Cycling Better

This is the way people treat me what I talk about being vegan and still training extremely hard. Yes I’m vegan – yes I work out and ride my bike as much as I can. My dietary goals for calories are to be at 40% carbs, and 30% from both protein and fat. This calls for me to eat 200 grams of protein/day for my frame size and activity level. So what’s the issue?

Not eating the protein that’s for sure – I’m always amazed when people ask this question. It just shows how little others know about nutrition – but it’s ok. It gives me a chance to talk about all the sources we use. Veggies!! Yes, crazy huh? Veggies have a lot of protein, vital wheat gluten is one of my favs as well – of course I do supplement with protein powders as well – #vega with greens and #orgain are two of my favorites in this category. I use only water to mix them right now but may be switching soon to fix my biggest issue.

FAT!!! I started tracking all my foods and I was amazed at how little fat I was eating. In fact most days prior to my tracking I was about 1/2 of what I am doing now. This is kind of a fun thing but it is also the place I #struggle. My calorie count calls for about 100g of fat each day. this has been tough for me since I don’t have meat sources to use for all that fat. So what am I doing? This is where it gets super fun!!! I’m eating peanut butter, sunflower seeds and avocados like crazy. I even started adding hemp seeds to oatmeal to help get the fat spread more evenly through the day instead of piling it all on late at night. I’m thinking of adding some cashew milk to my protein shakes when I can as well to add it into other meals and also to get my b12 from it. Lately it’s been easier as I have been learning to add it in earlier in the day but wow, what an eye opener.

Sodium is the next issue to tackle for me I think – too much of it right now in my diet but one thing at a time I guess.