I think I have the same diet as you- maybe a tiny bit stricter. I only eat vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds. I travel alot (but never to the US)and I always find something to eat. Though sometimes I go days just living on fruit – which isn’t so bad. Anyway, this diet really pays off performance wise. When I do intensive sports I don’t ever feel it the next day I like I used to. My eyes are brighter and I never feel ‘really hungry’ only slightly hungry even if I’ve missed two meals.

Tynan

My fiance and I are now in Panama City and found out last night that Mireya’s is closed. Another vegetarian restaurant La Novena is closed too. The only one we’ve found that is still open is La Casa Vegetariana. Everything else seems to be closed.

I’m not a vegan for the title of it or for the benefit of animals. I do it for health reasons, particularly keeping animal protein as less than 5% of my diet.

I eat honey every once in a while, and about once every month or two I eat meat to keep the bacteria necessary to digest it alive in my intenstines.

I would also wear leather or animal tested products, but they usually aren’t the best, so as you can see from my gear post, I don’t have any currently.

I will say, though… that after being vegan (or 99.5% vegan, if you prefer), I’ve found it more and more strange to kill animals for food.

Tynan

If there are any athletes reading this post that have questions about fitness or energy levels you can maintain on a vegan diet…you should check out a resource I have found (www.veganbodybuilding.com) that has profiles, articles and forums full of vegan bodybuilders and endurance athletes.

Personally, I’ve been strict vegetarian for 20 years and vegan for 6 (I’m 28 now) and have done a couple Ironmans and many other endurance events….all as a vegan. So it is possible, it just taked some education and discipline. The China Study that Alex recommends is great, I also recommend John Robbins “Diet for a new america” and Brendan Brazier’s “The Thrive Diet” for further reading.

Now, your post actually offended me a little bit. Sorry to burst your bubble, but honey isn’t vegan. I know that most people tend to forget that (or they just don’t care), but I really don’t think that it’s any different than drinking milk or eating eggs.

As Alex mentioned, The China Study is probably the best thing to read. It’s very comprehensive and written by scientists.

The other book I recommend is “Live Long Enough to Live Forever”. Skip the parts where the author speculates about the future of technology. It’s a good overview on why sugar and flour are bad.

Tynan