Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

shoulders and arms workout today. I really haven't been following the program to a T, for all those who are monitoring this thread with vigilance. Also did the ab ripper, and raked a bunch of leaves for an hour. That totally counts as exercise.

I did the workout without the dvd this time, and it went by MUCH faster. I also did it outside in the sunshine before it got too hot

In other news, I signed up for the outer banks half marathon (in november). It's the same one I did last year. I thought I'd do it again this year since it will fall at just about the time I should be running 13 miles in my marathon training program. Should keep me in line in the program! I ran 2:20 last year, so this year I want to take a whopping 30 minutes AT LEAST off my time. I did quite a bit of walking from mile 10-12 and I want to run all the way through this year. And then we'll see what happens at the marathon!

Just dropping by to say hi.

Have a great week!

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Check out my Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness Book on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Vegan-Bodybuildin ... 497&sr=1-1

Alright, so I've done quite a bit of traveling, and one thing about the p90x is...I don't want to carry 8, 10 and 12 # dumbbells through the airports. Nor do I have the money to spend on a gym...so I fell off the wagon AGAIN. Along with falling off the strength conditioning wagon, I have fallen off the good eating wagon, and hardly ate much over my break.

I did a six mile training run on May 2nd, which went pretty well, I hardly walked at all (but trudged a bit between mile 3 and 5). Then I went home, ate like, 800 calories for two days straight because being at home stresses me out and stress for me = eat less, obsess about healthy calories, etc...so my 3 miler on May 5th was REALLY SLOW, but running in general helped me get a good appetite back. Ate around 1200-1400 calories daily for the rest of the week, ran another 3 miler on the 7th, flew to Miami, drank some beer and ate bananas Friday night (not healthy carbs, but no one was getting dinner so I had to have SOMETHING for my race the next morning), then ran my 10k race Saturday in 1:01:somethingseconds. I'm positive I could have done much better with a healthier diet.

So this is where I hold myself accountable, and make a REAL promise to myself to do a lot better. I'm tired of making excuses for myself, and I DO want to see where this p90x training can take me, so I'm beginning all over again on Monday and I'm not copping out for any reason. I say Monday because I'm going to pump myself up for this, and get in a fully prepped mindset for work work work!!!

I know what it's like to fall off the wagon. I've gotten a cold for the second time in two months, so I've really slowed down my training. Stupid colds!

The important thing is that you get back on it as soon as you can ^^

So while I was prolonging my hiatus, I decided to make P90X a little more Me-friendly. I'm going to do the strength training episodes (chest and back, shoulders, bi, and tri, legs and back, etc) and run between those workouts. Running is a priority for me so I want to make sure that I'm doing it--and I have to say, when I did the plyometrics, I did not want to run afterward.

So I did chest and back yesterday, AND I even did half of my push ups with my knees off the ground, and half with them on, just to make it more challenging (haha I sound so weak). I got much lower in my push ups with my knees on the ground, and felt better about cranking out a few more that way.

Today is a 4mi run day...once it warms up a bit! I can't believe it's only 45F outside.

Ended up doing plyo AND running today. Smart move? We'll see!

For the past week I've done all the strength-training and stretching parts of P90X but not yoga or kempo, just went running instead. Last week's day of plyometrics AND running was a pretty bad idea because it took about three days for my legs to recover, so my running on thursday and saturday was kind of pathetic! So I skipped plyo today and just went on a run, I think about 4 miles or so.

I'm getting a little better with my push ups--I can do 5-6 standard push ups without stopping, then I drop down to my knees and do 5-6 more that way. The decline push ups are pretty killer though, so I generally just get through 8 of those.

On the shoulders/bi/tri day last week I did 12 pound weights for just about everything, except triceps exercises--those took 10 pounders. It's so fucking cool to feel stronger!!

Definitely working hard! I love it. I love how it feels to be in the middle of a workout and say to myself, "you can do it, look at what you're already doing, keep going!" and at the end of a workout, "look what you've already done today! you don't have to do anything else, and you've still gotten something great done!" It's almost like working out gives me an excuse to be kind of lazy for the rest of the day.

But I especially love feeling stronger, faster, better. Looking great. Eating healthy (especially when I know that I could easily turn to that "I'm working hard, I can eat whatever I want!" mentality so easily). I even love being sore and tired.

Shoulders, biceps and triceps workout this morning-10/12 pound weights, 10 reps per exercise. Abs for 20 minutes. Ran 4 miles in the heat and sweated buckets.

Felt great, even though I'm sleep deprived and finding it hard to roll out of bed. Life is good.

Glad your program is working so well for you!

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vegan for the win!

Thanks!! I think what feels the best is overcoming that initial lack of motivation and feeling really proud of myself for getting off my ass and actually working HARD, hahaha

You are doing an awesome job! Keep it going!

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Courtney

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarians."
-Linda McCartney