Pragmatic Vegan

For anyone who still believes eating vegan or plant-based is too expensive, here's a meal plan for a full day of hearty vegan eating. This is no barebones menu, it's a fully-packed and nutritious example of typical vegan meals. I could go on and on about how eating vegan is not more expensive than other diets, but I think you'd be best served by an example. Of course you could eat even cheaper than this, but I wanted to provide something that looked realistic and well-rounded. I hope you find this helpful! Typical Vegans, Eating Their Vegan Food Chia Raisin Oatmeal and Fruit Protein Fat Carbs kcal 1 cup oats (regular or quick, dry measure) 10.7 5.3 46.7 307 1 tbsp chia seeds 1.7 3.1 0.8 49 2 tbsp raisins 0.6 0 13.6 54 0.5 cup unsweetened, unfortified soymilk 4.5 2.3 0.5 50 0.5 banana 0.6 0.2 11.9 53 ...

I can't be the only one who gets tired of eating massive plates of food and feeling stuffed all the time. I love salads and roasted veggies as much as the next guy, but sometimes I need a break from all the big meals. At times like these, it's handy to know what to eat to keep meal sizes down without dropping your calories too significantly. To that end, here's a 2500 kcal meal plan for a full day of vegan eats . Jump straight to the vegan recipes or the meal plan . The meals consist largely of wholesome, homemade snacks that greatly reduce time spent cooking each week. I'll be sharing my spin on the classic peanut-buttery energy ball, I call them "power bites." These little morsels have been a lifesaver for me; I whip up a single batch and I've got snacks for a week . Not to mention they're healthier and cheaper than buying boxes of Clif bars – they're not filled with brown rice syrup, for one thing (arsenic begone!). Mmmm ... Tasty, Del...

Putting on weight can be a common complaint among vegan athletes and weightlifters aiming to increase their muscle mass. Weightlifters and powerlifters in particular can require huge daily caloric intakes, upwards of 4000 calories, and at times packing in enough food can feel more grueling than the weight training itself. This level of food consumption can be especially challenging on a plant-based diet, where the staple ingredients are far from calorically dense, containing a large volume of water and fiber. Despite this challenge, there are several vegan weightlifters and strongman/woman competitors that are able to consume enough energy to support their sport. Let's take a look at some strategies for increasing calories, while maintaining a reasonably healthy diet that can aid in recovery time. Eat Larger Meals This one may seem obvious, but it can be somewhat daunting to smaller individuals who want to pack on some muscle. For someone who is used to eating smaller mea...

When you are starting out with a plant-based diet, it can be hard to figure out what to eat. Harder still, is knowing what to pick up at the grocery store. I'm going to create an example meal plan (similar to things I eat from day to day), and I'm going to develop this plan so that it's specifically geared toward physically active individuals. I shall call it: my Vegan Fitness Meal Plan and Grocery List. There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Feel free to  jump ahead to the meal plan or the grocery list . Many athletes and partakers in recreational fitness are interested in incorporating large quantities of protein in their diet, so I will address this goal as well; in the interest of showing that it can easily be done, this vegan meal plan meets a 20% / 28% / 52% macronutrient breakdown for protein, fat, and carbohydrates respectively . Most people don't believe this much protein is necessary, and in fact the maximum recommended amount of protein is 1.6 grams ...

Being an occasional visitor of /r/vegan , this is a common question I see: How do I get enough food on a vegan diet while I'm in college? Having been vegan my whole life, eating a plant-based diet while getting the nutrition I need isn’t much of a puzzle. For those vegans just starting out, figuring out what to eat when you have access to your parent’s pantry is hard enough, let alone rummaging up food while away at college. To that end, this post is geared toward fairly new vegans who have to split cooking time with hitting the books – having been a vegan through a few years of college, I hope I can share a helpful hint or two. The limited appliances can pose a unique challenge (i.e., a mini fridge you share with your roommate and a stovetop with a permanent, odoriferous patina two floors down), but let's give it the ol' college try. Where can you get your food? Different colleges have different options, so I’ll use a conservative example. Your dining hall may h...

There will always be those who believe any diet that requires supplementation is inadequate. The truth is, vegans aren't the only ones I see taking multivitamins, and they're definitely not the driving consumers of the supplement market – that would be hard to achieve, being such a small fraction of the population. No matter your diet, very few supplements are essential for your health and wellbeing, but they can be very convenient. It's no easy task to plan out your meals to meet your RDA for every micronutrient under the sun; it's something that most people simply don't do. Even so, there are a few key nutrients to consider for optimal health on a vegan diet, or any diet for that matter. The best place to start is considering what you normally eat in a day. If you don't plan your meals, or your meals tend to be vastly different from one day to the next, this can be hard to do. The easiest strategy is to first make sure you're eating several servin...