Vagetarian's diet

Quote:

---

Breakfast -- Blended salad/fruit smoothie -- (ingredients -- One organic orange, one bag frozen organic blueberries, a handful of organic fresh strawberries, 5 ounces of organic baby spinach, 2 ounces organic kale, one ounce of sunflower seeds, one tablespoon organic flax seeds, one serving of vegan preformed DHA, and one scoop of VITAFORCE_

---

Josh,
This sounds awesomely healthy, but how does it taste? How much does that smoothy make? It seams like a lot. Usually when I make a smoothy I'm hungry an hour later. My smoothies are only about 12 oz. consisting of 4 to 5 walnuts, a tbsp of ground flax, a cup of frozen berries, half a banana, a 1/4 cup frozen spinach, water and a tsp of maple syrup. Like I said, I'm hungry an hour later. Should I just make more or change it up?

My smoothie is probably about 20 ounces. I love my morning smoothies, but with all the veggies, it probably is an acquired taste. I slowly added more and more veggies, and now I don't even really notice them.

I think your smoothie needs to be bigger, and have at least one to two ounces of nuts or seeds in it (in addition to the flax). You are tall, and require a good amount of calories. I'm not surprised you are getting hungry if that is all you are eating in the morning. It sounds healthy, just add in more calories. I'd cut out the maple, and add in date sugar or fresh juice (in small quantities) to sweeten.

Best,
Josh

i'd agree with j&k vagetarian. if you see this threadhttp://www.veganforum.com/forums/sho...ight=breakfast it'll show you i had the same problem with smoothies and hunger.

the trick is to soak some nuts and or seeds overnight, drain them (they are more easily digestible when soaked) and add them to the fruit smoothie, i also now add dates, dried figs, raisins, 1/2 an avocado, that kind of thing.

This is going to be sort of an online diary of a new diet I will be trying for the next 6 weeks. The jist of the diet is this: No processed food, no added sugar, oil, caffeine, sweeteners, salt, or anything artificial, no supplements, and of course no animal. What I will eat from most to least is as follows: Green veges, non-green veges, fruit, legumes, starches, grains, nuts and seeds. About 60% raw and 40% steamed or baked. If you eat like this, feel free to cheer me on or give me some pointers. By the way. I'm 6'-2" and 170lbs and very tone. I am not trying to lose weight. In fact that is my biggest concern. The purpose of this diet is to get into a state of optimal physical and mental health and experiment to see if anything changes. By the end of the 6 weeks, I plan on getting a physical and having several blood tests done to see if I am deficient in anything.

Day 1: The first day kinda sucks. I bought $30 worth of fruits and veges and have essentially eaten them all. (My wife is eating with me on this diet). I hade a delicious blueberry smoothie in the morning. Kept me full for 3 hours. Lunch was an avocado sandwich with a large salad (applesauce dressing). Dinner was a sheperds pie. But with no salt, it was rather bland. I think salt will be the most difficult thing to give up. I also had 2 cups of steamed broccoli and kale and was so full I couldn't finish. Now I'm worried I'm going to lose weight, although my wife is excited that she may drop a few pounds.

Good for you Vagetarian! This sounds like a reasonably successful first day.

If you don't mind, I'd love to see what an exact day looks like (give me every amount of food). You will not lose weight if you eat enough nuts, seeds and avocado -- but if you don't eat enough of those, you will lose weight. You may also need to add in some oil to some of your salad dressings if you are finding you are losing weight. This is ok to do provided the rest of your diet is nutrient dense. You are a big guy, so you need to make sure you are taking in sufficient fats.

And by the way, your taste for salt will change relatively quickly. Taste buds are not static -- in four to six weeks you will find that you no longer like the taste of the previously salty foods because your taste buds will become so much more sensitive. It is really quite strange, but you will see what I mean.

Are you taking supplements or relying solely on your food for nutrients? As you know, with a vegan diet there are certain nutrients you need to be careful about.

Best,
Josh

Josh,
Thanks for the support. I am very well aware of the supplements to be considered thanks to the good discussions on this forum. However, because this is partially an experiment, I want to go without supplements to see what the blood tests show. The only "fortified" food I will be having is about a cup of soy milk a day. I also will be taking a tablespoon of gound flax seed a day, but I consider that food. Thanks for the encouraging news about salt, or lack of salt. I'll just have to wait until my taste buds change and endure some seemingly bland meals for a few weeks. I'll keep you updated.
Thanks,
Mike
P.S. I love salted mixed nuts and seeds. Will raw nuts and seeds eventually taste as good?

It depends on taste. Nuts and seeds won't be as crunchy as they are when roasted, but I still like them when raw. I actually focus more on nut butters or putting them in my smoothies. But that is just my preference.

Best,
Josh

Day 3: My wife came home crying today. She's having some pretty bad caffeine withdrawals and feeling very sluggish at work (nurse). I told her it was just the typical withdrawal symptoms. But she's insistent on having caffeine for tommorrow. I gave her some Yerba Mate to use "in case of emergency" so she won't kill me. I'm having the opposite effects- bounds of endless energy. Unfortunately this energy carries over into the evening and I never really feel tired except between 2am and 6am when I sleep. It seems 4 hours isn't enough. Maybe I need to exercise more, although I thought 45 minutes a day was adequate.
Today: Breakfast: Mango/Orange smoothie
Lunch: Quinoa spinach salad with walnuts, pears and cashew cucumber dressing
Dinner: Cuban stew over rice (black beans, seitan, onions, carrots, peppers, and spices).
The dinners have been relatively bland so far and I seem to be doing a lot of cooking and planning which is inconveniently time consuming. I'm hpoing this will get easier.

How's the new diet working out a week later? Is your wife still suffering caffeine withdrawal?

Hey Pete:)
She about killed me for a couple days in a row. But she has gotten through the caffeine withdrawals. I'm feeling right as rain, but my only complaint is the inconvenience of preparing food all the time. I still like salt, so most of the food I eat is bland unless it is naturally salty like tomatoes. We did eat at a Thai restaraunt last week on our once a week "cheat" meal and I found the food to be way too salty, which I guess is promising that my taste buds are changing.

Good. I'm glad things are working out better diet-wise. Caffeine is definitely nasty stuff. I guess Saturday will be your "cheat" meal for the week. :)

You still up to that? I'd like to join you if I could.

Day 14: I jumped on the scale. I've lost 8 pounds which is not good news. I now weigh 164 lbs. and I'm 6'-2". My diet is about 50% to 60% raw. I typically stick to the diet strictly for breakfast and lunch and a bit less strict for dinners. My dinners are still very healthy, but they do contain some sodium and oils. I steam my veggies when I can, but sometimes I don't. I don't think I'm getting the full pound of raw veges and steamed veges. I don't think I'm eating enough legumes. I would say I'm eating about 2 to 3 ozs. of nuts a day. I'm eating about a cup or so of grains a day. I think I'm losing weight more because I haven't had time to learn quick and easy meals. So when I'm on the go at work I just go without eating, or just eating fruits and vegetables which obviously isn't enough food. The bad thing is, many times I'm not that hungry, which makes it easier to not eat, or eat very little. I'm finding it difficult to eat as much food as I'm supposed to. It seems like a lot of work to eat that much.
This week I've planned out my meals better and I will try to gain some weight. I'll be adding more starches, grains and legumes.

Well, overall, I still have to say good for you. Question would be are you losing fat or muscle? If you are losing fat, that is still healthy for you -- your body will find a natural balance eating this way. Obvioulsy if you are losing muscle, that is different.

The first thing I would do to lower the weight loss would be to eat far more nuts, seeds and avocados. You could easily go up to 5 ounces, if not 6 ounces a day with your height. Make cashew nut sauces for your steamed veggies etc.

How you are you and your wife feeling? How is the salt thing going?

Best,
Josh

Vagetarian, have you been vegan for long? (sorry, I haven't followed everything that's been written.) If you are newly vegan, your body may need time to adjust, especially if you are active. If you are struggling to eat enough, could you eat through the day as and when you get hungry? When I went from veggie to vegan, I lost some weight (I lead an active life and that activity increased at the same time unfortunately!). Luckily, I am able to eat when I'm hungry rather than set meal times. This definitely works for me.

PS, what is your weight in stone?

Hey RedWellies:

I'm not Vagetarian but I'm helping him with this diet a bit, so maybe I can give a quick answer to your questions. Vagetarian is not new to veganism, but he is trying a version of a vegan diet that is aimed entirely at eating the most nutrient dense foods. He is doing it to be healthier, not because he is interested in losing weight (in fact, he actually prefers not to lose weight). One of the goals on this diet is actually to eat only 3 times a day, or as many as 4 if necessary -- but the preference is not to snack, generally. He is conducting an experiment on himself to see how it goes, and is updating us periodically....

Best,
Josh

Day 15: I had a "big" breakfast consisting of live fruit pie and a glass of soy milk. The fruit pie is has a pecan/ dates crust. It's vert tasty and healthy but all those calories this early in the morning made me feel a bit sluggish. I generally don't like to eat alot before lunch for that reason. I believe I am losing weight because I am not snacking throughout the day as I used to, but I also haven't changed my lunch or breakfast portion either. Today for lunch I will be having 2 avocado sandwiches and a big salad with an oily dressing and 2 pieces of fruit. That should hold me for dinner of which I plan on having homemade seitan with mash potatoes and chickpea gravy (low salt) with a side of steamed broccoli and another piece of fuit pie. The seitan unfortunately is saltier than I should have but it's dense in calories. I'm finding dinners to be the hardest to stick with when it comes to the diet because so many recipes use salt, soy sauce and or oil. I usually use low sodium tamari and use about 1/3 of what the recipe calls for. I also know I should be using more legumes instead of seitan and tofu but then I gotta soke them overnight and cook them for an hour and so it's a big inconvenience. I use canned beans in a pinch, but they are usually soaking in salt and they are not as "alive" as fresh soaked beans. So bread and tofu have been my crutch instead of nuts, legumes and avocado for calories. Maybe I shouldn't worry about making a delicious dinner like I'm used to and just steam a bunch of veggies and eat some plain beans and rice. That seems very boring though.
BTW, My BMI is 21.1 which is still normal so I'm happy with my current weight.