As you lovely readers know, every Wednesday I’ve been posting a photo diary of my food intake from the previous day. I like doing this for a few reasons, one of which because it’s an interesting experiment for me to record exactly what I’m eating in a day. Another reason I like doing “What I Ate” Wednesday is because I think it’s helpful to post a visual guide for people who want to follow a balanced plant-based diet with the emphasis on vegetables.
My breakfast was leftover Anti-Cancer Green Breakfast Smoothie that I made the day before. I used a bag of arugula in this one plus the standard ingredients including homemade hemp milk, frozen fruit, cacao powder, tofu, dates, prunes and flax meal:
I had a shadow during breakfast:
The weather was so nice that I went for a 75-minute hike in the local mountains. Cardio exercise (as opposed to yoga or weight-bearing exercise) revs up my appetite! Lunch included leftover beans and greens similar to my recipe for Kale & Bean Mix with Tangy Cashew Sauce, but this time I threw in a can of tomatoes and some leftover sweet potato. I also fixed a fresh green salad with pine nuts and chopped onion:
I made a version of my Basic “Dessert” Green Smoothie to go along with lunch. I’ve been trying to cut back on my dates and get used the natural sweetness of the frozen fruit, but it’s tough, especially when I put so many greens in the mix (these are micro greens from Trader Joe’s. I also used three raw baby bok choy):
When the smoothie is undrinkable because it’s so green-tasting, I usually end up blending an extra banana or a handful of frozen strawberries or mango to help sweeten it. If all else fails, I add more dates. This one was on the borderline of being kinda like green sludge. Healthy, but not that dessert-y:
I have been pretty busy lately, balancing blogging with my schoolwork (one of my classes is beyond intense), volunteering with the Nutritional Research Project, Toastmasters and other various projects. I’m not complaining, though, I am doing exactly what I want to be doing and I love every minute of it (well, maybe not every minute…).
I’ve mentioned this before, but I couldn’t do a fraction of what I do now had I not changed my diet in November of 2010 and become a whole-food, plant-based vegan. Even though I don’t consume any caffeine or sugar outside of fruit, my energy levels are generally through the roof and I often get less than eight hours of sleep anymore, but I wake up alert and ready to start my day (I used to require 9+ hours of sleep a night). I’m not bragging, I’m more relishing the fact that I feel better now than I have in my entire life and 99% of it is from my diet.
Back to the food. I hate doing this, but I had to multi-task during dinner with a group chat for one of my school projects. I tried to plan ahead by making a simple kale salad using my Tangy Cashew Sauce poured over raw kale. I marinated it in the fridge for about four hours:
I served it along with a Beans ‘n Rice Bean Burger and about half of a ripe avocado. The recipe for this burger isn’t quite ready to post, it still needs some work:
I had some kiwi with dinner for dessert:
I didn’t enjoy my meal as much as I usually do because of the group chat I had to participate in during dinner, and it made me remember not to be distracted during meals in the future.
I hope you enjoyed this photo journal. Many of your have written to me that you’re working on improving your diet. What’s working for you and what isn’t? Are you getting the results you hoped for such as more energy?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s interesting that you chose to write about this today. I was walking home last night and was exhausted. My body hurt, my head was groggy and all I could think of was lying down. I was trying to figure out why I was so tired and realized that I was coming off of a few days of poor eating. I didn’t think I did horribly this past weekend but it wasn’t very clean and had a lot more refined food and salt than normal. And, my body felt it. It wasn’t pretty.
So, I came home, ate a salad and went to bed. I’m still amazed that I felt this way. It reinforced my need and my love for whole, plant-based foods.
I am loving eating ETL style. But, definitely find it hard when friends/family are in town or when I am traveling (both of which happened this weekend). I’m working on finding better ways to cope with this. I’m getting back in the groove now and hopefully my energy levels will return too!
Hi Prathiba,
Thanks so much for the comment and the update! Your experience is really interesting. When I started eating really healthy, it helped me realize the fact that food is fuel and I felt better when I ate good “fuel.” I am so, so happy that you are doing well, even in spite of challenges. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be perfect, just try to do your best everyday. It gets easier, too, once the healthier habits get more engrained into your routine and people around you start supporting you more and more (or, if they don’t, you will just become more independent in your choices). Also, after awhile, these changes will be automatic and you won’t even have to think about it. Yay!!!
Reading that they use a “pink slime” preservative in fast food hamburgers has pretty much turned me off of ever eating a fast food hamburger again. That worked!
Getting a whole box full of fruits and veggies and having them accessible helps me make healthier snack choices. And I am ready to make some smoothies!
I am also currently getting myself off of caffeine so my energy has been low and I get headaches. I use generic exedrin which also has caffeine it so I need to be switching soon, but I have not had any soda or energy drinks with caffeine in nearly a week. I have been motivated to do my walking, though, even in the rain!! And cleaning so I have had some energy.
At the end of the day I feel better about what I put in my body and I am probably losing some weight
Hi Robyn! I am soooo happy to hear that you are doing so well. Coming off caffeine is brutal, almost as bad as coming off sugar, ha ha. But, you are doing awesome and I’m so proud of you, keep up the GREAT work!!!
Hi. I was wondering what you do about vitamin B-12. I’m a vegetarian and mostly vegan, but for the past couple of months I have been feeling very low energy, dizzy, anxious and just not myself. Because of this, I am thinking about not being vegetarian anymore. What are your thoughts?
Hi Mallory! All vegans need to get adequate vitamin B12 supplementation which is a pretty easy and inexpensive supplement that’s available in pill form or in fortified foods. Do you think that’s the cause of your symptoms? If so, you should definitely start supplementing and perhaps talk to your doctor about it. A well-planned vegan or vegetarian diet has been shown to be healthful for people at all stages of life, but the “well-planned” part can take some work. Check out this link and download the PDF of this paper from the American Dietetic Association for some ideas: http://www.eatright.org/about/content.aspx?id=8357
Thanks for the link! Yeah, I have talked to my doctor and she prescribed me with vitamin B-12 shots that I inject myself, but I have not taken them yet. I will try them and see how I feel (:
Also, I have IBS and eating 5 small meals a day helps me have less pain and symptoms. Some vegetables, grains (quinoa, couscous, etc.) and beans really aggravate my symptoms and cause lots of pain. Most IBS books recommend eating lots of white rice and enriched flour and staying away from most vegetables and all beans, but I find this frustrating because that does not seem like a healthy diet and whenever I eat like that I feel like its not good for my body. I really want to do the Eat to Live plan, but in the plan, no snacks are allowed. Do you eating snacks would hinder my progress? What is the reasoning behind the no snacks rule?
Hi Mallory- I started ETL after suffering an attack from diverticulitus. Not really IBS, but this was an extemely painful experience. I started slowly, mainly blended soups, and cooked vegetables, and homemade veg juice. My Dr. warned to stay away from nuts & seeds, but this is an important piece of the plan. I found that by grinding or blending, this was easy and still allowed me to include them in just about any meal. Beans have been tough to get used to as well, and adding a probiotic supplement has helped a lot, but it has taken time. My abdomen feels better today than it has in years. Initially, find what works and stick with that until you feel comfortable adding variety. Fuhrman believes that having a break between meals allows the body to recover and detoxify properly. It also allows what he calls ‘true hunger’ to be felt. Again, I would do what works for you!
Charlie, thanks for your response. I googled diverticulitis and the symptoms are familiar. How long did your symptoms last? How did you get diagnosed? And how did you treat it? I have been recently diagnosed with IBS in the past few weeks, but it is frustrating as it is a syndrome and there isn’t really a cure. I am only 17 years old so it is even more difficult. I do use probiotics and aloe vera juice, which help. Other people have recommend digestive enzymes (specially a product called Beano) and Reiko mushrooms, which I will be starting soon. Thanks for your reply and encouragement.
Hi Mallory, I would strongly recommend you read Eat to Live, there is a short section in the book related to IBS. Dr. Fuhrman has also published specific protocol for patients with digestive issues, but you’d have to join his Member Center to have access to it. You might want to read this article that he published on the website, too: http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/Other.aspx. I would also agree with Charlie’s advice to do what works for you, but that this type of plan likely offers more hope than any others can.
I have read Eat to Live, but I guess I missed that part. Thanks!