This post is / was written throughout the day (Sunday, Feb. 27).Â
So here we are…the last day of my Vegan Diet week…and it’s been a great experiment…so I thought that today, I’d just have a ‘normal’ vegan diet day, without so much manipulation to chase the numbers…sort of what normal folks might be expected to do…see how it turns out
Still staying focused until the finish line, I have a 40 minute run scheduled today, so depending on the speed, around 500 calories…so again, around a 2,500 calorie budget…I don’t push the carbs before, during and after exercise under an hour, so my day should be more balanced than yesterday.
Dinner tonight may be in or out…as yet undetermined…although Iron Wife is ‘going to the mall’…so that usually ends up with a late day call to catch dinner out on her way back, rather than cooking…so I’ll plan again for a bit of a protein head start by my 3-4pm checkpoint.
Good run today…almost like a real run…maintaining a light jog up and down the steep hills, and almost running in between…still concerend about the hamstring, but if it was getting ready to shred itself again today, it gave no indication…so I’m hopeful 🙂
Rounded up the run a bit to 50 minutes, and a 1/2 mile walk to cool down, for a total of 785 calories…always like to be closer to 1,000 calories burned in exercise each day, than 500…_much_ easier to work in diet options.
So with my first week back with regular exercise, I ended up with a total of 8:20:00 of exercise, 70 miles on the bike, 12.5 miles running, 3 miles walking, and 2×30 minutes of yoga…good.
With breakfast before the run, and the after run meal, at 1pm I’m sitting pretty at 1,156 calories, 35.6 grams of protein (11%)…so once again will need to chase up the protein before dinner…I’m thinking those tempeh strips were so good the other night, so next protein centric snack around 3-4pm.
…between 3:30-5:00pm, had a snack of tempeh…152 calories, 15.2 grams of protein (40%)…not the HUGE protein hit like the seitan that I’ve been having (69%), but still substantial…so added an apple for some balance…81 calories with less than 1 gram of protein…but I like apples 🙂 …1 slice of Ezekiel bread, a little jam and peanut butter, and the snack was 376 calories, 21.5 grams of protein (22%)
…so today by 5pm, and before dinner at 6:30pm:
- 1,532 calories, 57.1 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 7
- 1,845 calories, 67.5 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 6
- 1,456 calories, 55.8 grams of protein (15%) Vegan Day 5
- 1,412 calories, 58.3 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 4
- 1,290 calories, 54.9 grams of protein (16%) Vegan Day 3
- 1,168 calories, 42.4 grams of protein (14%) Vegan Day 2
- 1,272 calories, 38.3 grams of protein (11%) Vegan Day 1
…was feeling comfortable so didn’t have anything more to eat…which means I’ll be a little light on the protein again today if we go out for dinner, but calories should be nicely in line…maybe an extra glass of wine to close the gap
…and so the call came from Iron Wife at 6pm…’exhausted’ from shopping…too funny…so now where to go to dinner…decided on one of our local bars…large food and beer choices, so figured that they could come up with something.
…and so we had a ‘normal’ vegan restaurant experience at a ‘normal’ restaurant…no vegan slant…no reservation…just the local pub…well…with 50 beers on tap, brick oven pizza, a dozen salads, pasta, and pages of choices…so probably a step or 2 above ‘normal’ 🙂
…ended up a bit over the top on calories…those 3 beers…couldn’t resist…so many choices…so little time…ended up with:
- flatbread veggie pizza…came out first with cheese…they got it right the second time
- spaghetti with veggies, and extra load of edamame…the only protein ‘hit’ vegan element on the menu
- 3 beers
…so there it was for dinner…guessing and plugging some equivalents in the food diary: 1,283 calories, 30.2 grams of protein (9%)…so over the top on calories, quite light on protein…the 3rd beer didn’t help…but with the re-do on the pizza, filled the time gap…and great choices
The day ended up at 2,815 calories and 87.3 grams of protein (12%)…glad that I got in a few extra minutes of exercise today…and once again the rest of the nutrient numbers are excellent right across the board
The final word on the final day
An excellent experiment…my deeper conclusions I’ll add sometime this week
A vegan diet is a very challenging diet to keep in line…doing a ‘normal’ restaurant experience today, was a fitting finish, and highlights many of the things that I’ve discussed this week…part of the coming summary reflection
Two last things that jumped out at me today:
- tracking everything that I eat for a week…even every once in a while…although time consuming, particularly used as a platform for deeper analysis like I’ve done this week…is an excellent thing to do as a check on bad diet habits that I may have fallen into
- and my best daily cross-check is to only eat when ready to eat, and only eat until satified…not full…my post of a few months ago as valid today as it was then: http://www.irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/emotional-eating/
so tomorrow morning, coming off a strict vegan diet…and with the Vegan Police having packed their bags and gone home, I’ll be interested to see what adjustments that I end up making as a result 🙂