Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hi everyone!

I am just posting a quick question regarding what people here do for mental and emotional energy to get themselves exercising. I have the standard 9-5 routine (well, 8:30-4:30) and by the time I am driving home from work, it feels like all of the energy has left my body. All I want to do is cook some food, spend time with my GF and kitty, and go to sleep. Except it doesn't feel like I am just lazy. I'm not necessarily physically too tired to exercise, but mentally too tired, like each night I just imagine exercising and how tired I will be and I just shut down. I really enjoy the benefits of exercise, and I enjoy many of the actual exercises, but each night I just feel...overwhelmed. I am fairly happy I think, and I get enough sleep, so I just don't know what it is. Has anyone had this issue? Any ideas for working through it? Any good books or materials to read?

_________________
Learning how to be compassionate, gain wisdom, and love life.

Do you love your job? Or is it more than ?

Baby Herc

_________________
Power [][][][][][][][][][]
Speed [][]
Stamina [][][][][][]
Smarts [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
http://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.wordpress.com/

I play uplifting energizing music on the way to the gym by the time I hit the exit to my house my brain says to the gym and stat. If that doesn't help I at least go do my cardio and call it a day

_________________
I do because I can. I can because I want to. I want to because you said I couldn't.

I don't make excuses... I make results

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you

Ditto. It's like amphetamines for the ears.

Baby Herc

_________________
Power [][][][][][][][][][]
Speed [][]
Stamina [][][][][][]
Smarts [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
http://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.wordpress.com/

I hear you, FH - though I'm still restricted on my lifting for a while, I still want to keep up with what training I can do, but some days, it's a battle to will myself to make the trek to go train at night.

More than anything, for me it's about getting my butt on the way there, then I'm ALWAYS glad I went once I get started. It's the excuse-making that gets me, these days a lot of "I guess it'll be better if I wait for tomorrow when I have more energy", which usually turns into a 3-day lapse very easily. My new plan is to just force myself out the door when I know I should go, once that part's out the way it's all good, but getting that gym bag packed and grabbing the car keys is the toughest part for me some nights!

Other key part I've found is, do NOT allow things to "get in the way" that you can always do easily enough after you get back. Lots of times I said "I really should get that thing done first", knowing in the back of my mind that it would inevitably cause me to stay home and not go lifting. Just set yourself to a week or two of going to the gym as soon as you can after work, as the more time the passes, the harder it gets to find that mental motivation to get training in.

Still working on it myself these days, but hopefully we'll both find our way through it before long!

_________________
"A 'hardgainer' is merely someone who hasn't bothered to try enough different training methods to learn what is actually right for their own damned body." - anonymous

I feel that way all of the time after work. The only way for me to consistently get in a workout is to exercise in the morning. That way, no matter how mentally drained I am at the end of the day, I've already got my work out in. I'm on auto pilot in the mornings...I roll out of bed, put on my gym clothes, and I'm out the door.

Not sure if that's a possibility for you or not.

_________________
vegan for the win!

It definitely drains my soul, but I have never had a job that doesn't so.... :O



This is all true, sigh!


That's a good idea, but then you have to have the willpower to go to bed early Maybe I can try this tomorrow and see what it's like.

_________________
Learning how to be compassionate, gain wisdom, and love life.

Honestly? It's pure, bull-headed perseverance, followed by some level of adaptation. Do something you don't want to on a regular basis and it eventually becomes easier to force yourself to continue. Music helps, but it can't do the job alone.

I'm usually out of the house for work and commute for at least 11 hours a day, then there's time lost to normal chores and cooking, plus taking care of the dogs and cat, so I never want to spend time working out. I never look forward to it and rarely enjoy it at the time, but it doesn't matter. It has to be done, and it's easier to force myself every day than it is to skip days and try to get back into a routine.

I think we all probably have a good reserve of stubbornness just given that we're vegans, though.

_________________
--
Bruce

for me the energy comes from the will to do so. So I focus on gathering my mental strength before I train.

Maybe try adjusting your diet to spread what you eat throughout the day? About a week or two ago i adjusted my diet so i am eating the same amount of food but i am eating about every 2 to 3 hours and my energy has recieved a major boost! Also it might be helpful to get a work out partner or even get your gf to go. Going to the gym with my boyfriend and his friend has helped me a lot because even if i don't feel like going they will convince me to go anyways and i feel lame skipping when they are going X).

Did you try the morning workouts? Curious to hear how they went. I had a lot of trouble with them at first, but now it's just part of my routine.

_________________
vegan for the win!

I was the same way until I stopped eating wheat. I love wheat. It was oats for breakfast, whole grain for lunch, etc.. There is wheat in practically everything. Especially hard for a vegan to give up. Anyway since stopping ALL wheat my energy has gone through the roof and body fat dropped without a change in exercise. I was still forcing myself to exercise when I ate wheat, but got little gains. Now it is like every exercise I do actually has the results that I hoped for. It's not something a vegan wants to hear or consider, but I will bet money on anyone who takes the challenge for a month. After a few months off wheat I gave in and had some birthday cake. I was rewarded with that awful feeling of lethargy for 2 days that most people are so used to they think it is normal. No more! Sprouted grain bread or a twinkie, same thing as far as your body is concerned. I didn't want to believe it either. Stop ALL wheat. Feel the energy. Thank me later. Or be thick headed and lazy and continue to do battle with your body even though you mean well. Don't mean to offend anyone, well maybe just a little, but this has worked wonders for wife and I and is currently working for people I work with and spreading amongst friends and family.

Since when do oats contain wheat?

You are right! Sorry I got carried away (with excitement). I stopped ALL grains (and corn for that matter) but stopping only wheat is the most beneficial. Either that or we all got some kind of wasting away disease at the same time we stopped wheat. Check out a book called "Wheat Belly". I might loan it to you if interested, but prolly cheaper to order a used copy...

A quote from book: "Oats do indeed have modest immunologic overlap with wheat. But the problem with oats lies in their extravagant capacity to increase blood sugar. A bowl of slow-cooked, organic, stone ground oatmeal—no added sugar—can increase blood sugar in a non-diabetic to 150 mg/dl, 200 mg/dl, sometimes higher. In a pre-diabetic or diabetic, 300 mg/dl is not uncommon. One of the strategies I teach patients is to check blood sugars one hour after a meal to assess the severity of blood sugar rises; this is when I saw, time after time, extravagantly high blood sugars after oats."

And a short interview: http://www.fathead-movie.com/index.php/ ... -part-two/


Thanks, Ron

I first thought you might have meant gluten.

You write the people who tested their blood sugar had oat meal. Doesn't the fact that the oats are finely milled contribute to the blood sugar spike?