Breakfast A minimum of 12 hours from the previous night's dinner
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil (Fiji Organic)
- Cereal (2 cups): Shredded Wheat & Bran (Post Spoon Sized), Almond Milk (Unsweetened Blue Diamond Original)
- Shake (2 cups): Almond Milk (Unsweetened Blue Diamond Original), 10g Whey Protein Powder (Ultimate High Alpha), 2/3 tablespoon Spirulina Powder (Organika Blue-Green Algae), 2/3 teaspoon Flax Oil (Barleans Omega Swirl), 2/3 cup Frozen Berries (Compliments Field Berry Blend or Paradise Trio), 1/3 cup Greek Style Yogurt (Astro)

Lunch 5-6 hours from breakfast
- Salad (2 cups): Assorted greens (spinach, butter lettuce, romaine), Assorted Vegetables (cucumber, tomato, avocado, edamame beans, onion, bell peppers), 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Bertolli), 3/4 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar (Bertolli), dash Ground Black Pepper
- 1/4 cup Cheese (cheddar, marble, mozzarella, swiss)
- 1 Wasa/Rvita Cracker
- 1/4 cup Mixed Nuts (unsalted almonds, walnuts pecans, pumpkin seeds)
- Fruit (strawberries, banana, grapefruit, kiwi, orange, apple, papaya, grapes, mango, blueberry, cantaloupe)

Dinner 5-6 hours from lunch, finished 3 hours before bed
Examples:
- Minestrone Soup *
- Stuffed Peppers/Zucchini
- Vegetarian Chili *
- Roasted Red Pepper Sauce for Whole Wheat Spaghetti (packaged)
- Roasted Red Pepper Soup
- Vegetable Paella
- Asparagus Soup
- Vegetable Spring Roll
- Lentil Sheppard's Pie *
- Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas *
- Asparagus Stuffed Ravioli

* Contains firm tofu

Notes:
- Fluid Intake: 3 litres of water, 1 litre of decaffeinated green tea
- Vitamins: 1 tab Vitamin B50 Complex (Jamieson), 2 tabs Vitamin D (Jamieson 1000 international units), 1 tab Multivitamin (Multisure for Men), 2 tabs Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil (Webber Naturals 1000mg)
- Physical Activity: A minimum of 45 minutes per day 6 days per week

Things I have been reading about and am wondering if they are worth adding:
- Quinoa
- Lecithin
- Borage Oil
- Wheat Germ
- Azuki Bean
- Seitan
- Almond Butter

I would drop the salmon oil, fish isn't vegetarian and you can get omega 3 from walnuts or ground flax seed.

Just eat a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and nuts and you're all set.

Wild Alaskan Salmon Oil??? HUH? Quit the fish!

I'm guessing that's for omega DHA? Try getting it where the fish get theirs--algae!
I take these:
http://www.amazon.com/V-Mega3-Vegan-...=pd_ys_iyr_img

I'd like more beans-It's hard to tell how much protein you're getting besides the tofu. Quinoa and seitan are good choices.
You may like a site like sparkpeople.com, or fitday.com to track your nutrients.

Check out vegweb.com too!

Welcome!

Oops~



(toes the ground)

...and here I was thinking I had eliminated all but the veggie stuff from my diet. I had totally forgotten about supplements.

Change will come soon.

It looks like you're off to a great start.

Your menu has made me hungry! The only issue (besides the fish oil, but I won't beat the dead horse ) is that your meals are so far apart. Definitely adds snacks to help curb any hunger and keep a steady energy through the day. Also, quinoa is definitely worth adding. It's delicious, versatile, and I believe it's a complete protein. Can't go wrong!

Good luck and keep us posted!

I appreciate your assistance, thanks so much.


Wonderful resources that I will check out, thanks


I appreciate that. I feel a tad overwhelmed at times, but we're slowly getting this a tad more refined.


The rationale behind the scripted meal times minus snacks is focusing on a leptin reset (Byron Richard's protocol). If you believe him then you do get snacks in between, but they come from you liver, as opposed to being munched on in the traditional sense. We did this program with 3 snacks throughout the day, and now we're playing with the leptin reset as a comparable. The race is on and we will stick with the one that wins.

There are some really good vegan omega 3 supplements out there that are algae derived -- the algae is where fish get the omega 3's from anyway. Ovega-3 is one brand which is quite similar to fish oil in DHA/EPA content. Deva is another brand which just has DHA.

As far as the rest of your diet goes, it sounds fine. You might find you need to adjust quantities as meat is more calorie dense than most veggie foods. Most people don't really need to measure their food and fluid intake so strictly, but if that is what's been working for you that's fine. If you're trying to do a very low calorie diet, I think a visit to your doctor and probably a dietitician is in order, though, to make sure your diet is safe and nutritionally adequate.

I appreciate your advice, as well as the advice that came before you, regarding omega 3 alternatives. I'm simply seeking out a way to raise my HDL, so it matters little how I get there, and I'd much rather avoid animal products if possible.

The reason why all the measurements have been provided is because I presented it to a dietitian just last week. As with almost every dietitian in my neck of the woods, she eats meat and is not all that knowledgeable about vegetarian alternatives.

Sorry to hear that your visit to a dietician wasn't very helpful. You might check out the book Vegan for Life - it is by an RD Ginny Messina and provides a very good overview of the nutritional requirements of a vegetarian diet (well, vegan, but the same stuff applies for vegetarians unless you're eating a lot of dairy and eggs).

Thanks for the resource with the book. I will check that out. As for the dietician, I appreciate her perspective and simply wish that I had easier access to a vegetarian dietician.

I don't think a dietician needs to be vegetarian to be knowledgeable. When I first became vegetarian, my dietician was pretty knowledgeable and I'm pretty sure she wasn't vegetarian herself. I really think vegetarianism is one of the more common issues a dietician will be consulted for, even in areas where vegetarianism isn't all that common like me. If you have the chance, I would shop around for another dietician.

What are good sources for lecithin? Do you see the benefit in throwing that into your diet?

I read about sunflower oil and soybean, but I'm trying to cut back on my sources of soy due to the worry about plant estrogen.


Downside of being in a small town, my choices are not that great, and thus far each of them have solved the protein/iron issue by suggesting that we eat meat lol.

Updated...


Breakfast A minimum of 12 hours from the previous night's dinner
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil (Fiji Organic)
- Cereal (2 cups): Shredded Wheat & Bran (Post Spoon Sized), Almond Milk (Unsweetened Blue Diamond Original)
- Shake (2 cups): Almond Milk (Unsweetened Blue Diamond Original), Wheat Germ, Borage Oil, 10g Whey Protein Powder (Ultimate High Alpha), 2/3 tablespoon Spirulina Powder (Organika Blue-Green Algae), 2/3 teaspoon Flax Oil (Barleans Omega Swirl), 2/3 cup Frozen Berries (Compliments Field Berry Blend or Paradise Trio), 1/3 cup Greek Style Yogurt (Astro)

Lunch 5-6 hours from breakfast
- Salad (2 cups): Assorted greens (spinach, butter lettuce, romaine), Assorted Vegetables (cucumber, tomato, avocado, edamame beans, onion, bell peppers), 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Bertolli), 3/4 teaspoon White Wine Vinegar (Bertolli), dash Ground Black Pepper
- 1/4 cup Cheese (cheddar, marble, mozzarella, swiss)
- 1 Wasa/Rvita Cracker
- 1/4 cup Mixed Nuts (unsalted almonds, walnuts pecans, pumpkin seeds)
- Fruit (strawberries, banana, grapefruit, kiwi, orange, apple, papaya, grapes, mango, blueberry, cantaloupe)

Dinner 5-6 hours from lunch, finished 3 hours before bed
- Include: quinoa, brussel sprouts, almond butter, seitan, assorted beans (including azuki)
Examples: Minestrone Soup (contains tofu), Stuffed Peppers/Zucchini, Vegetarian Chili (contains tofu), Roasted Red Pepper Soup, Vegetable Paella, Asparagus Soup, Vegetable Spring Roll, Lentil Sheppard's Pie (contains tofu), Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas (contains tofu), Asparagus Stuffed Ravioli

Notes:
- Fluid Intake: 3 litres of water, 1 litre of decaffeinated green tea
- Vitamins: 1 tab Vitamin B50 Complex (Jamieson), 2 tabs Vitamin D (Jamieson 1000 international units), 1 tab Multivitamin (Multisure for Men), 2 tabs Omega-3
- Physical Activity: A minimum of 45 minutes per day 6 days per week

For anyone interested in nutrition this is a great source:
http://www.amazon.com/mn/search/?ref...ix=thrive&rd=1

Also veganhealth.com

When looking at Amazon books always check out the "look inside" feature- you get a lot of info (and recipes) that way!

Thanks so much!