20 Time Final Recap

In order to showcase what we have done for our 20 time project in a more engaging way than a blog post, we decided to create the video that is shown above. We decided to do it in the style of a draw my life video, which was a popular trend on youtube, because we thought that it would be more interesting to watch than just a video of us explaining everything.

As far as self evaluation goes, we think that we worked hard enough to earn a grade in the “A” range. We set goals that were pretty much executed as originally planned. Along with the blog posts assigned, we posted daily/weekly recaps which amounted to a total of about 19 blog posts, not counting this one. Here are a few of our blog posts to refer to:

Intro

Vegetarian (2nd week) recap

Vegan Day 9

These were just a few examples of what we posted. We have many more blog posts that you can check out on this blog. If you want to check out another version of the video with a cool effect that makes it look a bit more professional at the top of the page click here

This being the 20th blog post, we are concluding our 20-Time project :)

Individual Reflections

Monica-
     My partner (Eman Ahmad) and I chose this topic because we wanted to do something that included us as much as possible. We haven't ever tried any diets because we didn't really think we needed to. So this was something different that I don't think I would ever do this if I didn't have the opportunity to do this project. We thought that this would be a cool way to see how we could improve the environment by not eating animal products.

     At first, we were planning on doing one different diet a week each week. We were going to do pescatarian for one week, vegetarian for the next week, and vegan for the last week. But, we thought that we wouldn't get realistic results. So we changed to be vegetarian for two weeks and two weeks for vegan. We were really tempted to take a cheat day but we stuck through it because we knew that some people do this diet for their lifetime. Also we just wanted to get the full experience. Our friends really helped us out with telling us what foods we could and couldn't eat.

     We learned that this is a pretty hard diet to maintain if you didn't do it for you whole life. If it's something new then it's a bit hard to get used to. I have learned that I need to eat meat because that's the majority of what my family has for dinner and this change was pretty hard for me. But I want to thank my friends for helping me resist the urges to cheat.

Individual Reflections

Eman-
    For my 20 time project, I worked with Monica, and we went vegetarian and vegan for a month. I did this because I wanted to see how different diets would affect my body, and to also test my discipline. I was also aware of the health benefits of these diets and I was also concerned about the amount of animals being tortured and killed for food. I was focused on self-improvement and acknowledging where our food comes from.

      Our initial plan was to go pescatarian for a week, vegetarian for a week, and then vegan for the last week. We decided that one week was not enough time to see the effects of the diets, so we cut out the pescatarian part and extended vegetarian and vegan for two weeks each. 

      I personally though that it went really well. It was very difficult to keep my discipline and avoid the foods that I wasn't supposed to eat, but I was able to do it. We were also able to regularly update our blog, and I was able to measure both of our blood pressures and heart rates every other day. 

      I learned how to come up and coordinate an organized schedule with my partner. My time management with projects is usually not exceptional with projects, but this time we worked efficiently and got done quick. The only exception was with the video, which we started a bit late, so it was slightly rushed. If I had the chance to do this project again, I would have extended the amount of time we did the diets for, so that way I could really test the extent of my discipline. I learned that I have a lot of self control when I am focused and willing.

      In the future I may try this again, specifically for a longer period of time, but I want to encourage other people to try it, as if one person cuts meat out of their diet, it won't make a huge difference on the amount of animals getting slaughtered, but if a lot of people do, there is a chance for change. 

Control Summary

Over the control week, we were not able to publish any other blog posts, but we were still able to record our blood pressures and heart rates.

Weights-

Eman- 89.5 lbs

Monica- 98.8 lbs

Eman	Blood Pressure	Heart Rate
4/24	92/60 mmHg	85 bpm
4/26	97/64 mmHg	90 bpm
4/28	101/69 mmHg	88 bpm

Monica	Blood Pressure	Heart Rate
4/24	99/73 mmHg	91 bpm
4/26	103/68 mmHg	87 bpm
4/28	108/75 mmHg	93 bpm

Overall our blood pressures and heart rates were higher than they were when we were on the diets, which helps show a correlation between our diets and our internal body conditions. Our weights pretty much stayed the same throughout, which we believe is due to the fact that we were on these diets for enough time to see a drastic change.

Control Week Day 1

Eman-
     It has been three weeks since we ended our diets, so we are using this week as our control week. Today for breakfast I had waffles and a glass of milk, and for lunch I had beef and rice. For dinner I had salmon and another glass of milk. As it has been a while since we ended the diets, my body is used to my regular diet. I feel like I have more energy than when we were vegan, but I also don't have the sort of "healthy glow" that I had.

Blood Pressure: 92/60 mmHg
Heart Rate- 85 bpm
Weight- 89.5

Monica-
     I didn't have breakfast today. But for lunch I had some fettuccini alfredo. For dinner I had some curry chickpeas and rice. Then I had  some oatmeal.

Blood Pressure- 99/73 mmHg
Heart Rate- 91 bpm
Weight-98.8

After Diet Update

It has been two weeks since we have finished our vegetarian and vegan diets. We learned that it takes a lot of self discipline and commitment to stay true to a huge change like the one we went through when we changed our diets. We have heard the fact that the first 7-10 days after a change is the hardest, and based on our experience, that fact seems accurate. Personally, we had a pretty hard time upholding the diet without really wanting to cheat. We proved to ourselves that we can resist certain foods if we really wanted to.

The setbacks that we faced were mental. It was very hard to control ourselves, especially in environments where everyone around us were eating foods that we could not have. Our friends were very helpful at times, as they sometimes helped us control ourselves. Another problem was that at times we forgot we were vegan. There were multiple times when we were about to eat something that we were not supposed to, but were reminded or remembered that we couldn’t eat it.

After four two weeks of the diets, we are planning on recording the blood pressure, heart rate, and weight during our regular diet as a control. We should have done this before we started the diets, but we had forgotten, so we decided to wait two weeks after the diets to make sure our bodies were back to their regular conditions and diets. Although it was a learning experience and can potentially beneficial for the environment and animals, we don’t think that we would do this diet again.

End of Diets

Monica Lubyanitsky	Weight (Lbs)	Blood Pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (Bpm)
(Start)3/22/17	99.6	100/65 mmHg	93 bpm
3/24/17	N/A	96/73 mmHg	95 bpm
3/27/17	N/A	100/74 mmHg	97 bpm
(End)3/2617	100.2	100/76 mmHg	90 bpm

Monica- I broke my diet at dinner. I had chicken, bean, cheese, and rice burrito. I dont really feel anything different besides that fact that i feel a little fuller.

Eman Ahmad	Weight (Lbs)	Blood Pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (Bpm)
(Start)3/2217	91.6	104/59 mmHg	82 bpm
3/24/17	N/A	85/62 mmHg	81 bpm
3/27/17	N/A	95/61 mmHg	84 bpm
(End)3/29/17	90.0	91/63 mmHg	76 bpm

Eman-
 Today I broke my vegan diet during lunch. I had chicken strips and dippin dots that contained milk. At first I was fine, but later on in the day I had a mild stomach ache, but I don't know if it was due to what I ate. For dinner I ate bbq chicken and rice. I am interested to see how my body will react to eating animal products again. I have also noticed that my appetite is smaller, and I think this is because I generally ate less food during these diets.