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Help with diet for a flexitarian

Hi all,

This is my first post and I am a confused eater. My wife has been a vegetarian for many years, experimented with raw and is now a vegan/macrobiotic. Although I am a meat eater, many of the meals I prepare for my wife and I are strictly vegan. I will get a craving for fish or a good piece of red meat, but really have no cravings for any poultry or pork. I know this is a vegan page and offers a vegan product (I just used the vega meal supplement for the first time this morning) but I was hoping to find some diet advice.

I currently weigh about 215 pounds and am approximately 6'1" I don't feel confident in my body and wish I weighed about 20-30 pounds less and much more tone. What would be a good diet to use, and is using the meal supplements/protein vega shakes a good start? Also, I hate running but being on a limited budget I cannot afford a gym membership or a bike at the moment, any exercise advice?

Thanks for any/all advice.

Tags: diet, exercise, loss, meat, vegan, weight

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Permalink Reply by Matt G on April 22, 2010 at 7:09pm

Thanks for the answer Jay. So the packets aren't even a full serving? Good to know.

Jay Crawford said:

Matt,

The Vega Whole Food Health Optimzer (WFHO) is desisned more like a complete 'meal', it's an all-in-one kind of supplement. The packets or snack packs are 1/2 a serving or 1 scoop for the bucket. Price per serving , the big tub is the way to go. Breakfast is a great time to use it. I put a whole serving with a banana and some frozen berries in the blender for my 'breakfast'. The Vega Sport performance protein is designed to be a protein supplement for post workout/activity recovery, simple short chain plant proteins and some BCAAs to get to the muscles quick; intended to prevent soarness.

Matt G said:
This is a ton of information guys, I admit it will take a while to go through. Debates like these can be healthy, but I'm not against eating a certain way, I just know I've tried raw and it does not appeal to me. I am much happier eating a vegetarian/vegan diet and substituting a lean cut of beef/venison and a piece of fish now and then.

So let's say I was eating a healthy diet. How would I use the Vega products? Right now I am taking 30g (1 packet) of complete health food health optimizer for breakfast, usually a leftover vegan meal for lunch and then we cook a vegan meal for dinner. Meals generally include a ton of veggies, brown rice, and we try to include beans or other proteins (lentils) a few times a week. Am I using the Vega product correctly? Should I be using more than 1 packet? (8oz seems like very little) I purchased the packets because I didn't want to commit to the $80 bottle.

Also, I see that there is a sport product from Vega with a higher protein content. Does anyone use this in conjunction with the whole food health optimizer while working out?

Thanks for all of your comments thus far. I really appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by RawPeron on April 23, 2010 at 12:04pm

Matt-

You are doing the right things, the shake in the morning, vegan lunch, vegan dinner. You're a model Thriver in my book. Just remember however old you are that is how long it took you to get here, if you have been inactive for years then its going to take a while to start to see some improvements. If you don't like running, try swimming or biking or rowing or just suck it up and learn to like running. You will find joy in it if you do it long enough I guarantee that. Don't over think this too much. The Thrive products are great but you don't need them to be Thriving! If you want to get toned and don't have a gym, get a pull up bar for your place, do push ups, pull ups, and sit ups. If it works for the Marines it will work for you. The main thing is just keep doing it, everyday walk, run, bike, do something and make no excuses. These changes are hard so don't think you are going to like everything you have to do to make them but eventually they will be what you know and you will find joy in them.

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Permalink Reply by Sara Westbrook on April 24, 2010 at 6:41am

Powerwalking & 80% raw will get you off to a great start towards losing the extra pounds.