Keeping my body fat % down while building muscle has always been a challenge. So, if I make a diet change that results in my suddenly losing a few percent body fat – without losing muscle – I’d have to be an idiot not to stop and take notice. ‘Specially since it’s the second time it’s happened, as I noticed when reviewing old posts for the site move.

As I mentioned in an earlier post about the vegan cruise we recently returned from, for a week I ate far more calories, far more grains (whole, of course), and more desserts than our typically disciplined diet allows. I was shocked and amazed to find that I looked far better at the end of this eating extravaganza than I had at the beginning…and so I made a few changes to our usual diet to continue the experiment and so far I’ve continued to slowly lose fat and maintain muscle! Here’s what I believe is the main secret: more vegetables. Way more vegetables, given that we already ate a pretty good amount.

Vegetables with every meal, including breakfast; we have been having a steamed green of some sort with every breakfast of steamed or water-cooked oatmeal, brown sweet rice, or yellow corn grits:

That’s in addition to our usual morning protein/soymilk/fruit drink. I’ve replaced the afternoon and evening scoops of protein powder with more vegetables (about 1 – 1 1/2 pounds each) and more food overall. After all, broccoli, for example, gets 35% of it’s calories from protein as it is.