Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Name: Drew Buonaiuto
Location: Newtown, CT
Age: 21

Hey everyone. I have decided it's time to finally get back on track!
I used to be quite passionate about exercising regularly, but unfortunately life got in the way and I slowly started working out less and less, until around 6 months ago when I stopped working out completely . . . o_O That's going to change though, right now!
My goals are quite high, maybe a little unrealistic at this point given the ammount of time I plan on spending working out, but hey, I'll shoot for the stars and maybe I'll atleast reach the moon!

I have quite a few reasons behind wanted to get fit. The main one is certainly for my health. I consider myself to be a pretty healthy person at this point, but I feel like I can do much much better. My next reason is . . . I'm really friggin' sick of being so skinny. I've always been extremely slim and I've always hated that. Another reason I want to get fit is because I'm a photographer and I need a male model for some of the shots I want to do, but at this point my body is no where near where it would have to be for the look I'm going for.

As far as the actual work out's go, I want to focus on body weight exercises at this point such as pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, squats, etc. I know without a doubt that I'm not getting enough calories or protein every day, so I really need to step that up too.

Anyways, I'm really excited and I'm ready to kick it into high gear here.

One final note. "Don't tell me the sky's the limit when I know there are footprints on the moon." -Paul Brandt

Day ONE!!!
1/1/12

Okay, day one didn't go so well. On the plus side I now know just how much I need to work on my eating habits, so that will change starting tomorrow. I also know I need to find a new mat for sit-up's/crunches as I couldn't find mine. I also hardly drank anything today! Not good!!! I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, I'm going to really step it up!

Awake at 8:30
Breakfast: Wheat Bagel
1/2 of a sugar free powerade

Lunch: PB&J

Walked approx. 1 mile
Drank a grande black coffee from Starbucks

Another PB&J
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Work-out starting at 7:24

Warm Up

5 minutes stretching
10 squats
20 crunches
20 push-ups
Bicep Curls: 12#'s; 10 reps each arm

1 minute stretching

50 calf raises on a flat surface
20 sit-ups - 15 crunches - 10 leg raises

30 second rest

Attempted Bicep curls with 45# dumbbells . . . didn't go well. Couldn't do a single one.
Bicep Curls: 25#'s, 10 reps each arm
Bicep Curls: 12#'s, 10 reps each arm

1 minute rest
. . .
2 more minutes of rest

10 squats

end 7:53

Thoughts . . . holy crap I'm out of shape!!!!!! Okay, extremely disapointed, but I knew that would happen, it pretty much always does. I was going to keep going but I have a photoshoot tomorrow and I need steady hands and arms, so I can't be sore.
By the end I felt light headed. I don't think I'm breathing well enough, I know I'm not drinking enough, and I know my eating habits sucked today.
Thoughts . . . tomorrow is another day!

I'm having chinese food for dinner in around an hour. Besides that, I'll spend the rest of the day working on photography stuff, so not much to report as far as this training journal goes. I'm not happy with my performance, but if I was, that wouldn't be good . . . there would be no motivation. I will make a change, I will make this happen. No excuses this time.

1/2/12

Okay, today didn't go as planned. Several things came up and I didn't get to work out at all
I improved my eating habits slightly, but not by much at all.

Awake at 9:30
Weighed in at 145 . . . much lower than I want to be
Breakfast: Bagel
Lunch: Big Bowl of Chinese Food. Brown rice, tofu, and veggies.
Snack: PB&J
Dinner: More chinese left-overs

Okay, so, not good . . . I have a friend who said she'll join a gym with me though so that we can help motivate eachother, so that's good news atleast.

Tomorrow I will work-out!!!

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Real Men Are Kind To Animals

Oh boy, this is not my week. Missed working out yesterday because family stuff came up. I'm hoping I can work out today but I woke up with a pretty infected finger on my left hand. It's red and swollen and it hurts like hell if there's any pressure put on it. I also only got 4 hours of sleep last night. I've got a photoshoot on friday and probably two during the weekend. Now, that may seem irrelevant, but if I work my arms too much I wont be as steady as I normally am, and that simply wont work. I'm pretty much becoming extremely discouraged
I'm not stopping this time though. I'm ordering Vega from amazon, I'm working on pre planning meals, and I'm finding a gym to join.
Another problem I'm having is that I take medications on a regular basis. One is for anxiety, that's pretty irrelevant as far as working out goes. I take pills in the morning, no real side effects, I'm done. The other pills . . . the other pills are for A.D.D. I take those pills every 3 hours and they have extreme side effects that pretty much keep me from working out at times. First of all, they make me not hungy which is why I rarely eat lately. It's pretty uncommon for me to eat because I'm hungry, I usually eat because I get the shakes and my stomach starts to hurt. I'm working on timing the ADD meds so that they wont effect me working out or me eating, but it's extremely difficult. I'll get it figured out soon though. If I'm able to work out tonight, there will be another post for today, if not, I'll update this tomorrow.

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Real Men Are Kind To Animals

1/5/12

Okay, well, I had a great day today first of all. My workout wasn't very good, but that was on purpose because I need to get to bed soon and I have a photoshoot early so I can't be sore. I finally ate a reasonable amount of food today! It wasn't the healthiest food in the world, but I had so much energy for a change! I also ran out of A.D.D. meds at 1 pm today . . . whoops lol, but that realllllly helped too.

Up at 10:30. Woke up several times during the night, guessing I got around 6-7 hours
Breakfast: none
Lunch: 4 pieces of pizza -- no chesse (obviously) onions and pineapple
Lg. glass of orange juice
Snack: Chex Mix
Dinner: 2 packages of vegan ramen noodles
Snack: 2 small peanut butter granola bars and a small handful of dark chocolate chips
3 cups of black coffee
2 clemintines, 5 small cookies

Starting workout at 9:18
Stretching and 10 situps
5 crunches - 30 sit-ups - 10 crunches; no rest
20 prison squats
10 crunches
10 situps
5 pushups
jogged in place for 5 minutes
50 butt raises . . . I have no idea what they're called, but that sounds right
Stopped working out but I had so much energy I couldn't sit still so bounced around for the next 15 minutes basically

I can't remember the last time I ate this much, or the last time I had this much energy. I'm loving this! I used to be like this all the time. It's got to be the A.D.D. meds and me not eating enough.

See you tomorrow

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Real Men Are Kind To Animals

keep it up seems like we have similar goals. i weigh in around 160 right now (i'm used to being 150) but am not really sure if my goal should be to put on muscle weight, lose fat, or just turn what i have from flab->muscle. i figured i'll just do body weight stuff (pushups and crunches until life settles enough to get back to my gym for squats) and see how i feel.

the food log has already been helping me... it doesn't look so great (tons of chocolate) but i've definitely put *down* some things that i would've eaten otherwise if i wasn't going to write it down later.

anyway, great start and good luck

Thanks, best of luck to you too! And yeah, the food log is really helpful, isn't it!?


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So, I'm going on an eating spree for some reason before bed. I just can't seem to stop. 3 more clementines, 1 big roll with vegan cream cheese, 2 cookies, and I'm eating some nuts after I type this. Again, not the greatest food choices, but I'm focusing on gettting more food in my system first, and then working on improving the food. Oh, I also forgot that I had a bowl of pasta with oil and vinegar for lunch too.

Off to bed for real now.

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Real Men Are Kind To Animals

I ate so much food today . . . oh my god! I feel great from eating so much, but it takes up a lot of time.

Breakfast: 2 clementines, 1 roll with vegan cream cheese, 1 granola bar
(Photoshoot)

lunch: Bowl of rice, bowl of salad, 2 small bowls of chex mix, handful of nuts, 2 small bowls of chex mix
Snack: Sm. bowl of chex mix
Dinner: Bowl of salad, bowl of pasta, second bowl of salad, 2 handfuls of mixed nuts, 2 sm. bowls of chex mix, 2 clemintines, 10 blue corn chips, 10 green olives, handful of peanuts, roasted peppers and onions with relish and salt and pepper on a roll

small handful of mike and ike's

Short Work-Out

40 sit-ups
stretched
10 leg raises
20 crunches
20 sit-ups
20 crunches
25 crunches

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Real Men Are Kind To Animals

I feel like I'm in the same boat, same goals, etc as you two also. Good to see what other similar individuals are up to.