The Vegan Hunter Donovan Loomis
How does your diet make you feel?
Before we dive into the vortex of damnation about a hunter changing to a vegan diet, could you answer three questions for me?
1) Do you ever eat just to eat but don’t feel happy about it?
2) Have you ever felt kinda gross and heavy after a meal?
3) Do you ever get stuck in a food coma?
I bet just like me you have experienced these moments at some point in your life. For me, they were happening on a weekly basis. Nothing I ate made me happy. I never felt good. No energy. No bounce. No anticipation of meals. I dreaded food to the point of skipping meals.
The Deal Breaker: 16 Kidney Stones
The most painful experience on earth. And that's saying something coming from a Lyme Disease survivor where pain is constant. Women say they are worse than childbirth. It will drive you out of your mind to the point you can no longer reason. Make sure all firearms are well locked in their safe.
In November I was cursed with number 14, 15, and 16 kidney stones. Three in a row. Laid me out for weeks. Couldn't work. Couldn't Hunt. Couldn't Fish. Couldn't enjoy life and I was done with it.
If your life was this bad, wouldn’t you want to try something crazy to get your life back?
The Hunters Dilemma: No Beef for Dinner?
As a hunter, wouldn't I be crazy to go vegan?
As a farm raised country boy, how the heck can salad, beat eggs and bacon?
As an owner of bacon manufacturing business who ate bacon for every meal, how does that work?
I love steak. I love bacon. I love eating all kinds of meat, cheese, jerky, sausage, and other cured meats. I love eating what I harvest from the mountains. So hows a hunter going to survive on a vegan diet? Will I ever be able to eat meat again? Can a vegan diet be healthy?
Taking the Plunge into the Hotep Vegan Diet
If everything I believed about diet and nutrition wasn’t working for me, I had to try another way. A successful hunter knows that deer are where there are, not where you imagine them to be. I know you fellow hunters can catch my drift. How many times have we hunted a canyon or draw or blind because it just had to have deer? But time and time again they weren’t there? Gotta break that trap if you are going to harvest an animal during the season. So I jumped in feet first and you won’t believe what happened.
But before that let's talk Hotep. Hoteps are a community of people developing self mastery. Training not only their body but exercising their minds so that their community can have better relationships, financial freedom, and security in a crazy world. Part of that is learning about your diet and how it impacts your life and making changes that you think will help you reach that better quality of life.
Curious about Hoteps? Check this out later. Learn All About What It Means To Be Hotep
So I jumped in feet first and you won’t believe what happened.
Vegan Breakfast: Getting My Mojo Back!
My favorite meal of the day. I can’t wait for my berry bowl covered in raw honey. I thought it would make me crash but I can go for hours off of this high energy and nutrient packed meal. Cereals left me feeling empty and bacon and eggs left me feeling greasy and heavy all day but this uplifts me.
Every day I take that berry bowl outside and express gratitude for the simple blessings in life. I catch the sun. I breathe in the mountain air. I’m ready to greet the day and productivity soars.
Vegan Lunch: No more food comas!
Because I’m still on the cleanse trying to heal the kidneys is low protein for the first part. But I stay full and energized after lunch. No more food comas ruining my day. No naps needed anymore I can keep working and going full speed now. I got my afternoon back and that means a lot.
Forget salads. Stir fried veggies loaded with a side of avocado, my own Korean style pickled cucumbers, kimchi, and my special seasonings make lunch my second favorite meal of the day. It does take a little more planning but I started to enjoy cooking again and I haven’t felt that way in years.
Vegan Dinner: Healthy Satisfaction
Before I was so tired at the end of the day sometimes all I could manage was cereal. Now I eat well, I feel clean and ready for a relaxing evening. I know I started my day healthy and now I end the day healthy. And the best part is for dessert I can snack on more fruit or my favorite: sliced bananas with raspberries, sunflower seed, and raw mountain honey.
Skip The Salads
Salads aren’t filling. I just don’t know why but I can’t stand them. I get hungry afterwards and without my favorite feta cheese I just can’t tolerate them as my only meal. I think salads are fine as a side dish to your main veggie bowl but yeah forget salads on their own.
Vegan Diet: Preliminary Results and Questions for the future
Secret for next time: If you are a hardcore serious hunter, I found 3 ways that a vegan cleanse benefits a hunter.
Is a vegan diet healthy? Good question!
Before I answer that, is your diet healthy?
I know my diet before was unhealthy and it wasn't working. This is working for me now but honestly I'm still undecided for the future. I never want to go back to the way I was. But I do love hunting.
I love to eat what I harvest. So I believe meat will come back into my diet it just wont have the place it once did.
Instead of every meal and half my plate, maybe one meal every few days. Perhaps I will put more energy into raising my own animals for harvest and spend more time hunting.
Where it all leads is still evolving but I have my life back. I have my energy back. I have hope for a better future where I have the energy and strength to hunt and fish more than I have before.
How about you?
