I'm blogging from the school library right now so I have a little extra time (yay!). A little earlier today, I went to my Food/Nutrition class reluctant to have to bake something that was obviously not vegan, but I ended up having a great time joking and laughing with my fellow group members. When I was heading to the main station for more flour (we had run out), I was happy to see that it was just me and the teacher. I know I shouldn't have waited til the last minute to inform her about my diet...but I did. Basically I said, "I just want to let you know that I'm a vegan, so I won't be eating any of the final product (the final product referring to whatever food item we make that day)." She then went on to thank me for telling her and told me she herself was in the process of becoming a vegetarian. I was like, "That's great!" I think this is kinda funny...she then asked me whether turkey was considered vegetarian (since when is turkey considered a plant??). I told her that no, neither turkey or fish are vegetarian foods. She seemed genuinely disappointed when she heard this. Unfortunately she likes fish too much to ever give it up but at least she says she's working on giving up red meat for good. So yeah...interesting conversation lol. Then when the cookies came out of the oven and everyone took their share, the girls in my group noticed that I hadn't taken any and asked me why. I told them that I was a vegan and one of them looked at me and said, "Oh you are? I'm sorry!" I'M SORRY??? I mean seriously, you have got to be kidding me! I've never gotten a response like that so it kinda caught me off guard. Apparently people think that vegans are a deprived group of people that only eat cardboard. I was so angry, but what could I do?In my Personal Fitness class, we have to count calories for two days out of this week so it's not so bad. Yesterday, I added up all the calories I took in and came up with a total of about 1,500. I tried to be as accurate as possible but according to my teacher, if you're not consuming more than 2,000 calories then you're doing something wrong. The reason behind this is that if you do consume less than 2,000 then you're losing weight because you burn an average of 1,700 calories sleeping. Now, I don't know just how accurate or how true his claim is, but I took it as really good news. Before, I thought I had to kill myself with exercise in order to lose a couple of pounds. I didn't realize that everything we do - even sleeping - burns up calories. Thank goodness for sleep!
Anyway, the delicious looking fruit parfait pictured above is made up of mangos, strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. I also added a bit of cashew cream (blended cashews, agave nectar, and water) in between each layer. I enjoyed it all after a long and hard workout on the treadmill. It was actually quite filling so I ate only about half of the cashew cream which after spending several hours in the fridge had turned out to be more like a raw cheesecake than a creamy substance.
16 comments:
I'm glad you ended up having fun making cookies! Argh! It's really irritating when people think that fish or turkey or chicken is vegetarian, they are freaking animals!
I don't know where your teacher got the idea that you'll loose weight if you eat less than 2000 calories, it really varies from person to person. I know I would gain weight if I was eating 2000 calories a day! But I have a really screwed up metabolism because I used to have an eating disorder.
I know others have said this, but you really need to be careful. You may think you're just going to loose a few pounds, but if you're not careful things can get out of control.
i am still amazed that people still don't know what a vegetarian is. i think its so strange people think fish or chicken are somehow not meat. maddening.
yr parfait looks so good. i love fresh desserts/treats like that.
No offense to your teachers, but they are definitely giving their students some inaccurate information as far as diet and nutrition. First of all, every person's metabolism is different; some require more than 2000 kcalories a day while someone else may need fewer. As far as how many calories a person burns while they are sleeping, it is definitely not 1700. An average size person typically burns around 500 calories during 8 hours of sleeping.
I also can't believe a Nutrition teacher has no idea that vegetarians don't eat turkey or fish... hello, duh.
Your teacher doesn't sound too informed. Because your BMR (basal metabolic rate) is personal, she can't assume that everyone needs 2000 calories. There's actual calculations that you can do to check what you need personally.
If you're only eating 1500 calories a day and working out, then you might be undernourishing yourself. So I wouldn't worry about counting calories, and worry more about listening to what your body wants.
I swore i wrote a comment! rawr!
The sleep bit is sortof bs but you do in all likelihood need considerably more than 1500 calories as an active 16 year old girl. So eat up! Screw diets!
<3
Unless you toss and turn a WHOLE LOT, there's no way you burn 1700 calories sleeping! And are turkeys vegetarian? I'm concerned about the quality of teachers at your school.
Your fruit parfait looks so good!
Thanks guys for all your comments. I decided to not take my teacher's word for the whole calorie burning thing and instead, chose to investigate myself. I found out that a person with my weight burns about 494 calories during 8 hours of sleep. I have absolutely no clue why an adult fitness teacher would make such a crazy claim like that. He told us that points would be deducted if our caloric intake for the day was less than 2,000. So yeah...I definitely need better teachers.
Hey,
If you want to know how many calories to eat in order to lose weight, just let me know your current height, weight, and your activity level, and I can figure it out for ya.
(If you don't want to post that stuff here, let me know and I'll give you my email address.)
Good luck!
-Anne
I'm glad you did not take what your teacher said to be fact. Unfortunately, a lot of people today are misinformed about nutrition. Unless your teacher is a dietician he/she probably did not major in Nutrition and may not have taken much of it in college.
A good source for calorie information would be the US Food Guide Pyramid, mypyramid.gov. You can make your own "pyramid" based on your activity level, age and weight. It will tell you how many calories you need and if you are getting enough nutrients. Of course, it will recommend you eat dairy etc but just disregard that. You could always show this site to your teacher as it is a "reputable" source (the government)!
The kids sound annoying, but remember they may have never met a vegan before. This is your opportunity to educate them! Maybe you talk to your teach about cooking something vegan so all the kids can taste some of your awesome food. Just make sure it is a tried and true recipe haha.
I hate when people say, "I'm sorry!" when you say you're vegan. It's obviously a personal, intentional choice - and it just think it's rude and ignorant to say "I'm sorry" to someone who believes in what they do! And it makes me laugh when people ask if turkey or chicken or fish is vegetarian.
Here's a helpful link for calculating your energy requirements... http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/reference/table/index_e.html#eeer
This is the most updated, accurate formula in the field nutrition - we just covered it in my Life Cycle Nutrition class - you just have to plug in your age, weight, height, and physical activity according to the chart. Calories are highly specialized for your age and gender and weight, so it's a little inaccurate to say a person burns 1700 calories sleeping. It's more accurate to say that if you rested still all day and did absolutely nothing, depending on the person, your body would burn anywhere in the range of 1200 or more... So 8 hours of sleep alone doesn't actually burn 1700 calories, haha.
HAHA!! I'm sorry, but I HAD to laugh out loud, about your teacher thinking that turkey could be vegetarian - yikes! :0D Oh and your classmates that feel sorry for you for being a vegan? DO NOT listen to them - they're the ones missing out on a great, healthy, fun lifestyle! :0)
That fruit parfait looks incredibly delicious!! Yum!!
I really, really don't understand why people ask us if we eat (insert creature with a brain here) when we say we're veg*an. Oh well, another chance to teach, right?
Mmmm, parfait.
I agree with Romina " If you're only eating 1500 calories a day and working out, then you might be undernourishing yourself. So I wouldn't worry about counting calories, and worry more about listening to what your body wants."
You shouldn't be eating less than 1800-2000 calories per day, and you shouldn't be worrying about it either. You are growing and healthy as is. We used to worry about calories and counting, but we don't anymore and we are loving life even more- because I am enjoying my food and not punishing myself for eating something bad or too energy dense. I eat by listening to what my body wants and if I'm hungry or not. I eat healthy, but I still have room for treats and indulgences too. Especially with exercise, you need way more than 2000 calories per day.
... Just wanted to let you know. I've done plenty of nutrition analysis in my nutrition classes, and I've realized that the importance of a balanced diet even with some fat too and enough calories... (sorry for rambling on)...
your photo is beautiful as always! and your teacher doesn't sound very informed.
read this:
http://happyherbivore.com/calories
A girl did that to me last January at a wedding- my brother mentioned I was vegan and she said, oh, I'm sorry. I think it's rude when people do that, I don't say I'm sorry that you are a meat eater, I feel bad for you, because that's their decision how they choose to live their life. So yeah I hear that sometimes too, I'll have an answer next time lol Oh, and your parfait looks so yummy!!!
That was a fabulous story... my wife and I were laughing quite a bit about the turkey part.
We were once asked if we were vegan because of some kind of masochistic tendency... it was a joke, and a clever one at that.
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