Saturday, September 17, 2011

1000 Calorie Challenge- Raw Vegan Menu

So, I thought I'd give you guys a little peek into what it takes to make the 1000 Calorie Challenge work on a vegan or raw vegan diet. Now, the calorie content here might seem extremely low, but remember that the 1000 Calorie Challenge uses fluctuating caloric intakes to encourage better fat burning potential. I'd like to point out here that with only a mere 1000 calories to work with on certain days, the raw vegan diet packs a big nutritional punch with such a small amount of food. I think you'd be hard pressed to get the amount of nutrition I get on a 1000 calorie raw vegan day with a normal amount of calories on the standard American diet.

To keep myself from getting too hungry, I break up my eating schedule into five 200 calorie meals taken every 3 hours. Also, I always eat my green smoothie just after a workout.

Breakfast: 20 ounces of honeydew melon

Mid Morning Meal (Second Breakfast?): 1 LARABAR

Lunch: 1 large banana and 5 ounces of green grapes

Mid Afternoon Meal: Green smoothie with 1 small heart of organic romaine, 1 small banana, 1 cup almond milk, and 1 scoop of Garden of Life Raw Protein powder

Dinner: 10 ounces fuji apple, 2 large organic tomatoes sliced, and 1 large romaine salad with nutritional yeast, carrot and red cabbage

Nutritional Highlights:
Calories: 1126 (the CronOMeter counts calories in things like tomatos and romaine which are free on the 1000 Calorie Challenge plan)
Protein: 42 grams!
Vitamin A: 1367%
Vitamin C: 358%
Vitamin K: 457%
Omega 3: 90%

Everything else came in around 80%, sometimes more, sometimes less. This information is from food only, not counting my supplements, my spirulina tablets, or my nutrient dense herbal infusions. For only eating a percentage of my actual caloric needs, I'm really happy that eating so simply and easily is also amazingly beneficial for my body. I'd also like to point out here that I took in almost 100% of my daily value of Omega 3 fatty acids without eating so much as a piece of fish or a flax seed. Yes, essential fatty acids are found in simple fruits and vegetables, and nutrient tracking programs like this one can prove it.

 I've just completed Day One of Week Four yesterday, and holy crap, this week's workout is nowhere near joking! Phase Two of the program starts next week, so Week Four of Phase One is my last chance to get my act together and build up my reps and weights so I'm primed and prepped for the actual 1000 Calorie Challenge! Week Four workouts burn 800 calories, and at the end of the 65 minutes, I feel like I've burned about that many. Arms shaking, legs giving out, abs sore...I'm telling you right now, this workout is the real deal. I'm seriously excited to start up next week's routine, but at the same time I'm very scared T_T

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