Objective comments on my average day?
Hello all!
Brief history. Vegan 20+ years, was raw vegan (almost exclusively raw) 4 years, slipped off the raw wagon when pregnant as carbs stopped me feeling sick. Spent 9 months scoffing home made garlic bread, chips and spelt pasta. Baby arrived, still felt terrible, continued to scoff the carbs. Been back to raw for about five months now. Feeling superb at last! But I can not, no matter what I do, loose any of that carb weight I put on. I'm currently 21lb over my fit&raw weight and I'm only a shortie. Below is a typical day for me, comments appreciated!
Breakfast - green smoothie (mango, banana, avocardo, tbs good oil, spinach, kale, vega one)
Lunch - chia seeds with blueberries, strawberries and raspberries
Dinner - salad (broccoli, carrot, pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, salad leaves and raw coleslaw - cabbage, onion, carrot in raw mayo - cashews, pine nuts, macadamia, lemon juice, cider vinegar and water)
Desert - raw chocolate torte which is basically cacao, caob, almond, coconut sugar/nectar and coconut oil
I think I'm eating a decent amount of green and my fat content isn't hugely high, proteins bumped with the addition of vega one to smoothie. Thoughts?
P.S apologies for any typing errors, I'm on an iPad and it won't let me go back and amend without deleting everything I've subsequently typed.
Re: Objective comments on my average day?
Hello, have you tried adding up the calories you're consuming? Unless you eat a lot of nuts and cake, it looks as if you might not be having many calories, which some people says can make your body think there's a famine on and decide to store as many calories as possible. I know you are probably eating what you were before, but I think having a baby can change your metabolism, so maybe you should try eating a bit more, counterintuitive as it is.
Re: Objective comments on my average day?
I think you may be eating more fat than you think you are, 2 lots of fat in your breakfast with the avocado and the oil, chia with your lunch, coconut oil and almonds in your desert, and in your main meal you have the mayo made with nuts, which are all very fatty, especially the macadamia nuts.
you can track what you are actually eating here http://cronometer.com/ this will also give you the ratio of carbs/protein/fat and vitamins and minerals intake. you dont say whether you are breastfeeding or not, which will have an effect on your calorie needs
Re: Objective comments on my average day?
Thank you for the replies. Baby is 10 months old and I've been back on a diet for 5 of those months. Being new parents we just survived those first 5 months post birth! I did breastfeed but I had to have medication (arthritis = agony but I winced through for baby) which I held off until 6 months for and by that point I was desperate and unable to even pick baby up.
I have tracked calories for a couple of weeks on a different site and I am averaging around 1300 calories a day. When I did all the BMR/TDEE maths stuff my BMR is 1180 and my TDEE is about 1550. So I am technically eating below what I need to maintain my weight, yet well over what my body needs to function without going into meltdown. So calorie wise I think I'm in the right sort of area.
I'm going to try tracking on the link provided. I would have thought that 5 months of eating enough, but under what I'd need to maintain, plus moving around much more (thanks to the medication!) that I would have shifted even a very small amount. I'm not expecting 10lb a month, but at the moment even 0.2 of a lb in 5 months would have been nice!
Re: Objective comments on my average day?
Hi Kara, i'm new here. I just thought I would share a little of what I've learned about foods that help alleviate arthritis pain. 1.Vegan probiotics 2. Selenium rich foods(brazil nuts are an excellent choice and my absolute favorite). 3. Cherries & Berries 4.Flax You may already know this but if not I hope it helps. Good luck on the weight loss!
Re: Objective comments on my average day?
One thing you could try is cutting out the oils for awhile. Or have, instead of chocolate torte, more fruit for "dessert," (personally since going vegan I don't really think of my day as "meals" anymore, I mostly just eat some fruit, veg, or nuts whenever I'm hungry throughout the day) or if you're really craving something sweet, a smoothie, or pureed frozen banana "ice cream." I feel like coconut oil is just the fad "health" food of the moment and soon we'll all be like, "how did we get tricked into eating this solid fat as if it's healthy?" but that's just my gut feeling, I don't necessarily have research to back it up.
If you're worried about weight, scale back/cut out the oils. Other than that, you can afford to eat way more than 1300 calories IMO as long as you are adding cals from fruits/veggies and not eating more nuts/oils/avocado etc.
Edit--I just checked out the ingredients in Vega One... if you've been using it a long time and you know it works for you, stick with it, but way too many variables in there for my taste... There's basically no such thing as a protein deficiency if you're eating a balanced diet, so why add a lab-designed powder to such a healthy shake? But like I said, I'm just talking about what I would do for myself. You've been vegan way longer than I have so you know what works for you, feel free to disregard this advice. :)
