Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hey, everyone!

So, my goal is simply to get to a high level of strength and fitness. Obviously, I will be sticking to a vegan diet which should be easy for me as I have been vegan almost my entire life, and never even tasted meat.

I'd love to have lower than 20%bf, to be able to sprint a 5 minute mile, do a handstand pushup... yeah I think those are all my main goals!

Here are my current pictures - as you can see I'm not really massively overweight but not in great shape either:

Front http://i.imgur.com/Vy0rP.jpg
Back http://i.imgur.com/dRMP6.jpg
and those elusive abs-to-be... http://i.imgur.com/kAAYP.jpg

SO. how am I planning to get to where I'm going?

Dietwise: I need to eat CLEAN. My local supermarket has some ridiculously irresistable vegan orange chocolate and I keep making people cake and eating it too. All this sugar has got to be eliminated. I'm pretty good at getting plenty of protein, and I eat a lot of greens and vegetables - it's just adding the junk food on top that is holding me back right now, I think. Solution: stop it! and stay accountable by posting my food here in this journal.

Training-wise: I'm not entirely sure if I'm on the right track here. My problem is that I don't go to a gym and I just can't see me affording it any time soon, and even if I did find the finance, I wouldn't know where to start and I'd probably be a little too nervous to walk in on my own without knowing what I was doing. So that rules out heavy lifting unless I make some weights or something.
- I've been training with bodyweight exercises 3x a week and making huge gains. Like, I couldn't do a chin up at the beginning of the summer, and now I can do four sets of 2! I also love bridges, planks, leg raises and one legged squats. I am trying to get good enough at pushups to be able to hold myself in a handstand. I can do 18 chest-to-floor right now.
- I have a pretty active lifestyle. I have a job where I'm on my feet rushing around all day. I also cycle six miles a day and I sprint intervals most mornings, including hills.

So... I need to write myself a proper schedule for my training, though I'm not sure what it should look like - or how long I should train every day, considering I can't do the really heavy impact stuff - maybe I should do morning and evening training?... lots to think about!

I'll keep this regularly updated with my activity as I know it'll help me to look back later and see what worked and what didn't...

I'm currently working on a weekly plan. Opinions much loved!

Monday: Sprints/pushups AM. Medium impact workout
Tuesday: Rest day
Wednesday: Barn day.
Thursday: Sprints/pushups AM. Heavy workout
Friday: Sprints/pushups AM.
Saturday: Sprints/pushups AM. Walking, light workout.
Sunday: Rest day.

Decided that wasn't necessarily enough training volume or detailed enough so I'm continuing to develop it...

Monday: AM: 5 mins metabolism boosting workout (box jumps, squats, ohp). PM: 45 minutes workout (pistols, pull ups, leg raises, side raises, hollow hold)
Tuesday: Pushups/sprints AM.
Wednesday: Barn work.
Thursday: Workout 10 mins AM (sprints, box jumps, squats, ohp, pushups, L-sits) 45 mins PM (bridges, handstands, pull ups, leg raises/dragonflies/side raises, planks, hollow hold).
Friday: Sprints/pushups AM.
Saturday: Sprints/pushups AM. Walking. 30m workout (pull ups, leg raises, squats, wall sits).
Sunday: Rest day.

So I'll be doing the major bodyweight moves 3x week, legs 3x week abs 2x week sprints 3x week.

Journal log for Thursday 20th:

TRAINING

71 pushups (15, 21, 22, 5, 5, 3)
Step jumps 3x3 and 2x2
Squats x10
Assisted pistols x5 both legs
5 Pullups (2, 1, 1, 1)
20 Leg raises (10, 5, 5)
20 Side leg raises (10 either side)
Plank: 2 minutes

NUTRITION

Toast and jam, a protein shake blended with greens and flax oil and coconut and maple syrup, chickpea and cucumber salad, coffee x3, chocolate soya milk, slice of fruit loaf, some whole nut granola with a banana, and a homemade cauliflower/aubergine bake.

Lots of good stuff. But sugar's creeping in! Tomorrow will be better.

Hey Opal!

I would like to say that I read your journal and I wish you all the best. It looks like we have the same goals (being leaner and stronger), similar age (i'm 24) and weakness (chocolate)

I decided to eliminate sugar from my diet. I know that falling into extremes is not good, so saying that since today I won't eat sugar for whole my life would be crazy and ridiculous. I avoid big words, small steps sound better for me, so I said to myself that I won't eat sugar during the next 30 day as a good start. If you like to join to this challenge I would be glad, because extra motivation is always desirable. I also would like to try eliminate wheat bread for 30 days.

You asked for opinions to you training plan. Well, I'm not a professional trainer, so I can't give you any super advice. All I can tell is what works for me. So, for me cross country running is the best thing. It makes you to run in different speeds, up the hills, jump over the puddles, avoid branches, run on the various types of surface (sand, mud, grass). Because of that kind of run you are able to develope your general strenght and makes you feel like a warrior (development of mental strength is also super important)
So, If you have place to do that kind of runs, try it! It's fun.

Ah, and my second advice is to swim in your rest days or after hard trainings. Water makes amazing things with our bodys. I'm big fan of pools. Just being in water relaxes muscles, and long smooth moves in the water help to stretch them, plus it's a honey for overload joints, and loosens compacted after runs vertebrae.

Hey! Trainings should be fun, If you have power and will to train twice a day, do it! But never force yourself if you don't have energy. I think it's better to train less but with smile than more and tears in eyes. Because if it won't give you happiness sooner or later you will give up and stop training at all. THis is how I think.

Greetings form Poland, have a good weekend, smile a lot and good luck!

~Joanna

Sorry for mistakes in my message, i'm still working with my English.

Hi Joanna,
Thanks for your comment and I must admit you've majorly inspired me...
I've given up sugar before for 30 days and it was brilliant. Totally stopped craving it and everything else tasted better. Of course it crept back in in small amounts, then became a habit again.
So I've decided it's time to clean things up again and go sugar-free for at least 30 days!!
Hope your challenge is going well - I plan to start tomorrow! (Too late for today already unfortunately!)
I'd love to swim more, I don't like the local indoor pool at all though :/ I wish I lived near the sea! My sister has a beach near her house and I'm so jealous!

So I have had a couple of days off training, mostly, because I've had a bad migraine :[ I think I triggered it by staying up too late watching films on Thursday night... I managed 50 pushups today though and I do feel a lot better. Back to normal tomorrow.

It's cool to be an inspiration for you, it's oblige me to train regularly and eat healthy. Thanks for those words!

Well, I will start my 30 days without sugar from tomorrow too My sister opened bar of chocolate today and I took few pieces :/ The good thing is that there is no more chocolate left, so tomorrow I will have an easier start Hm... I didn't eat sugar when I lived by myself, I wasn't buying chocolate and baking cakes, I even wasn't thinking about those things. Here in my family home (where I live right now) my dad buys chocolate and mom bakes vegan cakes (even if she is not a vegan), so living without sugar is more difficult. Ha ha, sometimes it is really hard to say NO to your mother when you realize that she baked cake specially for you. But well... if it's about my health I have to be hard and refuse.

Yeah I would like to live near the ocean or sea too. I'm quite crazy about water After my bachelor I would like to do master degree "Marine diversity and conservation" ... this is my small wish and idea for future
Of course swimming in natural waters is much better, but for me when there is no possibility to swim in sea or lake, swimming pool is not a bad option. I just calm down when my head is under the water. Haha, thanks to swimming pool I never had to go to the psychologist. Water is the best therapeutist ever.


Good luck with your 30 days without sugar! I will do my best to survive them too

I'm sorry because of your migraine, my flatmate, with whom I lived last academic year, has it too. It's really terrible ailment. I hope it is not bothering you often.

Have a good Sunday!

~Joanna~

Hi Opal, i see you put up already 70 pushups in the VBB pushup challenge.
Don't forget to put these up also and ofcourse keep them coming, have a great day!

Hello, brief update because I've done nothing but work today! It's day 3 without sugar and I'm enjoying it a lot! Hoping to see good results from this month. I'll post my workout details tomorrow.

Glad you started the journal, saw you posting without one for awhile! I'll be following it for sure

Thanks James!

Day four without sugar today I ate a few too many apricots yesterday but apart from that there haven't been any cravings! Its too early to tell if this is having any good effects yet. I give it at least a week.

I'm nursing a shoulder injury in my right arm though, it was so sore last night I couldn't sleep properly but I don't know how I did it - I've had two rest days in a row. Might have been the DIY work I was doing yesterday, holding pieces of board for long periods, I've definitely pulled something in it. I can't do pushups or bear any weight with it today. Gah! Hope it feels better tomorrow. If so I will just do today's workout tomorrow. Today I'll stick to leg work. Anyone recommend a great leg exercise that isn't a squat or a lunge or a leg raise? Heheh.

Hey hope you recover soon, injuries are a real bummer.

You can do squats with no weight, they are still really good - I do them a lot. If you struggle with a no-weight squat, you can do them next to something to hold on to for support. I do this for single-leg squats. So it can be a table, chair, banister etc. Just stand in front of it and steady yourself (you could do this with your good arm).

Running up and down steps is really good for your legs also. Cycling also.

All the best to you!

Have a great week ahead.

So I fell over while sprinting and cut my knee, hand in two places and my wrist in three places! I've had THE most accident prone week. It's been horrible and everything else has sucked too, from missing buses to work going wrong (I quit my job) and having no internet access when I really need to just unwind.

Ummm. I still have been doing workouts, but limited because of my knee and palm injuries. (Shoulder stopped hurting after a couple of days, that's something I guess!)

My diet has been totally clean for 8 days and I feel like I've gained body-fat! I'm not sure how that's worked as I haven't changed total calories or macros in any way.

Generally feeling under the weather but trying to soldier on.

Thanks for the comments, good to hear from yous!

Took some progress pictures. End July to end September. I've still got work to do but I'm definitely heading in the right direction it seems!!

link