New Year's resolution - vegan for one year

sparky00721

Week 4:

Down 2.6 pounds this week to 221.6, total of 15.8 pounds over first four weeks. This is faster than intended and going forward I would like, at my current (temporary!) weight, to keep it around 2 pounds/week, so perhaps my body is working toward that already.

Over the past week, average daily calories of 1412 (below my target of 1500, but honestly, I just have not felt the need to eat more), and an average macro ratio of 52% carb / 25% fat / 23% protein. Averaging 41g fibre per day, well above target of 30g.

New restaurant this week:

Meet on Main (http://meetonmain.com/), a fun, very comfortable vegan restaurant with really friendly staff. It would be a good place to go for a beer and snacks with friends. I had the Main burger, description not provided of its composition. The bun and condiments were tasty, the vegan patty was to my taste sort of average (but perhaps I was still spoiled from the delicious tempeh burger from last week). Fries were great, and I had a taste of another dish, the Noodle-y Thai bowl ("rice noodles, shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, bean sprouts, marinated tofu, tossed in our almond Thai sauce, finished with fresh cilantro, sesame seeds, cashews, scallions & a wedge of lime") which was ridiculously delicious. Will be going back for that again soonish.

New recipe this week:

Marinated Peanut Tempeh (http://minimalistbaker.com/marinated-peanut-tempeh-7-ingredients/). Turned out a little below where I had expected, but that may just have been me or the tempeh I was able to source (which was already pre-flavoured), so I will give it another try. Did not care to eat it on its own, but good in the "Goop" which is my standard go-to food preparation: some commercially prepared spaghetti sauce (currently using Newmans's Own), a plant-based protein (canned beans, lentils, tofu or now tempeh), plus all the vegetables I have time to chop and throw it. Super easy to prepare, and it winds up tasting good through the day, even without re-heating.

Goal for coming week:

I was able to work out 5 of the last 7 days, dividing each workout into cardio (stationary bike, elliptical and swimming badly), and resistance training (weights - mostly keiser weight machines with some dumbbells - as well as a limited range of calisthenics), plus 15 minutes or so of stretching.

Goal this coming week: to expand my range of weight lifting and body weight calisthenics.

Snickety9505

Hey there;

I've been vegetarian for most of my life and now eat vegan 75% of the time (I have trouble giving up eggs). If you're feeling low energy at all, you could try looking into a vitamin B12 supplement. My doctor told me that there are very few non- animal sources of B12 (nutritional yeast has some- fun vegan food that sort of replicates cheese). Supposedly even with adults who eat meat, most people do not have optimal B12 levels.

Anyways, Im glad I'm not the only one who struggles with tempeh. I'm not sure if it's just me or if its the recipes that I've been trying, but every time I make it Im underwhelmed. Tofu is my go to .

Some sneaky ways to get in protein to foods are to blend up silken tofu or red lentils; totally flavourless on the tofu part but adds some extra oomph to something like butternut squash soup.

Good luck on your vegan journey! If you ever need recipes or cookbook recommendations, I have lots and love cooking so add me if you like.

BonnieDundee78

Glad it's going well! My two fave vegan recipe sources: Thug Kitchen (if you enjoy your food with extra cursing), and Oh She Glows (which is by a far more polite Canadian lady!)

sparky00721

Thanks ihearmorevoices, I am intending to spend some time looking more closely at the nutritional composition of my intake, to make sure this manner of eating is healthy for me, and intend to focus on individual issues in turn.

Iron is next on my list of things to look at, but your reference to B12 is a timely reminder. I will be looking into whether any of my foods are B12 fortified - I know my almond milk is, but I don't consume enough of that to meet my daily recommended value. My guess is that a supplement would be warranted.

Ideally what I would like to do is improve my diet as much as possible over the next three or four months, and then seek a comprehensive nutritional analysis (ie. based on blood testing), assuming those things are available to the public, to actually determine nutritional sufficiency of my diet in relation to how my body processes and utilizes food.

sparky00721

BonnieDundee78 wrote: »

Glad it's going well! My two fave vegan recipe sources: Thug Kitchen (if you enjoy your food with extra cursing), and Oh She Glows (which is by a far more polite Canadian lady!)

Thanks very much Bonnie! I bought one of the Thug Kitchen books (Thug Kitchen 101) last weekend and am looking forward to trying out its recipes (and taking a black felt pen to all the salty language - may need more than one felt pen). I will definitively give ohsheglows.com a try as well, thanks for the recommendation!

violetta5345

Question...are you steaming your tempeh before you use it in a recipe? I normally steam it first for about 15 minutes to get the bitterness out. I think you can also just simmer it in water for a few minutes to do the same.