Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Thursday, January 22, 2009:

Seeing as this is my very first entry/blog, I probably won't be writing much here today. I'm hoping to figure out what works for me in terms of nutrition and fitness. My fitness entries will be pretty general, as I do fitness videos rather than going to the gym. In any case, I'm aiming to be a healthy, strong vegan!

Can''t wait to read about your progress. What kind of fitness videos do you exercise to?

I used to do a lot of "cardio dance" videos by Crunch studios. About 5 months ago I discovered Jari Love's "Ripped!" series and I've been hooked ever since. They're all about an hour each and you burn a LOT of calories (up to 1000, no joke). In the video, you do compound exercises, intense cardio, light weights with high reps and plyometrics. I would highly recommend them to anyone trying to get in shape quickly.

Tomorrow's my official start date where I start cleaning up my act and stop eating junk. I've come to the realization that my body is my temple and while some junk food is vegan--it's certainly not healthy. So I'll be documenting my food intake tomorrow. No exercise though, as I'm busy, busy, busy tomorrow. *sigh*

Friday, January 23, 2009:

Meals: today is my "raw day". I'm trying this as an experiment to see if I feel any better/worse or more/less energized than I normally do. I've heard that going raw can have very positive effects on people. Could I be one of them? Feel free to criticize my options...

Meal 1 (6:30 am): 2 figs, 1/4 c. hemp seeds, 2 TBSP sunflower seeds, 1 banana, TSP flaxseed, and 1/4 c. Banana/cinnamon "mylk"

Meal 2 (10:30 am): Vanilla coconut shake: Pecans, pitted dates, vanilla extract, coconut oil and water.

Meal 3 (11:40 am): A small handful of goji berries

Meal 4 (2:22 pm): About 1 1/2 c raw veggies with hummus

Meal 5 (6:00 pm): 3 olives, 5 cherry tomatoes, 1 tbsp hummus & 2 oz tofu, 1/2 c. rice & beans w/ nutritional yeast. 3 dates & 1 tbsp peanut butter.

Meal 6 (8:00 pm): Popcorn and a soy tea misto. So much for "raw day"...

Activity: off - movie night tonight (Underworld III)

Notes: I felt great this morning after Meal 1, but subsequent meals made me feel tired, cloudy-headed and extremely dehydrated. I got many thoughts about giving up on the whole "raw" meal idea altogether. Only...I before today, most of what I ate was minimally processed--only I ate too much (at least in my mind). So perhaps I'll go back to eating as I was beforehand and make corrections accordingly. I think the big culprit for my weight gain and loss of definition was not the frequency or type of food I was eating but the timing. I was just having too many meals too late at night. Perhaps I'll gradually move into raw eating...but this is too much too soon.

On another note, Underworld III was awesome! I highly recommend it.

Feeling a little down today...but still determined to get in a workout today!

Meal 1 (9:30 am): 1/2 c. oatmeal, tbsp peanut butter, 2 figs, and 1 fresh apple.

Meal 2 (1:00 pm): "Baja" bowl (veggie); rice, black beans, lettuce, tomato, salsa, guacamole.

Meal 3 (5:30 pm): 1/2 c. rice and beans [w/ nutritional yeast], 2 small carrots, slices of cucumber with hummus, 2 oz of tofu

Snack (undetermined times...): popcorn, small handful of trail mix and 1 tall soy tea misto

Workout: 1 hour Wii Dance Dance Revolution

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Good morning everyone! It's an early day for me today because I had to wake up to drop my loved one off at work today. (at 6:30 am!!) But I'm just going to work through it I suppose... Yesterday's workout was pretty light--I got to do an hour of Wii DDR--so today I'll be kicking it up a notch with Jari Love's Ripped! 1000 cal workout video. I've been finding it difficult trying to balance school, work, family, friends and workouts. I'm sure I'll figure out a routine soon (I hope!).

Meal 1 (6:30 am): 1 apple

Meal 2 (8:30 am): 1 tall sugarless green tea soy latte, 1 c. whole grain cereal w/ 1/2 c. rice milk, 1 tbsp peanut butter, 5 dates

Meal 3 (12:30 pm): 3 cherry tomatoes, cucumber, 2 small carrots w/ tbsp hummus, 2 oz tofu, figs and popcorn (100 cal) w/ 1 tbsp pb. **note** peanut butter with popcorn tastes better than it sounds

Meal 4 (3:30 pm): 1 banana

Meal 5 (5:45 pm): spinach salad w/ bragg's, olive oil, cucumbers, tomato, sesame and goji berries. 1/2 piece naan bread, tbsp hummus and a scoop of eggless egg salad

Meal 6 (7:30ish pm): 1 cacao mole Larabar (Yummy!)

Workout: Ripped! 1000 cal workout - Jari Love http://www.razorfitness.com/DVD/Love/Ge ... -1000.html

I so wish I owned a Wii and this game...and a TV of course. I was over at a get together once and loved watching folks jumping around playing it.

Haha, I wished I owned it too! It doesn't belong to me...it belongs to my mom. Luckily, she let's me play whenever I come to visit!

Monday, January 26, 2009:

Meal 1 (6:00 am): 1 c. cereal, 1/2 c. rice milk, 5 dates and 1 tbsp pb

Meal 2 (8:00 am): 1 tall soy latte

Meal 3 (10:00 am): 1/2 naan bread and 1 scoop eggless egg salad; 1 apple

Meal 4 (3:00 pm): 1 larabar, 2 carrots and tbsp hummus

Meal 5 (6:00 pm): spinach salad w/ olive oil, tomato, cucumber, bragg's; 2 oz tofu, 2 portabello mushrooms and popcorn w/ a small handful of trail mix

Meal 6 (?): 1 fruit bar and rice chips


Workout: 1 1/2 hours of DDR

Tuesday, January 27, 2009:

So, exciting news! Yesterday, I helped my mom out with setting up her Wii Fit and we each made separate accounts. During this process, we had to put in our stats in the machine... include weight (it's very precise)! I was afraid to go on it because I absolutely hate weighing myself and haven't done so for over a month. After my mom and my boyfriend weighed themselves and such, they convinced me to hop on the little machine. I did so and found out... I'm just under 123lbs! This made me very happy as that's only 5 lbs away from my goal weight. I know once I clean up my eating a bit more and increase my exercise, I should be able to attain this goal.

Meal 1: 1/2 c. oatmeal, 5 dates, 1 tbsp pb
Meal 2: 1 apple, handful dried fruit snacks (130 cal)
Meal 3: 1 tempeh "patty", cucumber, 1/2 pc. naan bread
Meal 4: 1 larabar (pb cookie) and 2 carrots

Was sick here...everything I ate was pretty much void.

Meal 5: Rice bowl w/ veggies
Meal 6: Rice chips

Workout: Ripped! To the Core (1 hour) Weights/Plyometrics

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Meal 1: 1 banana, 1 mango, 2 figs, 1 tbsp almond butter
Meal 2: Spinach salad w/ olive oil, Bragg's, onion, goji berries, sunflower seeds, tofu, sliced almonds, and carrots.
Meal 3: Celery stalk w/ homemade hummus (mmm), falafel (w/ tbsp organic ketchup) and 1/2 pc. naan bread & popcorn w/ pb

Snacks: 1 Larabar, 1 asian pear, aaand 1 ristretto tall soy latte (EPIC FAIL...I'm trying to kick the coffee habit )

Workout: Ripped! 1000 cal workout --> plyometrics, weightlifting, high intensity cardio

Gratz on the weigh-in. Woot!!

Sorry your feeling sick though

Hi Lina! I just signed up on here and started a gym membership last week. I used to just workout watching FitTV when I had more channels. I liked Gilad the most!! I hope you enjoy your videos and they work for you!

I wanted to comment on you trying a raw food diet. TheRawDivas.com has a free 7 day detox that you might like. And I think drinking a big green smoothie a day would really help you feel energized instead of tired. Greens are a VERY important part of the diet!

I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you later!

xoxo
Shelley

Thank you Shelley for reading my blog! I would love to try this free 7 day detox. I'm also going to try incorporating a green smoothie, I never thought about that. I'd be more than happy to add you to my MySpace. I don't check it too often, but I do my best. I hope you also have a great week!

Haha, thank you for the support! Thankfully, the sickness only lasted half a day...good immune system I guess? In any case, I hope you're having a great week thus far!