Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Yesterday I apparently neglected to post...it wasn't the best of days. I wasn't in much of a caloric deficit despite not eating much. 2 protein shakes, as always, my rice mixture for lunch, and almonds for dinner (late night at work...had no desire to cook when I got home). I was roughly 100 calories below my daily allotted amount at the end of the day. Not ideal, but better than being over.

Today I did gym class...it was just ok. I was worried about my leg, and promised myself that I'd stop as soon as I felt anything that wasn't right in the muscle. I made it through most of the class, which was nice, but when we got to lunges it didn't feel right. I stopped in that set, continued with shoulders which were last, and tried to do abs..during one of the oblique crunches there were leg extensions involved, and there was a very notable 'pop' in the area of my pulled muscle, so I stopped there, too. *sigh* I just want to work legs again
Today's calories are completely unknown...though yet again I didn't eat much. Shake in the morning, veg chicken with broccoli and green beans for dinner, 3 cups of tea and 1 diet pepsi. The reason calories are unknown is that for lunch I was out, and had Japanese..grilled tofu with a bit of veg and rice. So I ate nothing horrible, but I'm not sure calories were ideal...

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

I must be eating a lot worse than I think this week...my weight is steadily going back to what it was a week and a half ago. Granted, I'm not working out much cause of my damn leg, but I don't think I'm eating much at all *sigh* Highly annoying.

Today wasn't ideal, but not horrible (I think). Staff meeting at work, so we ordered lunch in...delicious thai food. While I'm assuming that my tofu pad thai is high in calories, other than a shake for breakfast, it was the only thing that I ate today. As much as I wanted a pop with lunch, and I desperately wanted one, I managed to avoid it. I also avoided all the bad cravings that lunch gave me...like ice cream.
So as far as triumphing over cravings, today was a smashing success. Otherwise...not so much.
Weight loss is a pain in the ass lol

I'm planning on hitting the gym tomorrow while on lunch at work, tear up my upper body a bit with the weights

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Decent day...workout was ok. It always sucks going to a different gym than normal...nothing is where you expect it to be and it makes it so much harder to get your head into the workout. I did alright though, worked hard enough on my upper body to make my legs a little shaky walking out.
Diet was alright...protein shake, subway (I justified it by no cheese, no sub sauce, and adding hot peppers, jalapenos, and hot sauce...delicious, btw), another protein shake, and egg whites and veggies.
Giving in to having subway makes it feel like it was a bad day though. Suppose it could have been worse. I didn't give into my desire to have pop with my sub.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

I so desperately want to eat chips or something equally crunchy and delicious...thank god I don't have anything in the apartment.
Good day as far as diet - 1200 calories and 140g protein (the total protein really caught me by surprise). I'm getting better with water intake, mostly because my boss is excellent with his diet and exercise regime (he got jacked in a year, and he hasn't even entered growth phase yet) and he scolded me for not drinking enough water lol
I know I'm only feeling so hungry and snack-ish because I'm bored, but my god I want food! lol Water will have to do, because I refuse to take in more calories today.

Can anyone give me suggestions on low cal, vegan proteins? I really don't want to be relying on my shakes for all, or majority, of my protein...but I guess I already am. That, egg whites, and soy chicken. I'm wondering if it's even possibly for me to go vegan..I hate most beans (except for green), chick peas, hummus...can't stand any of them, and it seems they're kind of a staple food.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Hi,

as you probably already found, there is now a decent selection of vegan protein powders that have a great protein/calorie ration. but, since you're wondering about non-powder sources, soy (edamame/tempeh), gluten, and nutritional yeast are all in a good protein/calorie ratio. (do watch how much nutritional yeast you have though (i think you're not supposed to do more than 2T/day of the large flakes) because of uric acid).

Hope this helps..

Yo,
What are your reasons for wanting to be vegan? This can really make a difference to how I'd recommend approaching the transition and choosing foods.

Regarding protein, what is your ultimate goal? If you're aiming to bulk up, you can eat more anyway, and if you're trying to cut and maintain your muscle, you don't need so much protein.

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Marble Slab ice cream...so delicious. lol I went today with friends of mine, but it also kept me full for hours, I didn't even think about food. My caloric intake for the day otherwise was low enough that the ice cream probably still didn't put me over my limit (I hope).
I didn't go to the gym, which I had kinda hoped for, but I did a fair bit of walking which was nice.

My daily target for water intake is 2L. I've made it, plus a little more, the last few days. Today I'm at 1L so far, but I'm about to pour my second. My skin already feels better, between cutting out pop and adding more water. I'm quite frustrated with what the scale is telling me though. I know I shouldn't focus on that, but it's what I'm conditioned to do as a woman! lol It's hard to break a habit like that.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Thanks for replying, Richard
I don't have any major reasons for going vegan, which is probably why I haven't. I just think I'd like to try it, mostly because it'll force me to keep a cleaner diet.
My main goal at the moment is to shred fat..I have a lot of muscle, it's just got a soft covering lol Daily protein intake should be 1g/lb, I'm usually content if I hit 100, though. I've noticed that I'm maintaining a lot more muscle since keeping my intake that high...about 6lbs of it lol In the end, I want to be lean and muscular, which is why I'm lifting rather than doing cardio. Plus lifting is just more fun.
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Today was an awesome day..clean breakfast, clean lunch, great workout (that included a compliment from a former pro-powerlifter on my form with bench press!), and I just had a shake now...just wondering what to have for dinner...
I bought groceries while I was out, and just knowing that I bought all healthy things makes me feel good. Veggies and tofu, that was it...I almost bought some 'convenience' snacks...falafel bites and spinach bites, made by a company that makes damn good soy chicken nuggets. I looked at the calorie : protein ratio though, and decided it just so wasn't worth it. A display of doritos, and one of pizza pockets pretty much made me drool though.

If any women are reading this, what's your bench like? I think I lift pretty decent, but I've never had anyone to compare to. I'm 125lbs and while I don't have a max. lift, today I did 55lbs x12 reps for 3 sets, followed by 65lbs x 6 reps.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Good say so far...I'm currently at 1080 calories and 124g protein. Somehow I just kinda fell into a routine that provides me with enough protein, not sure how, but I'm not complaining. I'd like to say that's that for eating today, but my stomach won't shut up and my brain is too tired to fight it, so I'm making a second soy chicken breast. It's only 150 calories, and while I didn't want to have any more protein, my stomach was not content with the thought of veggies. My water intake is still good, at least 2L every day, thought right now I'm quite behind. It'll be finished before bed though.
Back to the gym tomorrow, and hopefully I can have a longer lunch from work on thursday and hit it then, too!

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Anyone else have those gym days where you just don't want to be there, and despite knowing you're working hard, it still feels half assed? That was my day today. I tried working legs, and while I didn't push it by trying any adduction exercises, it went well. I was wobbly walking up the stairs to leave, but it didn't feel fulfilling. I suppose that's because my head wasn't in it.

Total intake today was just over 1000 calories and just over 100g protein. I don't increase calories on gym days, and yet still I'm not dropping weight...very frustrating given that I'm used to dropping a pound or two practically just by thinking about it. Sadly, the more frustrated I feel, the more I dislike my body.

Hitting the gym again tomorrow, upper body this time..Then after work, out for dinner to one of the best restaurants ever! If you've never been to Mongolian Grill...find one and go to it. While I'll be way, way over calorie intake, the food can be very healthy. Veggies and tofu is essentially what I'll be eating, grilled right in front of me...There are worse things I could eat lol

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

>Total intake today was just over 1000 calories and just over 100g protein. I don't increase calories on gym days, and yet still I'm not dropping weight.

Maybe you're not eating enough so your body has knocked your metabolism way down to hang on to what it's got?

I thought about that. Thing is though, I do have cheat meals..at least once a week, sometimes I'll crave something bad more often lol and I've only been eating like this since the start of the year, so I don't think my metabolism should have dropped that quickly, especially since I naturally have fast metabolism.
I had an especially large meal, with delicious, delicious dessert last night, and today I've had...615cal. So in theory tomorrow I should be down SOMETHING. We'll see.
What I'm wondering is if I was consuming so little protein before that I wasn't holding on to any of my muscle, and now that I'm (most days) having at least 1g/lb, I'm able to keep all the muscle I should have, and that's what's adding the weight. I'm really hoping that's the reason lol
I need to go eat something else though, these 600cal aren't cutting it. Tofu it is! I'm slacking on protein today, anyway.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Awesome workout today! I increased my bench. On thursday I had done 3 sets of 12 reps with 55lbs + 2 sets of 6 with 65lbs. Today I did 3 sets of 8 with 65lbs + 2 sets of 4 with 70lbs. Oddly, I think I can still increase a bit. Cranking out the last 2 reps was difficult, but not overly so...I'll have to test this on monday.
Currently, I'm at 780 cal and 118g protein..but my stomach is really nagging at me (not because it's hungry, just because it wants more sauteed mushrooms! lol) and I could do with a bit more protein, so I think I'm going to throw on some egg whites and have some raw carrots, too. Soo...that'll up me to 142g protein and 900 calories (Not adding any calories for the carrots..yes, I know they do add to the total, but not enough for me to bother calculating).
I don't know how this suddenly came so easy, the low cal/high protein..2 weeks ago it seems extremely hard and borderline impossible.

Maybe it's just because I'm in a rather fantastic mood, but I think I am slowly dropping fat, it's just not showing in the numbers on the scale. My arms seem leaner/more defined, my torso (despite not directly working abs at all for the last month) seems more toned... It could be that it's just the scale making me think I'm not getting any results...Why do women have to be taught that it's the number that matters? Stupid society...lol

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Strange day...had a situation that required me to go into work for several hours, so I didn't go to the gym, and I didn't eat like I would have. I had a good breakfast though, then nothing until late afternoon (exception being a few crackers) when I had a deliciously chocolate blizzard, and for dinner I made an awesome chili recipe that I got in an email (it was vegan!).
I don't really want to miss the workout I had planned for today, so tomorrow I'm hoping to go twice...or maybe just have one really long session. I think two sessions would be better on my body though. Here's hoping I can get my ass in gear in the morning so that I have time for it.

Oh, and I've lost weight I've dropped a kilo since the last time I stepped on the scale. It might be silly of me to base my progress off the numbers I see, but it helps me feel better.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.

Wicked workout today...I did legs first, then took a break just long enough to have a protein shake and run across the street to Timmies and grab a whole wheat bagel, then straight back to it with upper body. By the end of upper body I was SO done...just exhausted.
I really believe that what has made my upper body workouts so effective over these last few weeks is the fact that I take myself to exhaustion, then I drop for push ups, even though my muscles are screaming and I feel like crying. I was doing 10 (increased to 12 today) reps of each feet elevated, flat, and hands elevated. It just really pushes the workout to the next level.

I increased my squats today...3 sets of 10 with 95lbs (smith machine), then I followed it with 1...possibly 2 (I forget) sets of 5 with 115lbs. I was pretty psyched about it. My bench is going up, too. That really makes me happy, since that's always been my weak point.

Since I did a double workout, I went a little crazy with calories..possibly more than I should have, I'm not really sure. Most days I'm doing roughly 1000 - 1100 calories, today I did just over 1600, and had 140g of protein.

Going through the grocery stores right now is torture! I had to grab a few things after being at the gym, and there is just junk food everywhere, and it's all on sale! It's like I'm being taunted everywhere I look. I almost gave in to my cravings a few times while in the store, telling myself that I'll keep the bag of cookies, or the chips, for cheat days. The only thing that stopped me was that I looked at the nutritional values before picking anything up. The high calories made me say no.
I really do want a cookie though.

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Bodybuilding is an art, your body is the canvas, weights are your brush and nutrition is your paint. We all have the ability to turn a self portrait into a masterpiece.