A peer support community, independent and not for sale. Since February 2024.

GLP CircleA peer support community

Vegan and vegetarian

Protein on a plant-based plate with a third of the appetite

Started 21 September 2024 · 24 replies · 285 hearts · read 4.1k times

AshwinBengaluru, IN · 21 September 2024
1.8 years ago

Protein on a plant-based plate with a third of the appetite Writing it down partly to work out what I actually think.

Practical question, and possibly a silly one.

I would like to know what other people say when asked, because my current answer is too long and invites more questions.

The thing I have not been able to find anywhere is how people manage this when the week has no fixed shape at all.

The arrangements are the hard bit for me. Nothing medical has been difficult; the organising has been relentless.

Thanks in advance. Practical detail welcome, however dull — the duller the better, honestly.

95

PietPretoria, ZA
#1

What helped was one very boring reliable breakfast that I have eaten roughly six hundred times and still do not mind.

12

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK
#2

Thank you for asking the practical question. This circle is at its best on exactly this and the answers are already better than any guide I could write.

19me too 2

IvesPenzance, UK
#3

Nothing here is medical advice and on supplements in particular it is worth a proper conversation rather than a thread.

10

CloverTotnes, UK
#4

Coming back to what Piet wrote further up, because it is the bit I keep thinking about.

My experience of appointments improved once I stopped apologising for how I eat and simply stated it as a constraint to work within.

7

NoleneDurban, ZA
#5

Protein without it becoming a chore is the whole problem, and most of the advice assumes a plate I do not eat from.

13me too 6

NemoneLewes, UK
#6

Coming back at two years to say it is completely routine now, that my bloods are fine, and that the planning stopped being work months ago.

10

TanviMumbai, IN
#7

Picking up Nemone’s point rather than starting a new one.

Pulses, tofu and a decent unflavoured powder are the whole of my system, and it took me a year to arrive at something that simple.

11

BrynAberystwyth, UK
#8

What worked for me was spreading it across the day rather than trying to get it all into one meal, which was never going to happen.

8

MableBolton, UK
#9

Something practical: I keep something ready in the fridge at all times, because when my appetite is low I will not cook.

13

TorrinAberdeen, UK
#10

My dietitian understood plant-based eating properly and that made an enormous difference compared to the general advice I had been given.

11

AshwinBengaluru, IN
#11

I keep a note of what actually worked during the difficult fortnights, because from inside a good month I forget entirely.

10

PietPretoria, ZA
#12

Reading Torrin, I recognised more of that than I expected to.

The thing I would flag is not to let this become a project. Mine did for about two months and it was exhausting and unnecessary.

13

MorayElgin, UK
#13

What I found is that the powders I had dismissed turned out to be the thing that made this manageable during the hard months.

8

IvesPenzance, UK
#14

Grateful you posted rather than kept it to yourself.

11

CloverTotnes, UK
#15

The B12 and iron conversation is worth having explicitly rather than assuming. Mine turned up something worth correcting.

11

NoleneDurban, ZA
#16

I found the volume difficult when my appetite dropped. Plant protein takes up more room and there was less room available.

14

NemoneLewes, UK
#17

Ives — yes, and the bit that took me longest to accept was the next part.

Somebody in this circle wrote out their week for me when I asked and it saved me about three months of working it out badly.

9me too 4

TanviMumbai, IN
#18

What helped was two things I actually enjoy rather than five things I felt I should eat. The should list never survived a difficult week.

12

BrynAberystwyth, UK
#19

My experience is that this is entirely workable and needs a bit more planning, and the planning is a one-off cost rather than a daily one.

13

MableBolton, UK
#20

Somebody here suggested keeping a very short list on the fridge, and mine has been there for eighteen months and I still use it.

8

TorrinAberdeen, UK
#21

Something practical: I batch things on a Sunday, which sounds tedious and takes forty minutes and covers most of my week.

16me too 1

AshwinBengaluru, IN
#22

Mable said something I want to sit with for a second.

The texture changes early on were a bigger obstacle for me than the protein arithmetic, and nobody had warned me about them.

14

RenFacilitatorBristol, UK
#23

Noticing that the thread has answered the question and then kept going, which is fine, and I want the answer not to get buried.

18

MorayElgin, UK
#24

My honest report is that I eat better now than I did before, mostly because I finally had to think about it properly.

14