Compensating for laziness?

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I'm not lazy in that I don't work out... though due to multiple injuries over the past several months I've been unable to work out the way I normally would. I'm really just now getting back to a point where I can work out, and that's not my issue.

My issue is food. I love cooking for others but I hate cooking if I'm the only one who is going to eat it. Sometimes I consider adding meat to my diet, but the only times I've done that I just slice up fish and eat it raw and I'm convinced someday that will make me sick, despite any health benefits.

Thing is, I don't eat dairy or eggs either. I wouldn't call it veganism as I occasionally eat hard candies, which contain sugar. I mean, maybe one a day but still.

I pretty much have been eating nothing but fruits and vegetables raw, and drinking soymilk.

Other than nuts and beans... what would be easy to add to this that is actually healthy?

Canned salmon or mackerel. It's cheaper than tuna with the same nutritional value or better. You can also cook it, too, surprisingly. All you gotta do is throw it in a pan and heat it up. Then add it to brown rice or something, for a decent meal. Unlike tuna, it's not shredded goop either, it's actual fish, usually with skin, too. About the leanest protein you can get outside of powders.

Yeah canned fish is good. For cooking meat quickly with little effort you could buy an electric grill. A lot of them are inexpensive. One of the cheap and popular brands here is the "george foreman grill". You just put the thawed meat in there, it cooks fast and evenly. They also melt a bunch of fat off of the meat compared to some other methods of cooking. The most work you will likely need to do is flip the meat once or twice.

Many spices are great for your health. Black pepper is one of my favorites for flavor, and it's great for aiding digestion and burning calories. Fresh ground pepper that is, pre-ground is stale. I also like cinnamon for similar reasons.

Many teas are good for you. Add honey to the mix as a sweetener, and for so many health benefits.

I like fruit smoothies/shakes. I like to combine a bunch of different fruits, milk, yogurt, or water and ginger. Ginger is great for your health, especially fresh ginger. Celery and carrots go well with a lot of fruit too.

I believe a high qaulity fitness based multi-vitamin would help too. During breakfast, take with some fat, it doesn't have to be much.

The canned tuna is economical as well. Avoid nuts. They are not healthy, despite what the media says. They contain too much fat to be healthy. Same with avocados and olive oil. Anything with a lot of fat is not a healthy choice and definitely not a super food.

You need fats to keep your hormones in balance. Without fats your skin and hair get all dry and nasty. Maybe I should fry some egg plant in olive oil tonight. nom nom.

You get plenty of those in normal foods. You do not need oils.

Quinoa is an absolute necessity if you want to stay healthy with the diet you described. Also seitan (if you can tolerate gluten), lots of olive oil, and a few teaspoons of raw coconut oil every day. I am a professional chef and my last job I wrote and executed a vegan menu for a vegan dining hall of a college. I spent many weeks researching, which is actually several months of research in earthling time, amirite? Also make sure you are getting enough iron, niacin, and all other B vitamins. You might want to look into getting a blood test for vitamin deficiencies.

Most people DO NOT get enough monosaturated fats. They get plenty of unsaturated fat, though...

I am afraid I must respectfully disagree with you Ana. A good amount of fat in the diet is crucial for a variety of reasons. First of all, most of the central nervous system is made of fat. Every neuron in the entire body is insulated by a sheath of pure lipid called myelin. A deficiency in lipids can have a devestating effect on executive functioning (including attention, mood, stress management, etc), as well as fine motor control. Many, if not most, of the negative effects of lipid deficiency would be particularly worrisome for an Aspergian.

Furthermore, your assertion that you get enough fat from "normal foods" is odd considering the fact that the OP posted specifically because he does not eat "normal foods".

That post wasn't directed at the OP. Do you realize how much fat is in Soy milk, especially the regular kind. There's plenty of fat in it.

All I can say is, I cut all the food high in fats out of my diet and I also stopped adding olive oil. I no longer eat coconuts or nuts in general and I feel a lot better because of it. No more shortness of breath. Coconut is very high in fat btw, so are olives.

But it's the wrong kind. Polyunsaturated. And then it's soymilk and contains phytoestrogens, which are bad for men for the most part.

I can say the opposite of you, and this is where different metabolic types come into play, but I need some fat in the diet or else I go into "I hate my life and wanna die" mode. And my lifts and athletic performance are much better.

1000knives, I don't subscribe to the theory that some fats are fine and some are not. Fat is something needed in moderation. People who eat a regular diet definitely do not need to add oil to it. Even people who do not eat one may not need to add oils. Oils are bad because they are so processed. It would be better to find a food selection to obtain the nutrient rather than rely on an oil.

I agree on oils, with the exceptions being olive oil and maybe raw palm/coconut oil (never really tried.) But, some eggs, bacon, burgers, etc, aren't bad I think. Then again, you've seen how ridiculous I can eat sometimes. Moderation and stuff.

With the no fat thing, though, it's just the opposite extreme of Atkins/Paleo/etc. Any diet that cuts out whole food groups is bad. You can tweak things here and there, ie, more fat, carbs, etc, but to banish entire food groups from your diet is bad I think.

Uhh. I'm not sure if my soymilk has a lot of fat... I drink about one cup per day and that has one gram of polyunsaturated, and a half gram of monounsaturated.

Is that too much fat? I don't know if it's bad for men but I'm not a man... so that must make a difference. I mostly drink it for protein.

I said other than nuts and beans because I don't like any nuts and I'm too lazy to cook beans.

I guess I could start making some type of salad dressing with olive oil, though! I don't know, if there's too much fat in my soymilk there is probably too much fat in my entire diet.

I get fat from soy beans, chickpeas and occasional chicken and salmon and that's all I need. I used to eat a lot of almonds (because I heard they were good for people.) Actually, they were so good, I would eat too many. I also put olive oil into chili whenever I made it because of similar information about it. Avocados were a super food, so I thought, so they must be okay. All these foods were injecting way too much fat in my diet. I eat really low fat and try to be vegan as much as possible though I am not all the time and admit, I feel much better physically with the low fat. No more shortness of breath. It felt like adrenaline was coursing through my torso and it made really nervous when it happened because I didn't know what it meant. I just knew it cannot be good. It also happened after I ate cheese made with whole milk, so I stopped eating that. I no longer drink milk, not even two percent or one. Anyway, after cutting these foods out, and the excess oils, the feeling went away.

Now I stick to low fat soy in small quantities, like, just enough to moisten cereal and I have a cake recipe made with flax seed as an egg replacement and whole wheat flour that I like. I can eat a piece, immediately not crave any more and no tired feeling from too many carbohydrates. Instead I have some energy.

Oh btw, OP, Chickpeas are really good in a mostly vegan diet. I have a food processor and make my own hummus with Chickpeas, a little water and a little Tamari. Find low sodium if you can. Put them all in the processor and process until smooth. If it is too thick, add a little more water. It is blander than the kind you find at the grocery store but you can make it the way you want in the processor. If find it very filling when added to other ingredients, like sandwiches and whatnot. You can also eat it with veggies. Works well with chopped green onions on top. If it is really bland, which it might be if you do not use a lot of Tamari, you can sprinkle salt on some before eating. If you buy regular Tamari, watch how much you put in because it's very high sodium.

Meems, if the carton says "light" then it is low fat and all other varieties have a little more than that. I don't drink soymilk. Instead I put it on oatmeal, grapenuts or some other cereal and I only moisten it so it's not much. If you are vegan and not taking anything like fish oil or using olive oil, then it definitely is a low fat diet. It's the piling on of fattening foods that was doing me in, not just any one food in particular, but the avocados, nuts, salmon, milk, and olive oil together and I am the kind who cannot eat a small quantity of nuts. I want to eat half a can or a whole can. I also like mayo, cheddar and colby cheese and eggs. I absolutely adore pie crust. Anything with fat in it I gravitated toward, even these little pastries at the grocery store with pure sweetened lard as the filling. Those happened to be the only thing I liked from the bakery of that grocery store. Probably the item with the most fat. So yeah, my diet was loaded with fat.