Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Right then....some info you need to know before you justifiably pull my diet apart and help me get fitter and healthier!!!
I have chronic Fibromyalgia Syndrome which means I suffer from constant muscle pain and cramps, IBS, fatigue and several other highly annoying symptoms. Most sufferers need more Magnesium, calcium and zinc than non sufferers. Also we tend to do better with a higher salt intake too!!! oh and sugar is to be avoided as it reduces pain tolerance. We need to excercise to stop the disease from progressing with weight training being extremely beneficial.
I'm 5ft 5ish and the last time I weighed myself I was 62kg and I'm a UK size 10 and I don't wanna loose weight!!!
Tuesday 17th Feb 2009
8.00am Breakfast - 1 slice of wholemeal nimble bread with 1 tsp of cashew nut butter, Homemade muesli - 50g Oats with 1 tbsp of pumpkin seeds and 1 tbsp of sunflower seeds and a handful of sultana's with soy milk
12am lunch - 2 wholemeal pitta bread with 50g mixed salad leaves and 1 avocado
1 bananna
3.00pm Homemade muesli as breakfast, 1 Bananna
4pm 1 naked raw food snack bar
10pm Dinner Tofu and Veg stir fry with brown rice noodles
Training - 1hr JKD class, 1 hr TKB Class and 1 hr walking.
Please help!!!

I also have IBS and my experience with my diet is that I don't like a lot of fiber. So if I were you I would either reduce the amount of wholemeal foods or exchange the breads with something else. But all our stomachs reacts differently so that might not be a good solution for you.

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We see the winners and "learn" from them, while forgetting the huge unseen cemetery of losers.

Thanx think I might try cutting out bread for a week or two to see if helps at all. I know too much dried fruit screws my system up big time but I hadn't thought about bread

Need to know when you do the exercises with the times of the meals.

Thanx Gaia..that makes sense!!! i'll make sure next entry has the meals and excercise times!!!!

Wednesday 18-02-09
Breakfast 7-30am - 1 slice of wholemeal nimble bread with 1tsp of Brazil nut butter, 1 bowl of muesli (as 17-02-09) 1 bananna and 1 pot of green tea.
Lunch 12pm - 2 slices of normal sized wholemeal bread toasted, 127g of homemade bean pate, 50g mixed salad leaves and 6 cherry tomatoes and 1 smoothie made with 200ml apple and mango juice, 1 bananna and 1 tsp of peanut butter.
1.30pm 1 hour of walking.
3.00pm abdominal circuit.
3-30pm -1 bowl of muesli (as 17-02-09), 1 bananna.
5-00pm Taught a Kids Freestyle Karate Class .
6-00pm Assisted the instructor in a Jun Fan Kickboxing Class.
7.30pm 1 naked raw food coco loco bar.
8.15pm trained in a JKD class for 1hr 30 mins.
Dinner 10.30pm - 90g of wholemeal pasta with a homemade tofu and peanut butter sauce.
I also drank 2 litres of water and had 1 herbal tea during the day.

May I ask why you exercise so much? 3 hours of intense activity each day might not be helping the fatigue and muscle pain. Your body has to recover!

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

Do you take any nutritional supplements? Are you against taking supplements?

My first thought is flax seed oil, or better yet flaxseed meal (fresh is best, so grinding your own whole flaxseeds is optimal). Perhaps you have some in your muesli, but it will not be enough, as it will have been oxidized by the air in the container it came in.

I am sure you are not doing 3 hours of intense activity. Walking for an hour is good, and not that intense (and fresh air from outside is good for you too! Then again, if you are mall walking, that is still not intense). And teaching a kid's class is much more emotional intensity than physical perhaps . Assisting is intense as you are a role model for everyone to learn by? That would be intense, but not for a long duration. The only thing I see as intense activity is the 1 and 1/2 hour of JKD class at 8:15 PM (that is pretty late for intense activity! especially as you are up by 7:30 AM! I am impressed! Your endurance is good). Smart that you only have a raw food bar before that activity! Your core/stomach is used so much in the training that any food you have in there will not be digested properly. The only thing better would be a smoothie that contains greens (any of the powdered "greens" would be good for your energy - wheat grass, barley grass, kamut, spirulina, chorella, etc.).

With all that wholemeal and muesli, make sure you take enough water in to hydrate those grains properly in your small intestine, so they will go through the large intestine pretty well. And I see you have the average 2 bananas a day the experts of FS say to have. And the occasional apple they like you to have also (best with the banana though, like in a smoothie). And the seed/nut butters, and have you tried tahini (sesame seed butter/paste)? Tahini also has healing properties. Sweet brown rice is another thing you might like to try instead of the breads (wheat) all the time. I cook up a big batch (3 cups) and put it in the frigerator to keep for a week or so. Just heat up what I need. I mix chopped up vegetables, and sometimes even fruit (depending if I need some energy for an exercise coming up - and rice digests pretty fast for most people).

Thanx again Gaia. Like you say when you break it down its not quite as intense as it sounds....Also when you have a condition like mine you have to learn to push through all the pain and fatigue otherwise your damn body stops!!!
I'm definitely gonna have a look at the flax seeds and the sweet brown rice
I'm not against taking supplements but I would prefer to do without them if at all possible.
Thursday 19th February 2009
Breakfast 7-30am - 1 slice of normal wholemeal bread cut in to two, 1 half with cashew nut butter and 1 with almond butter and pure fruit spread, Muesli as 17-02-09, 1 bananna and a pot of green tea.
10am a pot of green tea.
Lunch 12pm - 1 large sweet potato with 1tbsp of soya spread and a haricot bean salad, a 200ml glass of apple and mango juice
1pm 1hr of walking
2-30pm Weights circuit
3-30pm Muesli as 17-02-09
6pm Trained in a TKB class
7-30pm 1/2 a naked berry cheeky raw food bar - The other half was stolen by ravenous vultures (My friends)!!!
8pm Assisted the Instructor in a JKD Class
Dinner 10pm - Spicy Blackeyed bean stew with red Quinoa, 1 kiwi fruit and a handful of blueberries, and a 25g bag of vegan chocolate that one of my students bought for me (i know, very naughty of me)!!!
Again drank at least two litres of water throughout the day...oh I forgot that I start every day with 1 glass of water with a half tsp of ground ginger in it as a natural antiinflammary.

Sounds like you are doing great! The only other thing I can think of is to put lemon slices in your water bottles (for vitamin C and to keep your digestion going well - which by the way ginger is the best for!).

Ok, so there is one more thing that came to mind and I googled it. Seems that green tea is good for every cancer they could write down, but the only draw back to green tea is that it makes non-heme iron less absorbable from the tannins in it. Possibly it binds to the non-heme iron (http://www.amazing-green-tea.com/green- ... -iron.html).
I see you have your first meal with the green tea, and then a pot later on all by itself. The tannins could possibly bind to the non-heme iron in your muesli and wholemeal bread in your first meal, though it seems you have the green tea last, so possibly not.
I do take VegLife's Iron supplement because I drink green tea (though usually all by itself for a thermogenic effect from the caffeine, the other good things about the green tea are just side effects that I like!).

I have read about the green tea and the iron absorption problem too and I normally have the tea about 15/20 minutes after eating breakfast. Although I'm not sure if that it is still too close to my meal...
I'm gonna look into taking an Iron supplement or increasing my iron intake...cos there's no way I'm giving up my green tea!!! I'm totally addicted to it!

The lemons in the water bottle is a great idea!!!

Thanx for the encouragement

Friday 20th February 2009
Breakfast 7-30am 1 slice of wholemeal nimble bread with 1tsp of brazil nut butter and 1tsp of pure fruit jam, homemade muesli as 17-02-09, 1 bananna and a pot of green tea
10am pot of green tea
Lunch 12pm bulghar wheat with a carrot and cherry tomatoes with homemade guacamole in lettuce wraps
1-30pm 20 mins on exercisce bike and 40 mins workout targeting bum and upper legs
2-30pm smoothie made with 200ml soy milk, 1 bananna, 1 handful of bluberries and 1 tsp of peanut butter
5pm small handful of grapes
Dinner 8pm Vegetable Jambalaya and baked tofu
9.30 1 slice of normal wholemeal bread with soy spread and pure fruit jam
Drank 2 litres of water and 1 herbal tea through out the day