Running Rat Goes Vegan

I simply felt it was time to change something. I wanted to vegan for a very long time already. But I always thought it must be awfully difficult and I would never make it to swear off cheese, which was my only vice (apart form the chocolate of course).  
And after reading a lot about veganism and its benefits recently I decided, I want to try it for 30 days. A 30-day trial is to circumvent oneself. You tell yourself that it will only be 30 days and if you don't like it you can always go back to your former life style. This way it is very easy to adopt new habits because it is not like 'oh my, now I'll never be able to eat cheese/smoke a cigarette/drink alcohol ... again!'
I was 10-15 days in the trial when I was sure I want to stay vegan. The benefits about which I read were:
-  you have a lot more energy,
- you feel alert, you lose weight (maybe), 
- you have more endurance and 
- need less sleep. 


As I plan to run the first ultra marathon in August 2011 and still have to pass some exams before I finally am really a teacher I thought this might be something for me.
Unfortunately I didn't lose any weight (this was so clear), but I do have more energy. And today I had a revelation: after not running for quite some time (you know: lots of work etc.) I ran 3 hours without any physical tiredness or pain just like that.
And it was really easy: I substituted cheese with tofu, vegan spreads and fruit mash; yoghurt with soy yoghurt, cappuccino with caro + rice milk. The only problem I had was that I had to re-read all the lists of ingredients on products I usually buy to be sure that they don't contain any dairy. I already was kind of vegetarian before I went vegan. Though I was never really strict about this because I never liked meat or sausage. I suppose this is also the reason why I didn't lose weight. I didn't change very much.
I also still eat my chocolate and other sweets like chocolate, banana chips or self-made cookies. Boyfriend#1 calls me a pudding vegan sometimes. ;)


Unfortunately the part about less sleeping didn't occur with me but after all I usually get up before 5 am at the moment so it should be quite natural to be tired by 8/9 pm.
By the by: I also gave up coffee. And I really do feel wonderful. 
The only thing I still miss is SUMMER!!


Here also the German links for those who care:

• Warum vegan?  
• Wie man Kaffee aufgibt