Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hello all,

I have been looking through all the before and after shots of everyone on the site and have been inspired to post my story\pics. Late 2008, I was at my heaviest, 5'6, 288lbs.



















I told myself, "wow at almost 300 pounds, I have to make a change". Early '09, I purchased the Abs Diet book and really started to study it. I learned the basic's of nutrition, why fad diet's do not work, and how to work out safe and smart. Little by little, I started to change my eating habits to incorporate what I've learned from the book. I wasn't working out as much as I wanted to, but I at least managed to walk more than 10,000 steps a day at work.

People began to notice subtle weight lost here and there. Fast forward to December 31st '09, I plateaued at 250lbs. My wife suggested, well not really suggested, but implied that I couldn't be a vegan for a month, that I had will power, but not enough to fully commit to Veganism since I absolutely love meat, especially chicken. I told her that not only would I do it for a month, but if I liked it, I'd make it into a complete lifestyle change. So on New Year's eve, I had a heaping serving of meat lasagna and some left over pepperoni pizza. That was my last meat dish and have not looked back. I jumped in, cold turkey, did not ween myself off of anything, just did a complete 180. When I look back it, it was not that hard for me. It made a lot of my eating choices very easy for me. I now forced myself to eat more of the good stuff, veggies, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and soy based "meat" products. I have to admit though, my first month of being a Vegan, I really focused on eating soy based meats. My meals revolved around them. I kind of felt it defeated the purpose of my diet because they were heavily processed foods and I did not want put that kind of stuff into my body. So I then began to get creative and started to make my own Seitan and eat tofu here and there. I started to eat cuisines from around the world, especially Mediterranean and Indian, which are by far my favorite.

Working out as a Vegan:

In January, I purchased a treadmill and began to run 4-5 miles, 2-3x a week. Sometimes I would skip a week of running I have to admit. I would still go to the gym and lift weights, however I felt a bit confused on what to actually do for my workout routine to lose weight. I need to be 168-170lbs to be in the Air Force. I thought to myself, "Should I focus solely on cardio and be a runner, should I just work on building muscle to burn more calories, or should I do a combination of both?". Finding the right balance really worried me because I don't want to be efficient since I have to meet a deadline.



This is me at 180lbs March of 2010

Lost 55lbs almost 4 months into being a Vegan.


On July 25th, I started doing Insanity, and man does it get my body pumping. I've never sweated so much in my life. I dread Insanity each day, but in a good way, lol. I tell myself, "Ah, it hurts so good". I can definitely already see results in my arms and legs. However, I cannot move from my current weight, which is 176lbs. I need t be 168lbs and its driving me nuts. My wife is telling me I should cut my calories in half, but I told her that's probably unhealthy since I need them to fuel up for Insanity.

This is what I would eat in a day:
Meal 1: Breakfast: Whole wheat toast with Smart Balance Flax seed peanut butter, cup of coffee with almond milk

Meal 2: snack: Wasa cracker with water.

Meal 3: Lunch: homemade hummus on whole wheat bread

Meal 4: snack: carrots with peanut butter or pita chips

Meal 5: dinner: 1 cup of whole wheat or fortified spinach pasta with veggies.

Meal 6: POSTworkout shake: Soy Protein with either water or almond milk

(also know that I drink a Multi vitamin, D3 (2,000 IU) and B12. I checked all of my vitals with my doctor throughout this whole Vegan change, and my numbers have been amazing, she says I am in the best health of my life )

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This is me as of last week, sorry if any of the pics are too much, I just want to get some honest feedback:





See how my gut is still flabby in the front. Since I've lost so much weight so quickly, I have tons of flabby skin around my body, especially around my thighs and stomach.





In this pic, I tried to show the new found "abs" on the sides.. I really feel them pumping and burning when I do Insanity...



Am I doing something wrong that I cannot lose these last 8lbs? Should have I seen at least a weight difference of a pound or two already on my 8th day of Insanity?

What can I do to speed up my weight loss at this point?

YOu really did great job! Congratulations, man!
MY advice about weight lost is to do 80/10/10 diet for a couple of months. Find the book Dr. Douglas Graham "80/10/10 Diet".
I was on this diet for some time and I felt great. My abs, muscles and veins showed for the first time. I got a bit skinny though, but as soon as I started with bodybuilding and eating LOW FAT cooked vegan food everything became normal.
If you can not eat fruits and veggies all the time, I suggest you to reduce fat in your diet for some time (no peanut butter, or at least less). I also suggest you to eat more fruits and veggies, but in raw form. Those enzymes in raw food do wonders, really.
But anyway, you can be already proud on yourself!

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My progress pics: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=21924
My training diary: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=22216

Insanity is a progam you need to be patient with! Most people don't really seen any major results till the last two weeks. And month one is basically just preparing you for month two because month two is INSANITY!!! I am on the end of week two of month two and my stregnth and endurance are way higher then ever before! I couldn't even do 1 pushup when I started and my last fit test I got 13 pushup jacks! It's a great program, just stick with it and you will see results! I would def try to add more fruits and veggies to your diet. Good luck!!!

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Milk are for babies, when you get older you drink beer.

Thanks for the awesome advice guys. I am proud of myself! It didn't hit me until recently, I mean very recently when I visited my family. Their reactions to my weight loss was priceless. I was eating more raw fruits and veggies at first, but I kind of stopped for some reason. I will dramatically cut the fat, even though I love me some peanut butter!

vege, I just ordered 80/10/10 Diet from amazon, I should be getting it in two days, gotta love Amazon prime.

I will be very patient with Insanity and I can only imagine how rough the last few weeks of the program will be.

Sandypants, should I try to do additional weight lifting or running aside from my 6 days of Insanity? My local gym offer Les Mills Body Pump classes which use weights, should I do that on my off day of Insanity or would that be overkill?

Congrats on the improved number on your fitness test. My second fitness test is this sunday. I hope to beat my original numbers which were:

Move Fit Test 1
Switch Kicks 63
Power Jacks 54
Power Knees 68
Power Jumps 43
Globe Jumps 8
Suicide Jumps 11
Push-Up Jacks 35
Low Plank Oblique 25

I followed the first month pretty close to the calender although because of time we (my fiancee works out with me) work out only 5 days a week. When I got to the recovery week instead of cardio core and balance everyday we threw in the upper body weight taining dvd, which comes with the deluxe package. Now in month two I am still only following the calender and I have P90X on the way and will start that as soon as we are done. It's totally your choice if you want to do anything on top of Insanity. Personally I want to finish this first before I start any new programs. I don't want to burn out and not be able to complete it. And again you are only just over a week into it, all the hard work will catch up to you! Have you looked into P90X yet? I love me some peanut butter too LOL! Here on fit test 1 and 3. I am suppoed to do 4 today but have decide to skip it and just do the fifth one. Good luck and I hope this has helped!!!
Fit Test 1 Fit Test 3
Switch Jacks-63 Switch Jacks-100
Power Jacks-32 Power Jacks-45
Power Knees-56 Power Knees-94
Power Jumps-27 Power Jumps-32
Globe jumps-4 Globe Jumps-10
Suicide jumps-9 Suicide jumps-15
Push up Jacks-1 Push up Jacks-13
Lower Plank Oblique-27 Lower Plank Oblique-54

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Milk are for babies, when you get older you drink beer.

I'm glad you ordered the book! Looking forward to some new progress photos

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My progress pics: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=21924
My training diary: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=22216

Oh okay, I think that seems fair how you customized your workout dates. I think for now I will stick to the calendar verbatim. I'm going on vacation Saturday, yay road trip!, and I will take my dvd's with me and not break my routine.




Yeh dude, so last night, I go to pay for my book, and considering I have amazon prime, I get free 2day shipping. Well, for some reason, I had the option for "same day delivery". I've never seen that option. I wanted to get the book in time before we leave saturday:

Oh yeh, look how happy I look, lol..


Good reading material for our long trip to South Carolina... oh yeh!

Oh by the way, my wife gave me a great compliment today. She always complained that I was "assless". She smacked my butt and said "OH YAY MY BABY IS GETTING AN ASS"

Gotta love my wife: hot, amazing, and very supportive.

you're a lucky man! a supportive partner is very important. when i started eating healthy and doing yoga all my ex girlfriend did was telling me i'm obsessed with food and boring indian spirituality bullshit:( it's funny because last time i visited her she told me she started to cook healthy food like me, and she also asked me to recommend her the place for learning yoga! It's obvious that she likes the results I made. But that change of her mind setting happened too late...

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My progress pics: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=21924
My training diary: http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=22216

Ditto. Kiss her every day. I have zero support where I am--no, wait, I take that back--I have less than zero support where I am. Thank goodness for this forum.

Herc

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http://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.wordpress.com/

It is really nice to have someone to share your journey with! Is your wife vegan as well? Does she workout with you? My fiancee is pretty much vegan with me and having him as a workout partner has helped me a ton! Safe travels my friend! Think I might look into that book as well.

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Milk are for babies, when you get older you drink beer.

vege: how funny life is huh? A little bit too late. Some could say that things happen for a reason. Looking back, none of my past girlfriends would have even supported going me vegan. I remember one used to make fun of Vegan's. You are probably in a better state in your life now then before.

Yeh guys, she drives me up the wall sometimes, you know how marriages are always fun!! lol.. but she is amazingly supportive. She did try going vegan, and went at it cold turkey. She stuck to it for about three months. She started to workout with me and then had to stop because of a gallbladder surgery back in March. She kind of fell out of the bandwagon due to it, and started to eat meat here and there. The thing is, she feels terribly guilty about it. Not because she is letting me down, which she isn't because I don't shove my belief's down anyone's throat nor do I make others feel bad when they eat around me, but she felt terrible because she knows how good her body feels when vegan. She feels very down chemically after eating heavy dishes with meat. So, another issue is that we are trying to get pregnant and her doctor's stated that she shouldn't be vegan while we are in this process. I mean, I know there are tons of women that are Vegan and continue their lifestyles into their pregnancies. But my wife is a worry-wort and all it took was reading one article about a woman that claimed that her child's birth defect was due to her vegan diet. So my wife is now saying that she will go vegan again after we have a baby. I don't care what she eats, as long as she is healthy inside and out. I have to admit, sometimes, she tells me she wants to workout with me like before, but due to some things she's dealing with at work, she hasn't been in the best of moods when it comes to fitness. She is about to embark on a career change, leave her job, and go back to school for Culinary. She's a little worried about it, but we make a great team. Just like she has my back, I have hers.

She goes out of her way to create new dishes for me. She see's a great recipe's on food network or read's one in one of her magazine's, and she converts them into awesome all vegan dishes. She's amazing. I do kiss her every day and tell her I love her at least twice a day.

hey vege, I'm almost done with the book. Man, its so good. Thanks again. I will take pics soon.

Howdy all. I started a new job three weeks ago that has an onsite gym. Personal training is free, so I've decided to have one of the trainers design a workout for me. I had an assessment and did extremely well. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that my total body fat is 13.3% and not the 18% I thought I was. They tailored a plan for me that really pushes me. I wanted to focus on building mass all around, with a concentration on my weak points (PULL UPS). I've been going 5 days a week and have already started to see results.

I will post new pics in about a week or so.

Cool! Nothing better as an on-site gym for a job perk! Especially one that has personal trainers at your service. Keep hittin' it!

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Quote from VeganEssentials;

I have made it a habit to get back into the mindset that every workout is war. All-out, 100% do-it-or-die-trying war. If you want to get bigger and/or stronger, lifting won't be fun most days.