Personal experience: why couldn’t I be vegan?

We encounter changes in our daily diet many times. In some cases, this happens even on our own initiative. Moreover, experiments with nutrition can and should be carried out in order to learn to understand your body better. The same opinion is held by fitness trainer and nutritionist Vladimir Lepesa. He managed to try himself as a vegan, a vegetarian and even a raw foodist. The “Championship” expert told what such experiments led to.

How did you come up with the idea to become a vegetarian?

My path of a vegetarian began five years ago. The crisis period of life caused rethinking and the desire to try something new. I had been familiar with this type of diet for a long time, as a friend had been practicing it for several years. At that time I did not have deep knowledge in the field of nutritionology, so his good physical shape and good health seemed to me a phenomenon.

I saw the undeniable advantages of this type of nutrition on a live example, so I decided to study the question deeper.
I watched everything on YouTube on this topic, read the book “The Chinese Study”. I will say at once that most of the materials were not accompanied by statistics and results of clinical studies, but at that time I did not pay attention to it.

Initial fear and a sense of my own peculiarity

The biggest fear was the possible loss of weight and strength after switching to vegetarianism. This was extremely important to me as an athlete. But I decided to take a risk.

In one day I eliminated meat, fish and seafood from my diet. And I haven’t eaten them since. Naturally, at that time I knew nothing about proteins, essential amino acids and the balance of BGU. I just picked foods intuitively. Social rejection only fueled my interest, I felt “special”.

By the way, I didn’t lose weight and my strength didn’t drop. At the same time, my stamina obviously increased and my overall health improved. I was very encouraged by this and decided to go further.

Minuses of raw food dieting and the beginnings of mindfulness

I was done for exactly one month. The constant feeling of hunger was accompanied by a decline in strength and a drop in all athletic performance. I realized that I was doing something wrong, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
A few breakdowns on cooked food made me return to veganism and study this issue more deeply. That’s where my journey as a nutritionist began. Endless training, books, articles, seminars – I was shocked at how many nuances are present in the issue of proper dietary design.

After spending a year experimenting with my diet, I decided it was time to approach nutrition in a truly conscious way. Veganism, raw foodism, and constant fasting all put stress on my body. My health deteriorated, I lacked energy, and my digestion became impaired. I realized that it was time for me to learn about nutrition in a non-emotional and rational way.

Studying to become a nutritionist opened my eyes to many things. My diet was horribly balanced, I was constantly lacking in protein and fat. Sometimes I was chaotically overeating, other times I was critically undernourished. Trying to balance my diet led me to realize that being vegan in Moscow is very difficult. Perhaps, but difficult.

Why did I return to vegetarianism?

I was faced with a choice: veganism with maximum domestic discomfort or vegetarianism with comfort. I chose the latter.

Reduced stress level due to easier household tasks (easier grocery shopping, cooking), balanced diet, deeper understanding of all internal processes – all this gave me back my former vigor and feeling of a healthy body.

My diet now includes dairy products and eggs. At this point, I am still learning about myself and new research. It is very important to realize that vegetarianism is not a panacea. A balanced diet containing animal products is incomparably better than an unbalanced diet without them.