food, glorious food

As anyone else who is vegan can surely attest, unless you work at PETA with 150 other vegans, everywhere you go, someone is bound to ask you... "but what do you EAT?" It's mind boggling how many people can't imagine a diet that includes anything beyond chicken fingers, cheeseburgers, egg McMuffins, and macaroni 'n' cheese.

Before I started derby, I never worried about my protein intake or getting enough vitamins and minerals. The average American eats waaayyyy more protein than his or her body needs, and I was getting by just fine without having to put much thought into it. But once I started skating 2 hours a day, three to five times a week, getting by didn't quite cut it anymore.

I was a ravenous, bottomless pit. There weren't enough hours in the day to chew the amount of food it took to fill me up. Adding more healthy fats to my diet like avocados and olive oil took care of that problem pretty quickly, but now that I'm seriously training and trying to build endurance and muscle (and heal up a bruised knee bone), I'm thinking a lot more about what I put into my body. My goal is to eat 80-90 grams of protein a day. That's a whole lot of protein for someone whose diet used to consist mainly of white bread, chocolate, and veggie stir frys.

This is a long way of saying, I'm keeping track of what I eat. Lots of my posts will just be my daily diary of what I put in my mouth that day. It's not very interesting reading, but I do a better job of eating right if I feel like someone is holding my accountable, even if it's just an imaginary audience reading this blog.

So here's what I've eaten so far today:
1 piece of bread with Earth Balance (1 gram)
1 cup of coffee with soy milk (1 gram)
1 Vega power shake (25 grams- WHOA!)
2 Amy's mac n soy cheese microwave lunches (16 grams each, 32 total)
a nectarine
hot chocolate= soy milk + Trader Joe's Mint Hot Chocolate mix, yum (3 grams)
pita pizza with soy cheese (9 grams)
battered tofu (7 grams)
instant mashed potatos (3 grams)
decaf coconut chai tea with soy milk before bedtime (1 gram)

grand total- 82 grams- woo-hooo!

Truthfully, it was my first run in with the Vega shake, Viagrra Falls gave it to me at the after party Saturday night (GnR beat the Eugene Emerald City Girls 142-80! GNR GNR GNR!). It's got a chalky consistency and a *very* strange after taste, but for 25 grams of protein, I may starting choking down a couple of these a week. We'll see. Food Fight sells 'em, so I see a trip to my local vegan grocery store and the Sweet Pea vegan bakery in my near future.