About

Welcome to CR Vitality!

How this blog started…

My name is Matthew Lake, I’m 39 years old, and I’m from Wales in the United Kingdom.

CR Vitality (previously matts-cr.blogspot.com) was created to document my journey as I adopted a healthy plant-based, low-calorie diet to improve my health and possibly slow aging.

Over the years that I have been blogging, I have shared my experience with the diet: the benefits, drawbacks, as well as providing opinions and analysis of new studies that have come out regarding calorie restriction and longevity.

Calorie restriction is one of the best-known ways to slow aging in animals, and possibly humans, so I wanted to give it a go after reading a book by Dr. Roy Walford called “The 120 Year Diet.”

Research has been conducted on people practicing long-term CR and has shown many positive effects such as a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The diastolic function of the heart muscle for people on CR was also measured at around 15 years younger than their biological age. You can read more results from studies in humans here.

I started CR when I was 18 years old, and then began a strict CRON (calorie restriction with optimal nutrition) diet when I was 20 years old.

I only began to experiment with a vegetarian diet and then a vegan diet a few years later.

Transitioning to a vegan diet

While my diet was mostly plant-based since 2003, I adopted a fully vegan diet in 2012.

It was a long journey for me, but my first step was when I became a vegetarian on my birthday in 2007. I made the decision on that day, and never looked back.

Perhaps there were certain people in my life at the time that were vegetarian and they had an impact on me, I don’t remember, but it was a decision for health reasons at the time, not necessarily ethical.

Later on, I started to understand and appreciate the ethical reasons for going vegetarian. And this become just as important for me, there was no going back to eating meat.

Then in February 2012, and after putting a bit more thought into it, I decided that I wanted to go vegan.

Transitioning to a vegan diet was fairly easy for me after being vegetarian for 7 years by that point. The main thing that concerned me was staying healthy because a vegan diet eliminates food groups that provide important nutrients.

It’s now been over 7 years since I went vegan in 2012, and I have not only been able to stick to the diet but I am thriving on it!

My new mission going forward

While CR Vitality initially started out as a blog about calorie restriction, it has evolved into more than just that.

As I’ve evolved, I wanted this blog to evolve with me.

As I continue to practice CR for longevity, I realized that the quality of information available on the Web and on YouTube was lacking for those who wanted to go vegan.

I love science, nutrition, and the human body. I believe that in order to safely stick to a vegan diet, we must not only listen to our body, but we have to listen and acknowledge the science.

Sadly, in 2019, there is a lot of bad information out there and many people don’t provide credible sources to back up their claims.

This is why I also believe that it’s very important for those of us who have years of experience, research skills, and knowledge, to help people stay healthy while being vegan.

It’s not rocket science, but it does take a bit of planning and educating yourself about nutrition.

Why should you listen to me?

I’m passionate and enthusiastic about health, longevity, and helping the world go vegan!

As a rule, I almost always cite peer-viewed research studies that can be found on websites such as PubMed.

I examine the highest-quality research papers and break them down for you so that you can understand them.

I believe that I provide unique information and analysis that is difficult to find elsewhere.

While there are a lot of big general health websites that may touch on some of the topics that I discuss, I go more in-depth on topics related to veganism.

Once again, I can do this not only because of my experience, but because I am committed to providing the very best information for vegans.

I also have a long history of engaging in internet forums around life extension and health. I’ve been a moderator at imminst and contributed with almost 3000 posts discussing nutrition with many health enthusiasts and experts in nutrition and longevity. You can find my profile here.

I don’t claim to know everything, but I care, and I try my best to provide good answers.

And I’m always open to learning from you! So I appreciate the feedback.

How to contact me

If you have any questions related to topics on this website, you may contact me by using the contact form.

Alternatively, you can contact me by sending me a message on Facebook.

If you would like me to continue to produce content regularly, please consider supporting the blog

If you’ve enjoyed reading my blog and found the information I’ve provided insightful or impactful or think others will benefit from reading my posts, please share on social media, forums, and wherever relevant. If you have a website or blog about health, veganism, or fitness, I’d really appreciate a ‘shout-out’.