Hello all! I feel like I've posted on here a lot lately (my apologies) but I know how much Daniel and Kelli stress having a "clean" diet (eating real food) and I was wondering what I could do to improve my own. This is an average day of food for me (I'm vegan):
Before Workout: Since I workout in the morning, I tend to have a banana or a few bites of melon just to boost up my energy and keep me satiated until breakfast.
Breakfast: Oatmeal (normally with banana and strawberries, vanilla extract, unsweetened coconut flakes, sometimes cacao powder, almond milk, and PB2), Smoothie Bowl (smoothie is a banana, frozen berries, spinach, sometimes avocado, a scoop of vanilla protein powder, some cacao) topped with berries, unsweetened coconut milk yogurt, and shredded coconut, avocado toast (sometimes with beans on top), a protein smoothie (Bob's Red Mill vanilla protein powder, a banana, almond milk, cacao powder, and sometimes some PB2), or tortillas with tofu, beans, salsa, and lettuce.
Lunch: Kinda depends on the day, sometimes if I work in the early afternoon I'll just have a snack before I leave and then another big-ish snack at work, other times it's salad or something similar to what I'd have for dinner. I eat breakfast pretty late in the morning as I workout, then shower/get dressed, and then eat, so oftentimes I'm not hungry for a full meal.
Dinner: I normally just make a bowl of a bunch of different vegan foods, such as a baked regular red potato or sweet potato with cooked broccoli/cauliflower, a small bit of salad, garbanzo or black beans, some avocado, or some tofu topped with nutritional yeast and spices. If I don't have time to bake a potato I'll often have some red lentil pasta with regular marinara sauce or a pumpkin sauce I make out of canned pumpkin, almond milk, and some spices. Sometimes I just have a big salad with some meat alternative (I normally have gardein teriyaki "chicken" cooked without the teriyaki sauce, so it's just plain).
Snacks: Carrots/cucumbers/broccoli with hummus, fruit, larabars, cashews or almonds, rice cakes with salsa, etc.
Dessert: Unsweetened vanilla coconut milk yogurt with fruit and/or granola, an apple and/or banana with peanut butter, or some 85% dark chocolate.
I think my main downfall is the fact that I have dessert basically every night. I'm not sure if that's a huge problem because it's not like I'm eating a slice of cake or ice cream, but should I stop anyway? I'm coming off of a long period of counting calories and being obsessive about how much I can or can't have, so I know that even with dessert I'm normally only at about 1,400-1,600 calories a day. I'm trying to increase slowly so as to not shock my body. I also use store-bought hummus, salad dressings, salsa, and pasta sauce. I know it would be better for me to make my own, but I don't really have the equipment necessary or the desire to do so. My diet has improved a lot over the past year and I'm proud of where I am right now, but any tips as to how I could improve even more would be really appreciated!
How can I improve my diet?
Hello all! I feel like I've posted on here a lot lately (my apologies) but I know how much Daniel and Kelli stress having a "clean" diet (eating real food) and I was wondering what I could do to improve my own. This is an average day of food for me (I'm vegan):
Before Workout: Since I workout in the morning, I tend to have a banana or a few bites of melon just to boost up my energy and keep me satiated until breakfast.
Breakfast: Oatmeal (normally with banana and strawberries, vanilla extract, unsweetened coconut flakes, sometimes cacao powder, almond milk, and PB2), Smoothie Bowl (smoothie is a banana, frozen berries, spinach, sometimes avocado, a scoop of vanilla protein powder, some cacao) topped with berries, unsweetened coconut milk yogurt, and shredded coconut, avocado toast (sometimes with beans on top), a protein smoothie (Bob's Red Mill vanilla protein powder, a banana, almond milk, cacao powder, and sometimes some PB2), or tortillas with tofu, beans, salsa, and lettuce.
Lunch: Kinda depends on the day, sometimes if I work in the early afternoon I'll just have a snack before I leave and then another big-ish snack at work, other times it's salad or something similar to what I'd have for dinner. I eat breakfast pretty late in the morning as I workout, then shower/get dressed, and then eat, so oftentimes I'm not hungry for a full meal.
Dinner: I normally just make a bowl of a bunch of different vegan foods, such as a baked regular red potato or sweet potato with cooked broccoli/cauliflower, a small bit of salad, garbanzo or black beans, some avocado, or some tofu topped with nutritional yeast and spices. If I don't have time to bake a potato I'll often have some red lentil pasta with regular marinara sauce or a pumpkin sauce I make out of canned pumpkin, almond milk, and some spices. Sometimes I just have a big salad with some meat alternative (I normally have gardein teriyaki "chicken" cooked without the teriyaki sauce, so it's just plain).
Snacks: Carrots/cucumbers/broccoli with hummus, fruit, larabars, cashews or almonds, rice cakes with salsa, etc.
Dessert: Unsweetened vanilla coconut milk yogurt with fruit and/or granola, an apple and/or banana with peanut butter, or some 85% dark chocolate.
I think my main downfall is the fact that I have dessert basically every night. I'm not sure if that's a huge problem because it's not like I'm eating a slice of cake or ice cream, but should I stop anyway? I'm coming off of a long period of counting calories and being obsessive about how much I can or can't have, so I know that even with dessert I'm normally only at about 1,400-1,600 calories a day. I'm trying to increase slowly so as to not shock my body. I also use store-bought hummus, salad dressings, salsa, and pasta sauce. I know it would be better for me to make my own, but I don't really have the equipment necessary or the desire to do so. My diet has improved a lot over the past year and I'm proud of where I am right now, but any tips as to how I could improve even more would be really appreciated!