Basic Vegan Meal Plan

Basic Vegan Meal Plan

 

This meal plan is going to give you a starting point and the great thing is there is tons of room for customizing to your taste.  Your goal is to eat as close to every 3hours as possible.

 

 

Meal 1: (When you first wake up or after your early morning workout)

• Large smoothie
• 2 handfuls of greens
• 1 cup of almond milk (or other milk alternative)
• 2-4 fruits of your choice
• 1tbsp of flax seeds
• Optional scoop of vegan protein powder (great if you work out in the morning, or have a long gap till your next meal)
•  Read more about breakfast smoothies here
• Nutrition bar
• Luna, Cliff, Lara, and Trader Joes Raw Bars are my favorite

Meal 2:

• Oatmeal
• Go for organic plain oats 1/2-1 cup
• I always add Chia seeds to balance out my diet
• Fruit of your choice (Check out my instagram for plenty of ideas)
• Protein
• 1tbsp of peanut butter mixed in your oatmeal, 1/4 a cup of trail mix or plain nuts all great natural protein sources

 

Meal 3

• Vegetable plate (bell peppers, cucumbers, broccoli, and carrots are my favorites) o for at least 2 cups
• Dip: Single serve hummus or half a mashed avocado
• Plain natural crackers, or all natural wrap bread and make a veggie wrap!

 

Meal 4:

• 1 serving of non gluten, high protein grains (amaranth. quinoa (or quinoa based pastas), wild rice, buckwheat, millet, white rice, and bean based pastas)
• 1/2 cup of beans organic
• As much veggies as you like

 

Optional night snack: (I like something to munch on while I am doing work at night)

• Air popped popcorn or Un-salted pretzels

Why you should switch to a smoothie for breakfast.

Day 5: Accomplish your New Years resolutions

Switch to a Breakfast Smoothie

 

 

Breakfast is my biggest challenge, mornings for me like many of us are hectic. I have my morning workout, daycare drop-off, and off course making it to work on time. Unlike my other meals there are very few days I can sit down for breakfast. Now it would be easy for me to go through a drive thru, get a greasy (and not vegan) breakfast sandwich and eat sitting in traffic. I chose not to do this because there is a better option a delicious jumbo smoothie. Try switching your breakfast to a smoothie for a week and see how well your body responds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Benefits of a breakfast smoothie:

• Hydration: I make my smoothies a liter to refresh my body, fruit is water dense which digests easily.
• Nutrition: A smoothie has the ability to be a complete portable meal.
• Energy: Smoothies from the natural sugar, and carbohydrate intake gives me all the energy I need in the morning.

How to make a smoothie the basics:

• Milk alternative (almond is the best in my opinion) 1cup
• Enough water to blend or make into a liter, ice for texture or temperature
• 2 or 3 Fruits (practice good food combining, I put FullyRaw Kristina's food combining chart under the list)
• Greens (Kale, spinach or a mix) 1 to 2 handfuls
• Optional: Seeds (Flax or Chai is my favorite) I only use one at a time to not overload my digestion typically flax
• Optional: Protein powder  (I use raw for life right now) protein is great if you worked out in the morning or if there is a big gap before your next meal.

 

 

 

 

 



How to Keep a Balanced Food Journal

Day 4: Accomplish your New Years resolutions

Keep a food journal

 

 

A food journal is an excellent self education tool.  This is absolutely not counting calories, macros, etc.. It is evaluating your eating habits. Its finding out your patterns are you a stress eater, a midnight muncher, a breakfast skipper these are things you may be doing to hinder yourself everyday. By figuring out these little habits you could break a plateau, see progress for the first time. All you need is a simple note pad, and a pen.

 

• Your first entry should be as soon as you wake up
• Evaluate your sleep how many hours did you get. (Aim for 7-9)
• About how long did it take you to fall asleep did you fall asleep right away? (If you toss and turn at night you may be having to much caffeine or caffeine to late. You may be eating to heavy to close to bed, or consuming to much sugar (even natural sugar) too late)
• How did you feel when you woke up. Rested, exhausted, starving, sick etc.

 

• Before each meal
• Write down how hungry you were before you eat
• Write down your stress level (1 is no stress 10 is most stress you have ever felt)
• Write down what you ate don't worry about getting into overly specific servings, weights, portions. Just a general idea.
• After you eat right down how satisfied you feel about 20mins after you eat. You can see if your should change your portion size, or how certain foods make you react.

 

• When you snack
• Write down are you truly hungry or are you bored, stressed, tired etc..
• Try to eliminate frequent snacks for more frequent balanced meals
• Write down your snacks

 

• At the end of the day
• Read your journal, make notes on what you can improve on, read past entry's and note your improvements.  
• Note anything that trigged bad eating a fight with your partner, a bad day at work etc..
• Write down healthier swaps if you had a bag of chips write down nuts as a swap etc..

 

Why you need to throw your scale out this year!



 

Day 3: Accomplish your New Years resolutions

Throw out your scale!

 

Why you need to throw your scale out

and what you should be doing instead.

 

 

By now most of us have herd every reason in the book on why you need to get rid of your scale, but what should you be doing instead?

 

First lets review what is wrong with the scale:

 

Your weight is constantly fluctuating based on water retention, menstrual cycle, your food intake for that day etc...

• Weighing yourself every morning or even multiple times a day becomes  an obsession and what do you really gain from that.

 

• Either you are at the weight you want/hoped and maybe you give yourself a little leeway with your diet and long term that greater hinders your goals. Now the flip side of this is you are not at the weight you want and you deprive yourself once again hindering those long term goals. 
• Your scale gives you nothing more the a meaningless number. Your weight tells you nothing about your health, it tells you nothing about your body composition. (below image is not me or my image).

http://thedailysampler.com/2014/02/22/a-fitness-wake-up-call-for-women/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



What should you be doing instead?

• First you need to get over the idea that you need an everyday confirmation of your progress. That is how unhealthy habits form.
• Instead focus on how you feel on a day to day basis based on your diet and fitness. This information is actually a learning tool about your own behaviors.
• I challenge you not to weigh yourself for one month after you have cut the obsession out of your life you are ready to take on a healthy way of measuring progress.

There are two ways I track my progress (I do this once a month and only once a month, first thing in the morning when I wake up):

1. Progress pics: I take pictures in the same or similar outfits once a month and I can compare those pics to the month prior or even 6 months prior. I can literally see where I have progressed and what I need to work on for that month.



http://www.losebabyweight.com.au/body-measurements/

2. Measuring: Now that I have my progress pics  I want to put some kind of number to it and this is were a very simple and cheap tape measures comes in. Losing or gaining inches deepening on my goals is more informative then weight could ever be. 

Your weight can change hourly, inches change with work, time and progress.




How to join a gym!

Day 2: Accomplish your New Years resolutions
Join a gym!

 

Yesterday you decided this is the year I get healthy, this is the year I workout. Awesome! But where are you starting, do you want to workout out at home or would you rather join a gym/studio. We'll start with how to decide what gym/studio to join, if that's the path you choose.

 

 

Steps to pick a perfect gym:

• Budget: First decide what your budget is for this, the most important investment you will ever make is in your health. With that said you still don't want to bankrupt your self, while your deciding what gym to join keep that budget in mind but be a little flexible. A lot of gyms this time of year offer deals and packages for the new year so look out for that.
• Distance: One of the biggest reasons people don't accomplish there goals is lack of time. If its taking you an hour to get to the gym everyday then your adding an extra restriction on yourself.  Try to find gyms close to your home, if you work at the same place at least 5days a week find a gym close to your job so you can go before or after work. Don't let yourself have the option to say the gym is to far.
• Variety: Do not allow yourself to get bored. Make sure the gym has cardio equipment, and variety of strength training equipment that way there is always something new for you to try. If you like classes view the class schedule make sure there is classes you like at times you can take them.

 

Great you joined a gym! Now where the heck do you start!:

 

• Personal Trainers: I can't stress this enough. Most gyms offer a free first session and I urge you to take advantage of that. If you are coming from the completely blank slate of not knowing where you are physical and/or you don't know basic form for exercises please use the trainers. As someone who wants to be a trainer and knows many trainers I can assure you we do this because we love to help you and we love to see you succeed. I know this isn't the most budget friendly thing but it is so worth it. When you are deciding on a gym include the personal training into your budget because this could literally be the key to your success this year. 
• Classes: Take classes don't be afraid to try something new. The first month take 1 or 2classes a week in addition to strength training/cardio until you find something you want to go to every week. If you find 1 class you dedicate yourself to that's already a day or two your going to the gym.
• Research: Research your goals. If your training for  a marathon research it. If you have some background with fitness use resources like bodybuilding.com to find new workout plans or get ideas to build your own. There is unlimited knowledge out there at your disposable use it!



Accomplish your new years resolutions in 2015

Day 1: Accomplish your New Years resolutions

 

 

 

I want you to accomplish your goals in 2015! Over the next 16 days I will be posting an article or vlog everyday that will help you with your goals. Don't let anther year go by without accomplishing your goals.

Tricep/Bicep Workout!

Tricep/Bicep Superset!

Exercise	Set 1	Set 2	Set 2
Warm up 5 mins of HIIT
Super-set 1 x3
Barbell Curls	20pds	20pds	20pds
EZ-bar Skull Crushers	20pds	20pds	20pds
Super-set 2 x3
Preacher Curls (on-machine)	30pds	30pds	30pds
Dumbbell Kickbacks	17.5pds	17.5pds	17pds
Super-set 3 x3
Hammer Curl	15pds	15pds	15pds
Tricep Push Down	30pds	30pds	30pds
Super set 4 x3
Close Grip Chin-ups
Tricep Press	12pds	12pds	12pds
Static Stretching

HIIT Warmup

Christmas smoothie!

Christmas Smoothie

 

Blend well:

 



 

• 1 cup of non diary eggnog (soy, coconut etc..)
• 2 fuyu persimmons
• 4 dates
• A dash of cinnamon

 This smooth is thick, creamy and delicious! A great breakfast smoothie or a festive treat to severe with dessert at your holiday parties.