vegansara Member

Welcome crgreen1999! I love my vitamix so much - use it every day. My favorite recipe is my morning smoothie. Frozen spinach or kale, frozen berries, frozen mango, protein powder, chia seeds and ground flax. Add a little water and blend it up, delicious!

Welcome, Bridget! I'm sorry to hear about your thyroid condition but I'm glad you are looking at the importance of food in your overall health. Welcome to the group!

I use spirutein - I love it, but I don't know how good it is since it's so delicious. I also have some hemp powder but I haven't brought myself to use it yet - I had a bad experience with hemp powder in the past. I also have Jarrow Formulas Brown Rice Vanilla powder, I like it but the taste isn't as delicious as spirutein.

Can I just say, as a teacher, I love to read what you guys are saying to each other? You're exactly right. The only "bad" class is the one you don't go to! Otherwise they are just different (and yet also the same!).

bump - i love me a good green smoothie, want to expand my horizons :)

I like to slice up carrots, zucchini, celery, whatever veggies I get in my produce delivery. Also small peppers. I also like to add high protein foods like edamame or sprouted mung beans, baked tofu, sunflower seeds. Stuff like that.

My nutritionist says that we only need 15% of our calories to come from protein. The new rules of lifting book that I just read said that this is a minimum, and that it is better if we eat more, especially if we are trying to gain muscle - so I've been shooting for about 20%. I used to advocate an "it doesn't matter"…

My fish oil supplement is 45 calories per teaspoon. It is just like any oil - high in calories. I don't know what brand mine is, but I order it through my nutritionist. And I take one teaspoon per day (when I remember).

Labrat, that's what I'm doing as well! Just started today. I started to creat my own but I looked through the routines already there and found the first one. I haven't found an easy way to search on there - that's the only downside I see so far.

Thank you all so much for the thoughtful replies and resources, I really appreciate it. I guess I'm wondering about eating at a deficit - should I increase to maintenance calories or keep a small deficit? I see that Heidi has said that eating at a deficit is still ok. I think part of me is just tired of eating at a deficit…

Thank you for the responses! I will check out that link right now. I have been doing Bikram yoga consistently which definitely helps with muscle tone, so I haven't been neglecting my strength. I just want to really focus on it now, instead of losing weight. Thanks!

Also, looking for a book maybe to get about weight lifting - people have recommended the New Rules books but the reviews on amazon have me doubting that. Thanks!

I'm vegan and popcorn is one of my staples! I got an air popper for like 20 bucks. Popping corn is so cheap, and I usually add a tablespoon of earth balance buttery spread and salt. Sometimes (like tonight!) I add nutritional yeast too.

I would recommend not washing every day. I know your hair is sopping wet with sweat - I used to wash it twice a day while doing doubles, and my hair did not like it. I spoke with my aveda stylist about it and she recommended just rinsing it really well, and if you feel like you need more than that you can condition it -…

For a long time I gave myself 500 calories for class, and then dropped that to 400. If it was a class that I didn't exert myself much (either had to lay down a lot or had an injury that limited my exertion, or if the room just wasn't hot enough) I would give myself maybe 300. I just wore a heart rate monitor in class last…

This book just came out and I'm really excited about it - Raw and Beyond: How Omega-3 Nutrition Is Transforming the Raw Food Paradigm. Boutenko is one of the authors. I also recommend her "green smoothie revolution" book, and also Alyssa Cohen's stuff.

You should check out this book that just came out - called Raw And Beyond I think, 3 top raw food gurus (including Boutenko) wrote it together to talk about a more balanced approach to raw eating. I also get really cold and find that I am not satisfied without something warm at night. Maybe it will be different in the…

A lot of the raw reading I've done really encourages you to eat whatever you want while transitioning - with the idea that your body will sort of figure it out and your wants will change over time. Unfortunately, I'm trying to lose weight because my body and I don't always make the best decisions. In my experience doing…

I've emailed my nutritionist about this - I have been thinking a lot lately about how I've been eating at a deficit for almost 8 months now . . . doesn't seem smart. The timing of this post is perfect! Thank you universe (and OP!). I've done the calculations and it gives me a daily intake of 2080. The exercise calories…

Thank you Qrxn! I have heard that about the plyometrics.

Yes, after PT and meeting with a physiatrist we finally did an MRI and got the diagnosis of patella alta and lateral patellar tilt. I did PT for a long time but the exercises were very similar to moves I was already doing in yoga - focusing a lot on hip strengthening and quadriceps building.

bump

There are a few vegan/vegetarian groups on here, that's a good place to get info. I recommend the cookbooks Veganomicon and Appetite for Reduction - especially if you are interested in weight loss Appetite for Reduction is good because it lists calories and macros. I've been on this path so long I can't really give you…

Chia seeds, rice protein powder, sometimes coconut oil. Usually as a base I have spinach mango and berries.

I added another meal called "vitamins" at the end of the day, after dinner, and that's where I track them all. So my daily meals are "breakfast" "snack" "lunch" "snack" "dinner" "vitamins". Hope that helps!

I wear lululemon when I teach yoga but I wear cheap target and old navy stuff when I'm just taking class or at the gym. However I also did splurge for a lulu sports bra - they have the best, most supportive, least uniboob causing bras I've ever seen. And they have fantastic names like "tata tamer" and "the bust stops…

Quinoa is great, also sprouted mung beans are loaded with protein. Get some baked tofu and nibble on it like you would string cheese. Hope that helps!

My first favorite was my excalibur dehydrator . . . then it was my vitamix . . . then the digital food scale . . . now it's my cuisinart food processor. I think the thing I would save first in a fire is the vitamix though!

I think raw foods are a really healthy way to go (check out a couple of groups on here about it) but only if you do it in a sustainable way. Try to incorporate it into your daily diet and see how it goes. Maybe start raw food for breakfast or lunch and see how you feel, or maybe start with some delicious raw goodies in…

I used to eat entire boxes of girl scout cookies in one sitting. Also, a frequent road trip/gas station purchase of a huge container of wafer cookies would be eaten in the car. Also . . . fresh garlic bread from the Costco Deli. I could eat the whole loaf on the way home. Getting out of the car covered in crumbs is so…