Vegan Healthy Living Guide-Step–by–Step Guide to a Healthier Life

You have decided to make choices for better health by becoming vegan.

Now you are wondering how to do that.

This vegan healthy living guide will give you guidelines by which to eat and live for better health.

This living Guide is just that – a Guide, to be adapted in a way that works best for you.

Following this guide for a healthy vegan lfiestyle is likely to improve your health, but results are not guaranteed since there are many factors that determine health.

The better you can follow these recommendations, the better your chances of improving your health.

We understand that not everyone, for whatever reasons, can follow everything listed in this Healthy Living Guide.

Don’t be too hard on yourself trying to follow everything exactly.

Start by choosing a few things to change in your lifestyle.

(perhaps eating a good breakfast, incorporating more meat alternatives into your diet, and exercising regularly).

Then when you become comfortable with those changes, add a few more changes.

Most of all, keep learning and trying new things.

IMPORTANT: If taking medications, be sure to inform your doctor of the changes you are making, and have your numbers checked frequently to see if medications should be reduced. Don’t reduce them yourself. Most people following this plan rather strictly can have medications for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and Type II diabetes reduced within a few days to a few weeks and be off these medications entirely in 2 to 8 weeks. Type I diabetics can often cut their insulin need in half.

First of all, start learning how to follow the 8 laws of health:

Nutrition – Proper nutrition is the foundation of good health and recovery.
Exercise – Exercise improves the health of body, mind, and spirit
Water – The body is 70% water, and keeping well hydrated is essential to good health.
Sunlight – Sunlight helps the body’s metabolism and hormonal balance.
Temperance – Moderation in all things is good for health.
Air – Proper breathing and pure air are fundamental to good health.
Rest – The body renews itself during rest.
Trust in Divine Power – Trust in God is a gift leading to right choices.

Vegan Healthy Living Guide

Breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day.

Remember to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

Eat as much as you comfortably feel like eating – no need to count calories or carbs, but work to eliminate margarines, fatty dressings and oils, and refined foods.

Meals should be 5-6 hours apart with no snacks in between.

At first this may not work for you, but as your meals become more nutritionally rich and full of fiber, you will find that you can go longer between meals and may even be able to eliminate dinner.

Breakfast (suggested 6:30 a.m.)

• 4 to 5 servings of fruit (eat 2 or 3 different types every day)
• 1-2 servings of whole-grain cereal (oatmeal, multi-grain, or homemade granola) with 2 tablespoons freshly ground flax seed and one or two tablespoons ground toasted (no salt) pumpkin seeds (2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds can be eaten whole if preferred)
• Whole grain bread or toast, if desired.
• (2-4 times per week) 1 serving (1/4 cup) English walnuts or almonds or 1-2 servings whole-grain bread with natural peanut butter or other nut butter
  

Lunch (suggested 12:30 p.m.)

• Large salad
• Raw or cooked vegetables (eat different types every day)
• Starches (boiled or baked white potatoes or sweet potatoes, whole-grain brown rice, or whole-grain pasta)
• Protein food [legumes (beans or lentils), sandwich made with a nut butter or hummus, or soy product such as meat alternatives or tofu]
  

Dinner (suggested 5:30 or 6 p.m.)

• 1 or 2 servings fruit
• May also have, only if needed, 1-2 slices whole wheat bread or toast without margarine. Toast may have blended fruit spread if desired, which counts as a fruit serving.

Less physically active, healthy people may eventually feel fine eliminating the dinner meal.

The stomach will then adjust to eating just two meals a day.

Do 60 minutes of walking every day (this can be done in multiple shorter periods).

This is medicine for the body’s blood pressure and blood glucose levels, as well as weight loss.

It must be done daily for at least three years after normal ranges are reached, regardless of any other exercise.

The cells in the body have a memory of the body’s blood pressure and glucose levels, and it takes three years for all the cells in the body to be replaced so the memory is lost.

Drink plenty of water throughout the day (6 to 10 cups per day)

Go to bed by 9 p.m. so you can be asleep by 10.

More Details of Healthy Living Guide

This is not a “diet” to be on until a goal is reached and then quit with it.

This is a plan to live a healthy life by choice, not by chance.

The more committed you are to the plan and the longer you stay on it, the better the results.

Many scientific studies are proving the health value of this type of lifestyle.

• Cooking from scratch is the healthiest and saves money. Learn to cook without eggs and dairy products.
  
  
• Don’t drink liquids from half an hour before a meal until two hours after a meal. It dilutes the digestive juices, slows digestion, and causes the food to ferment in the stomach and make alcohol.
  
  
• Don’t snack between meals. The stomach is a muscle and needs to rest between meals. Anything taken into the mouth, other than water, is a snack.
  
  
• Eating at the same times every day helps the stomach work efficiently.
  
  
• Avoid fruit juices, except as a sugar substitute. They are high in calories and low in fiber.
  
  
• Oatmeal, walnuts and almonds will help reduce cholesterol.
  
  
• Freshly ground flax seed reduces cholesterol and helps prevent cancer.
  
  
• Pumpkin seeds reduce blood pressure and improve vision.
  
  
• Eating a large variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes provides all the nutrients and fiber needed by the body, including sufficient protein, calcium, iron, and all the other vitamins and minerals needed.
  
  
• Meat, eggs, and dairy products are full of saturated fats and cholesterol and have no fiber. Use of these items should be greatly reduced, or better yet, eliminated from the diet. If used, use them very sparingly like a condiment and look for ways to eventually eliminate them.
  
  
• Dietary cholesterol comes only from animal products. Plant foods have no cholesterol. Cholesterol levels in the body will go down dramatically when eating only plant foods.
  
  
• In planning meals, try to “paint the plate with a rainbow” to get all the needed nutrients. This means to choose whole foods of all colors – red, yellow/orange, green, purple/blue, white.
  
  
• Become a label reader to reduce fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar intake and to increase fiber. Most commercial food products are high in the first four and low in fiber.
  
  
• The body needs only 1,200 mg of salt per day. Try to stay as close to that amount as possible. One teaspoon is 5,000 mg. Use seasonings and herbs instead of salt.
  
  
• Avoid refined sugar; use raw (turbinado) sugar instead. Watch out for hidden sugars like corn syrup.
  
  
• Avoid white flour (wheat flour is white flour). Look for whole grains in ingredient listings. If it doesn’t say “whole,” it’s not.
  
  
• Eliminate alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine.
  
  
• Try to get 15 minutes of mid day sunshine on the skin daily.
  
  
• Try to take 7-10 deep breaths of fresh air several times a day.