2011 Edit:
Recently, I discovered that some people have been using this post as a guideline for how (and how much) to eat. That made me really uncomfortable; I’m not a doctor nor a nutritionist, and I never made any claims that the food from this post represented a balanced daily diet.
Also, as the post is a few years old, it’s no longer even reflective of my current eating habits. For these reasons, I’ve chosen to take the post down.
For more on my current eating style, see My FAQ Page.
{ 89 comments… read them below or add one }
LOL! your in a nutshell alright and one of a kind, but that’s what I luv about you crazy, wonderful, and hiliarious Katie!
Don’t you change girl!
Luv and hugs!
Great post! All of your food looks so delicious!
What a day! And I agree with you about encouraging people to eat properly according to their metabolism, lifestyle, and activity level. So many people are centred on eating less to lose weight or eating junk to gain weight and they often do more harm than good. Your notes on the matter couldn’t have said it better!
It’s so interesting to see what other vegans eat. I wish I was that creative with my own meals (I’m one of those weirdos who doesn’t mind repetition!)
Mmm What an awesome day in food. I love pink ladies and your recipe for mudslide oats is one of my favorite of all time. Absolutely delicious!!!
By the way- try mixing Nut. Yeast with hummus… It tastes like cheese and you can spread it on anything you want savory or cheesey!! SOO GOOD!
Nice eats girl! I don’t eat nearly that much. it’s a lot of work for me to get in the cals I do. (unless of course a pop tart finds it’s way into my hands) haha but I do love that when you eat healthy…you can enjoy so much more!
nice job!
btw…CUTE hat! where’d ya get that? was it expensive?
(jk)
I had a vegan monday (okay, all week I am going vegan, and probably do more than I realize, but it was fun doing it intentionally)
Happy Tuesday you NUT
I wonder if that doctor had ever seen Super Size Me, because that’s basically what it sounded like they were suggesting!
What a yummy, ripe grapefruit! I need to give those a chance more – you just can’t tell they are so brilliantly coral when you look at the peel
Great post! I hate when people think that you need to eat junk food to increase calories. I eat all day long, a lot of calories, and tons of fruits and veggies!
Mmm, I love grapefruit!
If my doctor told me to gain weight by stuffing myself with foods like that I’d seek advice elsewhere. She should definitely bump up the calories she eats, especially proteins and fats (mmm, nuts and avocados!)
Your salad and your soup look truly amazing, Katie!
You’re so healthy! I love to see all your gorgeous eats. And I love that you can eat that many calories! I’m active, but not (yet) a runner, so I keep mine around 1,700 to maintain my weight. I’m small and I have no need to lose, but I’m terrified of gaining weight. Just wanna stay right where I am forever!
Just a slight correction to your comment about docs: I’m currently a medical student and not only are we absolutely required to take a nutrition course, but there is also a strong emphasis on promoting healthy dietary habits in our other classes as well. This is definitely a more recent trend in medical education, though, so not all physicians have had this training. (And unfortunately, there will always be a few mcdonalds-promoting quacks out there!) Anyway, just wanted to point out that “food as medicine” is a mantra that is becoming increasingly embraced by the medical community.
i had no clue you could eat coconut butter straight up! i am so glad you posted this. i think a lot of people lately have been comparing what they eat to what bloggers eat in a not so healthy way (ie, i eat way too much, i need to eat like so-and-so) and they don’t realize that everyone has different needs and if you’re active you DEFINITELY need to eat accordingly! ugh that dr’s advice pisses me off too. one (clearly ignorant) doc i saw when i was first struggling with my ED suggested that i just “load up on bacon and eggs.” uh..thanks.
Cute acorn cap. hee hee.
So I really don’t get why a doctor would say to load up on
such unhealthy food, even though they don’t get much training in nutrition, it just doesn’t make sense.
There are alot more vegan athletes now and they load up on nutrient dense foods and healthy foods. Adding a vegan protein powder to their diet, flax, hemp and other stuff adds to the calorie intake.
I really like your approach to eating. Great post
I love that banana hammock
Nicole,
I’m so so glad to know that finally doctors are being required to take nutrition courses! Sadly, though, many of the doctors practicing today went to medical school when it wasn’t a requirement. But it’s great to know that things have changed!
Woah thank you so much for posting this! I can’t believe how much you get to eatand still stay so skinny! Honestly when I first saw your photos, I figured you must be eating not much at all to stay so skinny. But now I’m so jealous! I run a lot too, but I could never eat that much and stay skinny. Can I have some of your metabolism? You should market it haha!
Where do you put it all?
That grapefruit looks so juicy. Totally craving one now!
Cindy,
.
I photoshopped the hat onto my head
So, technically, it was free LOL!
Love this post Katie! So inspired by your fabulous lifestyle and eating choices!
I’m currently “flirting” with Vegan eating and I’d really like to advance the relationship to the next level:) Are there any Vegan books/cookbooks that you could recommend that would suit both a busy and frugal lifestyle (struggling to afford my last year of law school currently…)
Any recommendations you have would be wonderful!
Wow, I think the calories from your heart healthy fats make them add up quickly. So when you mention eating when not hungry, with patients in the hospital, if they are not hungry we can add fat to add calories with out adding too much extra volume. So all of your healthy nut eating makes those add up quickly and give you the energy you need for your running.
Emmy,
I emailed you
Nom! It all looks delicious! Especially the mudslide oatmeal!
I went to a dermatologist once who couldn’t understand how it was possible to be overweight on a vegetarian diet. Hello! If you expend fewer calories that you eat, you gain weight. Doesn’t matter what you eat.
I think it has a lot to do with WHAT you eat… some vegetarians will still eat loads of cheese and bread/carbs. If they were eating mostly “vegetables” it wouldn’t make sense… however there are sooo many unhealthy vegetarians.
Doctors are idiots. Mine included. Nuff said!
YUMMY day!! You sure know how to balance a healthy diet and exercise! You can cook for me anytime (snacks too!)
Haha…your blog is so entertaining
. Love it Katie!
thanks for sharing katie!
it’s fun to see what others eat in an entire day
8 1/2 miles! woohoo!! you go girl
i had a woman ask my about my 2yr old who is small for her age (all my kids are small for their age–but my oldest hit average at 4yrs)
anyhow
she said her grandchild was the same size as my girl and the dr was pushing them to put weight on her even though her growth and development was steady and “normal” for her
they told them to put butter on everything she ate–mayonaise, oils, all the fats and calories she’d eat-including fast food
a pediatrician!
i was more than horrified!
they were good people who were trying to do the best for their little girl–and were conflicted about whether to listen to their dr or follow their instincts
i hope i helped them resist the evil dr
so many people think that dr’s are gods…i work in a hospital and it’s so far from the truth
i can’t believe anyone would set a child up for horrific health problems just because she was small
sorry
tangent
anyhow
b12
no supplement?
are you feeling safe with fortified foods?
where do you get your nutritional yeast?
it’s very expensive at our local hy-vee and i’m searching for a brand that i know is good to order online in bulk–currently i can pay as much at a couple bucks for 1/3 of a cup
i have found i can stuff myself silly on healthy foods and weigh less than i used to when i did bizarre crash diets and ate less than 1000 calories a day
lately on the weekend i eat an entire crockpot of soup myself in an afternoon
that is horrible!!! My mom used to force me to eat peanut butter as a child… I was vegetarian and she thought I was too thin. Thank God I didn’t end up with an eating disorder!!
Thanks for posting this ! I loved seeing what you eat daily. I agree, it is so important to have enough fuel when you’re a really active person. love ya katie!
Yum, looks delicous! Thanks for demonstrating that vegan food can be nutritious, tasty and calorie dense. It worries me when I hear about doctors prescribing high levels of junk food to patients in order to put on weight. People can be skinny but still have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis etc and eating junk food doesn’t exactly put people into good eating habits that are best for health.
Anyway, as always, delicious looking food!
awesome eats girl. I think its so wonderful that you showed what a day of quality clean eating looks like. You rock!! You have a great and healthy diet and lifestyle that I think is such an inspiration. xoxoxoox!
I agree..I think calories are personalized based on metabolism and activity level! I think it’s wise of you to seek calories in healthful forms versus junk food. It’s so true…eating junk makes me really feel like junk!
Great post, Katie!
that disgusts me that her doctor told her to eat junk food. MDs only get a few hours of nutrition in med school-and we wonder why the country’s health is down the drain. Go see a registered dietitian!!!!! there are PLENTY of whole food calorie, and nutrient dense foods!!
PS – I often have “second breakfasts” too! My husband calls me a “hobbit” because of this (not, as most people think, because I’m quite small!)
Wow! That’s absolutely horrible that her doctor told her that… You would think that they’d know about the (very) negative effects of foods high in saturated & trans fats, and cholesterol can have on anyone…
I’m also a high cal girl. I don’t think I have to eat 3000 that often, but on days I exercise its definitely somewhere around 2500… maybe more. I don’t really know…
Do you have any advice/ideas on making easy, quick, simple Vegan meals? I’m really interested in pursuing a Vegan lifestyle, but my mother doesn’t want to have to cook three meals every night (my father’s a pescatarian, which means two meals are made on some nights..) nor does she want me in the kitchen… because I can’t really cook.
Great post!
Reigne.
Hey, Katie!
Thanks for sharing!
It´s so interesting for me to know your opinion on the healthy weight gain.
My parents want me to gain about 8 pounds until January 26th – that´s their condition to my NY and Boston trip.
I´ll be 15 in February, and the trip would be my birthday present.
I can feel the pressure they´re making, they both want be to start eating junk food like there´s no tomorrow.
But I really want to show them I can be back to my healthy weight range without stuffing my face on junk and heavy foods.
And knowing something thinks the same is really comforting!
So.. thank you! So much!
Kisses from a brazilian reader,
G.
This was such a great post Katie! I think it really does show that you can eat higher cal and healthy in order to maintain an active lifestyle!
I agree about doctors; I think people tend to assume that all doctors “are super smart so they know what’s best for you.” I think you should work WITH your doctor.
Mmm, looks like you had a delicious day! A banana hammock sounds like just the right after-work snack, too!
Ya that aggrivates me when people tell you to just ear junk food and it will be a quick and easy way to gain weight! It makes me mad! Not only is it not the healthiest way to go but it does not always work!
You show how much food you really need to eat to fuel yourself properly!
Love your eats btw!!
Jenna
What a cute post Katie! I love to see how other vegans eat…it gets my creative juices flowing! Now I really, really want to go and make some banana-almond butter!
i love how you have chopsticks with your salad!! what a great post and I totally agree with you about when you said certain studies say one thing, but if it works for you then who cares right?! do what works for you, this is KEY! Although I am not vegan, I know that is is possible to have a healthy and calorie packed diet without depriving yourself! you go girl! I love your craziness
I LOVE day in the life of posts!!!!! This was great. Delicious day of eats!
<3 jess
xoxo
Nice
I have recently started running and was wondering – how long are your 8-mile runs? and is running for 15-20 minutes too short to do any good? it’s in the 20s so it’s very COLD so I have been keeping my runs SHORT (i only like running outdoors, i feel claustrophobic inside)…but I still want to be healthier.
ok so that is what i am supposed to do with my big tub of coconut butter. just melt and eat straight. not a bad idea.
I know more about nutrition than any MD I’ve met so far. They are incredibly ignorant, as a whole, when it comes to eating for health. When I first went vegan I had TWO doctors ask me – “But where will you get your protein?” ARGHGHGHG.
And the doctor who was encouraging that person to eat so much junk food should have his license to practice medicine revoked. What an idiot!
All of your food looks delicious, just like always. I love that soup you had for lunch and all the nut butter, that is always a good thing!
i love how you use chopsticks all the time! i thought i was the only person to use them in non asian meals :]
Loved your day of eats Katie. Please come to Nashville and cook for me…my oatmeal supplies are stocked.
I love you Katie! And I’d love to live a day in your stomach lol, so many babies and yummy things!
I think it’s great you’re posting this. I also think it’s so important to properly fuel and unfortunately the majority of people I know, athletes or not, tend to under-eat. Either from fear of weight gain, or in many cases just being busy and not very conscious of what they’re feeding themselves.
I have to eat like this too even though I don’t run 8 miles a day, sheesh girl! I’m jealous and feel really out of shape now! I do try to stay active and have been doing yoga several times a week so I need about 3000 (rough estimate) just to maintain my weight. And I do it mostly through healthy vegan foods.
I have also gone through periods of binge eating, and still suffer from some of that when under stress, I’ve restricted my exercise, which did not make me very happy at all! But I find that I actually weigh more and feel a million times better when I’m active and stick to healthy foods.
I actually had a crazy experience at a gym last week and ended up writing a review on the place. If you’re familiar with yelp, the review site, check it out.
I love the way you eat and I love how healthy you are about it. Everything looks so delicious!
This was a wonderful post!
I love using chop sticks as well
Have a lovely Wednesday!
<3Karina
You are an artist and your canvas is FOOD! Thanks for being honest – you’re helping out a lot of people! FOOD IS NOT THE ENEMY! Ain’t nothin’ to be scared of!
Yeah, I gave my doctor a big long diatribe about how many calories I was eating and how I was training and whether it was safe for me to lose weight, yadda yadda – and she (complete with substantial belly pudge) kinda gave me a half hearted BMI answer. So yeah, I know more than my MD about nutrition and such. My last MD only tried to sell me his own line of diet program stuffs (which was NOT covered by insurance, heh). It sucks that nutritionist are RARELY covered in insurance plans, and it makes sense why people are growing larger – it’s so hard and expensive to get medical help for obesity unless you are really motivated to find the info online. *whew – ok, off the soapbox*
I am an unrepentant card carrying meat eater but I could for sure get down with that day of eating too! Yum! Thanks for showing us healthy vegan eating that isn’t incredibly dull or looks like it takes 4 hours to prepare!
All of your meals look awesome as usual! Boasting with nutrients and such a perfect example of how a perfect diet should look like! And I bet ya that none of these doctors, who recommend such horrible food choices to their patients, can run 8 1/2 miles! Go Katie!
I’ve talked with a nutritionist before about a diet plan to help me gain weight. She did suggest adding full fat condiments and full fat milkshakes everyday. This may have been different if she was talking to a vegan/vegatarian. I had to come to terms with the fact that gaining weight was the MOST important thing at the time to get healthy again. You can’t worry about bad/unhealthy foods that are for what ever reason not deemed good for you. Once you get to a healthy weight you can get back to eating intuitively…but until then just do what you need to to gain the weight. Sometimes peoples lives depend on it. Just something to think about…
Anonymous,
.
Thanks for a really insightful comment. I agree that it would be better to drink milkshakes to gain weight than to not gain weight at all for someone at an unhealthy weight.
And I am DEFINITELY not advocating a diet where a person NEVER gets to eat unhealthy foods. A life without cake is a sad life indeed
I’m just saying that it’s just as possible to eat a calorically-dense healthy diet as it is to ONLY eat unhealthy foods to gain weight. But you are 100% right: if a person is in an unhealthy state, then getting to a more healthy state as fast as he/she can is the most important thing, no matter how he/she chooses to get there.
Thanks again for the comment!
I love seeing what your day looks like. It gives me some ideas of what to eat on Vegan Thursday. I forgot about Bananna Butter…made some yesterday! So yummy!
I am much like you in that I eat a very healthy but very high-cal diet, but my genetics and high-activity level make it hard to keep weight on. So I can definately relate to having insults disguised as concern pointed at me. A few weeks ago, I had a teacher (I’m a senior in hs) walk past me and in front of the entire crowded hall (in a loud voice) tell me I needed to gain weight because I was unhealthy. What? This guy knows NOTHING about me or my health and feels qualified to judge me? I was SO mortified and went home to cry myself to sleep. I really don’t understand why it’s so taboo to tell someone they need to lose weight, but proclaiming someone needs to gain weight is perfectly acceptable. In both instances you are judging based on appearnces and making someone uncomfortable with who they are.
Just out of curiosity, only because you mentioned you only take one supplement for omega-3′s – do you know if you are getting enough Vitamin D? I guess living in the south, you can actually make vitamin D throughout the year unlike the rest of us in the dark, cold winter
What a great post! I’m a fellow Texan (in the DFW area) and really appreciate you sharing all of your knowledge and recipes! Our family became vegetarian a few months ago, and I would love to eventually go vegan, so this definitely helps in terms of figuring out what to make for various meals! Look forward to reading more…
I am curious to know how your daily diet changes when you eat out. Do you find it difficult to eat the foods you want when you are at a restaurant? Do you eat out ever?? I eat such a healthy diet at home most of the time, but when I am out to a nice dinner it is hard not to splurge on foods I know are not good for me.
I find it hard to find restaurants I’ll even eat at… it’s usually a disappointment when I eat out. I’ve had to stop being so picky and just get the salmon with grilled veggies. I don’t eat cheese or fried foods though… and I do gluten free.
the banana hammock looks soo yummy!
Wow, your eats look amazing! I’ve recently gone vegan and I was wondering how many nuts a vegan should eat in a day? How many do you eat? Thanks.
Hi Brittany
I don’t eat a specific amount of nuts in a day, and it varies day-by-day. Some days, I don’t eat any. Others, I eat a lot.
There’s also no specific amount that anyone should eat. It depends on the person, his/her activity level, calorie needs, etc.
Man, was that right! I’m a vegan teenage runner/athlete myself and i completely understand! If i looked at my friends lunches it would be like a snack.
Good advice. Keep it up.
I actually lose weight when i eat more. I don’t usually need to eat much to maintain my weight, but it seems these days that i need to eat a lot to maintain my weight. Must be cross country season
i just have a couple random questions. do you like to drink any tea or coffee in the morning? and i know you were documenting your eats so they were a bit more ‘formal’ if you will, but do you ever just graze on random snacks between meals or get too lazy to make a meal so eat snack-ish things for meals? I feel like my diet is more informal, but everyone is different!
Hi Kay!
.
Sometimes I make green tea, but normally (when it’s cold out), I’ll just have hot water. It’s something I learned when I lived in China; they drink hot water a lot, and it’s so comforting.
I don’t really graze between meals/snacks, since I eat so often. I’m just never really hungry when it’s not formally mealtime or snacktime. Oh, except for when I’m experimenting. Then, of course, I’ll taste the things I make
what’s the hot water supposed to help?? Do you absorb it better?
I’m not sure… I know in China, they say it’s good for your digestion. I just drink it on cold days because it keeps me warm
.
P.S. Thanks for all your sweet comments on my blog today! And I agree about the soldiers… actually, I wish we didn’t send them in the first place!
A little bit off topic, but I noticed in the picture it appears that you eat the skin on your kiwi fruit. This is the 2nd post I’ve seen that alluded to eating kiwi skin in the last few days. I am just curious if there is a health benefit or if you just prefer the taste? I am not sure I could get past the fuzz. I don’t even like peaches because of the fuzz.
My main reason for eating it is that I’m lazy and don’t want to have to peel it. But yes, it does have fiber and other nutrients. Just like potatoes, the kiwi’s skin is one of the healthiest parts! But there are obviously other ways to get fiber and nutrients, so don’t force yourself to eat it if you don’t like it!
i love peaches!!
Is this really 3000 calories? Thats about how much I eat a day and I calculated it on MyPlate and it was in the low 2000s. I didn’t know I ate that many calories!
I’m really not sure how you could have calculated the total, because I didn’t list amounts for anything I ate (such as the coconut butter or peanut butter or even the sandwich). But yes, this is around 3000 calories.
Whoops I misspelled ‘anonymous’… sorry, feel free to delete my comments!
Katie, I think it’s something like only 22 out of 127 accredited medical schools even require ONE nutrition course… My health is strongly affected by my diet and I envy your chocolate and legume recipes
but soon I will enjoy these things again thanks to my amazing will power and the power of nutrition! I’m doing an allergy elimination diet and thanks to your recipes I’ve created/modified lots of healthy treats! To me diet is EVERYTHING! It’s a major part of everyone’s life… I find it cruel that MOST doctors are not taught the importance! A girl with an auto immune disorder stated that her doctor said “it doesn’t matter what you eat it all comes out the same.” Wow… And this was said to someone who’s body is attacking itself! I think every doctor should take nutrition even eye doctors and such so many things are caused/contributed by nutrient deficiencies!
It’s really scary! I’ll never understand why nutritionists must take organic chemistry classes, but doctors don’t need to take a single nutrition course. Isn’t nutrition the BASIS for good health?! (Glad you feel the same way! I think most people just aren’t aware of this fact; if they were, I think they’d be outraged as well. After all, people ask their doctors for nutrition advice all the time!)
I definitely agree. I mean diet is a huge part of everyone’s life… If it wasn’t for a few homeopathic doctors telling me it might be food affecting my health(chronic rashes) who knows where I’d be right now. I didn’t believe them at first but after countless dermatologists couldn’t help me I realized they had to be right and I’ve been researching/learning about nutrition ever since. It’s helped wonders! What are you in school for? They need doctors like you out there. Of course you could always be a chef lol!!
I could be a great nutritionist… but I am so bored by classes like biology and organic chemistry that I didn’t want to go through a science-heavy major. So now I just give people my nutrition advice for free… and sometimes unsolicited
. (Mom, you need to eat brown rice instead of white! Nag nag nag…)
Oh I’m horrible about nagging to my parents! They were both raised on sugar and it seems at times a relentless effort to even try convincing them otherwise! I just wish people could realize how rewarding and easy it is to feed yourself delicious even sweet food without added sugar! I recommend anyone interested to look up “chocolate covered katie” lol. Luckily your name doesn’t scare people away it usually has the opposite effect! My boyfriends favorite recipe name of your’s is the “naughty banana hammock” it must be the slight sexual connotation. You have a knack at making up cute easy names to remember. We love your work
Hahahaha there were so many jokes I could’ve made in those banana hammock posts… it was so hard to restrain myself
.
that’s not 2600 kcal darling
As I said to anonymous above: I’m really not sure how you could have calculated the total, because I didn’t list amounts for anything I ate (such as the coconut butter or peanut butter or even the sandwich). But yes, this is around 3000 calories.
Also, this is a really old post and doesn’t even reflect how I eat anymore.
Seriously? Katie provides us exceptionally tasty healthy recipes. Do we honestly care how many calories she is consuming? Especially enough to harass her about it almost 2 years later?!?
that’s jealousy speaking… someone can’t eat like you without feeling bad about it or gaining weight. I believe that digestion goes better when you aren’t feeling guilty. This is why I believe blessing your food is a good habit. Also people are afraid of fat and calories… that’s why most people are don’t cook with coconut oil/milk, avocados, butter, lard, and some people even olive oil. I would be sad eating a salad with only lemon juice as the dressing… Instead I make my own with coconut milk AND olive oil + more!! Oh how dangerous!
When you say that this post is no longer reflective of your current eating habits, do you mean that you eat more or less now? Just curious
.
More like I don’t eat the same types of things. I don’t really know if I eat more than I used to. It’s certainly not less, though
.
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