Tracking Your Food
Do you track your food? I recommend to my students, most of the time this last for about 3-4 days then they stop.. But there is huge advantages in tracking you’re food, not calorie counting but actually having an understand, comprehending what is going into you to fuel you each day.. You can also start to track what days you felt better based off of what you may or may have not eaten. You have to find what works best for you!
What I write down:
Date:
Time between last and first meal
Summary of what I have going on.
Size/ portion , food/ liquid , grams of protein, and Calorie.
How I felt that day.
So my example from today;
Friday March 27th.
16 hours ( fasting ) 8pm to 12pm
Today is an easy day, no real training planned, office work, with an hour of riding in the afternoon planned with the kids. So, today I’m also doing only 2 meals today.
Personally on a little cleanse, 1. working to remove Gluten from diet, 2. looking to drop from my 178lbs to 168/165lbs by June.
12pm:
1 scoop of Garden of Life Raw Organic Meal Chocolate 20 gram Protein / 120 Calories
2 cup Frozen Blue Berries 3g P / 160 C
1 cup Ripple ( plant-based milk) unsweetened 8g P / 80 C note also has B12 2.5mcg and Vitamin D 6 mcg
2 Tbs Almond butter on top 7g P / 210 C
1 full Avocado 3g P/ 230 C
Total 40g protein and 800 Calories
5pm:
2 cups Brown rice pasta 16g P/ 930 C
2 cups cooked Napa Cabbage 3g P / 40 C
2 tbsp Vegan Casear dressing 70 C
2 tbsp Avocado Oil Butter 120 C
3 cups of mix greens 2g P/ 30 C
Total 19g P / 1190 C
8pm Snack:
4 Figs 2g P / 220 C
1 Scoop Garden of Life Recovery 2g P/ 60 C
whats in the Garden of life Recovery?
Additional Magnesium - The current daily recommendation for magnesium is about 400 mg, which does not seem hard to meet with a healthy diet, but the digestive system only absorbs 20-50% of the magnesium ingested. For women the daily recommended allowance ranges between 300 to 350 mg, while for men the same is between 400 to 450 mg. However, for athletes experts recommend between 500 and 800 mg of magnesium supplementation daily as a reasonable dose to replenish stores and reduce cortisol levels.
Additional Riboflavin - riboflavin plays in athletes is enhancing oxygen delivery. Hemoglobin, the protein responsible for transporting oxygen in the body, requires riboflavin in order to synthesize. Having adequate oxygen transport allows athletes to perform better with less fatigue.
Additional Folate - Folate is a B vitamin. It plays an important role in red blood cell production and tissue repair. It is also an important component of cell division, especially in cells with higher turnover rates. In endurance athletes, the red blood cells have a significantly higher turnover rate due to the stresses of training
Total for day:
63 grams protein / 2270 C.
Today was a little low on the vegan protein/ Calorie scale recommended ( about 71g for 175lbs male / about 0.36 grams of protein per pound that we weigh) but I felt good. Tons of energy and speaking of which its almost 1am now, and I have been getting 7-8 hours of sleep lately.
Why track all this and more? Lets get you to reach your goals, feel your best, and want more. Email johnny@moto-anatomy.com and start a discussion on this topic, supplements, removing and adding some nutrient density to your lifestyle.
Next Day:
Saturday March 28th.
16 hours ( fasting ) 8pm to 12pm - 2 times a week in a row I do 16 hours of fasting, then 12 hours usually 8pm to 8am on normal days.
12pm-
2 cup Blueberries 2g P/ 160 C
1 cup Ripple ( Plant-based Milk) 8g P / 80 C
1 Scoop of Garden of Life Protein and Green 20g P / 130 C
4 TBS Almond Butter 14g P / 420 C
1/4 cup dry oatmeal ( then cooked) 3g P / 80 C
Total 47g Protein and 910 Calories
Snack -
2 - Figs 1g P/ 110 C
6pm-
2 Wraps Gluten Free 6g P/ 300 C
3/4 cup of Vegan shredded cheese 240 C ( 2.1 mcg of B12 )
3 Tbsp of Vegan Mayo 270 C
1 bag of Lena Lunda Chipotle Bowl 18G P / 260 C
2 Cup Broccoli Soup 6g P / 160 C
Total 40g Protein / 1230 Calories
Snack-
2 pack Made Good Granola 4g P / 210 C
Total for the day 91g Protein and 2460 Calorie
Reference:
Protein in the Vegan Diet
by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
From Simply Vegan 5th Edition
Summary: It is easy for a vegan diet to meet recommendations for protein, as long as calorie intake is adequate. Strict protein combining is not necessary; it is more important to eat a varied diet throughout the day.
Some Americans are obsessed with protein. Vegans are bombarded with questions about where they get their protein. Athletes used to eat thick steaks before competition because they thought it would improve their performance. Protein supplements are sold at health food stores. This concern about protein is misplaced. Although protein is certainly an essential nutrient which plays many key roles in the way our bodies function, we do not need huge quantities of it. Only about one calorie out of every 10 we take in needs to come from protein. Vegan athletes, especially in the early stages of training, may have higher protein needs than vegans who exercise moderately or who are not active. Vegan athletes’ protein needs can range from 0.36 to 0.86 grams of protein per pound 2. Protein supplements are not needed to achieve even the highest level of protein intake.
How much protein do we need? The RDA recommends that we take in 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram that we weigh (or about 0.36 grams of protein per pound that we weigh) 1. This recommendation includes a generous safety factor for most people. When we make a few adjustments to account for some plant proteins being digested somewhat differently from animal proteins and for the amino acid mix in some plant proteins, we arrive at a level of 0.9 gram of protein per kilogram body weight (0.41 grams per pound). If we do a few calculations we see that the protein recommendation for vegans amounts to close to 10% of calories coming from protein. [For example, a vegan male weighing 174 pounds could have a calorie requirement of 2,600 calories. His protein needs are calculated as 174 pounds x 0.41 g/pound = 71 grams of protein. 71 grams of protein x 4 calories/gram of protein = 284 calories from protein. 284 divided by 2,600 calories = 10.9% of calories from protein.] If we look at what vegans are eating, we find that, typically, between 10-12% of calories come from protein 3. This contrasts with the protein intake of non-vegetarians, which is close to 14-18% of calories.
So, in the United States it appears that vegan diets are commonly lower in protein than standard American diets. Remember, though, with protein, more (than the RDA) is not necessarily better. There do not appear to be health advantages to consuming a high protein diet. Diets that are high in protein may even increase the risk of osteoporosis 4 and kidney disease 5.