It looks like you are eating a really good, balanced diet. It's much better than mine is. I need to learn to eat more fruit and vegetables too. Were I live, it's really hard to get a variety of fruits and veggies, so I stick mostly to the staples. I wouldn't worry so much about your protein. You seem to be drinking a lot of non-dairy milks and yogurts. Garbanzo beans also have a nice amount.

I have tried to have days where I eat only 1/2-1 serving of a 'carb' type food. It think it does help to switch things up like that. It is hard for me though because I LOVE bread! And rice, and crackers, and cereal, etc... Fortunately, I also love eating all types of beans, veggies, and fruits. I have had good luck with eating Lara bars and Trio bars which have just nuts and fruit in them. I think it also helps to have some days higher in calorie than others. I have researched 5:2 fasting and also setting weekly calorie goals instead of daily ones. I think I might try this a bit more. I have had one or two fasting days, which worked pretty well. Summer vacation is coming up for me, and it will be interesting to see if it is easier or harder to stay on track with more time in my schedule! Although I have two small children, so really when I'm not working, I'm still working!

Good luck with the 'better' vegan diet! I have loved eating plant-based and hope to always do so!

I think your diet is looking pretty good! But I also thought I'd share what I can see would make it more nutritious. I don't know if it will help you lose the last 15 pounds, but I can see a few things you can do to add to your nutrition. I'm only coming at this from the perspective of someone who knows a fair amount about vegan and vegetarian nutrition from reading about it from reliable sources, so I have little formal educational experiences to back this up, just so you know.

So, looking at your food diary from Tuesday (I think) on, I'm gonna suggest a few changes. The first change is to add to your calcium intake by eating almond butter instead of peanut butter sometimes, drinking soy instead of almond milk, and eating more leafy greens. Those are my suggestions because you're already eating peanut butter and drinking almond milk, so it wouldn't take much to change to drinking soymilk and eating almond butter some of the time. Also, it looks like you sometimes eat a lot more fruit than you do vegetables, so I would suggest adding in more leafy greens, like kale and bok choy, that are higher in calcium. Almond milk has very little calories and nutrition (especially protein at about 1g), so an easy change to get more calcium and protein would be to drink a cup of soymilk instead of almond milk sometimes if you see you haven't ate much calcium that day. If you swap some of the peanut butter you eat for almond butter, that's another easy way to see your calcium intake go up slightly. Lastly, one of the easiest ways to get more calcium, iron, and vitamins into your diet is to eat more greens. Kale, bok choy, and mustard greens or all higher in calcium and seem like they fit into your diet well. Also, I can see that you eat iceburg lettuce and changing that to spinach or something else sometimes would easily add more nutrition, although spinach is harder to get calcium from.

The second thing I can see is that your iron intake is a little low and that you seem to eat very little grains and legumes at times. So, what I am suggesting is to take a look at how many servings of whole grain foods you're eating each day and try and eat at least five. There are a number of ways to count how many servings you're eating, but one easy way is to count it by every 15 grams of carbohydrates as one serving. You can also look up the USDA's My Plate and that can help to give you an idea. 1 slice of bread or 1/2 cup of a cooked grain like rice is usually considered a serving. I would think of the tortillas you eat as 2 servings. Also, legumes have a huge amount of iron in them! If you increase the amount you're eating by a bit, that could easily change how much iron you're getting. Bonus points if you eat foods high in iron with citrus fruit because it increases how much you absorb.

The last thing I am thinking about right now as a possible change is just to be mindful or how much sugar and fruit you are eating. It looks like you are probably doing okay, but make sure you're not eating a lot of fruit to the exclusion of other things and that you don't put too much agave nectar on things. One good thing might just be to spread it out instead of eating it with the yogurt because yogurt is often high in sugar. So, just keep an eye on that.

I hope that helps some! But like I said, I'm just coming at this from the perspective of someone who has personally studied these things, not a dietitian or anything. They're probably your best source!

- Paula

I took a quick look at your journal. You definitely need more protein. For a snack, I like to have a protein bar. It's really convenient and can be eaten on the go. I like the Odwalla Super Protein bar. It has 14 g of protein. Remember to drink a cup of water with your protein bar! I also recommend having quinoa as part of your dinner or even lunch. You can have quinoa in place of rice. It's so much more nutritious, high in protein and lower in carbs. If you do eat rice, go for brown rice over white rice. I'll see if I find anything else. I just glanced at the last 3 days of your diary.