Tag Archives: Vegetarian

A Meaty Topic

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in health

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Have you heard how to tell if someone is vegetarian or vegan? Don’t worry they’ll tell you! This also applies to Mac users, people who stopped smoking, and various athletes like marathoners and triathletes. The best one I heard: If you are a vegan, marathoner, who adopted a dog from a rescue shelter how do you know what to bring up first?

It’s funny but the reality is when people are passionate about stuff they talk about it. I switched to a plant based diet in 2013 but I’ve tried to not be too obnoxious about it. With that said, it does push my buttons when people say a person needs to eat meat if they are athletic. “How do you get enough protein?” they ask with wonder in their eyes?

Without getting to technical on you, the data is, if a North American person eats a well balanced, adequate calorie, plant-based diet, they will get more than enough protein. In fact, it’s the meat eaters you need to worry about because generally they are the one’s missing something critical from their diet – fibre. Possibly why meat eaters tend to have way higher incidences of colon cancer than those on a plant based diet. Just a side bonus – a plant based diet is generally less expensive (unless a person shops at Whole Foods but that’s another rant for another day).

Anyway, because of the myths about athletics and a plant based diet, I like stories about people that not only do sports but excel at them all without an ounce of meat. To that end, check this one out.

Meet Dr. Heather Shenkman, Ironman Triathlete and Vegan Cardiologist

Here’s a quote:

“I exercise six days a week, usually doing two workouts per day. My typical weekday morning starts with Golden Road Aquatics, a master’s swim group, from 6-7AM. I shower at the pool and go straight to work. Then, in the evenings, I might go jogging, take a yoga class, or go to a class at Barry’s Boot Camp. Getting in my workouts can be challenging since I’m a busy cardiologist, but I schedule in the time to exercise. I look at my calendar and plan everything in advance so that I know what I am doing as I go into each week. I also do longer, more challenging workouts, like longer trail runs or bike rides, on the weekends.”

It’s a good article so give it a read and let me know what you think.

You Are What you Eat

02 Thursday Feb 2017

Posted by in health, Observations

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As I have been sharing my journey to wellness, I wrote about my switch from a meat and potatoes diet to just potatoes… and nuts, and fruit, and many other vegetables .

When people ask about my diet and I tell them I’m plant-based, no meat, there are two typical responses. One is something along the lines of not getting enough protein. The other is usually a comment about how they tried it once and had troubles with finding things to eat. I am a classic picky eater and I switched to a plant-based life in Yellowknife, NT – Canada’s frozen north. If I had no issues having a healthy balanced diet, no one should. Does that sound judgmental? #sorrynotsorry

As far as protein is concerned, if a person is eating a balanced diet and not starving themselves, a plant-based diet provides enough protein. In fact, the real concern is meat eaters get too much protein and don’t get enough fibre – a double whammy.

I will admit that when I first made the switch, I used various plant-based powders mixed into smoothies. I was figuring out what to do but now I don’t buy that stuff. The only supplements I take are B12, just in case, and D.

food-healthy-vegetables-potatoes

So what do I eat now? I have a fairly simple diet and I’m still a picky eater but here are some standards:

Oatmeal with raisins, chia, flax, and hemp. Just add hot water but sometimes I get a green tea from Starbucks and use that with a little coconut sugar or maple syrup.

Smoothie with banana, avocado, spinach, kale, broccoli and carrot, mixed berries, chia, flax, hemp, ginger. I make a white, hibiscus, and red tea mix with lemon that I use for the liquid part of the smoothie.

Bean burrito that I copied from Taco Time. I even buy their little containers of hot sauce. Lately, I have been sprinkling chia and flax on the beans. It’s pretty good.

Indian food like chana masala, vegetarian samosa, rice, dahl (or dal?).

Some salads as long as they don’t have weird things in them, like bell peppers.

Apples, oranges, dried fruit.

Nuts and seeds – brazil, pistachio, almond, sunflower, pumpkin (plus the chia and flax noted above).

Something we call chipotle dinner that we ripped off from Chipotle. Black beans, cilantro lime rice, and safritas (sp?) which is a tofu tomato sauce mix. Mouth watering. Some people add gaucamole, salsa and lettuce but why ruin a good thing?

Avocado (sushi) roll with ginger and wasabi (this is totally new to me).

There is a local vegetarian Vietnamese place called The Veggie Garden that makes “beef” and broccoli that is incredible. They also make a lemon “chicken” that’s so good I could eat the whole thing. That place is dangerous to my waistline…

Spaghetti with a homemade sauce and sometimes meatless meatballs* that are really good. Otherwise it’s just pasta and sauce.

Baked/roasted potatoes. Of course. I also have a weakness for french fries especially those from Red Robin.

*I try not to eat too many of the meat substitute products as I’m trying to keep the processed food to a minimum.