Eating 80/20 Plants Style! For Life!

I try to eat an 80/20 Plants diet as often as possible — meaning 80% whole food, plant-based with the other 20% reserved for vegan junk food, plant meats, desserts, etc. It doesn't work out some days, and I end up eating more like 50/50. Especially on the weekends! But when I manage to make 80/20 Plants work for me, I always feel better physically! You can learn more about the 80/20 Plants approach here. It's a program from No Meat Athlete that you can subscribe to monthly until you get the hang of it (they offer coaching and recipes!), but I no longer subscribe since I went through the program in a few months last year.

Anyway, all that is to say, sometimes, I'll work that 20% into an otherwise whole foods-based meal! On a Wok Wednesday a week or so ago, I made a Vegan Chicken Stir-fry using the breaded Simple Truth meatless chicken strips. I chopped them into small pieces and added to a stir-fry with zucchini and carrots. Served over brown rice. For the sauce, I mixed soy sauce, water, garlic, ginger, and cornstarch. That's pretty much my go-to stir-fry sauce.

A few days later, on Macaroni Monday, I had more Simple Truth Chicken Strips with Imagine Vegan Cafe's "honey" mustard (they sell it by the jar), Zucchini Fritters, and some Mac & Noochy Cheese. Around that time, someone had given me a LOT of zucchini that needed to be used!

Some days, my meals are pretty much 100% whole foods (well, okay this one is more like 90%). Here's a recent massive dinner (this was before I started practicing ayurveda, which encourages small dinners and heavy lunches). This was a Loaded Baked Potato with Grilled Corn on the Cob, Zucchini, and Asparagus. That potato (I swear it's under there) is topped with vegan cheese (my 10%!), pinto beans, spinach, salsa, avocado, and guacamole salsa.

Other times, that 10-20% is bread! I try to eat sprouted grain bread most of the time, and when I do, I count that in my 80%. But when I have multi-grain or white bread, I consider that more processed and treat it as a treat. Here's a recent Tofu Scramble plate with multi-grain toast spread with Earth Balance and sprinkled with Parma. I used the tofu scram recipe from Eat Like You Give a Damn (the Herbivore store cookbook). It's one of my very favorite scrambles! It's kind of a dry-fried scramble where you cook it longer get all the moisture out.

And finally, here's another scramble plate. And more toast! Same scramble, but I topped this serving with Herdez guacamole salsa and added a sliced tomato from my garden.

Eating the 80/20 Plants way and trying to stick with Ayurvedic principles goes hand in hand! Both promote whole foods and healthy eating, so I'm enjoying these complementary practices. And when I stick to both, I feel amazing. I can immediately tell when I've slipped from either way of eating because my digestion will be off, and I'll struggle to stay asleep at night. It's crazy how much food can affect everything!