Thursday, August 19, 2010

Man Goes Vegan and Loses 60lbs!

Terrence Lavin challenged himself to go 100% vegan for 6 months. The results are astounding. Here are the before and after pictures:

Terrence Before: 300lbs
Terrence After: 240lbs




















Name: Terrence Lavin

Age: 42

Start Weight: 302 pounds

Current Weight: 240 pounds


Goal Weight: 225 pounds


Excerpt from the get fit interview:

"My Weight Loss Approach: I have an all-or-nothing approach to eating and drinking, so moderation was a foreign concept to me. After gaining so much weight throughout my 30s and early 40s on a steady diet of steak, scotch and late-night pizza, my efforts to trim back down to my athletic form were constant failures. Healthy efforts never lasted longer than a week or so. Through a girlfriend at the time, I became friends with a vegan activist and entrepreneur named Heather Mills, who asked if I'd go 100 percent vegan as an experiment for six months. I dismissed it as ludicrous. 

Being an advertising salesman in New York City, my tools of the trade revolved around dinners at steak houses and late nights at the bar. I could not live in moderation, and I realized that to successfully lose weight I would have to be as extreme in improving my health as I had been in destroying it. My approach was 100 percent veganism and 100 percent abstinence from alcohol for six months. This was a complete disruption of my world, and I had to find a way to accommodate a business life and a social life so dependent on living in New York's finest steak houses, sushi bars and taverns. 

Although it was quite painful in the beginning, this extreme approach swiftly eliminated any and all cheating -- I couldn't negotiate with myself or reward myself with decadent food. There was no room for "a little bit of butter to cook the vegetables" or "just a few shavings of cheese for my salad." Extreme faithfulness to this vegan quest was the only way I could turn my life around -- my cholesterol was over 300, and at 227, my LDL (bad) cholesterol was aheart attack waiting to happen. 

My extreme approach paid off: My LDL is now at the near optimal 105, and I lost 60 pounds over the six months. I still have 15 pounds to go to meet my goal of weighing the same as my rugby-playing days in college. Even more amazingly, I didn't miss animal products as much as I thought I would. Some of the best meals I've ever had were at NYC's vegan and vegetarian restaurants, and I would pit my special vegetable wrap against any burger in the city for pure taste.


I still entertained clients at steak houses and bars, but instead of a steak dripping in blood and butter and an 18-year-old scotch, I ordered the salad, a side of vegetables and a glass of seltzer. Did I envy my guests stabbing that porterhouse? Certainly! But because I was feeling better every day, I was addicted to this healthy feeling. I found friends and clients would go out with me for the same reason people go to Nascar: to see a wreck. They were just waiting for my resolve to crack, so my competitive nature helped keep me on track, although sometimes I was forced to dig deep within myself to give it just a little more effort every day. The rewards are so worth it!

Staying active was obviously key, and I would go to the gym three times per week. Eating so healthfully gave me the energy and desire to exercise, and seeing the immediate weight loss gave me motivation, so even on days I dreaded going to the gym I would go anyway.

Today, although my personal six-month challenge is over, I find that moderation is now my friend. I loved the vegan lifestyle so much that at least 80 percent of my weekly diet is plant based."



Check out Terrence's awesome blog about being vegan in New York.


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