Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Here's a little background information on where I'm at and where I'm going.

I'm 5'0 or 5'1, depending on my self-confidence. I'm ten pounds over my "perfect" weight because I can't stand most cardio, especially during the winter, brrrrrr. I've been using weights for 2 years for max strength (and occasionally for bodybuilding) but have a history of strength based athletics.
And I'm looking to keep up athletics in the future by competing in a Women's Tri-Fitness Dual Fitness Competition. When? I have no clue but thats what I'm starting to train for now. For those that don't know what this includes its an obstacle course (fun!) and 3 fitness skills.

Heres the obstacle course in action,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3FRUPFHClg

And the fitness skills are 50 box jumps as quickly as possible (perfect score being 39-40 seconds), bench pressing 60%bw as many times as possible (50 reps is a perfect score), and a 20 foot x 10 round trips shuttle run (30 secs is a perfect score).

My biggest weakness is my chest so thats something I will definitely be focusing on. As well as losing that 10 pounds.
I also don't have much strength endurance at the moment. I used to have tons, and don't laugh now, when I did my Cindy Crawford's Next Challange workout video 3x week. Seriously its an amazingly well put together workout. Starts out with dynamic stretches, includes plyometrics, the exercises can be made more difficult easily, it ends with static stretching and most importantly its enjoyable cardio and it develops strength endurance.
Okay, now to redeem myself the last time I maxed out on a squat was 235 lbs.

Okay, besides Cindy Crawford the other main influences on how I train are Pavel Tsatsouline and Thomas Kurz. GTG FTW.


Thats about all I can say about training so now for the food stuff. Everyday I aim for 99.9% raw (.1% for vitamins and maybe some motherfucking jarred dijon). Lately I haven't been achieving that but looking through my food journal and tallying it up on fitday I found out I was eating oh... 1000 cals less than what I should be. No wonder I was having mad late night cravings for 2 PB&Js.
What I also learned from putting my average intake on fitday was that I am getting about 45% of my cals from fat. That sounds like a lot but when I figured everything out volumewise I'm right on the Thrive Diets volume recommendations. The Thrive Diet is a big influence on me at the moment because I don't know much about eating for endurance and after following many of Brenden's recommendations I feel so much better and have more energy during cardio.

Heres what my food looks like now a days (I'm adding the extra food that I found out I need)

-Apple Cinnamon Energy Bar (from the Thrive Diet recipes) *Periworkout
-Direct Fuel Bites (also from the Thrive Diet book and these are awesome) *Periworkout
-Yellow Smoothie (once I get on a certain flavor smoothie I make it everyday for months and right now its this gem) Pineapple, frozen mango, frozen banana, hemp oil, protein powder, ground flaxseeds and water
-Garden Salad (like the smoothie, when I find a salad combo I like I stick with it) Beet greens, romaine, beets, carrots, cucumbers with lemon juice, vinegar s&p
-My homemade Bora Bora Bar imposter (doubled this to get some more calories because raw organic seeds are CHEAP) sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds and agave nectar
-Creamy Coleslaw (this is one of the things I added to up my cals too) have a look yourself http://goneraw.com/recipes/3087-Colesla ... a-dressing
-Sprouted lentils and quinoa in a vinagrette
-kiwis (added for more cals)
-limonade! lime juice, lemon juice, water and agave

On non workout days I replace the energy bar and fuel bites with guacomole.


Oh jeez, I think I'm done with the introduction. Heres a somewhat recent picture from early January of me in my long johns so you can put a body to a name.

Looks like fun. I'd love to do something like this once I'm done cycling. I don't know how regular the contests are though??? That would be my only problem.

nice outfit !

I got some bboying in this morning. +1
I also did pullups throughout the day but didn't keep track, anywhere from 10-15. +1

Then some very kind people bought me some very crunchy seasoned fries so I graciously accepted them. -10

Yeah, I'm not sure about the competitions either but they do happen frequently. Looks like most are out of Tampa too...

Schedule

Feb. 16, 2008 Valentine Victory Challenge Tampa
Mar. 15, 2008 March Madness Challenge Tampa
Apr. 19, 2008 Tax Exempt Fitness Challenge Tampa
May. 24, 2008 2008 Spring Classic Tampa
June. 21, 2008 Fun in the Sun Fitness Challenge Tampa
July. 10-13, 2008 2008 World Challenge Las Vegas
July. 19, 2008 Red Raider Fitness Challenge Lubbock

TBA
Atlanta
Ft. Lauderdale
Orlando

Thats not bad...more events than I can find that I "really" want to do. Thats a lot of traveling though.

Did The Next Challenge today. I have improved noticeably since the last time I did it Man, it is such a fantastic strength endurance workout. Its about 300 reps of legs (which doubles as cardio), 80 ab reps, 100 chest reps, 80 more abs, 280-320 arm/shoulder reps and then 80 more abs. Ahhh, so much volume!


Food today was holiday influenced, Easter and a birthday. Holidays are so less damaging when you're the only vegan. I had a little bit of a spinach/rice/sweet pepper/raisin dish set aside for me before the feta was added as well as some plain steamed green beans before the smart balance was added. But then I smelled all the kids chocolate and spent hours in a room with two cakes and it drove me to go get a few squares of Endangered Species Extreme Dark Chocolate. It was so satisfying.

That obsticle course looks like some serious FUN!!! How are you training for it? I am so excited for you!!

I don't really have a set plan yet other than building up my endurance at the moment because I'm more focused on the 3 fitness skills than the OC.

3000000 reps of squats don't double as cardio. Cardio is about your heart and if your heart rate isn't doing anything different from doing normal squats then you aren't doing cardio doing lots squats. Lots and lots of fast squats that make your heart rate go up a lot may be cardio but a lot of sets of 10 or 20 is not cardio at all.

How can you make that comment when you have no idea what kind of exercises these are or the tempo they're performed at?

Over half the leg exercises are plyo (broad jumps, high jumps, lunge jumps...) or jumps (similar to jump roping) with no rest between sets. Half of the other leg exercises are equivilent to walking lunges. The rest of the legs are kicks and squats that are at the end of the legs and are a cool down. That portion of the workout is 20 mins long total so thats 15 mins of moderately intense aerobics that I'd compare to the same effort of jump roping for 15 mins. Its cardio to me.

Well...if you're squatting fast with weight...then you're putting your knees and back on the back burner and may get hurt. If your talking about 300 reps of things like what you mentioned that really isn't very much all together. I occasionally do 500 reps of lunges in one set...I wouldn't call that cardio unless I was doing it fast and fast lunges aren't good for the ligaments since if you do them right you're stretching your tendons to the max but very quickly...bad idea. As for calling 15 minutes of "cardio" cardio...a cardio warm up should be that long.

I do agree that for you this might serve as a warm up, but isn't it also true that what is a warm up for one person could very easily be considered an all out 100% cardio effort for another?

Kinda like jogging for a runner is a recovery day, but jogging for a walker is a heavy day?

I'd throw on a heart rate monitor while working out and strive to maintain my intensity within whatever ranges I was aiming for...

here, check this out...

http://www.tri-ecoach.com/art2.htm

Veganpotter, I don't like your know-it-all attitude and I would like for you to keep it out of my log from now on please. You don't know what level I'm at and you don't know what a workout is to me. I shouldn't have to defend myself against some stranger's assumptions so just stop it.

HighVelocity, thanks for being reasonable. The only cardio I've done in the past year is low intensity and its been sporadic at that. I have a HRM but I haven't been using it when I dance or do aerobics, I've opted for the "how wet is my sports bra" test but I think I will start using it. Thanks for the suggestion.

I use the "how wet is my t-shirt test"
If I'm wet down to my bellybutton, I feel that I've done good.

Your raw apple cinnamon bars look good.
Want to share the recipe?