STRONGER. FASTER. VEGAN.

Two years ago my wife made me watch a documentary called What the Health. She didn’t MAKE me, I’m a grown-up, but it wasn’t my first choice. What the Health is a 2017 documentary film which critiques the health impact of meat and dairy products consumption, and questions the practices of the leading health and pharmaceutical organizations. Its primary purpose is to advocate for a plant-based diet. I had seen similar documentaries in the past, and had read several books on the meat industry… Fast Food Nation, The Jungle, Diet for a Small Planet… but I never had an interest in giving up meat, much less all things dairy. The documentary, however, was compelling enough that we both agreed to try a plant-based diet for a week. I’d endured her cleanses in the past, mostly vegetarian-based, so the idea wasn’t foreign. This was the most extreme, though.

For me, that week has turned in to two years.

The popularity of the vegan diet is on the rise. Some of your favorite celebrities… Ellen DeGeneres, Simon Cowell, Woody from Cheers, are or have been vegan. Many restaurants and fast food chains are rushing to meet the demand, with Burger King having rolled out the Impossible Whopper nationwide just last month. Grocery store chains are stocking Hellman’s Vegan Mayonnaise right next to Jalapeno Buffalo Mayonnaise (HELLO!). And we’re not talking about Whole Foods… these are regular, every day, grocery stores. TV shows, podcasts, books promoting plant-based diets are topping their respective charts.

So what exactly is a plant-based, or vegan diet? Vegans don’t eat any meat or dairy products. Beef, chicken, fish, eggs, milk, butter. Anything with meat in it, anything with dairy in it. Delicious donut? Nope… made with egg. Chocolate bar? Nope… made with milk. Hamburger? Nope… made with cow. The true vegans avoid any product even made with animal byproduct, while some who follow a plant-based diet will still include things like shellfish. I stick to the no meat no dairy principal myself, but I don’t shy away from wearing a wool sweater or adding honey to my tea.

I have found people to be very interested in my diet when it comes up in conversation. Mostly it’s the “how” & “what” questions… how do you do it… what do you eat… what do you do for protein… are you hungry all the time… that sort of thing. And the fact is… it’s really not that hard. I eat and snack now more than I ever did before. I eat bigger portions at mealtime. I still eat a pretty wide variety of foods. And the most important thing to know is that your palate changes… foods that you might once have not like now actually taste good, and you don’t really crave the things you can no longer eat. In the past, I never really ate or liked vegetables. Certainly not green vegetables. Now I LOVE broccoli, I LOVE brussels sprout, and eat them as often as I can. But... it's not just about vegetables... it's easy to be creative and make things like vegan blueberry french toast. And though I used to have a sweet tooth… two years with almost no sweets has taken that out of me (milk & eggs are in virtually every delicious dessert). So now when given the option to have dairy-free ice cream or a vegan cupcake, I pass. Another thing: I used to be allergic to avocado. It made me extremely sick. A couple of months back I discovered I no longer suffer that allergy.

So why am I writing about this here, now, on a professional networking website? Because the changes that have occurred in me personally over the past two years are remarkable. And they’ve aided me in my career, and my personal life. Sure I have more energy because I eat a lot of vegetables, and actually more protein than in the past, but it’s more than that: my focus is laser-sharp, I don’t sweat the small things, I am significantly more patient than I was, and I’m able to compartmentalize my work more… such that when I’m at home I’m really kind of off the clock. These are big changes for me. I used to have fires raging inside, and now I don’t. And this has all occurred in the past two years, with no other significant changes having happened in my life over that time.

There are things I miss: fish, which was my favorite food, a Rueben sandwich, the ease of ordering anything off a restaurant menu… but I don’t miss the way I used to feel. Tired. Dragged out. Hazy. And I’m not here to preach, merely to share my experience, but it’s something worth trying if you’re interested. If I can do it, you certainly can too.

Mike Abramson is the General Manager for the Hartford Yard Goats MiLB team, Double-A Affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. You can follow him on Twitter at @YardGoatsGM.