Life without meat & skiing

As a bet with my vegan wife, I went vegan on the 1st for a month. If I win, there is a 3 day hut trip. If I lose, veganwife gets the 3 day hut trip and I watch the kids. So, I have ample reason to stay off the meat.

Granted it has only been 10 days but here's something I just want to throw out there. As most of you know, Crested Butte has been getting pounded lately. The other day I caught the 9am chair and skied powder all day until 4. It was relatively heavy snow (for the Rockies) and a lot of it. Maybe I am more in shape this year but I was still going strong at the end of the day. On previous powder days my legs were barking by 2pm. Quite honestly, I was shocked at my stamina and the lack of a recovery period/bonk at the end of the day. My question is this: are there any other vegans or vegetarians out there that might have had similar experiences when they went off meat? I can't say that I don't crave a giant porterhouse but if this is what I get in return, I might make a habit of it.

As an aside, my wife was a hardcore carnivore. She took up telemark skiing, then yoga, then went vegan. She's reading a book on Buddhism and meditating. I caught her patching her ski pants with duct tape the other day. So as I see it, telemark skiing is the gateway drug to becoming a full blown mountain hippie.

Que

Great question. Beans, rice, a bunch of grains i've never heard of like Quinoa and Amaranth, pasta. Lots of veggies: spinach, zucchini, squash, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, other green leafy stuff etc. All sorts of Boca products. Bocaburgers, Bocaschicken (which i think has some egg - ssshhh), Bocaribs (damn tasty!). I think those are all tortured soy products - what in the hell do you have to do to soy to make it taste like a rib anyhow??? Tofu, a good amount of it. Soy and hemp milk. Some sort of thing she called a "Field Roast". Looked like meat, didn't exactly taste like meat but was still good. I definitely think I am going overboard on the carbs.

Seriously, there was no bonk. When the lifts shut down at 4pm I could have gone for another 3 hours. I had an after-ski bourbon and then when home and threw snow for another four hours. It was unreal.

Also, while I joke that telemark skiing was the cause of all of this madness.... it was actually a book called the "China Study". I read a few chapters six months ago and put it down because I didn't want to stop eating meat. That being said, that book was a real eye opener. Essentially, what I took from it was that if you wan to avoid cancer, diabetes, heart disease etc.... just go vegan. In my twisted logic I saw that as a way of trading risk: give up meat and animal products, take up helicopter skiing, backcountry skiing and BASE jumping and my life expectancy basically stays the same. Haven't done the BASE jumping thing yet but certainly am pursuing the other two with zeal. Heh!

Essentially there are strings of huts located in the backcountry. Really, they are cabins, yurts, etc. They are very remote and can only be accessed in the winter on skis or snowshoes (foot, horse or bike in the summer). You reserve the hut for a specific night for a nominal fee for your party. You then ski from hut to hut during the tour. Most people use nordic skis but you can also use telemark or alpine touring set ups with skins. The main point of a hut trip is the tour in the backcountry. Some huts are in close proximity to backcountry skiing so you can get a few turns in if you have the right equipment. The most famous string of huts here in Colorado are the 10th Mountain Division huts http://www.huts.org but there are all sort of other huts available. Probably the most famous of all hut trips in is the Haute Route in the alps. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_Route

Hut trips are a blast if you have a good party.

Sometimes we do if we have it on hand. There is some strange soy thing that basically looks like bacon and sort of tastes like it. I can't remember what it is called but we seem to add that to a lot of meals. I'm sure veganwife has told me this on many occasions but soy-tofu etc is a good source of protein right? The good news is that I have always loved tofu if prepared correctly. Oh, what about humus or other chick pea stuff? Is that good for protein too?

I think after I win this bet, I'm going to start introducing some eggs into the mix. As I found out this morning, she's playing hardcore rules on this bet as I secretly thing she's angling for the hut trip - so no eggs for me right now.

I did the low carb/no carb thing a couple of years ago. I have to say, I felt great and shed weight like crazy. I think I dropped 20 pounds in two months.

Then my wife went vegan. End of the "steak night every night" period of my life. I do have to say that our grocery bill is considerably smaller when the meat counter is bypassed. Oh the humanity.

That, and when I read the China Study (or what I read of it) I wondered if I had lopped a good ten years off the end of my life.