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Month: May 2016
Day 29 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 12th
Day 29/28
For my last meal in Berkeley, I finally tried the deli I had mentioned in my first post of this series: The Butcher’s Son, an all-vegan sandwich shop! I had been eyeing their meatball and fried mozzarella sandwich for awhile, so I finally went and got it for lunch after a very active morning of moving all my stuff.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the mozzarella because it didn’t have much texture for my taste (or maybe I just don’t like fried things anymore?), but the meatballs and bacon macaroni salad on the side were amazing. Although, while eating the sandwich, I actually thought to myself, “I wish I were having baked potato rounds instead.” And I’m usually a huge junk food lover!
I also got a cronut there because I’d never had one and had never seen a vegan one before–I figured it was my only chance. It was so oily I could hardly take it.
So all in all, I think that The Butcher’s Son is a fantastic restaurant for people with normal tastes, but I just can’t stand too much oil anymore! And I’m actually very happy about this fact, because it means that my natural preferences have finally shifted towards healthy food! In high school, I had 3-4 Dr. Pepper sodas a day, and subsisted off of cookies and french fries–so this is an amazing change for me.
Simple, healthy, high carb food is what I crave these days! (Besides the occasional vegan pastry 😉 )

Macros: 70% carbs, 17% protein, 13% fat
Exercise: Walked 6.5 miles
Breakfast
- Blueberry banana oat smoothie
- Coldbrew coffee
Lunch
- Vegan meatball and fried mozzarella sandwich*
- Cronut*
- Caesar salad*
- Mango
Dinner
- Butter free, salt free pretzel (at airport)*
- Yukon gold potato rounds
Calories eaten: 2260 | Calories burned: 2310 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Day 28 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 11th
Day 28/28
I started off the day by packing up my apartment to move all my stuff into a storage unit for the summer.
And then I packed all afternoon. And then I packed til I went to bed. I packed for about 12 hours! I have too much stuff.
I also noticed something interesting: I was intending to eat a lot today since I had food to use up and figured I’d need a lot of fuel for moving all day. This is the first day in a long time I’ve consciously tried to make myself eat more, and it’s the first day in awhile I’ve ended up undereating! It’s like my body is some rebellious child 😛
I’m also going to add a day 29 tomorrow because I plan on eating some interesting things while moving! Then I’ll do a very wordy wrap up post to sum up my thoughts on this little challenge 🙂
Macros: 76% carbs, 13% protein, 11% fat
Exercise: Walked 5 miles
Breakfast
- Mango berry acai bowl
- Coldbrew coffee
Lunch
- Baked russet rounds
- Baked sweet potato rounds
Second lunch (because I’m a hobbit now apparently)
- Carrot sushi bowl
Dinner
- Falafel with hummus, lettuce, tomato
- Cherry-mango-orange juice
Calories eaten: 1880 | Calories burned: 2110 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Day 27 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 10th
Day 27/28
Today I took my last final of my undergraduate career, played with squirrels with friends (and filmed some of it for my youtube channel!), did a graduation photoshoot, and went for dinner and vegan ice cream sandwiches with other friends!
It was a good last real day in Berkeley. (I say last “real” day because tomorrow is just packing, and I fly out the next day.)
And it was a rather high fat day at that. I probably should have made this a 26 day challenge 😉
Macros: 69% carbs, 12% protein, 19% fat
Exercise: Walked 5.5 miles
Breakfast
- Strawberry mango oat smoothie
- Coldbrew coffee
Lunch
- Baked russet rounds
- Bell pepper romaine wraps
Dinner
- Peanut tofu noodles*
- Mint chocolate ice cream sandwich*
Calories eaten: 2360 | Calories burned: 2120 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Day 26 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 9th
Day 26/28
Three more days in Berkeley. So crazy!

I had another two shoots, and generally ran all over town doing various tasks. And studying for my final tomorrow–almost forgot about that 😛
Macros: 71% carbs, 14% protein, 15% fat
Exercise: Biked 20 minutes, walked 5.5 miles
Breakfast
- Strawberry banana oat smoothie
- Coldbrew coffee
Lunch
- Baked russet rounds
- Bell pepper romaine wraps
- Walnuts
Photoshoot snack
- Mint clif bar
Dinner
- Falafel*, homemade hummus, romaine, tomato
- Orange-mango-cherry juice
Calories eaten: 2150 | Calories burned: 2025 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Day 25 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 8th
Day 25/28
I decided to make a fun breakfast (because what better day is there for fun breakfasts than Sunday/Mother’s day?), consisting of bacon made out of coconut shreds, which I ate on its own and put on top of plain fat-free whole wheat donuts. I also made some chocolate chip churro donuts which were good too, but I am seriously in love with coconut bacon donuts. I can see why maple bacon donuts have been all the rage lately!
Most of my post-donut day consisted of trying to battle my way through my seemingly endless list of tasks I have to do before moving out in 4 days (!), followed by 5 hours of photoshoots in the evening. All these shoots have been exhausting, but worth it: not only do I love being able to commemerate things for people using my camera, but these graduation photoshoots are paying for some of the furniture I’ll have to buy this September! 😀
Macros: 70% carbs, 12% protein, 18% fat
Exercise: Walked 4.5 miles
Breakfast
- Whole wheat fat free donuts
- Coconut “bacon”
Lunch
- Baked russet rounds
- English breakfast tea
Photoshoot snack
- Mint clif bar
Dinner
- Bell pepper wraps
- Baked russet rounds
- Orange-mango-cherry juice
Calories eaten: 2350 | Calories burned: 1940 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Animal vs Plant Protein: Which Has More? | Best Vegan Protein Sources
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Day 24 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 7th
Day 24/28
Feeling back to my old self! I craved (and ate) potatoes all day.
And alluding to my last post: since I ate all those calories the last few days (like 2200+), I no longer crave any fats–just my good ol’ starches! It’s amazing how much nicer things are when I eat intuitively and let myself eat as much as I need (and as much fat as I crave)… unlike the old days, when it was a constant battle.
Macros: 81% carbs, 9% protein, 9% fat
Exercise: Biked 35 minutes, ran 40, walked 20
Breakfast
- Steel cut banana oats
Lunch
- Baked yukon gold rounds
- Mocha
- Blueberry nicecream
Snack pre-running:
- Mini potatoes
Dinner
- Navrattan korma
- Sweet potato wedges
Night snack
- Japanese sweet potato
Calories eaten: 1800 | Calories burned: 1860 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Day 23 of Higher Carb Starch Solution: May 6th
Day 23/28
I got a blood test today out of curiosity about B12 and whatnot, so I had to skip breakfast–I didn’t end up getting to eat til noon! I survived just fine but it renewed my appreciation for the magic of breakfast.
Also, as for the ravenous hunger point I mentioned yesterday: after years of binging and restricting cycles, my body has a very specific, very strong reaction to losing weight: it craves fat with no off switch. It got to the point where any weight loss attempts ended with me being in a rut with my diet consisting of 70% fat in the form of compulsively eaten almond butter and chocolate chips while still trying to restrict calories.
I think that this experiment activated the same response, because I lost 2.5 lbs in the first week–I only have 25lbs of body fat total (according to body composition tests), so losing 10% of that in a short time span probably put my body in panic mode. My dietary fat intake has gone up as a result (I think my body just craves the most concentrated form of calories to regain the weight ASAP), and my overall calories have gone way up too–prepping this much food is just getting tiring!
After things settle down, I think I’ll just go back to my happy zone around 75% carbs, 12% fat, and 13% protein, with occasional very low fat days around 5%. I think that will be a nice equilibrium because I’ll lose a bit of weight on the 5% days, and keep my body from making me a ravenous beast by eating more normally the other days. If I were to try this higher carb experiment again, I would make myself eat more calories at the beginning to make sure I don’t lose too much weight, so I don’t turn on my emergency fat-craving setting!
If you have excess weight to lose, I am completely confident that a very low fat diet would work just fine for you. In fact, this diet worked too well for me in terms of weight loss considering how little I have to lose, which is why it activated the same defense mechanisms that my past calorie restriction used to!

Macros: 70% carbs, 12% protein, 18% fat
Exercise: Biked 35 minutes
Breakfast
- Steel cut banana oats
- Irish breakfast tea
Lunch
- Walnuts
- Baked russet rounds
Dinner
- Lentil veggie soup
- Japanese sweet potato
Calories eaten: 2060 | Calories burned: 1560 (according to Fitbit data)
(*Everything is made by me except those with a * –feel free to request recipe posts for anything you’d like to know about 🙂 )
Thanks for reading!
Miche
Recipe: How to Make Vegan Carrot Cake Bliss Balls!
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Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw carrots
- 5 large medjool dates, pitted
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 1/4 cup shredded sweetened coconut
- 1 tablespoon almond butter
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup (plus more if you like things sweeter, up to one tablespoon)
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- Heaping 1/8 teaspoon ginger
- Heaping 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- Dry shredded coconut for rolling (I used the sweetened/wet version but dry would turn out better!)