How to Be Healthy and High Protein

Hi there!

So today’s post is going to be about some recent thoughts I’ve had regarding protein consumption. WARNING: It’s pretty long-winded. Typical. But I think I have some pretty good revelations in here, so keep up if you can!

So, if you read my early posts you may recall I mentioned that I used to be big on following a high protein/low carb diet that revolved a lot around processed products – Atkins or South Beach Diet bars and shakes, protein “cookies” and “brownies”, and also lots of meat and seafood, low-fat dairy, and also processed soy fake-meat products. Then, after reading a few inspirational books, I did my nutritional 180º flip, where I decided the contents (ingredients) of my food were more important than the nutritional stats. I cut out as much soy, meat, and dairy as possible (aka, what used to be my whole diet pretty much) and instead replaced these foods with way more fresh veggies, fresh fruit, dried nuts and seeds, lentils and beans, and whole grains like brown rice, quinoa and sprouted grain bread products. I also made switches from soy milk to almond milk, splenda to stevia, Atkins bars to natural fruit and nuts bars, and energy workout drinks to coconut water, as all documented in my healthy swaps post. However I am not a perfect eater or a vegan by any means, as I do still consume the meat dishes (usually seafood) on occasion, and I also do still have processed products when I’m in a hurry, and some of course contain soy (this should be fairly obvious from the types of products I reviewed here). That’s basically the gist of it, and there is more info on that in this post.

So anyway, the books that I read that had inspired my switch both did talk about protein, and how you really don’t need very much protein at all, and it is over-hyped in the American diet. These books recommended that as long as about 10% of your calories, which would amount to about 40-50g, came from protein, you would be more than okay, and that this was easily reached with fresh, wholesome foods. So after learning this, I really did mostly let go of my prior protein obsessions, although still did create some treats such as Protein Granola and Protein Krispy Treats, but even those really weren’t very protein heavy, but I tried to sneak it in there anyway. But in general my diet saw a severe shift away from processed protein and towards more fresh, healthy carbs.

So THEN, just recently, I read this other book my roommate had laying around about women’s weight-lifting. I don’t lift weights, but just keep following me here. So this book obviously has a diet plan section to go with your new weight lifting routine, and I obviously gravitated towards this chapter. The author made a very interesting comment about protein that now I can’t stop thinking about. Basically he said, refering to veganism, raw foodism and theories of the like that talk about how little protein you need, that of course for survival, you definitely do not need very much. However, if you want to be optimally fit, you would want more protein. He made some comparison about how you only really need four walls and a roof over your head to survive, but the more rooms you have, the better life could be. And about how you only need one outfit, but the more you have the more comfortable/stylish/better smelling you could be. Etc, etc.

Now obviously these aren’t direct comparisons by any means, but it just got me thinking. Sure I have enough protein to survive, but if I added in a little bit more, could I perhaps be more fit? I might be hallucinating, but I do believe back in my higher protein days I did have more muscle definition, for example in my abs, and I still work out the exact amount if not more, so why does it now seem less defined? Hmmm. Also, I recently scoped out Mama Pea’s A Pea in BFL page, where she in essence did a vegan high protein diet combined with the Body for Life exercise plan and saw some awesome results (congrats Mama Pea!). However, to do this she needed to consume lots of processed soy products: tofu, tempeh, and soy chick’n strips and burgers and such. Also, lots of vegan protein powders, like rice protein and such.

SO, if anyone is still reading, I started contemplating to myself, might there be a way to devise some sort of master plan to be eating more healthfully and naturally but also higher protein so that I could perhaps start gaining back some muscle definition (in combination with working out then of course)? So in essence, a combination of my former and current self, combining the best aspects? The problem lies in the fact that there are few sources of non-soy, non-meat, non-dairy potent and high quality (not to mention TASTY!) protein. Basically all you’ve got are beans/lentils (but those also contain lots of carbs and can be tricky digestively for some), nuts and seeds (although those contain more fat than protein anyway), and then the rice/pea/hemp proteins (but obviously these need to be doctored up to be edible). Not a ton of options, and I like variety. Feel free to point out anything I might be missing in this “ideal” category! And yes, I know fruits and veggies and whole grains also have protein, but I’m talking about things with MORE protein than carbs or fat, so atleast 40-50% calories from protein.

Obviously the ideally healthy and most environmentally friendly scenario would be to just make it work with those items only, as many soy-avoiding vegan athletes do (Brendan Braizer, Robert Cheeke, Averie at Love Veggies and Yoga [Recently did a figure competition and looked great!], etc), so it is absolutely and definitely 100% possible. But, just as a personal choice, I really need more variety than that – I like food and flavor way too much to subject myself to a life filled with mostly only lentils, beans, nuts, seeds, and powders, as much as I truly do enjoy those things in moderation. I fear I would begin to hate them if I ate them too much and deprived myself of everything else that I also love (seafood, cheese, etc). So the question becomes, do you add back in the meat, and just keep it organic/humanely raised? Do you add back in dairy, also if organic/humane? OR, do you keep it completely vegan, but add back in the oh-so-controversial processed soy?? All of the above?? A combo?? Alternate weekly?? “Everything in moderation”???

Decisions, decisions…

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. All I know is I’m having some deep thoughts, and I want to try some things out. I want to get more protein in, I just need to decide how. I’m fine with my fat intake as it is, so I think the defecit that will result from more protein in will need to come from more carbs out, cuz I have definitely been eating quite a lot of those these past few months. I want to perfectly combine my old days of a more toned body with more health- and environmentally-conscious food choices. What’s a girl to do!

Let me know any thoughts you have. This conversation will be “To Be Continued“!

As a final thought, and along the lines of adding in protein, I just HAVE to mention last night’s dinner. I was completely inspired by Fitnessista’s Whole-Grain Crepes Recipe, but had no spelt flour on hand. So in the spirit of my new protein mission, I decided to protein-ify them! The ONLY change I made to her recipe was to sub in 1/2 scoop “Natural” flavor Sun Warrior Protein Powder plus 2 tablespoons Organic Golden Flax Meal in place of the spelt flour. I then just made one HUGE crepe cuz I was lazy (and also therefore it was a little thicker), and filled it with 1/4 cup Daiya Vegan Cheddar Cheese, approx. 1/2 cup sautéed spinach, and 1/4 cup sautéed shitake mushrooms and then topped it with 1/4 cup marinara sauce. Here it is gettin’ cooked up…

And then I folded it up and voilà!

It should be noted that those tears are only due to the fact that I tried to flip the crepe, which was unsuccessful. It was too thick/heavy/big and perhaps I didn’t spray the pan enough… cuz it just wasn’t working out. I attempted a few times to lift it, but then just gave up after the tears started happening. But it cooked up fine even just being on one side the whole time, no burning and it was cooked through to perfection. This was seriously DELICIOUS. One of my better dinners in a while, and very easy! And my proteinified version of the crepes contained 17g protein! Woot woot! Now obviously these had egg whites, so clearly this would not fall in the vegan category, but there was no processed soy to be seen (Daiya is soy free!), and they are gluten-free to boot, so I’ll give myself some points for that. Full nutritional stats for the crepe PLUS my fillings is below.

Okay, that’s enough blabbing for today. More on this topic later! I also plan to discuss soon how I’m getting the nutritional stats for my recipes, and my thoughts/feelings on stat and calorie counting in general. Coming up soon hopefully!

xoxo

Hilary

PS- In honor of my new high-protein experimentation, I have added a “High Protein” category under recipes, and also will tag all posts that discuss this topic with “healthy high protein experiment“. This should make it easy to follow along, if you are interested!

Nutritional Facts

Daiya, Spinach & Mushroom Protein Crepes

Svg Size: 1 massive crepe. Svgs per Recipe: 1. Calories: 306, Total Fat: 13.9g, Sat. Fat: 2.5g, Carbs: 25g, Fiber: 10.8g, Sugar: 1g, Protein: 23g

*Please Note* All calorie and nutritional information is approximate and based on the exact ingredients I used. Any changes or substitutions to the recipe will result in changes to nutritional information. As measurements and nutrients vary from ingredient to ingredient, the exact accuracy of this data cannot be guaranteed.