Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I know a lot about nutrition. I consider myself to know more than most. I am a Personal Trainer and an ex chippendale dancer. And one of the biggest ones they had. I watched the movie Forks over Knives and it motivated me to try a Vegan diet since they had discover that a diet rich in animal protein, specifically caesien, accelerated cancer growth astronomically. I am researching my butt off trying to figure out what is the best way to do this. SPecifically protein. I worry about taking soy because of the increas in estrogen it is reputetted to cause. Thoughts anyone?

Ricky,

My advice from experience is to do whatever feels right at the pace that feels right. If you wanna dive right in, dive. If you prefer to take things one step at a time and experiment as you go, that works, too. Even small changes head you in the right direction. You came to the right place: a lot of different ideas on here to choose from. Start with what tastes good to you because it's going to take a little while to train your tastebuds. But once you do, you won't believe how much more flavor everything has. Before I went vegetarian, then vegan and raw vegan, an orange was just an orange. Now, it's so sweet, it's like a freakin' piece of candy! It rocks!

Regarding protein, it's hard to beat legumes for sheer percentage by weight. Lentils are among the highest in protein out there and they can be cooked in such a way that they taste robust and "meaty." Plus, they freeze well so you can make a whole trough of them and put part away for later. Finally, they're inexpensive--one of their finest qualities. I recommend following your friend Google to some lentil burger recipes and playing around with sandwiches that are portable. If you need something to mix into smoothies, raw hemp protein powder has a very balanced protein and amino acid ratio naturally. And leucine has been proven to be the best amino acid for post-workout recovery, so adding a dash of spirulina to that smoothie will help. http://nutritiondata.self.com/foods-011 ... axCount=15

Have fun. If it's fun, you'll wanna do it again tomorrow.

Baby Herc

Welcome Ricky,

Great to have you here!

Really looking forward to your contributions to our community. We have a lot of great vegan athletes here on the forum and featured on our main website:

http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/?page=bios

Explore around the forum and main website for a variety of meal programs. I'll post some additional thoughts soon as well.

All the very best!

-Robert

Hey Ricky,

Welcome!

For protein, I would suggest the above (lentils). also you can't go wrong with a nice vegan protein powder (Sunwarrior, Vega, Nitrofusion). I suggest you look into nitrofusion, as i has added BCAA's etc. Haven't tried it yet, have tried Sunwarrior vanilla flavoured though and that is nice (currently using it).

Love your comment about nutrition,...I feel the same way. I think most on this site do, which makes for a lot of good thinking. I think there are several of us on here that are Personal Trainers as well.

I am at a loss for protein myself, and went from 2 plus years almost soy free back to pea protein and dropped almost all things with gluten and so I am not looking for size- I enjoy being "Desperate Housewife Hollywood thin" (with cuts and muscles), but have you tried tempeh? Seitan? All glutinous, It's gotta be worse for you men that weigh huge amounts compared to females that want to stay at 115 or less. It's just I know I get bored eating the same all the time, and as yummy as lentils can be, and how addicted I am to chocolate VEGA, I want food. I don't know if you have, but Gardein makes a really good moderate "cutlet",it's not as"clean", so not a everyday thing, but a nice break from lentils, soy, powders... ( has some gluten).90 calories, 16 grams...so not a huge amount, but "food". Pricey, tho.maybe it's me,I like to bite into something. I also mix 1/2 scoop protein powder w/my almond butter and make a paste and spread on my rice cakes ...protein bars are so pricey and calorically dense and not all good calories ,so I try to shove my protein wherever I can. I don't get as much as you big guys so i really have to make all my calories count.

Welcome...wow, hottie guy--Chippendale eye candy-Sweet!

Welcome Ricky!