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My journey from fat to fit-Nutritional advice needed!


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Everytime I sign into the forum, I look at this section and think I really should make a topic. There's no turning back now!

 

I went vegetarian when I was 11, but was always very unhealthy. Moved out of the house a year and a half ago, and decided it was time for a lifestyle change. After more research I began leaning towards a vegan diet.

I am not completly vegan, I eat about 1-2 servings of dairy a week. This is usually when I get a wrap at school I will get cheese on it, or icecream occasionaly when I'm out with friends.

Finally I've made the choice to go 100% vegan and know this would be a FABULOUS place to be held accountable! There will be a lot of difficult times where I will be turning to you guys for advice. My Mom is more understanding of my diet choices, so I'm not too worried about when I visit her (however, this will be my very first year without a Dairy Queen IceCream cake on my birthday. Silly, I know, but it is the only thing I look forward to about my birthday!).

However when I visit my Dad and Stepmom, she is very forceful about foods. she makes a big enough deal about me being vegetarian, it is also impossibly hard to eat healthy over there. I have tried buying my own food for the weekend, but she gets very offended. I'm considering for awhile just not visiting (they are a couple of hours away, so I have to stay overnight) until I'm a little more confident in my will power and ability to say no!

 

When I started this journey, I was 149 pounds. I know weigh about 123 pounds, but still have a long ways to go. For awhile now I have been doing a 3 day split, twice a week. I've found that I'm just going through the motions now and not really working out. So I've decided it's time to shake it up! For the next two weeks I will be doing sports-conditioning based workouts as a way to learn more exercises and get my body working better as a unit. Tomorrow will be the first day, I'm excited!

 

Todays log:

Workout: Day off (walked about 7km)

Food:

-Brown and wild rice with pesto & nutritional yeast

-Banana

-Smoothy (carob powder, Vega chocolate Shake N Go, dulce, chia seeds, banana, apple, blueberries, water, shredded coconut)

-Coconut (my first time trying fresh coconut, and I could not stop eating it! I've been dipping it in natural peanut butter, and it's filled me right up. So not a great eating day)

Edited by Subtitles
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Todays workout:

The best workout I have had in a very long time! I am so happy I decided to give the split a break.

My workout lasted about an hour and a half, focusing on upper body type working using mostly BOSU balls, bodyweight and the TRX (I did a few weights, mostly focusing on shoulders).

 

Food:

-Brown and wild rice with pesto

-Watermelon

-Recovery Pudding (bananas, blueberries, maca root, carob powder, water, coconut milk, Vega Shake N' Go, dulse leaves). Got a lot of compliments from omnivores (it somehow ended up getting passed around the table. People are so fascinated by my food!)

-Green grapes

-3 tbsp natural peanut butter (REALLY gotta break that habbit)

-Red potatoes with pesto

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Todays workout wasn't too hard, I can't believe how beat up my body is after yesterday! I did some partner core exercises, and some speed work on the BOSU ball. Oh, and jumped onto the BOSU platform for the first time-made my day!

I haven't decided about tomorrows workout. Either cram in plyometrics, or save the plyo for Thursday (when I have a 3 hour gap inbetween classes-so plenty of time!) and do a yoga class.

 

Food:

 

-Red potatoes with mustard (ya, I said mustard!)

-Recovery pudding

-Coconut dipped in natural peanut butter

-Grapes

-Salsa and tortilla chips

-Whole wheat bread

 

I never realized just how much dairy they sneak into products! Today was my first day grocery shopping (buying something other then fruits and veggies), so I spent a lot of time looking at labels. There were a lot of foods that went back on the shelf!

 

I'm thinking about the 80/10/10 diet for awhile. I never binge on foods that I have completly eliminated from my diet, so that will be a great way to avoid a repeat of tonight.

Edited by Subtitles
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Thanks for your support!

 

My recovery pudding started out as the Thrive recipe, but I change it everyday. Today I decided to make vanilla pudding using

-Banana

-Raspberries

-Coconut milk

-Vanille Vega Shake N' Go

-Maca Root

-Tiny bit of cinnamon (I had no nutmeg )

-Vanilla extract

-Pinch of salt

 

Todays workout:

Lasted a little over an hour. The gym was CRAZY (common hours for students in the entire college-yikes!) so I had to change around my plan. Ended up doing core and stability, weights (legs) and a bit of balance stuff on the BOSU. Oh and 12 minutes of cardio (at intense effort). Me and cardio don't see eye to eye, so I try to do my cardio by keeping my heart rate up during workouts.

 

Food:

-Tortilla chips and salsa (with veggie ground)

-Banana

-Vanilla recovery pudding

-Apple

-Coconut dipped in natural peanut butter (LOTS of peanut butter!)

-Whole wheat pasta with pizza sauce (I have been on a very self indulgent kick the past few days. I better get that under control fast!)

 

Starting tomorrow: 80/10/10!!!

 

In other news...

I took progress pics :S Will work on posting them now!

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http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l218/UnHarnessed/Jan112010002.jpg

 

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l218/UnHarnessed/Jan112010004.jpg

 

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l218/UnHarnessed/Jan112010008.jpg

 

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l218/UnHarnessed/Jan112010010.jpg

 

I hate taking progress pictures, I feel like I'm not making changes near as fast as I should be.

So to make myself feel better:

Before I started losing weight

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l218/UnHarnessed/Kingers11.jpg

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Another amazing workout today!!

Did upper body again, still can't get over what a difference changing up a routine can make.

I almot never do cardio, need to break out of that habit! Finally did so today and felt amazing. I did 30 minutes worth of intervals on the bike (and WOW was I ever sweating when I was done!). Workout lasted about 2 hours total.

 

Eating:

-Red potatoes with mustard

-2 bananas

-a cantaloupe

-Vanilla recovery pudding

-2 tbsp natural peanut butter

-coconut

-brown pasta with pizza sauce and veggie ground

 

 

As a new vegan, are there any tips you can give me about eating out? Is there a website that lists what foods are vegan at what resteraunts? I have been looking at the nutrition sections of the individual websites, but they aren't uually helpful.

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Hey Subtitles! Congrats on the major progress so far! Happycow is a decent resource for finding veg restaurants but it's often outdated/incomplete. Are you looking for what's vegan in chain restaurants? If so, check these -

 

http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/chain-restaurants.aspx

http://veganmasterlist.blogspot.com/

 

or just google vegan chain restaurants.

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Thank you vegimator! The links were really helpful.

 

Yesterdays workout:

Amazing!

40 BOSU jumps, agility work, 15 minutes on the tredmill doing jogging intervals (first time I have braved running in months, and felt very little pain. I might be a runner again yet!). Workout lasted just over an hour.

 

Food:

-Watermelon

-Vanilla 'pudding'

-Flatbread with veggies

-3 bananas

-Chocolate macaroon

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....And the old spoon in the pb jar. Yes, quite a difficult habit to break. I hear ya.

 

 

....I am a binge eater, and have been working very hard to get the disorder under control by changing the way I think about food (Fuel not comfort!). However occasionaly it gets a bit out of control. I very rarely buy processed foods (the peanut butter was a treat) but for some strange reason I bought a loaf of bread and tortilla chips. The loaf was 1/3 gone by the time I threw it out, that was after two big bowls of tortillas and salsa. *sigh* I will take it as a lesson to never ever EVER by myself convenience foods as a treat again.

 

 

I hear you, I have binged on bread before. I don't buy myself treats very often because I can't seem to have things in moderation, I have to scarf it all down at once.

 

I think this is a very common problem! This is why I can't buy sugar, PB, chips, etc. because I will just eat them all! I try to minimize the amount of control that my brain thinks my stomach has, so it's better to just skip those things all together. It also looks like you have a sweet tooth like me! I don't know if you are still on the 811 diet, but if you are, pile on the fruits! I have found that those are a big help for me to stay away from less healthy sweets. Also I have a list of 'personal bests' measuring how long it's been since I have had a certain junk food. For example, no candy or soda since July 4th for me, so that's a nearly 6 month record that I don't want to break! This strategy might not work for you, but it has helped me cut down on some things.

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That's an awesome idea! I'm going to have to try that! And I am a huge fruit lover, so no problem there lol!

 

 

Today:

CRAZY awesome workout today!! Did my very first box jump!

 

For some reason I have always been terrified of the box jump. I made myself do it today, and ended up doing it about 20 times. I'm not very good at it, I have A LOT of work to do. No matter what I did I couldn't quite my landing-I made the gym sound like an indoor thunderstorm.

But still...super exciting for me!!

Weights-legs and some stability, workout lasted a little over an hour.

 

-Green smoothie (kale, banana, celery, pear, raspberries, water, agave nectar, carob powder)

-Veggie wrap

-Apple

-Pear

-Brown pasta with mustard

-Brown & wild rice with pesto (I FINALLY made the perfect pesto sauce!! YAY! The secret-Enough garlic to kill with my breath)

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I lost 1 pound! Wasn't actually expecting to lose anything, I'm very pleased with that! I actually think I lost more, but was fairly bloated when I took my weight this morning because of poor eating choices yesterday (fries!). I may take it again tomorrow morning to see.

 

Yesterday:

-Pear

-Banana

-Red potatoes with veggie cheese and mustard

-Apple

-French fries (GAH! Didn't bring enough food with me and was STARVING! I suppose I'm allowed a treat every once in awhile, but I still feel awful!)

-Banana and blueberry "icecream" (frozen bananas and blueberries with coconut milk, blended together into icecream texture. Carob powder and agave nectar used to make chocolate sauce)

 

Took a day off from working out . My body is in rough shape after the hard training I've been doing this week! Still got in a bit of exercise though.

-Skating for 1 hour

-Walked 3.5km

 

 

 

Today:

-Red potatoes with veggie cheese and mustard

-green tea

-2 Bananas

-Recovery pudding

-Cantaloupe

-Wild & brown rice with hemp oil, olive oil and herbs

 

I'm pretty sick, so really should have taken the day off. But that would have drove me crazy! So I worked out for a little over an hour focusing on weights (shoulders and back) and core.

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I spent the weekend in Toronto with Mom and her boyfriend celebrating my Birthday (even if it is 2 week early!). We went to a Toronto Rock game, and I got to see Monster Jam! It was a childhood dream of mine, some dreams never die! LOL!

 

Ate HORRIBLY, as I was expecting I would. My body hates me and I can't blame it. It will be week before I can look at junk food again.

 

I couldn't have been happier with my Mom, who made me a vegan cake from scratch. It was easily the BEST tasting cake I have ever had! It was orange cake with lemon icing and my name written in almonds.

 

I have not touched dairy now for two weeks. So far I am loving it!

 

I have two very fun events planned for this year.

April 16th-WWF CNTower stair climb! Is anyone else planning on going?

https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/LoginRegister.aspx?EventID=62475&LangPref=en-CA&Referrer=http%3a%2f%2fwwf.ca%2fcntower%2f

 

And.....

WARRIOR DASH! It is finally coming to Ontario in July.

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It has been a bit of an emotional week for me, so eating hasn't been....well, it could have been much better!

 

I worked out most days this week, with a day off to nurse my foot I mysteriously injured.

 

I am all registered for the CN Tower climb on April 16th! It seems much different now going into the gym to train for an actual measureable goal. Here is my page for the climb.

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2858224&Lang=en-CA

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  • 2 weeks later...

So it has been an interesting couple of weeks, including an overnight stay at a hospital because of problems with my heart. Turns out it was too much potassium and not enough sodium. Who knew?! So it's been 2 weeks so I've been allowed near a gym, and I have another week to go. I h ad to add dairy back in my diet for the time being, and have ate almost nothing except junk food the past week.

 

Thankfully, my body is way better to me then I deserve. The weight I gained (6 pounds!) is very quickily melting off again. I'm learning how to readjust my diet and will hopefully be back to vegan in a week or two. I am going NUTS without the gym, but I know it's for the best.

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If I never had to see a doctor or a needle again, I would be a VERY happy person!

 

Turns out it had nothing to do with my sodium at all, and my heart is 100% strong and healthy (WOOHOO!). The doctor is now thinking it's caused by something viral.

 

Had my first 'real' workout on Saturday. By real I mean things I could have done in my sleep 3 weeks ago. Basic lunges and squats on the BOSU ball, push-ups and V-sits. I found all of them challenging, which is extremely discouraging. I know I am still ill, but there is no way I could have lost that much strength and stability in such a short period of time.

 

I am so SICK of junk food! For some reason after adding dairy back into my diet, it made me think junk food was OK and it is all I've been eating. I have put on even more weight then before (I am a terrible emotional eater) which is even more stressful, and leads me to eating more and worse. So, time to get back on track! Vegan again as of today. I'm seeing someone to help with the food issues, which is giving me hope.

 

It will be slow progress in the gym, and only a couple of times a week for now, but I couldn't be more excited!

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Sorry about the heart thing... But at least does not seem serious.

 

One thing that has helped me a ton (via Robert Cheek's book) is I have been taking blood tests every 6 months or so. I really recomend it. You see exactly where you are nutrition wise and your doctor will fill you in on what everything means. Make sure to get a COPY TO TAKE HOME and go over it with a vegan friendly nutritionists. Doctors are not savy on healthy food options, and the test will put your mind at ease.

Did you get a recent blood test during your hospital stay? Then get a copy and file it away.

Stick to healthy choices and a year from now, look at all 3 blood tests. You will be amazed.

 

I also own several coolers that I pack full of goodies when I am away from home. It's easy and just takes a little prep time. No big deal. I also keep several Clif Body Builder bars in my truck to avoid any junk food places. Works like a charm.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you for those tips!

 

Another quick update: Is has been a hellish month. Whatever these health issues are seem to come and go, and it's rare I'm well enough to workout. With everything going on because of school and being sick, I got so overwhelemed that I basically went into shut down mode. Haven't touched homework, my grades have taken a nose dive etc..

 

The past week I have felt MUCH better. I've been working out almost every day (atleast once a day) and for the most part feeling great. It's motivated me to pull myself together again (hey...we all have our ups and downs, right?!). I've been back on track with eating, working out, and kicking butt in school once again.

 

ONE MONTH until the CN Tower Climb! I am unbelievably excited!

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