with
Monell Sweeting
father, vegan, police officer
___________________________________________
As I near the young age of twenty five, Dec 31 2010,
I began to feel more and more like an old man. As
the days went by, I then welcomed my young son
into the world. At the time, I was an avid drinker and
smoker, 60 pounds overweight and looked awful for
a person who was a police officer and supposingly
at the peak of my life.
One morning in early January 2011, I got to a
point of disgust and aggravation. I could no longer
continue in the way I felt, the way I looked or the way
I thought. Looking in the mirror shaking my head, I
thought to myself “Something has to be done, not
for my sake but for the young seed that I helped to
bring into this world.” With no dietary advice and
with my very limited idea of fitness and health I
started a program the very next day.
I gave up drinking any sort of alcoholic beverages at
the time, all forms of red meat, pork or birds, which I
transitioned seamlessly into, but I remained on milk,
eggs and fish for about two months in. Quitting
smoking was a major element for me to overcome,
giving that I smoked secretly from the age of 15.
One of the side effects of smoking was massive
chest pains accompanied by high blood pressure
and poor oxygen intake. Once I decided to quit,
I used running as a distraction. As I started to run,
within two weeks of running, I noticed headaches
would accompany my workout, and then gradually
all of the side effects went away.
As the weeks went by and still eating a clean
pescatairian diet [little to no fat] and running daily
I noticed a drastic decrease in my weight. I had lost
20 pounds within a month, and at two months I was
at 30 pounds loss in body fat. I began to feel lighter
and much more clearer with a greater anticipation
in my daily reality. Two months in I stumbled across
Veganism and was very much sceptical and was
some what “spooked” by the assumed absence of
protein in th \