Jessica Bowser Nelson Fitness

Protein, Protein, Protein!

I focus on incorporating protein into every meal, so knowing which high protein vegetables are available is vital to keep me from having grilled chicken and tuna every single meal. What’s for lunch? Grilled chicken. Dinner? Grilled chicken. Snack? Hmmmm…grilled chicken? Ahhhhhhh! I am a creature of habit and I actually don’t mind eating a lot of chicken and fish, but my husband can’t stand eating the same thing all the time. So, high protein vegetables are a great way to offer variety to any meal while still getting the vitamins and nutrients your body needs after a killer workout.

How Much Protein Should I Be Eating?

According to the Vegetarian Resource Group, most people need 0.36g of protein for every pound they weigh. So, for example:

• if you weight 130 lbs, you need 47 grams of protein.
• if you weight 200 lbs, you need 72 grams of protein.

If you are weight training, it is recommended to get closer to 1 g of protein for every pound you weigh. I personally don’t count calories or grams of protein in my diet. I just make sure I have well balanced (protein focused/carb second/little-bit-of-fat ratio), highly nutritious small meals throughout the day. This works for me.

 

Top 10 High Protein Vegetables

1. Beans–Garbanzo, Pinto, kidney, lima, white beans, etc!
2. Sundried Tomatoes (love these!)
3. Soybean Sprouts
4. Lentils
5. Garlic
6. Dried Seaweed (sushi nori)
7. Grape Leaves
8. Green Peas
9. Portobella Mushrooms
10. Spinach (my favorite lettuce!)
11. Shakeology* (honorable mention)

*Shakeology is an all natural, amazing, meal replacement shake that is loaded with over 70 ingredients containing superfoods from all over the world. It comes in chocolate, greenberry and tropical strawberry flavors and provides a crazy amount of nutrients and vitamins that your body needs. It is equivalent to eating something like 6 salads. I drink one of these shakes every single day and have never felt better. It is packed with protein too and is a nice alternative to dried seaweed or any of the other high protein vegetables, at times, especially breakfast or when your body is craving cupcakes 🙂

 

Digging Deeper,

Jessica Bowser Nelson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. If you are ready to get your high protein vegetables in chocolate, then click here.