{"id":60,"date":"2009-04-10T03:45:47","date_gmt":"2009-04-10T03:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/food-veganism-and-but-what-do-you-eat.html"},"modified":"2009-04-10T03:45:47","modified_gmt":"2009-04-10T03:45:47","slug":"food-veganism-and-but-what-do-you-eat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/food-veganism-and-but-what-do-you-eat.html","title":{"rendered":"The Vegan Diet, and “But What Do You Eat?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fairly often, I get a question from a reader about exactly what I eat. Especially now, with my book The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy<\/i><\/a>, coming out next month, this aspect of life is one I’m thinking of more and more. Here’s a question that came from a lovely woman named Lana a while back, and my response:<\/p>\n

Question: Could you give me a sample of your food plan? I’m having a confusing time trying to decide what type of vegetarian food plan to chose. I’m already a vegetarian, so that’s not the problem. The problem is I can’t decide on whether or not to give up eggs and milk products. It makes like just a little more complicated, but if it’s worth it, I’ll certainly adjust. Do you do 3 meals a day with nothing in between, or do you allow snacks? It seems hard to keep it simple when you are vegan–there is a whole lot more cooking and preparation involved working with whole foods. – Lana, Iowa<\/i><\/p>\n

Hi, Lana (and anyone else who’s wondering…) –<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As I read your questions, I was noting some phrases I don’t think in terms of anymore. I don’t really feel that I have a “food plan” although I suppose I do, nor do I think in terms of “allowing” snacks or anything else, since that seems more authoritarian than I like being with myself. I also chuckled about “a whole lot more cooking and preparation.” I don’t think of myself as cooking very much at all, although I enjoy it when I do.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To answer you, then, as best I can, let me say this: I basically eat three meals a day, although I start with a glass of fresh juice before I go to the gym in the morning. Occasionally (maybe once or twice in a week), I’ll have something – a piece of fruit, a whole-grain cookie, half a Luna bar — at tea time in the afternoon if I’m feeling especially droopy. (In Ayurvedic medicine, three meals a day are recommended, with the caveat that someone with a Vata constitution, my type, can do better sometimes with a little something in the mid-afternoon.) I know a lot of systems recommend snacking or mini-meals throughout the day, but for someone like me, that puts too much emphasis on food. I also find that my digestion works better when there is time in between meals with nothing extra to tax the apparatus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For breakfast, if I’m home, I often have an oatmeal parfait or a soy yogurt parfait. That means I have the oatmeal or the yogurt and top it with fruits, slivered almonds or chopped walnuts, a little flax oil, and some toasted wheat germ. I might substitute Van’s frozen wheat-free waffles, again with some fruit and chopped nuts and little flax oil, plus a little agave nectar or real maple syrup. I always drink black tea in the morning, with some Rice Dream (an alternative to cow’s milk and soy milk). In warm weather, I might make a smoothie instead: soy milk or Rice Dream, fruit, flax oil, wheat germ. When I’m in writing mode and work all morning in a caf\u00e9 I have a grande soy chai tea, no water, no foam. It is rich—definitely a meal and not a drink—and I find it quite a satisfying breakfast with nothing else. (It does contain sugar, which I know a lot of people avoid entirely.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lunch is often soup (lentil, split pea, tomato, carrot-ginger, and potato-corn chowder are among my favorites) with maybe a spelt English muffin and hummus, some raw veggies, and a piece of fruit, or I heat up leftovers from dinner. I never like to keep leftovers any longer than this, or there’s no life force left in them. In summer, I’ll have salad instead of soup, but it’s a big salad and I’ll add garbanzos or other beans, sunflower seeds, and some steamed or roasted veggies so it is a meal that will last until dinner. I use an olive oil & vinegar dressing like Paul Newman’s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the best of possible worlds, the midday meal would be the main one, but for us working folk, that’s difficult, so I do have a heavier dinner than is probably ideal, but I have scaled back \"14514606.JPG\"<\/span>on my dinner amounts somewhat and feel better because of it. In any case, I make sure to eat early, ideally 6:30, no later than 7. We’ll have some kind of entr\u00e9e – my husband’s favorites are chili, veggie-burgers, and pasta (I usually choose a wheat-free pasta) with marinara sauce and vegetables – and a salad. Sometimes I make a “breakfast-dinner” and serve scrambled tofu, veggie-Canadian-bacon, toast or English muffins, and sliced tomatoes (when they’re in season) or grilled onions. Once a week or so, I’ll do something creative and actually use a cookbook, but this isn’t the time of my life when cooking is where my creativity comes out. I keep it pretty simple. And in the summer, we sometimes go raw for weeks at a time — just juices, fruit, salads, sprouts, and yummy raw “fancy” dishes from my collection of raw cook(less) books. (One of my favorites, Raw Food Made Easy for One or Two People<\/i><\/a>, by Jennifer Kornbleet, is pictured here.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I also eat out quite a bit. Vegetarian restaurants are my favorite since the food is whole and I have a lot of choices. I like greens and salads the most in warm weather. William loves Italian food so we go to some Italian place once a week or so. That’s when I know I’ll be having white-flour pasta, and I try to keep that as the only time I eat white flour or, for that matter, wheat products which don’t seem to sit very well with me. Otherwise, I like Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Ethiopian restaurants. They have lots of vegetarian entrees. When I eat out, I seem to have the same parameters as eating at home: one plate. At a place with huge portions, we might share or bring home leftovers for lunch.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone comes to food choices from a different place. Because I suffered so much from binge-eating and related issues for the first three decades of my life, it is very important for me to have a close relationship with the Divine on everything related to food. I need for my life to revolve around God, my family, my work, and what I came to this planet to do. Food needs to be decidedly secondary. When I let the Higher Power take care of the food, I get to do the things I’m better at. It is apparently working and I am very grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fairly often, I get a question from a reader about exactly what I eat. Especially now, with my book The Love-Powered Diet: Eating for Freedom, Health, and Joy, coming out next month, this aspect of life is one I’m thinking of more and more. Here’s a question that came from a lovely woman named Lana…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-happiness"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Vegan Diet, and "But What Do You Eat?" - Your Charmed Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourcharmedlife\/2009\/04\/food-veganism-and-but-what-do-you-eat.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Vegan Diet, and "But What Do You Eat?" - Your Charmed Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Fairly often, I get a question from a reader about exactly what I eat. 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