Archives for A Week in the Life of a Plant-Based Diet

Day 7: A Week in the Life of a Plant-Based Diet

Day 7

ENERGY! I have ENERGY again! There is some good and bad with that. There is something about being sick that is somewhat of a release. When I’m sick I can let go, completely relax and not care about all the little things I normally care about. It’s my time to be completely selfish and think about just ME and NOT feel guilty about it. 🙂

After a talk I had with my sister 2 days ago, we both realized that we take on too much! We try to do it all, “perfectly” and just end up running ourselves into the ground in the process. My other sister is the same way – it’s in our genes – we all do it! THANKS PARENTS!

Anyway, I need to try to overcome that.

The good news is, I was able to get out and run 3 easy-effort miles today, and I did it without coughing or trouble breathing (which was my fear)! I am confident I will still be able to participate in the marathon on Saturday. YAY!!!! I can’t wait. I’m very excited!

Today was a VERY busy day so my food was a bit whacky. Way to end this week-long journal on a high note!

Pre-Breakfast (religiously, every single morning)

Per usual I had my Green Machine by Naked Juice, to ingest all my vitamins and supplements, and of course I took my Barlean’s Omega Vegan Swirl  3-6-9 supplement – same as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4,  Day 5 AND Day 6 ~ 200 calories, 38 carbs, 5 g fat, 2 g protein

Breakfast

I took a cue from yesterday’s breakfast smoothie and recreated the same concoction – only without any blueberries (cause I ate them all) and I’m pretty sure more garlic. W O W. Today’s was NOT as good as yesterday!! (I let Dan have a sip and he literally ran out of our home office, into the kitchen to grab something, ANYTHING else to put in his mouth. Luckily, he found a cookie. 🙂 It looks pretty though, right? ~ 386 calories, 100 carbs, 0 fat, 10 g protein

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Lunch

Now, this doesn’t really qualify as “lunch”, but, it had to make due. I was running late for an appointment and coming out of another one and I knew we would have an amazing and HUGE linner (not lunch, not dinner) once I got home from my appointment. 🙂 Prunes with reduced fat coconut shreds. YUM. ~118 calories, 27 carbs, 2 g fat, 1 g protein

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Dinner

The amazing dinner! Take out food from one of our favorite local vegan restaurants. This “salad” was huge!!! Normally I save half for later, but today I was too hungry to do that. I ate 85% of it and then decided to let Dan have the rest… since he asked. 🙂 This Blue Corn Taco Salad contains quinoa, black beans, walnut meat, blue corn chips, Daiya cheese, pico de gallo and some mixed greens buried underneath it all. The nutrition is estimated of course, and seriously it probably is this high, simply because these were all calorie dense foods (quinoa, beans, walnuts). ~ 1,183 calories, 126 carbs, 58 g fat, 35 g protein

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As if I didn’t eat enough today, I decided to eat the other half of my banana from breakfast… after all, Dan DID make up a FRESH batch of peanut butter!! ~ 124 calories, 16 carbs, 6 g fat, 4 g protein

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Besides, I need to start packing in the extra calories to stock up for the marathon! Right? 🙂

For my last day, the grand totals are:
Calories = 2,011
Carbs = 307 g
Fat = 71 g
Protein = 52 g

One last thing before I tie up this weekly food diary. I wanted to share what I feel is important information regarding protein. Being a vegetarian for almost 16 years and recently becoming 99% vegan – the #1 question I still get asked is, “Where do you get your protein?” Without going into my own personal frustrations with that question, I think sharing this well-written and educational post is much more relevant to spreading proper knowledge. It is a post from a fellow blogger, who liked my Day 6 post. It talks about the scientific differences between animal and vegetable based protein. It just states the facts and is not slanted one way or another, which I really appreciate! Thank you jennovafoodblog!

I hope those of you that have followed along from Day 1 have enjoyed the journey! Did you eat your plants today? 🙂

 

Day 6: A Week in the Life of a Plant-Based Diet

DAY 6

Did you ever miss outdoor recess as a kid when you weren’t feeling well? I did. I remember telling the teacher I had an upset stomach and she kept me inside during that coveted play time. I could hear all the kids running outside and having fun and then suddenly felt this horrible twinge of regret. Why did I say anything!? I wanted to be outside; I wanted to be playing and having fun too! What was I missing?? Something fun no doubt. Well, that is how I’m feeling about this marathon on Saturday. I don’t want to have that familiar feeling of regret. I want to at least TRY. Trying and failing is better than never trying at all, because that is just failing, period.

Unless you’ve trained for a marathon, it’s hard to understand the presumed insanity of it all.

I refuse to give up on the possibility that I can complete marathon #3. #1 went great, #2 was a freaking train wreck – BUT I DID IT and #3 was SO, SO  close until mile 23 when I decided to drop out due to injury. Race result? DNF (did not finish). I registered for yet another one and got sick 2 weeks beforehand – really sick. Didn’t even attempt that one. This Saturday is IT. I will cross that finish line, even if I’m walking. I need to prove to MYSELF that I can commit and not quit. I need to let go of time/pace and simply live in the present moment and put one foot in front of the other until I’ve traveled 26.2 miles. That’s it.

Having said that, I’ve been kicking this cold’s @$$ today. My energy is coming back, my head doesn’t feel like a medicine ball anymore and my attitude is much improved! I am confident that in the next 60 hours my body will be able to do what I’ve trained it to do.

Pre-Breakfast (religiously, every single morning)

Not breaking tradition this morning, I had my Green Machine by Naked Juice, to wash down all my vitamins/supplements and of course I took my Barlean’s Omega Vegan Swirl  3-6-9 supplement – same as Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5 ~ 200 calories, 38 carbs, 5 g fat, 2 g protein

Breakfast

Since I slept better and woke up feeling so much better I wanted to give this cold a kick in the pants while it was down. I concocted a smoothie jam packed with cold fighting, immunity boosting ingredients. Fresh blueberries, fresh spinach, fresh garlic, medjool dates, half a banana, crystallized ginger (soaked to help soften), whole apple with skin (cored and sliced) and maca powder. I used ice cold water as my liquid and watched it all get pulverized in my Vitamix blender. Sound gross? Believe me, I was preparing myself for the worst. I had visions of plugging my nose and slamming it if I had to. I did end up slamming it, but only because it tasted AMAZING. I need to put ginger in my smoothies more often. And the garlic? NOT BAD. Sure, I have horrible garlic breath but my four legged buddy Rocco doesn’t care. Take THAT cold! ~ 448 calories, 116 carbs, 0 fat, 11 g protein

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Lunch

A fresh pick-up yesterday evening from our Maya’s Farm CSA, meant I could have salads again – yay! Today’s contained organic mixed greens, organic baby carrots, tomato, sunflower seeds, popped amaranth, pepitas, lemon juice and balsamic glaze. I added the remaining half banana from breakfast to the plate too. It added a nice dimension to the salad, I liked it! ~ 249 calories, 36 carbs, 8 g fat, 9 g protein 

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Dinner

Tonight’s dinner is based on a recipe a fellow vegan and runner friend gave me. I’ve made the original recipe about half a dozen times, but didn’t have all the ingredients tonight, so I improvised! It still turned out great! It also makes enough that we can have leftovers. ~ 198 calories, 48 carbs, 1 g fat, 10 g protein

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Oh yes, and while getting ready to make dinner, I realized how HUNGRY I was all of a sudden and knew it wouldn’t be healthy to wait until the soup was ready so I ate a gluten-free snack bar. 🙂 ~ 110 calories, 19 carbs, 3 g fat, 2 g protein

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Grand total for today:

Calories = 1,205

Carbs = 257 g

Fat = 17 g (way, way below my RDA…)

Protein = 34 g

Scratch that. I realized that was too little fat and not quite enough protein. (This is the whole reason I started using My Fitness Pal!) I promptly went to the kitchen (still feeling a little hungry anyway) and went for (perhaps a little too many) NUTS! This is more than my whole dinner! :O ~ 367 calories, 13 carbs, 34 g fat, 8 g protein

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NEW TOTALS!

Grand total for today:

Calories = 1,572

Carbs = 270 g

Fat = 51 g (now I’m over, but whateves)

Protein = 42 g