Vegan Virgin: Day 2

Day 2 was another light exercise day…so a similar 2,500 calorie budget for the day…although I was thinking of shooting closer to 2,000…the final totals on the link…text in the post for more details…PDF format: click here for the details of vegan day 2_110222

…and another shot at my 100 gram + protein initial goal…of course that’s for me…if you have a tiny, perfect, Prius body that whispers along, you’ll need a lot less…to keep my Diesel engine running, I’ve found that I need more protein fuel, particularly for exercise recovery, or if I’m trying to lose weight…that lose fat not muscle thing…although with light workouts this week, not _that_ big a practical issue, so a good week to be going vegan

In looking at the Vegan food pyramid in my day 1 post, I’m finding that there should be more emphasis on protein focused elements of legumes, beans, soy and not on vegetables and fruits…and went looking for another ‘Pyramid’…I like this one from the Mayo clinic that you see here…I think that it shows things in a more proper order of focus…although I’m still having a mental challenge with ‘pushing’ the grains so high…comes from my Paleo days, and their caloric inefficiency.

…of course, with a heavier exercise schedule, and a higher calorie budget it’s easier to get in the amount of protein every day…light exercise or none, it’s very tight for me on a vegan diet, without going over on the calories…having said that, as a Vegan Virgin, and only day 2 of our Vegan Adventure, I can see where I can make adjustments to get where I want to be, until it just becomes a diet habit

…and therefore more properly, I’m finding that I have to be conscious of everything that I eat now to make sure that I’m not using up calories, without adding protein…so always the same diet question, with all foods: Is it worth the calories?

So adjustments that I made on day 2:

• reduced the peanut butter…I’m thinking that it’s on its way out…I still ‘taste’ the peanut butter an hour later
• gave Iron Wife a 1/4 of my peanut butter and jelly morning sandwich to cut it 25% 🙂
• Clif bar at lunch…busy work day, and trying to get in the workouts early, but time got too squeezed…10g protein, 240 calories…vegan
• got in another snack with seitan around 3pm to kick up the protein a bit…worked well

So by 3pm, I haven’t gotten in my workouts yet, although I’m sitting better than yesterday at:

• 1,168 calories for the day, 42.4 grams of protein (14%) today Vegan Day 2
• 1,272 calories, 38.3 grams of protein (11%) yesterday Vegan Day 1

• a few more work calls to deal with and then a 5pm workout…quite late for me…50 minutes blasting around on the mountain bike and then 30 minutes of yoga with Clara …felt _very_ tight…glad that I got the yoga in…although squeezing it in, my mind never really got relaxed’ although it felt good to get stretched out…total of about 500-600 calories again.

so dinner…main protein hits:

• white beans on bread as an appetizer…excellent
• spinach salad the main event with chickpeas…and baked tofu cubed and added to the salad…surprisingly good…and easy
• butternut squash ravioli with walnuts…excellent

…ended up at 2,424 calories, and 91.2 grams of protein (15%)…once again could have ‘pushed’ up a bit more protein, but was feeling full…since I was exercising late, I had my ‘usual’ small fruit smoothie with banana after the workout, but it was too close to dinner, so should have skipped it since I was feeling full early into dinner, and it added 170 calories with only 1 gram of protein…swapped for any of my protein ‘hit’ foods, and I would have picked up my missing 9 grams of protein for the 170 calories

All the numbers were excellent again when it’s all said and done….total carbs a bit high…total fat and protein a bit low…sodium a hair high still due to the chickpeas…need to look for a lower sodium solution there…but nothing really out of line, and again saturated fats at a very low 3.0% without even trying.

Adjustments Needed

I still need that extra 10-20 grams of protein early in the day…and at least 10 grams with the fruit smoothie first thing in the morning…and since the reading that I’ve done on soy protein powder makes me leery, I’m going to need to find something else.

In the short-term, a Clif bar would do it, although it’s 240 calories for the 10 grams of protein…so I may just cut back the fruit to make room for it…if I can get in my workout in the morning I could do 1/2 a Clif bar before and after the workout, and be there.

This will take the protein pressure off later in the day, and I’d rather have dinner closer to 750 calories than the 1,000 that it’s been in my quest to catch up on the protein…and in looking ahead to eating out at a non-vegan-friendly restaurant, it would be a challenge to make up the protein at dinner, so will need to be ahead rather than behind before dinner.

A big part of this is simply my eating habits up to now…following the Paleo protocol espoused by Friel and Cordain in the Paleo Diet for Athele’s…in a nutshell, it’s carb focused before during and after exercise to fuel the exercise and recovery…makes a lot of sense to me, and works well for me…and then a lean protein focus outside of that window, which on a Paleo diet is easy to do…not so much on a vegan diet…so I need to squeeze in more protein earlier, while still maintaining enough carbs so that workouts and recovery don’t suffer.

I’m looking forward to my exercise days where the workouts are 2-3 hours, my total calorie budget is much higher, and getting in the number of protein grams becomes a lot easier.