The wonders of Chia

I have recently started using cronometer again to track my nutrients. I do it every now and again to make sure I am getting all the necessary requirements for my nutrition.

It's amazing to do this, because you see how easy it is to get all the necessary nutrients on a plant based diet.

I have been tracking my nutrients for three days. I have been learning that chia is not only an amazing source of Omega 3's but also has an amazing amount of calcium! 1 tbsp will give you 10% of your daily calcium needs! If you have a couple of bowls of chia in the morning, bam you are half way there!

Chia seeds are also a good source of iron, copper, magnesium, manganese, selenium and zinc! They are also full of protein, and healthy fat :)

I am giving you screenshots of my cronometer results. This was on the first day, where I was a little low in calcium, and had no vitamin D, and B12 -- although all three I take supplements for. I was able to improve my calcium though because of chia seeds! yay :)

Here is the list of everything I ate in the day:

I started the day with oatmeal, mixed with some cacao powder, granola, acai powder, coconut shreds and cinnamon which wasn't listed.

For lunch and dinner I had rice and beans

For snacks I had grapes, sugar free banana bread made with wheat germ, corn chips with hummus/tahini and cucumber and tomatos with hummus, oh and the chia seeds at the end were a mistake they are listed as zero, but I had added them to see what could bring up my calcium levels. and only 4 tbsp or so would have been needed for that, which would have been easy to do. They can also be easily added to your water, to take out the necessity of making a meal or dessert with them.

I also learned that potassium is something that junk food vegans need to be mindful of! If you don't have enough fresh food you could get low on this very important nutrient. To keep my levels good, if I am not juicing and I don't have time to make a salad, I cut up a couple of cucumbers and maybe a tomato -- and to make this more exciting this can be eaten with hummus made with extra tahini --this is my favorite!

Being short on potassium can lead to things like headaches.. so it's important to make sure you get fresh food in a day!

Also I discovered a very interesting thing, if I feel I am on the verge of getting a headache and I eat a passionfruit, I don't know what it is about the passionfruit but my pre-headache will suddenly disappear. This is a very interesting phenomenon and I would be happy to hear others opinions or tests of this as well.

So today I started off the day with 4 tablespoons of chia seed to soak, and I mashed up two bananas and some cinnamon to eat for breakfast. One of my favorite go to breakfasts. Another way to sneak chia seeds is, is just put a tablespoon or two into your drinking water...

Currently I'm only half way through the day, but my plan for dinner is more rice and beans and sauteed kale which will help me reach 100% for everything.