Progress and Setbacks - the Road Ahead

Thanks LaMa and Cate,

So far I'm still able to walk and take the stairs and feel like I could go out for another run today. Will be waiting to see what tomorrow brings though as two days out is usually worse than one.

I have been dealing with a headache since last night, not sure if it's a lack of caffeine or dehydration but drinking loads of water hasn't helped. Since my energy levels have been higher I've been drinking a lot less coffee than I used to so thinking that caffeine might be the issue.

Also approaching two weeks of no meat or dairy and amazed and thankful to be feeling this well.
 
So two days later I am still mobile which is a pleasant surprise. I plan to go for a shorter run today but not planning another 3 hour session for a while.

Apparently headaches when attempting to eat vegan are common and possible causes include, dehydration, lack of caffeine or lack of calories so I attempted to address all three yesterday. Started off by drinking tons of water and when that didn't work I moved on to coffees and teas. Finished the day off by taking in piles of calories as it's possible that the switch of diet to more nutritious food might have reduced the amount of calories I'd been taking in. I still had a bit of a headache in the evening but wasn't as bad as the previous evening so maybe it's a phase that I'll be passing through soon. :toetap05:

One other tidbit I picked up from reading a few articles on vegan forums about headaches... some vegan people can be pretty unforgiving in criticizing new members trying to deal with transitioning to a vegan diet. Admittedly they don't have a monopoly of behaving poorly online but seems like a much higher percentage of the community is willing to jump all over someone who doesn't achieve 100% success.
 
O yes, the Perfect Vegans who will call basically everyone a murderer who doesn´t play exactly the way they do. Ignore ´em, find the amazing people. Q can probably give you some hints on that.
 
If it makes you feel any better imaging what they would have to say about me being a pure carnivore lol, ignore them and eat the way that works for you. People who cannot see that there is often more than one way to do things or criticise those who are trying their best can go jump.
 
:iagree: with all of the above. From my experience, in other forums it can be a nasty world out there, full of opinionated people, who think their way is the only way. Tru put it very mildly but they can go jump. Hope the headaches disappear altogether soon, xoC
 
Thanks LaMa, Tru and Cate,

I haven't waded into any of the forums apart from reading a couple previous posts and I have found a few that were more balanced. The hypercritical threads made me consider trolling them by starting a new thread that went something like: Meat-atarian having gone from 80-90% meat and dairy down to near zero; accidentally had one drop of milk in my coffee on day 10, what should I do?

I have been enjoying the experience, the boost in energy level and recovery time for hard workouts but wish I could avoid all the hyper-vegans.
 
Was away for the weekend so had to weigh in a day late this week. No big exercise sessions or runs in the past few days but have been active throughout the weekend. Eating included a lot of empty calories over the weekend but still no meat/dairy and weight has continued the gradual decline.

Feels like I may reclaim another belt loop soon and if the progress continues I may have to start replacing some of my bigger clothes with the smaller items I had to drop out of rotation when they stopped fitting a few months back.


CW: 249.7 BF: 32.2%
 
Wow, belt loops AND "new" clothes! Sounds like you´re doing very well without animal produce :)
 
Thanks LaMa and Cate,
This belt loop is little more stubborn than the last and being able to use it still seems to depend on the size of the pants/amount of excess fabric in use but it's getting there.

Today was my exercise stress test and it was quite a learning experience that taught me a few lessons:
- always leave early for appointments in the morning that involve heavy commuter traffic. Thought I was going to be 25-30 minutes early but ended up with only 5 minutes to spare
- Apparently you are supposed to intuitively know to avoid caffeine prior to the test. Early appointment and heavy traffic == coffee
- Technicians have a good sense of humor. When getting decorated like a man-o-lantern worthy of Steve Carrell in the 40 year old virgin, I was asked if the shaved spots were stinging and when I replied no, she said wait for it and proceeded to wipe rubbing alcohol over the spots. She claimed it was to give good contacts for the leads but I know better.
- It's the incline that gets ya. The treadmill test starts off slow and builds the speed and incline every three minutes. The speed isn't terribly fast but the incline builds up quick and makes it feel like you're running up a hill.
- They will sometimes take pity on you. After the first six minutes it turns into a light jog and after nine minutes the speed is getting decent. I was told several times after the nine minute mark that they wouldn't cut the test off and that I should stop when I felt like it but at eleven and a half minutes in she cut the test off. Don't think I could have gone much longer but I didn't want to stop until I felt like I couldn't run any more.
- Being in a cardio testing centre and seeing how many people are there going for testing was a good reminder why it's important to take care of myself to avoid having to go there later for more serious concerns. I got the sense that I wasn't their typical visitor and heard that in many cases the either stop the test after only a couple minutes or don't allow people to even start this particular screening test.

Overall, the initial assessment was good and they didn't have any concerns but will have to wait a week or two for my doctor to get the official results. My HR did get over the 190 mark again and my BP was elevated but sounds like it built up gradually so no concerns and looks like all clear to keep working on taking more weight off and get into even better shape. I will have to figure out what max HR to use to determine appropriate HR ranges for different training zones. In particular I'm thinking my current Z3 heart rate range should be higher than I currently have it set but will have to confirm.
 
Sounds like you did well, preliminary congratulations! It would be interesting to do a test like that just to see how my body reacts, but I´m guessing it´s pretty expensive when you don´t get sent by a doctor...
 
I completed my heart stress test about 6 weeks ago, it was an interesting experience, I am glad yours went well :)
 
I had one done last year & it was interesting. It sounds like you're doing very well K & D. Over half way too with your weight-loss I see. Excellent :D
 
Thanks LaMa, the test itself seemed fairly low tech so not sure how expensive it would be without a referral. In my case I wasn't overly concerned but got the feeling that doctor's would feel it best to err on the side of caution anytime a patient mentions a concern about heart rates.
Tru/Cate: hope yours also went smoothly, sounds like the potential for false positives and getting sent for additional screening can be fairly high with this screening test.

Eating has been good this week but have been light on the exercise front. Had a small procedure done yesterday that involved 7 stitches and a no running order for the next few days so seems like a good opportunity to do some weight training over the weekend. Finding a way to work around injuries and setbacks is one area I need to focus on improving since in the past an injury to one part of the body resulted in a full stop on the exercise front.

Hope you all have a great weekend
 
Continued the trend of light exercise on the weekend but eating is still good. I think I've adjusted to the new diet choice and am now past the 21 days to make it a habit and haven't had any further headaches. Weight is down again this week but only slightly so will need to get back on the exercise train now that the stitches have had a few days to work their magic.

Been keeping the weekly weigh ins on my first post of the thread and it's nice to look back to see the progress so far.

CW: 249.3 BF:32.2%
 
hmmm, appears that a week has passed since I last updated. All still going well and am past the 30 day goal of eating a vegan diet but since everything has been going so well I am going to keep it going.

Goal for this week is to put the running shoes back on and get at least two runs in before next Monday. Have been throwing a few sets of push-ups into the day as an excuse to get up and walk around. Put in a big clean up effort in the back yard on Saturday that was exhausting and more productive than any gym session I've done in the past few weeks.

On the weight front after a few weeks of little movement on the weight and body fat % ended up with a decent drop on both numbers for the week.
CW: 244.9 BF: 31.6
 
Another week done. Doing well on the food intake but need to get back to exercising again.

CW: 242.8 body fat %: 31.3
 
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