Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Congrats on the job!
Good luck with the sleep!

So today is Silvio's birthday and I looked online for a cake recipe that was gluten free and vegan.. So difficult! Anyways, I found one that got great reviews but instead of regular flour, I used brown rice flour. I also cooked it in the wrong pan. I don't have a lot of cake pans so I put it in this really shallow one and the cake came out really.. dry. I was so disappointed. Then I made the frosting. The frosting came out absolutely decadent. I think I got diabetes from "taste testing" hahaha.
I made way too much frosting. I tried to fix the cake by cutting it in half and layering it. I put frosting and raspberries in the middle, and then more frosting on the sides and top and still had frosting left over. If he doesn't like the cake, he can always eat the leftover frosting hahaha!

The cake!



Close-up O.o



I still have presents to give him and I'm taking him out to dinner if the cake thing doesn't work out

Looks delicious.

I think he liked it.. Lol
He had 2 pieces last night. It was hard as a rock. I had a difficult time trying to cut it.. Hahaha
Well, biscotti is hard too so maybe that's what it reminds him of? Hahaha

Congrats on the job Marcina!

And, I know it's a bit late, but I just read your starbucks post now and laughed my ass off. Seriously, it was brilliant.

haha thanks!

So this week has been the most klutzy week for me. First of all, I was shaving my legs the other day and somehow I got my fingernail caught in the razor. Omg that hurt. It's healed now but I got a funny looking nail. Also, last weekend I tripped over a rock ever so gracefully and marked up my shin. Then today at work, I stabbed myself with a needle (sterile.. well.. Not anymore) and bled all over the place. That was on my thumb. So now, my left hand has 2 fucked up phalanges on it.
My rotator is bothering me as well, specifically the supraspinatus.. I guess with all the bending over, scrubbing, cleaning, vacuuming etc. my posture hasn't been so great and I've managed to irritate it. It really hurts, but makes me sit up straight because that's the only way it won't hurt anymore. It started hurting after I was holding a full bag of lactated ringers above my head. Holding weight above the head is bad for rotators. Anyways, that's my theory.

Every day I catch the bus at 3:00 and then power walk to work from the mall. The walk takes about 30 minutes. My job is very physical too so I get a pretty good workout. On my off days, I will go to the gym and lift weights. I should be in kickin shape in no time!

This week has been pretty interesting. I kept struggling with my conscience to decide whether I really want to work at this vet clinic or not..

Some things were irritating me at work. Not to mention being in a vet clinic makes me think of Oreo ALL the time. Oreo was my kitty cat that I lost to liver disease back in December. I somewhat blamed myself because I was volunteering at this shithole clinic with incompetent people and took him there to get some routine bloodwork done. He had just turned 5 and thought it would be a good idea. They told me he was fine. Down the road a few months later he started eating less and less. Always being a finicky cat, and a bit overweight, I didn't think too much of it until he started refusing his favorite food. I took him to the vet that our family has had since our first cat and he was concerned. We took X-rays and had his bloodwork and file faxed over from the other clinic and it turned out he had a slight elevation in one of his liver enzymes. The doctor took more blood and found out that his liver was shutting down.. and quickly. I was desperate to save him, and hand fed him every day.. I racked up my credit card with vet bills even though Christmas was quickly approaching and I was unemployed. I didn't care.
Unfortunately, his condition wasn't improving. The vet told me that he could see that I deeply cared for my cat.. and that he wouldn't have lasted as long as he did if it wasn't for my love and devotion. He said a lot of people wouldn't be willing to do the things I did for him. We went over his bloodwork and it showed that the enzymes in his liver were now elevated 4 times normal. We had no idea why he was sick, but I knew that he wasn't going to get better. When cats get liver disease, they go very quickly, and it's very unpleasant for them. I decided not to let him suffer anymore.
On December 19th he was euthanised. I didn't go to the hospital with him for the last time. I cried so much. Hell, I'm tearing up right now as I type this but it's therapy so I'm doing it!!
Anyways.. I think about this everyday now. I think it's why I was so reluctant to work in a vet clinic again. I do it because I love animals. I take care of them, and it helps me learn how to take better care of mine. If I didn't have the knowledge I have, Oreo probably would have gotten to the stage in his illness where he was suffering terribly before we would have noticed.
The last night I spent with Oreo, he cuddled with me in my bed and I cried. He would purr and snuggle up to me to let me know it was gonna be okay. The next morning he went into his kennel on his own, without a struggle. It was so unusual because he would usually fight with us. It's like he knew. He was such a good boy and I miss him. My mom still has his brother, Rascal. They were from the same litter. Rascal is healthy and well. I saw him yesterday and brushed him. He absolutely adores it.

Anyways, I've been so bummed out this week, and I think this is why. I keep thinking about Oreo. It kinda feels good to get my story out. Maybe now it won't run through my head as much.
Back in April a friend of mine put together a concert for her dog Orbyt who had died. She's still sad about losing him too, so I don't feel so bad about crying over my cat 7 months later. Some people can get over the loss of their pet really quickly, but I can't. They're part of my family and even though my credit card bill is still insanely high, I still think it was worth it. Even though I couldn't save him, I did everything I could. Most people aren't willing to do that.

awww marcina... I can't remember the last time I cried before 8am :*(
I truly hope that sharing Oreo's story helps with your pain.

I am so sorry that you had to go through that. I know that our kitties are our babies! I call my kitty, Mojo Jojo, my "first son".... seriously there is so much love there.... It pains me so to think that he will not be here forever.

anyway, I guess there is not much I can say to make it better, but I hope that you do feel better after sharing.

Yeah, I do feel a lot better after sharing my story.

I don't feel guilty about putting him down either. Yeah, I spent a lot of money, but that's okay. I just didn't want him to suffer anymore. He was a good boy

So today was an interesting day at work.

A little kitten came in for a bath. She was such a good girl and didn't seem to mind me pouring water over her. I started lathering her up with the soap though, and she got pretty pissed off. She scratched my right wrist, but it's just a kitten scratch and should heal up in a couple days. After her bath, I wrapped her in a towel like a baby and she just laid there and didn't complain. It was so cute! Then I brushed her to help her dry off and she went home smelling like coconuts hehehe.

Later on, a family brought in their sick 14 year old dog. I was getting ready to close up and was gathering the garbage cans and came into the back and saw the doctor looking all depressed and stuff and reading this big file that looked like a book. The family that brought their dog in had to put him down. They stayed for the euthanasia (something I couldn't do, since I've seen so many.) and everyone was crying. I felt so bad for them because I knew exactly what they were feeling. I started to tear up a little bit too and gave them a box of tissues.
Later when I was going home, the doctor said goodnight to me and his eyes were all bloodshot like he was crying before too. I don't know if he was or not, but he looked really sad when I was doing the garbages earlier. His wife looked sad too and I asked if she was okay.
It's good to work in a place where everyone loves animals as much as I do. Before, I worked at a clinic where they didn't seem to care. The difference between a successful animal hospital, and an unsuccessful one is how much compassion the veterinary team has for what they do. I'm glad I found a good one

OK I'm baaack!!
The past week or so I haven't been able to log onto VBBF on my home computer. I uploaded my abs pics from my mom's place! Btw I'd like to thank everyone for voting for me and for all the nice compliments!! It's been a lot of hard work. I've been working on my abs ever since I found out there was gonna be an abs contest!! I started training and leaning out back in May. It's been a battle for sure. There were times were I would restrict my calories too much and I'd get exhausted.. Or I'd get irritable. I had to tweak my diet to find out what works and what doesn't work and I am pretty happy with the end result. I can't wait until all this ends and I can put some weight back on! Hahaha.

The other day I bought something I've been longing for... The Thrive Diet!! Omigosh what an awesome book. It's even better than I expected it to be. I'm about halfway through but I've already started trying recipes and such. I have way more energy! I officially gave up coffee 2 days ago. Last night I had an awful headache but didn't give in. I had pomegranate and acai tea before bed and just dealt with it. It was a long night, hehehe.

Well I better head because I just remembered I'm supposed to go shopping with my mom and she's due here any minute now O.o

HOLY MOLY!! Crazy energy!

Ok so here's what I ate today.

Breakfast: Corn flakes with soy milk and hempseeds and raw almonds on top.

Snack: Fruit salad with lime juice and agave nectar dressing

Lunch: Big green salad with homemade cucumber dressing.

Dinner: One of my "power smoothies" with kale, blueberries, strawberries, avocado, orange juice, and hemp protein

WORKOUT!!
I had insane energy. I did 4 sets of squats. I read that article about full squatting so I tried that. Used less weight = 50 pounds. I did 10 reps of each.

Hamstring curls: 2 sets on the sit down, 2 on the lay down. 50-30 pounds respectively. 10 reps

Deadlifts: 2 sets of 10, not sure on the weight actually.. I don't wear my glasses at the gym and couldn't read the weight on the barbell.

Calf raises: 2 sets, 90 pounds. 10 reps

Seated calf raise: 50 pounds, 10 reps, 2 sets

Plie squat: 1 set, 10 reps, weight: 17.5 pounds

I noticed I still had energy left after all this and started working on some upper body. I think taking a homemade sports drink helped. It's essentially just watered down juice.

I did some hammer curls, concentration curls, incline chest presses, pullovers, lateral raises.. It was awesome. What a great workout. I'm gonna have a shower now.

Weeeeeeeeeeee

Oh yeah I forgot to mention.. My recovery meal was chocolate Vega, strawberries, and soymilk.

Yum yum yum

hahaha. i just gave up coffee about 2 weeks ago. ITS ROUGH! you go girl! and your abs are sick by the way. awesome. i'm jealous. and the thrive diet is one of if not the best diet book i've ever read...its just expensive and time consuming to follow. some of the recipes are soooooooooo good though. keep it up!

Yeah. Congrats on quitting coffee. I don't usually drink it much. But I hear it has lots of anti-oxidants. But still it is a drug.