Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:00

Welcome to episode three of the Deficient Vegans podcast. I'm the muscle deficient vegan and I'm here with the awesome protein deficient vegan, who's been very busy with, uh, holiday recipes this week. Do you wanna say hi?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 0:10

Hi.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 0:11

Hi. So, uh, first things first, sorry for the podcast being a day or two late. We've been really busy. Like I said. Uh, she's been working on a lot of recipes and we also had a website kind of redesign and migration thing going on. Hopefully everybody, uh, enjoys the new website. It looks less like we designed it in middle school and more like we designed it for normal adult humans to read, and we, we think it's a lot better. So. Uh, let us know. Go check it out. So we are doing this week, kind of a follow up to last week's episode about navigating the holidays as a vegan to somebody with a fitness mindset. So this week we're gonna talk a little bit about the mentality of that going into the holidays or any kind of situation where you're around your friends and family and food and you don't have a lot of control over the situation. Uh. You might get asked some of the kind of cliche and common questions that people like to ask vegans or the most popular one I think out there is how do you get your protein?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 1:06

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 1:07

So a lot of the times the answer to that, especially if you like Google it online or whatever it's gonna be, uh, lentils, beans, quinoa, uh, things like that. Those are really good sources of protein, but they tend to come with a lot of carbs and you know, typically if we have fitness goals, we want to. Maybe limit the carbs, focus on the protein a little more because we probably got some kind of calorie goal to hit and some kind of protein goal to hit. So a lot of the, uh, sources that we like to focus on are tofu, Tempe, Satan, and TBP. Um, if you're not really familiar with how to use some of those or you haven't used them in the past. Uh, we have a lot of recipes on our site that use all those different things on our site. If you haven't been there, mostly focuses on high protein recipes that don't use protein powder. So you've actually got tags. Uh, you can kind of look around for all the TBP recipes or all the tofu recipes, uh, anything like that. The second kind of question you might hear a lot is, uh, well, what do vegans even eat anyway? So,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:01

and everyone thinks you just eat salads.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:03

Yeah. Which is probably the last thing you want to eat most days.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:06

I don't even know the last time I ate a salad, actually.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:09

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:09

Months. It's been months.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:11

Me neither actually. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, uh, I don't know exactly what it is, but I think people think that vegan is some kind of. Uh, magical food that only vegans have access to, and they don't really think about the fact that just like a lot of the stuff they eat anyway is vegan or vegetarian, you know, potato chips, french fries, Oreos, potatoes, Oreos, Oreos are vegan.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:34

So good. Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:36

So, um, I mean, it's just, you know, you're not eating the animal products right. So,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 2:42

yep.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 2:44

There's a lot of stuff you can still eat and a lot of stuff they, they probably eat. Um, you know, one of the concerns that also comes up from people who are either actually concerned or want to feign concern to start a conversation is about, you know, your vitamins and nutrients and, uh, if you keep eating vegan, you're probably gonna drop dead next week.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:00

Yeah. As soon as you mention you're vegan, everyone's a freaking doctor.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:04

Yeah, I don't know what that's about.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:05

Mm. It's just a reason to be like, well, I can't be vegan because all of these other concerns.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:13

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:14

So now I'm a medical professional and you're dying.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:17

Yeah. I think, I think it mostly stems from the fact that, you know, B12 you probably know is something that vegans do need to supplement. Um, you can't get that from anything that's, uh, not an animal product. And you really only get it from animal products because they inject it into the animals too. So nobody actually gets B12 real naturally anymore.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:36

They do inject B12 into VO life. Shredded cheese though.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:40

There you go. Yeah. You can either supplement B12 or you can eat a whole lot of V Life shredded cheese.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 3:45

I'd vote for V Life.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 3:47

Yeah. Yeah, there's a couple other things you, you can get, but uh, it's a little harder as a vegan, like vitamin D, zinc and selenium. Um, I think if you just take a multivitamin and a B12, you pretty much have those bases covered. Uh, the one I like to use, not sponsored or anything obviously, but I like to use holier. It's like specifically made for people on a plant-based diet, and it's only got like the five or six vitamins that are hard to get. So yeah, it's a pretty good option.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 4:15

I kind of struggle with iron, even if I eat high iron foods, but I don't really think that's necessarily a vegan issue.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 4:20

So, uh, aside from people just asking you general questions, you know, some of them might get a, a little more in depth with you and try to get into a whole discussion or maybe even an argument about, you know, your choices, whether that be for vegan or your fitness choices or what you're trying to eat. Uh, anything along those lines. So I think, you know, my, uh, opinion on that is just kind of a, a live or let live situation. You can talk to them about it and entertain a conversation, but, uh, I wouldn't get into it as a a you versus them kind of thing. Um, I think if you just do your thing and lead by example, maybe, um, they will eventually come around and start asking you questions in a more. A casually curious, friendly type way, or, uh, they won't, and that's okay too.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:08

Or they'll just be dicks forever.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:10

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:10

And one day you'll finally snap. Not that that's ever happened to me before.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:16

What happens when you snap?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:18

You know, you just snap. Then they usually don't bring it up again, so,

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:23

yeah. Yeah. So, uh, that actually brings us to the next topic. I think on the blog, post snapping, I guess could be seen as standing up for yourself, right? So, uh, you want to kind of stand up for yourself, you know, you don't wanna be in a situation where you're doing things out of obligation, you know, I think a common example is somebody invites you out to dinner or something. You know, there's not gonna be any food for you there. So you go and you just sit and you don't eat and you socialize and everybody thinks it's awkward'cause you're not eating, you know?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:52

And you feel awkward. And you're hungry.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:55

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 5:55

And you have a miserable time.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 5:57

I mean, uh, you know, you want to treat yourself a little better than that. You don't deserve to be in a situation like that. So, uh, if there's just, if it's something you're not comfortable with, um, you know, you can just say no, no is a complete sentence. Mm-hmm. That's okay. Um, and you know, if there's some accommodation that can be made, if people are willing to switch it up and go to a restaurant that has a real vegan option that's not salad, that's cool. Or in the case of like, uh, this holiday gathering Thanksgiving kind of thing you have coming up. Uh, maybe you can convince a family member that you know, uh, you know, is a good cook to do some vegan swaps for some different ingredients in the food. Switch out, you know, butter for just oil or what, what are the options along those lines.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:39

Yeah. That means you have to trust people though, which I don't like doing 'cause people are liars.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:44

Oh, hopefully your, uh, your family won't lie to you about those things, but I guess you never know.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:50

They might lie to you about those things.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:52

Well, if you're worried about 'em lying, uh, like I said, we do have a bunch of recipes on our website.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 6:56

Bring your own food,

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 6:57

bring your own food, make your own dish. And the benefit of that is you get to bring vegan food and show people Yes. What it's like and what good vegan food can be like. So

Protein Deficient Vegan: 7:05

conversion.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 7:07

Is definitely always an option. So, uh, kind of along the same lines, you know, with both trying to reach your fitness goals and having, uh, you know, some, a belief system like being a vegan or a plant-based, something along those lines, you're, you're always gonna have. Every day to make some tough decisions or push back on something or decide that, uh, you can't do something that day or, uh, some other thing that you have to do. I mean, you have to make basically a bunch of little decisions every day over a long period of time to reach a long-term goal. So you just try to make as many of the, the right decisions as you can, and you know, if you can get most of 'em right and you get a few wrong, uh, that's gonna be just fine. But one thing that can help you kind of stick to that long-term goal is to really keep your why in mind. Like, why, why do you have that goal? What is it that you want to achieve long-term? Or, or what is it, um, that you want to say? I, I believe in this and I want to behave as if I believe in this long term. So if you can just really, you know, kind of maybe even say it out loud, write it down. I don't know what, what your why is, why you feel that way or why you want to behave that way. It can really help you mentally deal with peer pressure or any other kind of outside pressure so you understand. Within yourself, why it is that you're pushing back and you'll feel better about it and more confident. So just keep in mind that you'll have to make, you know, these decisions every day. And this, you know, whether, uh, we're talking about veganism or uh, fitness, these are both kind of lifestyle long-term choices. So, uh, just make sure that the things you restrict yourself to and the choices you make are things that you can deal with long term.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 8:48

Yeah. And the sooner you know why you're doing something and you. Have a strong firm belief in it. It's more about what you want and what you think. And less about like trying to explain yourself to others. Yeah. And once you feel more strongly about what you are doing, the less you'll feel like you have to explain yourself to others, I think.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:08

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:10

And then usually they just leave you alone.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:12

Yeah. Yeah. They'll leave you alone and then sometimes they come back a couple years later and ask like, Hey, how do I do that thing?

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:19

Yeah.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:20

Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Well, if you wanna, uh, read a little more about some of these topics, like I said, we do have the, the blog post up on the site. I'll put that in the show notes. Uh, I want to move on now to talk about. This crazy list of recipes that you've been working on all week. We've got a lot of, uh, really good food. Lucky for me, I get to try it all. So first up, we've got a, uh, high protein, mac and cheese, 30% protein

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:43

and the cheese sauce. And then we use TVP for the breadcrumbs.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:48

Yeah,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 9:49

that's how we get to 30% protein. It's pretty magical.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 9:52

Yeah. TBP is awesome. We're, we're using it in all kinds of stuff lately. Uh, typically I think it's seen as a savory thing. In this case, we use it as a savory dish, but we've also got some muffins and cookies and stuff out there that use it in sweet dishes, so it's like super versatile.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:05

Did you like the mac and cheese?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:06

Yeah, I really like the mac and cheese. It's really good. It's

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:08

like so creamy, right?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:09

Yeah, it is super creamy. Uh, next up we've got a, uh, sweet potato pie with 27% protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:18

This one's like my favorite thing we've made.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:20

Yeah. Lately I. It's definitely my favorite dessert.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:24

It's so good. We ate it for breakfast.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:27

Yeah, you can.'cause it's 27% protein. You can eat it whenever you want.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:30

You kind of feel like a piece of shit, but then you're like, oh wait, it's 27% protein. I can do whatever I want.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:36

Yeah. The other day I was sitting there with. For breakfast with like a pie and a what? One of the protein cookies or something. And my brain was like, what are you doing? This isn't, we don't eat pies and cookies for breakfast. And I was like, I mean, I'm gonna hit my protein goal today. So, and it's not protein powder, so I, I really don't see the problem.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 10:53

And it technically has vegetables too in it. That's true. True. Which is all very weird. Yeah. But it tastes great.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 10:58

I, I'm convinced that you're like a dark wizard.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:01

I am a dark wizard.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:04

Uh, next up we have a sweet potato casserole. This one's not high protein, but it, it's vegan and it's delicious.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:09

Yes, and we do use. Extra firm silk and tofu in it to make it like more creamy than normal.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:15

Yeah. So it's got some protein.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:18

Yeah, some not. I wouldn't like

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:20

brag about it. Uh, next we have, uh, twice baked potatoes, which are, uh, super amazing, incredible awesome. Um, you know, I've had loaded bake potatoes a lot my whole life, and I think these are the best ones I've ever had. It's, what is the creaminess? It's like the silk and tofu. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:38

It has silicon tofu in the. Potato, you know, filling. And then we, uh, made faking bits out of TVP.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:47

Oh yeah. The faking bits are really good. Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:48

The faking bits.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:49

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 11:50

Yeah. It was really good. When we had this, he was like, this is my birthday meal. You will make this for me on all of my birthdays to come.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 11:59

I don't know if I was quite that demanding. It

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:01

was so demanding

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:02

request.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:02

He threatened me.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:05

I'm definitely cutting that. All right, next up we've got, uh, TVP Pumpkin pecan muffins, 20% protein. Yeah, those are

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:17

freaking good too.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:18

Yeah, those are good. We got a lot of TVP muffins going on lately, but uh, you know, it's hard to argue with. So

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:23

yeah, they're good little breakfast, they're good Little like pre-workout snack o. I really like them.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:29

Me too. I also got a high protein mushroom gravy. This 52% protein that goes with another recipe. The garlicy mashed potatoes.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:38

Yeah, the garlic mashed potatoes are not high protein at all, but if you put high protein gravy on 'em, it's kind of cancels it out.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:45

Yeah, it's really good.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:47

Yeah, there's like really good together.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:49

Yeah, for sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:50

I don't know what else you can do with the gravy. Probably like you can probably put it on a whole bunch of other shit. I think biscuits. Biscuits. Yeah. Yeah. Would

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 12:56

definitely be good on biscuit.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 12:57

Maybe like, uh, what? What's that? Canadian Fry thing?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:00

Oh, poutine.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:01

Maybe you could use that. I don't know. Yeah. I've never, I've never actually had poutine.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:05

Yeah, you could use it for that for sure.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:06

Hmm.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:07

Uh, we also have a high protein TBP stuffing.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:11

This is 49% protein, which doesn't make sense for a stuffing, but if you cook TVP and season it just the right way, it comes out a similar texture to like Stove top stuffing. And I would say the taste is pretty much there.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:25

Yeah, it seemed pretty similar to me. I haven't had Stove Top in a long time, but

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:27

yeah,

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:28

it seemed like what I remembered. And then the last up here we have, uh, fudgy vegan, sweet potato Brownies. These are, uh, so squishy and fudgy. It's kind of insane.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:38

Yeah, they're super caloric, so like, you probably shouldn't make these every week.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:43

Yeah,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:43

we, we need to stop making them actually, they're addictive.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 13:48

But you know, it just goes to show that you don't, you don't have to never eat fun things again. Yeah. You just have to make sure it fits into your macros and goals.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 13:54

Yeah. And lie to yourself and say, there's sweet potatoes in these brownies. I can totally eat these. It's the vegetables.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:00

This, this is the surfing of vegetables for the day.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:02

Even though it's like. Three quarters of a cup of sweet potatoes across 20 brownies. It's totally a serving of vegetables on each one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:09

Yeah. Um, another thing we kinda like to do is talk about any new vegan things. We find out there are products or, uh, anything like that. We tried a new thing this week called what? Chomp chocolates. Chomp

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:21

chocolates. We actually tried 'em at Halloween too. They had like a Halloween variety pack and then. This time they had like a holiday variety pack or something. But they're really good.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:33

Yeah, they're really good. They're,

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:34

they're a little more expensive than normal chocolate, but if you read their website, I guess they, uh, do ethical sourcing of chocolate, so that's why they're more expensive. But they're, they're really good. Yeah. The chocolates, they have like

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:46

little frosted flakes or something sitting on top. Oh

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:47

yeah. They had like a

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:48

many weeks.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:49

A Muddy Buddy one.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:50

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:51

Puppy chow, like whatever people call it across the states. I don't know.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:55

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:57

Puppy chow.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:57

Yeah.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:58

What?

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 14:58

No.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 14:59

Yeah. It's like checks and then you put like the peanut butter, chocolate, and like powdered sugar.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:06

I'll take your word for it.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:06

That's, that's what's on there. Okay.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:09

Well, I'm sure other people know what that is.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:11

Puppy chow, muddy buddies.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:12

Cool.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:13

Anyway, it's really good. And there was also a chocolate orange one, which is like, I, I really like that combination. I heard that's,

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:19

I heard that's big in, uh, like the uk, but I don't think I've ever had that combination.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:23

Hmm. And then there's a chocolate peppermint, which he hates chocolate and mint, so I definitely shoved a whole one in his mouth.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:29

Yeah, that's not fun. She thinks I'm gonna like mint every time she gets something that's mint and it's never gonna happen.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 15:34

Okay. But. As someone that likes it, it's freaking amazing and you should probably go try it.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 15:40

All right. Well, uh, I think that's pretty much it for this week. Uh, next week we plan on talking a little bit about how to, uh, travel and stay within your fitness goals and, uh, more importantly, how to do vegan food on the road, which is extra hard mode. Uh, normally. No, just eating high protein on the road is pretty tricky, but vegan, high protein on the road is, uh, expert plus. Plus expert. Plus plus. Uh, so we're gonna talk a little bit how to, how to eat, um, you know, or make your own food at an Airbnb or a hotel or something like that. Uh, and then maybe some tips for picking things off of the menus at the local restaurants.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:13

Or gas stations

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:15

or gas stations are a really good source. Uh, usually better than the restaurants actually. Yeah. Sometimes for some reason.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:20

So they have nuts. At least. At

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:21

least they're, uh, reliable. You kind of know what your options are in a gas station. We'll talk about gas station options.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:26

Yeah, gas station options.

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:28

Cool. Alright, classy.

Protein Deficient Vegan: 16:29

We keep it classy here. Yeah,

Muscle Deficient Vegan: 16:32

we're definitely not eating out of a gas station most of the time. All right everybody, I hope you, uh, enjoy it and thanks for listening and we'll see you again next time. Say bye.