For the past several years I have launched into a fitness-focused and nutritious lifestyle. This was because I wanted to practice good healthy habits after I was inspired by the Mediterranean diet. I'm a big fan of this diet as it contains moderate amounts of seafood and chicken, which I love, but I hate to prepare meat of any kind. As such, upon entering the point in college in which I must cook a lot of meals myself, I have shifted to being mostly vegetarian. I’ve made many mistakes and learned lots along the way.

Let’s discuss some of the challenges that can arise. When I first started I was eating a lot of simple spinach salads and other healthy foods which I didn’t realize contain a very small amount of calories. Couple this with an active fitness routine, and I was losing too much weight, too quickly, which was definitely not healthy. Filling high calorie meals like power bowls (quinoa, chickpeas, avocado, etc.) are a fantastic and simple example of a way to counter this. It’s absolutely vital to get enough calories when leading an active lifestyle.

Another big issue coupled with not enough calories is not enough protein. A low calorie, low protein diet can cause you to lose a lot of weight, including muscle which can be detrimental to weight lifting efforts. I suggest making an effort to consciously select high protein healthy foods like beans, yogurt, eggs, oats, and all natural supplements like pure pea protein to help reach your daily protein goals. I can not stress how important it is to specifically choose high protein foods as many vegetarian/healthy foods are relatively low in protein and it can be easy to fall short. You’ll find a few examples below of high calorie and high protein meals that are both simple to prepare, and delicious.