I am having issues with my veganism

[ThatNerdyScienceGirl]

I don't know why none of this was an issue with my lactovegetarianism, but I don't seem to be able to relax and just eat food anymore. I constantly worry about nutrient content in everything I eat, despite drinking fortified soymilk, taking a multivitamin, and even some days eating nutritional yeast.

I often see Vegans on Youtube eating lightly topped pizzas, or eating lots of good food in their What I Ate Today videos, but I don't know how I could do that. When I make my own pizza, I top the shit out that with spinach, kale, olives, broccoli, and onions. I already avoid corn, cauliflower, and other foods that are not as nutritious as I want, and I still find myself shoveling a cup or two of spinach into my mouth at 1 AM in order to reach my Calcium and Zinc requirements. I have vegan snack foods, such as hummus and pretzels with peanut butter, but I don't eat them because they don't have enough nutrients in my mind.

How can I be more relaxed with my diet as a vegan without worrying so much about all this?

I often drink soymilk, bagels, boca and gardein meatless products, avocado (I use it instead of Mayo), lentils, pasta/sauce, and sometimes oatmeal and a small amount of Canola oil. If that helps at all

[brimstoneSalad]

You're probably eating more nutrients now than when you were lactovegetarian.

I guess you need to decide if you want to eat optimally, or eat adequately and just relax.

If you want to just eat adequately, then set limits on the healthy food you eat, and minimum quotas for junk food to help you relax.

There's not a big difference between an optimal diet, and an adequate vegan diet (as long as it's not loaded with saturated and trans fats). Additional nutrients are good, but the main thing is avoiding the bad stuff that will contribute to cancer and heart disease risk.

For adequate, just plug your food (or a good close estimate) into cronometer, and make sure you're in the green for everything. Then beyond that, don't worry!

If you're having calcium fortified soy milk, you're probably fine on calcium, and that's usually the hardest thing. Just try to eat mostly whole foods (just avoiding excess sweets or white/brown rice or corn), and you should be fine on the rest. Cauliflower is fine. There's not really need to eat very many vegetables at all, since beans and legumes are really good on most minerals aside from calcium, as well as is whole wheat.

And here's a good tip: Make some of the fool proof recipes Unnatural vegan is uploading. If you're a patron, she posted some more recipes there too, but she'll make videos on them soon (two new ones coming this week). Since they contain all necessary nutrients, when you make those you can just relax and eat them without worrying.

[ThatNerdyScienceGirl]

You're probably eating more nutrients now than when you were lactovegetarian.

I guess you need to decide if you want to eat optimally, or eat adequately and just relax.

If you want to just eat adequately, then set limits on the healthy food you eat, and minimum quotas for junk food to help you relax.

There's not a big difference between an optimal diet, and an adequate vegan diet (as long as it's not loaded with saturated and trans fats). Additional nutrients are good, but the main thing is avoiding the bad stuff that will contribute to cancer and heart disease risk.

For adequate, just plug your food (or a good close estimate) into cronometer, and make sure you're in the green for everything. Then beyond that, don't worry!

If you're having calcium fortified soy milk, you're probably fine on calcium, and that's usually the hardest thing. Just try to eat mostly whole foods (just avoiding excess sweets or white/brown rice or corn), and you should be fine on the rest. Cauliflower is fine. There's not really need to eat very many vegetables at all, since beans and legumes are really good on most minerals aside from calcium, as well as is whole wheat.

And here's a good tip: Make some of the fool proof recipes Unnatural vegan is uploading. If you're a patron, she posted some more recipes there too, but she'll make videos on them soon (two new ones coming this week). Since they contain all necessary nutrients, when you make those you can just relax and eat them without worrying.

Checking it out, one of the best ways I can possibly relax is by planning out my meals in advance, showing what I can eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and using the remaining calories for snacks. I just don't understand why I am having such issues simply reaching the RDA for minerals. Then again, I should probably eat more lentils and beans and less wheat-based carbs, such as pasta and bread,

[brimstoneSalad]

Planning meals is a good idea.

Beans and legumes, and particularly lentils, are great dense sources of minerals, increasing those is almost never a mistake.

What are you having trouble getting? Whole wheat based food items usually have all of the minerals in sufficient amounts except calcium and potassium, if you eat 2,000 calories of them. You shouldn't eat 2k calories of wheat, but just to say, they aren't contributing negatively (wheat pretty much pulls its weight nutritionally on most fronts).

You can always put in a food in cronometer, by itself, and set it to 2k calories. If it's good on everything, you know you can basically freely eat that food and not worry about amounts. If it's low on something, you know to pay attention to that vitamin or mineral and mix/match foods.

[ThatNerdyScienceGirl]

Planning meals is a good idea.

Beans and legumes, and particularly lentils, are great dense sources of minerals, increasing those is almost never a mistake.

What are you having trouble getting? Whole wheat based food items usually have all of the minerals in sufficient amounts except calcium and potassium, if you eat 2,000 calories of them. You shouldn't eat 2k calories of wheat, but just to say, they aren't contributing negatively (wheat pretty much pulls its weight nutritionally on most fronts).

You can always put in a food in cronometer, by itself, and set it to 2k calories. If it's good on everything, you know you can basically freely eat that food and not worry about amounts. If it's low on something, you know to pay attention to that vitamin or mineral and mix/match foods.

My issue is that I always tend to be low in Calcium and Zinc, despite eating what I assume to be a pretty healthy diet, I always find myself to be low in Calcium and Zinc by the end of the day, which causes me to eat a lot of spinach just to reach the green. I want to enjoy my diet, not feel restricted by it, but I guess I can only eat mostly whole foods and almost nothing in terms of foods like veggie meatballs and boca burgers. T^T

[brimstoneSalad]

My issue is that I always tend to be low in Calcium and Zinc

Zinc almost always comes with protein. Beans and high protein whole grains are a rich source.

Calcium is the only thing that's hard to get without veggies, but spinach is a poor source, since it's really high in oxalates. Choose collards or mustard greens, or kale as a last resort. If you're down to spinach, I'd just take a supplement instead (or drink more fortified plant milk/orange juice).

I want to enjoy my diet, not feel restricted by it, but I guess I can only eat mostly whole foods and almost nothing in terms of foods like veggie meatballs and boca burgers. T^T

You can eat those things. They should have Zinc in them, just not much calcium.

How much protein are you eating? Maybe you're just not eating enough.
It's rare that I don't pass 100 grams a day.

Put Boca burger into cronometer, and set it to 2000 calories of them. As you can see, there's plenty of zinc at 145% (even plenty of calcium 150%) in them. Too much salt, though, and low on vitamins, so I wouldn't eat just those. But they aren't contributing negatively to your minerals.

If you want to know what is contributing negatively to minerals, set all the foods you eat to 2k calories, and make sure 2k calories has enough minerals. If not, you know that particular food is low -- and represents the anchor that's dragging you down.

[ThatNerdyScienceGirl]

I want to enjoy my diet, not feel restricted by it, but I guess I can only eat mostly whole foods and almost nothing in terms of foods like veggie meatballs and boca burgers. T^T

You can eat those things. They should have Zinc in them, just not much calcium.

How much protein are you eating? Maybe you're just not eating enough.
It's rare that I don't pass 100 grams a day.

Put Boca burger into cronometer, and set it to 2000 calories of them. As you can see, there's plenty of zinc at 145% (even plenty of calcium 150%) in them. Too much salt, though, and low on vitamins, so I wouldn't eat just those. But they aren't contributing negatively to your minerals.

If you want to know what is contributing negatively to minerals, set all the foods you eat to 2k calories, and make sure 2k calories has enough minerals. If not, you know that particular food is low -- and represents the anchor that's dragging you down.

I probably just eat too many grains, to be honest, and not enough good grains, like Bagels. As well as not enough beans and lentils. I have been eating roughly about 85-90 grams of protein a day, so I will definitely try to up my protein intake.

[brimstoneSalad]

I probably just eat too many grains, to be honest, and not enough good grains, like Bagels.

Even white bagels have enough Zinc in them per 2k calories. They're pulling their weight in that department. Low on lysine though.

You may just not be eating enough of everything, or too many empty calories in there reducing the amount of more nutritious foods you can eat.

I may not have mentioned: Try lite salt for potassium. It's a mix of NaCl and KCl. That will give you more potassium without having to eat something unhealthy and with lots of sugar like bananas, or an uncomfortable amount of greens (although greens are a healthy source of everything).

As well as not enough beans and lentils. I have been eating roughly about 85-90 grams of protein a day, so I will definitely try to up my protein intake.

That really should be enough protein to get your zinc. Not sure what's going on.

Can you copy me here what you've eaten and put into cronometer that's not showing enough zinc?

[ThatNerdyScienceGirl]

I probably just eat too many grains, to be honest, and not enough good grains, like Bagels.

Even white bagels have enough Zinc in them per 2k calories. They're pulling their weight in that department. Low on lysine though.

You may just not be eating enough of everything, or too many empty calories in there reducing the amount of more nutritious foods you can eat.

I may not have mentioned: Try lite salt for potassium. It's a mix of NaCl and KCl. That will give you more potassium without having to eat something unhealthy and with lots of sugar like bananas, or an uncomfortable amount of greens (although greens are a healthy source of everything).

As well as not enough beans and lentils. I have been eating roughly about 85-90 grams of protein a day, so I will definitely try to up my protein intake.

That really should be enough protein to get your zinc. Not sure what's going on.

Can you copy me here what you've eaten and put into cronometer that's not showing enough zinc?

1 Whole Wheat Bagel
1 Oz Vegan Cream Cheese

Half Cup Cooked Lentils
2 48 oz Flour tortillas
1 Romaine Lettuce Leaf
1 Banana

1 Huge tortilla
Green peppers, onions, avocado, mustard, romaine lettuce.
Half cup lentils
Canola Oil for cooking

1 cup soymilk
a huge tomato

And that put me at 1700 Calories and 83% Zinc. I had to eat a serving of Sunflower seeds to bring that up to 100%.

This is is just one example, however.

[brimstoneSalad]

1 Whole Wheat Bagel
1 Oz Vegan Cream Cheese

Half Cup Cooked Lentils
2 48 oz Flour tortillas
1 Romaine Lettuce Leaf
1 Banana

1 Huge tortilla
Green peppers, onions, avocado, mustard, romaine lettuce.
Half cup lentils
Canola Oil for cooking

1 cup soymilk
a huge tomato

The bolded items are the ones providing mostly zinc-free calories. Canola oil is useful for Omega 3, which is essential. I would remove the other two.
Avocado is a little low on zinc, but I wouldn't worry about it, because it's not a big discrepancy (one is 11% of your calories out of 2000, and 8% of your zinc).

Once you're done with the cream cheese, you can replace it with a custom nut cheese blend, and that will provide a lot more zinc and nutrition in general.

Walnuts, sunflower seeds (keep sunflower seeds minimal, since they have a weird taste; they're just cheaper than others), almonds, strawberries/blueberries/whatever berries, sucralose/stevia

Put the nuts and seeds in first and blend to a coarse powder, then add in berries and some soy milk (just enough to get it to blend smooth in a thick past), then the sweetener (and maybe a pinch of salt) at the end. Vanilla optional.
I mainly use thawed frozen berries, those are much cheaper. You might also want to add some lemon juice (just use the cheap bottled stuff).
You can mix up a big batch each week; it should last in the refrigerator.

I'd skip the banana, since it's mostly empty calories and you should be getting plenty of vitamin C from the other veggies. Opt for berries instead where you can.
If you need more potassium, opt for lite salt which contains KCl.

And that put me at 1700 Calories and 83% Zinc. I had to eat a serving of Sunflower seeds to bring that up to 100%.

I would suggest eating more calories than that. It's much harder to meet your vitamin and mineral quotas the lower your calories are.
It should be easy to lose weight (if that's the goal) on 1900 calories plus some moderate exercise.