Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

4/30/2009

So after 19 - 20 months of my previous blog not being updated (and the fact that I haven't lived in Pennsylvania for about 19 - 20 months), I've decided to start a new blog/training journal.

While being a physically active person, I haven't done much in the way of strength training (outside of some pull ups, push-ups and dips) aside from carrying heavy things at work. I don't know exactly what kind of training I want to do (or even if I'll stick to one particular thing, as I love most forms of exercise), but I plan on taking a picture once a week to see what kind of changes my body goes through as the weeks go on.

Whatever my plan ends up being, they all seem that they all start somewhere, a "Before" picture, so I attached one at the bottom.

What a 5(ish) mile walk in the muggy, swampy, so-hot-out-because-the-sun-and-humidity-joined-forces makes.

Anyway, having the day off, I decided to go for a leisurely stroll (being that it was 75 or felt somewhere around there), and so I left my apartment around 3:30 and started walking on trails around town. The Woodlands (The actual town I live in, not Houston) has a lot of nice bike trails which I decided to hike on, however, to get to them from my apartment, you have to walk about 4 blocks of no-sidewalk, and there were school buses and lots of puddles because there was rain (and flooding) here a couple days ago. While I was out it started to get really hot/humid/muggy/whatever other weather related reason that keeps people away from Houston, and so I kept going ahead to a store to get some water, about 1.5 miles away. Once there it was pushing 5, and the sun was *REALLY* coming down, but I bought a gallon of water and took it with me, on the logic that carrying it is exercise, and if I need to "take some weight off", I can take off the cap and rehydrate, and that a gallon of water should be a safe amount to have for the 3 mile walk home (I took the long way). Got home, showered, and now I think I'm going to find some food. Great walk for me, and the bugs who had a field day eating my legs, whatever, I knew what I was getting into.

thats awesome that you started a blog!!! what a blog makes!

haha. keep it up guy! Again, it was awesome meeting you in texas! I had a blast!

Welcome back bro!

Hope to see you again this year or next.

I still want to come out to TX and if you come out further West, look me up.

What a west makes.

Good to see you on the boards. i had a great time. it was good to hang with you and I hope to do it again sometime.

5/12/2009 (Had he still been alive, today would be George Carlin's 72nd birthday)

So I'm gaining weight, and it's mostly been muscle. I bought some dumbbells and have been doing chest presses on a makeshift (but safe) bench, curls and some dips. I'm going to post another picture soon, as soon as I'm not on the clock and can go to a store with batteries. :-/ I'm definitely buying rechargeables, my camera eats batteries like I eat clif bars, and this has gotten out of hand. I'm eating a lot more cooked food than when I was back out in AZ, and the first couple of days back, but I'm still feeling really good, and making sure to always eat some form of salad everyday. I want to get out of Texas once my lease is up at the end of year, and move to Portland, this should be fun. I'm saving up for this already, and things are looking okay.

5/21

Ugh, I've had a stomach virus for the past 3 days now, and it's impossible to keep down much food. I haven't been working out with weights, and have just been walking as much as necessary. This is the 4th stomach virus I've had too since I moved to Texas, I'm starting to think the water quality might not be as good as back home...

Hope you are feeling better.

Sorry to hear your sick. Looking forward to hearing about your training once your recover.

5/22

I'm feeling a lot better today. I was able to get the night off last night and was able to eat about 7 pieces of toast (the only thing that would stay down), but now that all that food stayed down, I'm thinking I'll be completely normal by tomorrow.

The big test today will be to see if I can hold down some salad and fruit. My biggest problem has been that I can't hold down food. If I can't eat I can't really nourish myself (outside of sips of water and rest), so I really needed for my appetite to come back first.

5/27/2009

Worked for about 2 hours, then came down to Tomball, TX to hang out with my Vegan partner in crime Dave B (aka Dave Vs. Robzilla), ate some good food and I'm having a really enjoyable day after getting over that stomach virus which seemed to last about a week in my system, things have definitely been looking up.

Tomorrow marks my 4th Veganniversary too, yay!

Congrats on the 4 years!

7/19

So the trip home didn't go as well as planned. I was stuck on top of a mountain at my parent's house, and the computer didn't work, and they don't get cell phone reception, so I was essentially a prisoner in a desert type prison. Sorry that I didn't get to meet anybody that I was planning on meeting while I was home.

I'm definitely planning on moving out of Texas when my lease is up, and I was thinking about moving to Oregon, but I might go somewhere back closer to the East Coast, we'll have to see.

Not too much else is new. Texas is still a 1/4 mile from the sun, though it rained last night for the first time in almost 2 months, and really cooled things down for the night, but now it's day and it's hot again.

8/17/2011

So it's been 25 months since my last entry on this blog, let's see what's new (thought a lot of you have me on Facebook, so you know what's up) :

I moved out of Houston earlier this year, and while I wanted to move out a couple of years ago and go elsewhere, I ended up moving 3 hours west to the great city of Austin, Texas. I currently live in a large house with 5 other people, including my landlord (She's vegan, from Houston and she enjoys my cooking, so we get along ).

I had to leave behind my weights and equipment in Houston (though I want to get them back eventually), and so I've been just doing lots of running and bike riding. I haven't driven my car in over a month now and I'm planning on getting rid of it. (public transportation is a beautiful thing too, especially when you can take a bus that drops you off RIGHT AT THE FRONT DOOR OF YOUR FAVORITE CO-OP! ) Said Co-op sells these amazing local whole wheat tortillas (very large ones too) in packs of 10 for $3. I'm bringing burritos back.

While I want my weights back to do some weight lifting, my interests aren't nearly where they once were. In the past couple of years my interests have moved into the wonderful world of organic food production (I like to think I went from human nutrition to plant nutrition). I give plants to people (mostly co-workers) all the time to help spread the joys I've found as well.

As much as I'm loving it here though, I don't honestly know how long I'll be around here. I've learned (and taught others) so much about local food movements, and it's great having so much vegan company around, but I honestly sort of miss having not-like-minded people around (maybe it's because I helped inspire a larger number of people in other communities, even if it wasn't about going vegan, it was positive inspiration), though I don't miss the silly debates I always used to get into.

Talk about a long-time member!

Glad to see life is treating you well and you have been able to find passion in the work you are doing. Don't be a stranger!