A vegan diet plan that is geared specifically to weight loss can be challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. Eliminating animal products gives you a huge advantage because those foods clog up your digestive system and make it more difficult for your body to efficiently process foods.
The Vegan Diet Plan information below includes a set of tools to assist you in developing a vegan diet plan that will work for you. In addition, I have put together a list of tips that helped me to lose 45 pounds. Let's start with those first.
Vegan Diet Plan - Dieting Tips
Vegan Diet Plan #1 - It's all in your head - Your success on any diet is determined by your outlook. It isn't always easy to stay optimistic when the scale isn't moving. Whenever negative feelings arise, don't try to stuff them down or beat yourself up because you're feeling negative. Try instead to just observe the feelings without letting them rule you. It's a bit tricky at first, but it really works and I found that those negative feelings passed more quickly when I was able to just let them come and go without judging them.
Vegan Diet Plan #2 - Give yourself TIME - Our culture is dedicated to the idea of instant gratification so it's very difficult to hang in with a process that takes so long. Most nutritional experts will tell you that two pounds a week is the optimal weight loss rate. If you lose weight faster than that you'll be losing muscle instead of fat, and the weight you lose is more likely to be regained.
Vegan Diet Plan #3 - Meditate! - This might not be a piece of advice you'd expect to hear in a discussion about dieting, but staying focused will keep you on your diet. And there is no better way to practice focus than to meditate. About 15 minutes a day ought to do it. Just sit quietly and watch your thoughts. As they come up, just observe them and then let them go. If you get carried away on a stream of thought, just let it go as soon as you realize it and come back to your quiet focus. This practice is like decathlon training for your mind and will be tremendously helpful in keeping you on track and focused on your goal.
Vegan Diet Plan #4 - Exercise regularly - I have tried losing weight by increasing my exercise routine and not adjusting my eating, and I have tried the reverse. It was only when I did both - exercised and followed my vegan diet plan - that I really saw results. I did a combination of yoga, which built up my strength, and aerobic exercise, which increased my stamina. I usually managed an hour three times a week, but even when it was only twice or occasionally once a week it still helped.
Vegan Diet Plan #5 - Weigh yourself every day - Many people will tell you not to get obsessed with the scale and I agree with that, but I found that weighing myself every day gave me a reality check and made me accountable to myself. It also allowed me to gauger my body's response to certain types of foods, enabling me to identify those foods that promoted my weight loss and those that didn't. I have kept my weight off for over two years and I attribute part of that to the practice of weighing myself every day.
Vegan Diet Plan #6 - Read labels - Make sure that you read the labels of all packaged foods that you buy. To experience the greatest benefits of a vegan diet plan, try to buy organic if you can, and avoid foods that are not labeled GM-free. Make sure you know the ingredients, the calorie count, and the amounts of sugars and fats in the food.
Vegan Diet Plan #7 - Build in cheating - This is one of the best things I did and it helped me to stay on my vegan diet plan for many months. I found that if I built in my cheating and planned for it anywhere from two to three three times a week, then when those moments of temptation came up, I was much more able to resist because I didn't feel resentful or deprived. You can build in your cheating by having an extra snack or a special dessert (made with a natural sugar substitute!) or another helping of a favorite meal - you pick!
Vegan Diet Plan #8 - Eat more frequent, smaller meals - This is better for your body and better for your psyche. It's awful having to wait 4-5 hours between meals!
Vegan Diet Plan #9 - Don't eat after 5:30 - 6:00 in the evening - This gives your body a chance to digest before you go to sleep. If you go to bed with a full stomach, the food is not absorbed as readily and gets stored as fat. It sounds like a small thing, but it really works!
Vegan Diet Plan #10 - Variety can get too spicy sometimes - The thing that used to drive me crazy about diet plans was that the menus were so complicated! In any given one-week menu plan there would be absolutely no duplicate meals. That meant 21 new recipes to try out in one week! It sounds nice, but it's actually not very practical. I find that when I'm making a meal for the first time following a recipe, there is a learning curve. It's always easier and faster when you've made something before. Therefore, rather than worrying and focusing on trying out so many new meals while trying to keep the rest of your life in order, it's better to have a few staple meals that you feel comfortable making combined with a few new dishes that you can try out for the first time.
Vegan Diet Plan Tools
The bottom line for a vegan diet plan, or any Vegan Diet Plan for that matter, is counting calories. While it is true that not all calories are created equal, the simple fact is that if you want to lose weight you must consume fewer calories than you burn.
Now you may be thinking, "Oy! I don't want to get into counting calories! It's too much effort!" My response is that it really isn't as much work as you might think and knowing what you are putting into your body empowers you!
Once you've calculated the calories of a few meals you begin to get a sense of how much you are eating and where you need to make adjustments. And if you follow Tip Vegan Diet Plan #9 above, you will quickly become familiar with the calorie counts of all your favorite meals.
The first thing you need to do is figure out how many calories you burn each day. You can then determine how many you need to take in to lose weight. Daily Needs Calculator at NutritionData.com. Enter your gender, age, current weight, height, and lifestyle. If you exercise regularly you can put in a daily number of minutes that you exercise. This will give you the number of calories you need to maintain your current weight Vegan Diet Plan.
In order to calculate the caloric intake you need for weight loss, subtract 500 calories from that number, which will result in your losing about one pound a week. For two pounds a week, subtract 1000 calories from your current number. NOTE - It is not safe to take less than 1200 calories per day!
Use this calculator to determine the number of calories in any given food as well as its nutritional makeup. Be aware that this calculator uses the database at NutritionData.com which is the most extensive database I have found. It caters to the mainstream American diet but they have begun adding foods that are more relevant to a raw, vegetarian, or vegan diet plan.
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