there is a great article you can read by CLICKING HERE.

Okay, so you’ve heard enough and you want to try this whole plant based eating thing.

Great! Here are a few things you can do to change your daily food intake on a healthy level.

Start small. Try one meal without any meat in it. Instead of chicken, try beans.

Take baby steps. Once you’ve been having a meal a day with no meat, try having a meal with no animal products at all.

Build. After you have been eating a meal a day with no animal products try going a whole day without meat. Then once you feel comfortable try a week. If you need help finding recipes CLICK HERE and I’ll send you my plant based recipe ebook for free. All I need is your name and an email to send it to.

Know thyself. You know what will keep you happy in life. For me, I could never go vegan because I love honey. I also know I’d never cut out eggs because I don’t feel bad about eating eggs, chickens lay them naturally.

So for you, figure out what foods you can and cannot live without while staying happy about life and implement your new healthy eating into your diet.

PS:

Going plant based does not mean you can never eat meat again. Honestly, sometimes I crave an In N Out cheeseburger so I have one.

It just means your day to day living consists of a variety of foods that doesnt always need to be animal related.

If everyone took out meat for just one meal a day we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine what would happen if we all went one day without meat?

We might even be able to save our beautiful planet from destruction if we work together.