Asayake

I run 1-2 times per week and do Hatha yoga about 4 times per week. Running makes me feel free and gives me a lot of energy for the rest of the day. Yoga makes me connect with my feelings and inner body, most of the times it results in me feeling better for the rest of the day, even elevated mood for days after sometimes. I love both. Makes me be more open, honest, extroverted, energetic, optimistic, happy, calm, at peace.

This is on my to read list. I'm going to read A Course in Miracles and then this ☺️. I saw Eckhart Tolle liked the book and it was enough for me to buy it.

I was a vegan for 4.5 years for the animals and it worked well in the beginning but the last 2 years I was getting worse health. I was very skinny despite eating a lot of food because the healthy vegan foods generally don't contain a lot of calories(exceptions exist like avocados and nuts). I was having low energy and if I worked out or went for a run I would often catch a cold the next day because my immune system was so weak. I was also getting progressively worse eyesight and floaters(probably vitamin A deficiency, look up which vegan foods contain vitamin A and you'll be shocked at how easy it is to eat a varied vegan diet and still miss a regular vitamin A source as a vegan). And even many of the most common vegan foods that do contain vitamin A like carrots or sweet potatoes needs to be eaten together with something fat like avocado or vegetable oil because vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin. eggs, milk, organ meats are the best sources for vitamin A because they contain everything needed to optimally absorb the vitamin, nowadays I take cod liver oil as a supplement a couple of times per week and I have no floaters anymore, my vision is improved and is even more clear than I ever remember it being. I have more energy now that I'm not a vegan, . I do some type of exercise 5-6 times per week and my recovery is so much better than when I was a vegan, it's not even comparable. Animal protein also contains more of the amino acids that are most important for building muscle, it is a lot higher quality protein than plant proteins in that sense. Also many vegan protein sources such as chickpeas are not actually very high in protein but more of a carb heavy food because the quality of the protein is not the greatest. Beans, tofu or tempeh are the best of all the vegan foods I found when it comes to protein quality. And because most of the healthy vegan foods don't contain a lot of fat it is difficult to get in enough calories to maintain an active lifestyle. I was eating chickpeas and potatoes to the point of getting heartburn because of overeating and I will still be steadily dropping weight and losing muscle.. Not saying it's impossible to gain weight as a vegan just it takes a lot more effort than as an omnivore where you have a lot more calorie dense foods to choose from. Another thing that comes to mind is that creatine is only contained in animal products so without supplementing with creatine monohydrate you miss out on the mental and strength pros of creatine as a nutrient. There are probably many more nutrients you miss out on if you eat no animal products since nutrition is so incredibly complex. In my opinion, whole food plant based eating which many vegan doctors and nutritionists will say is the best thing for longevity is so mainly because it restricts the amount of calories you are able to eat so it keeps you from becoming overweight which is the main cause of most killer diseases. Being overweight causes inflammation, diabetes type 2, cardiovascular disease, cancer etc. But being overweight as whole food plant based eater is almost impossible unless you're eating tons of avocados and nuts. But the fact that not being overweight increases your longevity does not mean that a whole food plant based diet is the best diet to thrive on. There's a reason the best competitors in most sports are not vegan. If vegan food gave an edge for physical & mental performance everyone would be getting on it. There are exceptions though, some sports require you to be extremely lean(ultra marathon for example) and people who compete in these sports can benefit from eating more plant based foods. At the same time there are also many people that eat a ketogenic diet in those kind of sports because it trains the body to burn fat. It does not mean that's the healthiest option long-term, it just keeps you from becoming overweigh which is the worst for health.