What I Ate Today on the Low Fat Raw Vegan Diet

Many of you know that I’ve been passionate about the raw vegan lifestyle for the past five-ish years.

In that time, the longest I’ve stayed 100% raw was 6 months in 2010.  I felt great about eating unprocessed food but I the truth is that it was tough to stick with.  I experienced a lot of cravings for heavier foods such as bread and tortilla chips.

But I kept returning to the raw diet because intuitively I felt that it was the best diet for me.  So I was SO EXITED when my longtime raw vegan friend Darlene encouraged me to try a different version of the raw vegan diet: the LOW-FAT raw vegan diet.

Low-fat raw vegans eat an abundance of raw, organic fruits, vegetables and leafy greens, and a very small amount of nuts, seeds and fatty fruits like avocado and coconut.  A minimum of 80% of calories come from carbs (mostly fruit) with a maximum of 10% coming from fat and 10% coming from protein.

The low-fat raw vegan diet is not really a diet as much as it is a lifestyle.  The purpose is not to lose weight, but to create optimal health for life!

I’ve been eating this way since May, and I feel GREAT!!  The best part about it is that I have absolutely NO cravings for cooked food, fatty food, or junk food of any kind.  Also, I am eating about 700 – 1200 more calories per day (I eat 2500 – 3000 calories on the low fat raw vegan diet; I was eating 1800 calories on a vegetarian cooked diet).

Am I gaining weight?  NO!  Not at all.  In fact my body seems to be slowly dropping weight.   I’m not weighing myself anymore, but my pants are too big so I would guess that I’m losing 1 – 2 lbs per month.

A lot of people are curious as to what I eat, so I thought I’d track my food for a day and blog about it.  I might do this every couple weeks if people find it interesting.

This is what I ate on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012:

7:30am – Before the gym I ate an orange and about half a cup of “peach pie” (fresh organic peaches in a syrup made from peaches, dates, and cinnamon)

9:00am – After the gym I drank a tropical smoothie made with one mango, one orange, 2 cups of pineapple and one and a half bananas, along with 2 banana carob cookies (which are made with banana, dates, mesquite and carob)

12pm – For lunch I ate 3 collard wraps filled with low-fat zucchini hummus, tomatoes, carrots, celery, corn, purple beans and salsa.  Oh and I ate one more of those banana cookies… they’re so delicious!

3pm – For a snack I had the raw vegan version of a Wendy’s Frosty – 3 frozen bananas, water, 1 tablespoon of carob and half a tablespoon of mesquite.

5:30 – Before yoga I ate a pretty big salad.  It looks small in the pic but contains about 6 cups of mixed greens, some carrots, yellow pepper, celery, purple beans, sundried tomatoes and grape tomatoes.  I made a dressing out of 2 yellow tomatoes, a handful of sundried tomatoes, and 3 dates.

9pm – After yoga I had another “Frosty” with 3 frozen bananas, water, 1 tablespoon of carob and half a tablespoon of mesquite.

Total Calories for the day: 2425 with 49 g of protein, of 579 g  carbs, and 18.9 g of fat.

Calonutrient profile was 86.8% carbs, 6.6% protein and 6.6% fat.

According to my food diary on Cronometer, I met almost all of my nutritional targets.  The only thing I was low on was B12 (which I take a supplement for), Vitamin D (which I get from the sun in the summer/supplement in winter) and selenium.  I usually eat one brazil nut per day for the selenium but this particular day I forgot!

If you have any questions please send them to me and I will be happy to answer them.  If you are interested in this way of life, I highly recommend you read “The 80/10/10 Diet” by Dr Doug Graham.  You can also connect with hundreds of other people who eat this way on 30 Bananas a Day.