That Time I was a Vegan

Okay, purists will say I was never a Vegan. I can agree with that. However, I was on a Vegan diet -totally plant based. Veganism isn’t just a diet to most people, it’s about not exploiting animals at all. By that measure I was a really bad Vegan. Not only did I wear a leather jacket, I still went hunting. Yep, really the worst of Vegans.

However, it was the diet that I ate. How did that happen? After suffering terrible injury to my lungs as a Firefighter, I could barely breath. Lung capacity was down to a tiny fraction of what I once had. To make matters worse, my weakened lungs were constantly filling with fluids. After being bounced around to a lot of different doctors, one recommended that I try a Vegan diet.

At that point I felt that I had nothing to lose. After three days on the diet I felt 100% better. Two thoughts ran through my head. The first was “Oh my God this works!” The second thought was “Oh my God this works so now I’m stuck with a Vegan diet.” I loved a good plate of steak and eggs and meats of all kinds. How hard was it to stay on a Vegan diet? Well, think if it this way. If it was the cost of not getting waterboarded every day, you’d gladly go on one too. Sure beat drowning in my own fluids.

I was on a Vegan diet for seven years and my health got quite a bit better. However, it wasn’t always easy. After seven years I found I could add fish without feeling any negative effects. That was nice and made eating out a whole lot easier. Then later on my lovely wife and I were traveling through rural Texas. Twenty years ago there weren’t a lot of vegetarian options available out in the back country. That, and their fish offerings were terrible. That’s when I added chicken to my diet and discovered that it didn’t give me any problems.

It was not all that long after that I eventually added most other meats to my diet. One thing that I still consume sparingly is milk products. Those appear to sometimes give me congestion issues. I don’t eat as much meat as used to and it tends to be much cleaner meats than what I once ate. Generally, I feel better when they come from local sources that are organically raised or nearly so.

So what happened? One of the things I suffered from after my firefighting days was massive chemical sensitivities. To this day my lovely wife does not wear perfume and scented candles are banned from the house. However, I’m not nearly as sensitive as I used to be. My guess is that the plant based diet I was on just put me into less contact with the chemicals that triggered reactions. Taking a break from those chemicals allowed my body to heal.

So why am I not still on a Vegan diet? Frankly, I now feel better as an omnivore. Once my breathing situation sorted itself out I was able to add more diversity to my food choices.

-Sixbears