Full Up on Plant-Based Foods

None of us are sure exactly how it started - we were running stairs at Harvard stadium so I could track how many calories I was burning for my metabolic armband post. Someone mentioned that several people he knew were doing cleanses recently, I shared my opinion about the danger of cutting macronutrients out of your diet, and the next thing you know, the three of us were on a two-week long vegan cleanse*.

This was a lot easier for me than it was for either of them. I had already cut red meat and pork out of my diet and was a huge fan of tofu, legumes, and other vegan-friendly food products. Dan has a meat-share (like a CSA but with locally-raised meat) and Chris's breakfast routine every day includes two eggs. We sat at brunch that day after running the stairs eating eggs (me) and plenty of breakfast meat (them) going over what could and could not be eaten during these two weeks. Chris asked about bread (normally OK but check the package just in case) and we went over easy options for cooking at home (make sure to plan ahead) and eating out (Mexican and almost any type of Asian cuisine are the most likely to have options).

We all came out of it with mixed results, Dan making it the full two weeks despite his co-workers tempting him with copious amounts of Valentine's Day chocolate. Chris stopped early in order to get back to eating meat prior to joining Cross Fit (huge proponents of the Paleo Diet) and I did fine except for accidentally eating a handful of Cheetos halfway through the second week.

People often assume that you'll lose weight if you stop eating animal products, and I'm sure that a lot of people do (in fact, Dan did lose weight during the two weeks). For me though, I still ate just as many calories as I normally do, maybe even more because I constantly had a bag full of snacks with me in case I couldn't find any while out. It seems that many think of a vegan diet as being sparse, and in fact I've had people tell me that you "can't get full" on vegan food. True, there were times during the two weeks that I would've felt more full if I had been able to melt cheese on top of whatever I was eating, and I did get tired of the taste of soy milk, but besides that I ate some of the most delicious food I've had in a while. So for those who think of vegan food as nothing but bland tofu, mushy brown rice, and rubbery meat-replacement products, here were some of my favorite meals from the past two weeks....

Breakfast
Frozen hashbrowns sauteed in olive oil with wilted spinach, chipotle salsa, and lentils.
Whole-wheat tortilla with peanut butter and banana.
Steel-cut oats with maple syrup and walnuts.

Lunch
Whole-wheat tortilla filled with: brown rice, fire-roasted corn (comes frozen from Trader Joe's), avocado, cilantro, lentils, chipotle salsa.
Spinach salad with garbanzo beans, roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes, tomato, cucumber, and tabouli.
Whole-wheat tortilla filled with: white-bean hummus, chopped tomatoes, baby spinach, and falafel (frozen, again from Trader Joe's).

Snacks
I love Meatless Primal Strips and also ate plenty of my usual snacks (almonds, Luna bars, bananas, veggies and hummus).

Dinner
We had some great meals out including Grasshopper, an all-vegan Asian restaurant nearby, and True Bistro, an upscale vegan restaurant in Somerville.

As I mentioned earlier, Valentine's Day happened to fall during this two-week period and lucky for me I have a very understanding boyfriend who didn't mind helping me cook this delicious recipe for Polenta Lasagna with Portabellas and Kale that night. I was also helping out with data-collection in a school cafeteria on one of the days and after smelling lasagna all day had an intense craving. Fortunately, I was able to find this recipe which substitutes tofu for ricotta in a traditional lasagna and it really hit the spot!

Vegan lasagna: healthy, filling, and delicious!

All-in-all it was really interesting to go vegan for two weeks in order to see all of the challenges that people can face. It made me value clearly-stated food labels and I did end up planning ahead more often in order to cook at home. Dan has said that the two weeks made him appreciate vegetables in a way that he never has before and while he's not about to give up his meat share, he's going to make an effort to eat a more plant-based diet, perhaps going vegan every other day. The vegan diet made Chris appreciate what vegans go through, especially when eating out and he was excited to find some new recipes (like a vegan chili) to work into his normal routine. As for me, this morning I was back at my old habits eating cheese on my english muffin. What can I say, despite loving the concept of better health through a plant-based diet, I'm a Wisconsin girl through and through.

*I completely understand that people stop eating animal products for many different reasons and don't mean to imply that eating a vegan diet for two weeks is a trendy "cleanse" like an all-juice diet; we just called it a vegan cleanse because we were cutting out a normal part of our diet. I also don't mean to imply that animal products are toxins. This was just for fun.

The Truth is in the Metabolic Armband

If you're like me, you've probably done some sort of physical activity and thought to yourself afterward "gee, that must've burned a whole bunch of calories!" But how many? For a class last semester I got to wear a metabolic armband for 24 hours that tracked my calorie output (as well as my sleep quality, how many minutes of moderate and vigorous activity I did, and the number of steps I took). How does it do this? By strapping the band onto your upper arm, it measures "galvanic skin response" to see how much you sweat in addition to skin temperature, the rate at which heat is being dissipated, and, via the accelerometer, how much you're moving. I was so excited to get to use the armband but I had a hard time deciding which physical activity I wanted to do on my one day; it ended up raining so an hour and a half of hot yoga won out over other options. Still, I was itching to try out other activities.

Last week I was able to borrow the armband for a whole week for just this purpose. I had a couple of activities I knew I wanted to try and then I talked with friends and followers to see what activities they've been wondering about. When I could, I compared my armband results from those that either the machine indicated, a website calculated, or the instructor of the class estimated to see how accurate these tools are compared with the armband (which claims to be the most accurate armband on the market).

Here's what the Body Media website that the armband syncs to knew about me going into it: my gender (female), my hand (right), my height (5'3"), my weight (~130), and whether or not I am a smoker (no). Here are my calculations, I hope you find them helpful!

Monday

• 3 mile walk to school (50 min): 228 cal  

Comparison: Shapefit.com estimates that a 130 lb person walking 4.0 miles per hour, which is a little faster than I was walking, can expect to burn 236 calories per hour.

• 1 hour basic yoga class at South Boston Yoga which focused that day on hip opening: 141 cal

Tuesday

• 3 mile walk to school: 223 cal

Comparison: Monday the same walk burned 5 more calories - maybe my backpack was heavier that day?

• Sitting in an hour and a half long lecture having walked to school: 92 cal

• 30 minutes on the treadmill, totaling 2.5 miles: 271 cal 

Comparison: The treadmill, knowing only my weight and age, told me I burned 294.4 cal.

Tuesday was the day I burned the most calories - by walking to school, running on the treadmill for 30 minutes during lunch, and walking to dinner and then the train later that night, I burned 2828 calories, took 22,513 steps, and had a total activity time of 276 minutes. Could it be because I had slept for 8 hours and 4 minutes the night before, with 94% sleep efficiency (time laying down versus time actually asleep) making it the best night of sleep I got all week? Perhaps!

Wednesday 

Day off! After awhile you don't really notice the armband during your daily routine and sleeping, but Wednesday I had ghost armband syndrome and kept thinking I was still wearing it.

Thursday

• Sitting in an hour and a half long lecture having driven to school: 85 cal

Comparison: Sitting in the same lecture on Tuesday burned 7 more calories having arrived from walking rather than arrived from driving.

• 1.5 hour boxing class at Boston Boxing and Fitness (mix of jumping rope, weights, sparing, step-ups, push-ups, lunges, etc): 434 cal

Comparison: Shapefit.com estimates 354 cal/hr of "boxing, punching bag" but that jumps to 531 if you're "boxing, sparring" and 708 cal/hr if you're "boxing, in ring, general." 

Friday

• Spin class at Sweat and Soul, 45 minutes long on Real Ryder bikes: 226 cal

Comparison: The instructor estimated 800 when I asked him how many calories one could expect to burn; a Body Media rep says via e-mail "When using certain gym equipment you may notice that your overall armband information may be lower than it should be. This is due to the fact that the abnormal and usually smooth motions throw off the accelerometers in the armband. Different equipment can affect the overall accuracy of the armband in many different ways." I think that the number is on the low side, but it was also only a 45 minute class and I wasn't panting, though I did sweat completely through all of my clothes so maybe a more accurate estimation would be around 300 calories.
 

Note: These Real Ryder spin bikes are pretty cool. They're supposed to mimic real riding on the road so they move to the left and right - and you really have to engage your core in order to turn them. See the above video for an example. 

Saturday

• Stair running at Harvard stadium (the little stairs that you use to enter the stadium, up one set and down the next around the entire stadium and back which took approx 25 minutes): 187 cal

Sunday

• Hour long Zumba class at ZYP Fitness Plus: 391 cal

Comparison: The ZYP website says participants can "dance away their worries & 500-700 calories." Before I went to the class I never would've guessed that I would get such a good workout but you literally move (or shake) your whole body the entire time - so don't underestimate this as a really good full body workout.

Special thanks to Rachel, Lea, Barrett, Dan, Chris, and Meredith who suggested workouts and then kept me company (or brought me along)!

I'm planning on borrowing the armband again in the spring so that I can track calories burned for fun outdoorsy activities like cycling, hiking, and running. Is there an activity that you've always wondered about? (Besides swimming since you cannot submerge the armband.) Let me know in the comments section and I'll write about it next time! Interested in learning more about Body Media, how it measures calories burned, or how it compares with other armbands out there? Check out their comprehensive website.

It's February! Hearts Abound!

What a coincidence that on the first day of February, which is American Heart Month, I had my first day of rotations for my Clinical Nutrition class where we are counseling patients on the cardiac floor of a local hospital about the heart healthy diet. In honor of that, here are the five things that you (especially if you're at risk of heart disease) need to keep in mind in order to keep your heart healthy:

• Keep total fats low. You can do this by eating lean protein and watching your consumption of fats like cooking oil and whole milk (for example).
• Keep saturated fats low. You can do this by decreasing the amount of animal products you consume, especially things like red meat, pork, and cheese.
• Keep cholesterol low. You can do this by limiting the amounts of animal products you consume such as egg yolks and certain types of meat and fish.
• Keep sodium levels low. You can do this by eating less processed and prepared foods, cooking at home more, and being aware of sodium content and serving size.
• Keep fiber levels high. You can do this by eating high-fiber cereal, beans, whole grains, and fruits and vegetables.

Want to get involved in heart healthy events? This Friday, February 3rd, is national wear red day put on by the American Heart Association. So put on your red dress, make heart-healthy choices in your meals and snacks, and celebrate the love.

How healthy is your heart?

(photo credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1998)