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My Diet

January 10, 2009

SophieMonk11Nov2007 My DietQuestion: Coach, I understand that you are a vegetarian like me. I was just wondering if you would be willing to post an example of what your diet looks like.
Thanks,

Keith

Answer: This is a question I get a lot so for whoever is interested here is what a typical day looks like for me. Keep in mind that I am trying to gain back a lot of weight that I lost due to an injury. I have gained 20lbs of muscle back in the last 6 weeks by eating what you will read below. When not eating to gain weight I eat fewer total calories and eat less often, allowing my body to detox and enzyme load while not constantly stressing my digestive system.

Breakfast- I always start with a shake. This usually consists of hemp, rice or pea protein or some combination of the three. I mix 40-50 grams of protein in 8oz of organic coconut milk and 8-12 oz water. I add mixed frozen berries, a banana, a tablespoon of cacao nibs, 3 tablespoons maca powder, which is tremendous for virility and testosterone production. This shake tastes absolutely incredible.

Snack- I will usually have a few tangerines and some pistachios/cashews or two apples with almond butter. Fresh ground almond butter from Whole Foods is one my favorite things and I could easily eat an entire container in one sitting. Sometimes for a treat at night I mix it with organic honey and kill the entire container, washing it down with a cup of hemp or almond milk.

I am big fan of high sodium intake for strength and energy production so I consume a few pickles every day and add sea salt to much of food.

Lunch- Usually some kind of beans and organic brown rice or quinoa. I will sauté black beans with peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic and mix that in with the rice. I top it with salsa and some fresh avocado. That is my Mexican style rice and beans. Sometimes I just mix the beans and rice or quinoa with marinara sauce. I always cook enough for two days.

I will sometimes have a salad with that or eat some raw veggies or mix some spinach into the whole thing.

Occasionally I will have a couple almond butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. I have cut out peanut and peanut butter completely along with wheat so these are not eaten as much as they used to be. I get some brown rice bread for the times I do eat these.

Snack- Similar to above. When I’m not near food I always carry Raw Organic Food Bars with me and a variety of nuts. If I am home and have had fruit for my first snack I try to make this snack raw veggies and hummus.

Somewhere along the line I also drink another shake. This is usually after my workout. It is similar to the shake above except that I don’t include the coconut milk or the cacao but I do use the maca powder. I blend a banana, almond milk, water, frozen spinach (you don’t taste the spinach at all so this is nowhere near as gross as it sounds) with Vega and some extra protein.

During my workouts I drink coconut water. And I try to drink at least a half gallon of water throughout the day out glass or my Sigg bottle and do my best to avoid plastic. I also drink a couple cups of green tea each day.

Dinner- I usually cook some kind of stew consisting of a wide variety of vegetables and some kind of legumes. For example, the other day I got home and all that we had was brocollini, squash, onions, spinach and garlic. I threw it all in a pot with vegetable broth, salt, pepper and yellow peas, which have 10 grams of protein per ¼ cup (you would have to eat a lot of dead cow flesh to equal the protein in two cups of yellow peas). I let that cook for 2 hours and then mixed in some quinoa. It was absolutely delicious. Other times we will mix brown rice in with a variety of other veggies and lentils. If I was trying to get lean I would skip the brown rice.

I try to avoid soy as much as possible because of it’s estrogenic effects but on occasion we will have some tofu with rice or some fake meat with brown rice pasta.

I also eat soy and wheat free veggie burgers a few nights per week and almost always have a huge spinach salad mixed with peppers, tomatoes, olives, onions, apples, pecans or walnuts, avocado, broccoli, carrots, and whatever else is around. I top that with olive oil, Vega oil and vinegar.

This weekend I am going to cook mushroom barley soup. Another weekend treat I love is seitan scallopine. Seitan is wheat protein and comes in cutlets or little shredded pieces kind of like chicken. It is packed with protein and tastes great when cooked properly. It is wheat gluten, however, which is highly inflammatory so I try to avoid it as much as possible. Not that it’s terrible for you; it’s just something that I wouldn’t overindulge in. Anyway, I make an incredible seitan scallopine that rivals the best veal scallopine any Italian restaurant makes, anywhere. We have this with mashed potatoes or brown rice pasta. It’s incredible.

Dessert- Occasionally, when I am going to cheat I will have some organic coconut milk ice cream. This is, obviously, made with coconut milk and not cows milk. It is delicious and pretty healthy. Coconut milk contains healthy MCT’s and has none of the dangers of cows milk. It is sweetened with organic agave syrup. You can check it out here: http://www.purelydecadent.com/products/purely_decadent_Coconut_Milk_Reviews.html

I highly recommend it.

The only other cheat dessert that I will regularly eat is organic, dark chocolate. This has been shown to have a variety of health benefits. The brands I buy are those that support slave free, fair trade practices. These include Newman’s Own, The Endangered Species Chocolate Company and Green and Blacks.

Supplements- Digestive enzymes, B12, maca, probiotics, vitamic c from alma berries, anti estrogen herbs. Some other stuff occasionally but that’s about it.

There you have it. Hopefully this sheds some light on how you can get ample protein and calories on a vegetarian or vegan diet. It’s really quite easy, and a whole lot healthier. If you have any questions please let me know.

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Written by jasonferruggia · Filed Under Nutrition 

Comments

11 Responses to “My Diet”

  1. Doug GroceNo Gravatar on January 10th, 2009 11:20 am

    Dude this opens a whole other world – You talk a lot about some of the estrogenic effects of foods – I’d love to see a list of some foods or supplements that are good for testosterone, or some more foods to avoid that have too much estrogen.

  2. NiiNo Gravatar on January 10th, 2009 11:28 am

    What’s up Jason,

    Thanks for sharing this with everyone. It’s good to know that you can still get jacked being a vegetarian when its done properly.

    PEACE,

    Nii

  3. Chris LopezNo Gravatar on January 10th, 2009 3:17 pm

    Jay, Another great post, man. I’m with Doug on this one. What are some of the anti-estrogenic herbs that you use?

  4. DaveRNo Gravatar on January 10th, 2009 4:10 pm

    Jason,
    Thanks for sharing this. What does this type of diet cost you? Would you be able to share where you buy your foods and powders?
    Also, are there any nutrition books or resources that you recommend?
    Thanks, Dave

  5. Geek2Freak BrandonNo Gravatar on January 10th, 2009 6:22 pm

    Great tip on the SIGG bottle, those are perfect!

    What about Tupperware containers, are those safe to keep cooked chicken breasts in? That’s the only other plastic I use, other than water bottles, but SIGG didn’t have any containers like that, so are regular Tupperware containers safer than water bottles?

  6. ShaneNo Gravatar on January 12th, 2009 1:52 pm

    That’s great if you don’t mind spending $1000 on food every month. Believe me I wish I could. I love organic but I just have to do the best with what I can afford.

  7. MattNo Gravatar on January 13th, 2009 5:01 pm

    Great article Jay! Been super curious about that…
    Couple questions: what do you mean when you say “allowing my body to detox and enzyme load ” ?
    Also, could you shed more light and info. on digestive enzymes and probiotics? What you take, why etc?
    Keep it up man!

  8. Geek2Freak BrandonNo Gravatar on January 16th, 2009 5:46 am

    Just updated my diet log too:

    http://www.geek2freak.com/diet-log/

  9. Donovan "DFitnessguy"No Gravatar on January 19th, 2009 9:33 am

    Very eye opening. I tried the vegetarian thing at one point in my life. Didn’t hold, but these are some great ideas to add to any diet.

    Thanks Jason.

    Donovan “DFitnessguy” Owens

  10. patrick collinsNo Gravatar on January 27th, 2009 9:08 pm

    Hey Jason, i wanted to know why the coconut water instead of waxy-maize and protein. Thanks

  11. ChrisNo Gravatar on October 29th, 2009 11:01 am

    Jason,

    How often do you take the digestive enzyes and probiotics. Do you take the digestive enzymes only when eatng a meal that scooked or all the time?

    Thanks,

    Chris

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