Eat Vegan, Don’t Drink, Exercise

I get a physical including bloodwork about once a year regularly now that I’m middle-aged. It is free at the point of service in M4A countries. I got my first test over 20 years ago. So I have a wealth of personal info to compare.

I’ve been active in sports my whole life. I went through a period of about 10 years where I was not doing as much — boxing once a week and playing golf — up until about 4 years ago when I started working out in a gym again regularly. That meant (up until covid lockdowns) 4 times a week lifting and boxing 2 times a week. In good weather golf replaced boxing 1 day, with maybe 1 more day of golf. I work out at home now, but no boxing or golf until Covid lockdowns end.

I went vegan about 4 1/2 years ago. I quit drinking about 3 1/2 years ago.

So there are 3 variables there that can only be semi-independently analyzed, and of course I’m going to have different results than anyone else.

The result of those three changes in the last 5 years is that I’m in better shape than I’ve ever been in my life, leaner and with more muscle even than in my 20s. Recovery from sport is of course much slower than in my 20s. My blood work is better than it has ever been since I started getting tested. Particularly cholesterol.

The biggest change for my bloodwork was definitely going vegan. Overall health I’d say going vegan followed by quitting drinking. That being said, if you don’t get regular exercise, your bloodwork won’t be so great even if you do eat vegan and don’t drink. Since I had decades of regular exercise before I quit drinking or went vegan, my results may be very different than someone who decides to start exercising for the first time later in life.