Posts by carrotface

Original Post by Bekki_97:

Hi everyone!!! This is a meal plan of what I've eaten today. Please let me know if I've ate enough or should eat more, all views are appreciated and if you can suggest a meal plan then that would be great.

Breakfast: 200ml almond milk, 3 full handfuls of gluten free flake cereal, cinnamon, 1tsp of vegan honey Smoothie (125ml light soya milk, 1 ripe banana, 4 frozen strawberries, 2 handfuls frozen blueberries, 3 strawberries, vanilla essence)

Lunch: massive bowl of vegan curry (sweet potato, onion, red+yellow peppers, green beans, broccoli, almond milk) 1 golden delicious apple

Dinner: 1/4 pack tofu, 1 red pepper, 1 small red onion, 7 slices avacoda)

Snacks:1 slice gluten free brown toast, 1tsp dairy free sunflower butter, 1tsp vegan honey 1 large pink lady apple Gluten free raspberry Nakd bar

Drinks: x3 green tea x5 500ml water

Please let me know what you think. I personally feel pretty proud :)

I have replied to your message!

This looks a little better (well done!) but you do seem to be lacking a bit still, if I'm honest. For breakfast I say I would add nuts to your cereal and flax seed to your smoothie for healthy fat/extra protein. To your lunch I would probably add a protein source (like chickpeas or lentils) and maybe fat (like peanut butter or nuts with the apple?) Your dinner is completely lacking in carbohydrates too, so you could easily add some rice and maybe stir fry the vegetables into it using a little oil?

The message I've inboxed you with is probably a bit more comprehensive. Hope this helps!

Original Post by Bekki_97:

THANK YOU soooo much carrotface this is great!!! I can't wait until I make my dinner so I can post what I had to eat today as the meal plan that I posted was from a couple of days ago and I generally think I've improved since then :). Also I'll start tomorrow to measure out my grams of porridge/ cereal, just to make sure I'm eating enough of the yummy stuff.

And.....am..... this may sound kind of stupid, but how do I inbox you, I'm not sure.

That's fine!  I'm glad I can help, and to hear that you've improved. Once you get in to a routine I think you'll find it becomes easier! Don't listen to anyone who says you can't get "enough" in a vegan diet, it isn't true!

A good idea is to weigh out your cereal to get a reference about how much you should have, and then after a while you'll find you don't need to. Or you could use a measuring cup!

Under my name it should say "send message".  

I can think of a few really easy ways to increase your diet without noticing much. I hope you don't mind my suggestions. I'm not coeliac but I do eat a largely vegan (except honey) diet!

Firstly, how many oats are you using for your porridge? It needs to be 40-50g ideally. You could also be making it with milk (soya, almond, rice?) rather than water. Adding nuts to your porridge is another good way of increasing your breakfast. My dietician recommends around 25g (as a source of protein/fat) but I find even 15 - 20g is a nice amount! If you don't like that, how about adding nut butters, or seeds? Or ground flax seed to your smoothie? So healthy as well! A final suggestion could be to add a slice of gluten free toast with nut butter, coconut oil or a vegan margarine.

For reference, my (dietician approved) breakfast is 40g cereal, 200ml milk, 200ml juice/banana/30g dried fruit, 20g nuts and a slice of thick toast with 15g peanut butter!

For lunch, again I would say you were lacking in fats, so perhaps some avocado could be quite a nice addition? Or even a dressed salad (cheap and easy to make with seasonings, oil and lemon juice) perhaps. You also don't have a proper serving of carbohydrate, so you could easily add in a serving of rice, or even quinoa or buckwheat (you can get these from Tesco).

Snacks are easy to increase also. Did you use a spread on your bread? Nut butters are gluten free, yummy and would also add to your protein intake. In terms of convenience you could buy the gluten free Nakd bars (just dried fruit and nuts) or even make some yourself, or there are vegan Peanut "9" Bars now. Other suggestions include flavoured soya milk, fruit juice, more smoothies.

Please feel free to inbox me if you need any more advice! I would say that your intake really isn't enough for weight gain though, if I'm honest.

Hey! Welcome to the forum!

Seeing the dietician will be great but in the mean time, don't worry! I'm sure there are loads of easy ways to adapt your diet to help you gain. I think a good idea (if you would feel comfortable doing so) is to give an outline of a typical day of food for you. So what type, what portion and what times you'd usually eat at. From there I guess we can offer some more advice!

Without knowing what you're eating already, the first thing I would say is to ensure that you're eating regularly. This would be a minimum of 3 snacks and 3 good meals each day. Be mindful of having balanced meals with a good portion of carbs, protein and fat. The second thing is to ensure that you're eating calorie dense (this doesn't necessarily equal unhealthy) food options. Examples include nuts, seeds, nut butters, avocado, hummus, dried fruit, salad dressings, mayonaise, full fat dairy, bagels, seeded bread, roasted vegetables, oily fish and granola in addition to things like chips, crisps, chocolate, cake and pastries. Another good idea is to include higher calorie beverages like lattes, juices, smoothies and milkshakes to help to bump your intake up further. They'll be all kinds of recipes posted over this forum!

x

Isn't this a little early to be thinking about yet? Your best bet is to keep up the hard work and continue eating 2500+. How about you see how you feel when you get to 130lbs? My guess is you'll be needing quite a lot to even maintain your weight, so if you were to continue with 2500 calories your weight would naturally level at a point that's healthy for you. If your thoughts are less disordered, your periods have returned and you feel comfortable eating an amount to sustain a good weight, you'll probably be fine. <3

To answer your question: It might be the higher end of "normal" but you really did look your healthiest at 147lbs. You looked great at 130lbs too, though.

Saved my life.

Oh and to UK people: LIDL are stocking mocha and coconut spreads (Nutella style, for toast etc)...! I haven't tried them yet but they sound AMAZING. Just a heads up!

Original Post by thebiggerpicture:

be outlet shopping, but the trip was cancelled with no notice. Happily though, I had a nice day anyway, And actually got a little bit of work done! Happy Dance. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could replace my traditional Hot Choccie with during the summer? I like having a drink before bed as I think it helps with staying hydrated during the night (particularly after a glass of wine), and it’s a good routine to help me sleep. I wonder if a cold drink might be better during the summer though. I find milk makes my breath smell unpleasant in the morning, so any other suggestions? Hope everyone in the UK is enjoying the sunshine!

 How about a non-dairy alternative to milk? Oatly do a nice chocolate oat milk, and Alpro Soya do a chocolate soy milk (higher kcal than Oatly). Both lovely before bed!

glitterandsprinkles - I just wanted to type a quick message to say thanks for such a positive post! I've had a rough day but it's made me really smile to read about your success. Big well done. x

Original Post by mashed_tatties:

Yesterday

B 2 ex large slices wholemeal toast + 3 tbsp peanut butter 

L Sandwich made with 2 thick slices wholemeal bread, 3 grilled fish fingers, 1 tbsp each mayo and ketchup, mixed greens and spring onion, black pepper. Sliced apple, full fat vanilla yoghurt

S 2 oz bombay mix, 1 oz soya nuts 

D 75g (dry weight) wholewheat pasta with 2 tbsp pesto stirred in, 2 oz cooked chicken breast, 100g peas, 1/2 cup sauteed mushrooms (all mixed together with basil, garlic, s+p) 

S 1 cup Ben and Jerry's 'Fairly Nuts' - absolutely divine! 

 Have you ever tried Ben and Jerry's 'Coconutterley Fair'? It's A-MA-ZING! They sell it in Tesco.