Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Cool man!

I know you were asking Lean and Green about female bb competitors who are vegan....not sure I even know any. I'm going to post a thread about it on the forum to find out because I'm sure there are some out there.

But even if not.....i started when I didn't know any other vegan bodybuilders, I just veganized my diet program and followed traditionally training programs and all that and it worked out well.

Hope all is great!

Catch you later.

Late workout last night. The weekend really threw me off.

Something interesting is happening. I had planned on keeping my diet pretty much the same as it had been running up to the last show, only keeping it a little less strict. The plan is to hit a show in NYC on the sixth just for fun. I like to compete and a weekend in NYC seems cool.

I lost four pounds over the weekend. MMM, I blew off training all weekend. I also went a little wild and pretty much ate whatever I wanted to include some yummy vegan cookies, and a butt ton of soy ice cream. After hitting my workout and obsessing about being too small I decided to hit the posing room and let the mirror be my guide. I usually don't get too obsessed over weight. My two biggest concerns are what the mirror says, and bodyfat percentages. Everything else is interesting, but not as much as the aforementioned dreaded mirror test.

Running through the mandatories I was pretty pleased with my muscle size, definition and hardness. It looked really good. So NYC is on. Then a full few months of trying to put some size back on. I think my diet for these two shows has been too extreme. Given that I took a full weekend of screwing off, not training, and eating more, but lost weight (looks like body fat) I think a re-evaluation of my training frequency and or diet is in order. I will start with an increase in calories. I estimated a LBM of 168 at 180 pounds, I would say at 171 last night I was probably closer to 5% body fat or 161.5 LBM. That is a gut check off the mirror, not anything scientific, but it looks about right.

My diet has been a consistent 2000 kcal per day with a bump about every four days to 2400. For bulking I am going to begin at 2400 kcal and evaluate weekly with conitnued bodyfat percentage checks. I do not want to go over 10-12% since October/November is the next round of contests for me. I would rather stay lean and not diet so hard. For this season I let myself hit 202 pre-season. That was a thirty pound shift. Too much for my preference. All of my changes will be minor. I have noticed that with a vegan diet I have less protein, but with added reliance on products like Vega, and Sun Warrior from veganproteins.com I have been able to get my protein levels closer to the ultra-high levels I enjoyed previously.

Another reason I believe I have managed such a lean physique is a reliance on green leafy vegetables and fruits for my carbs. I eat almost no rice, potatos, yams, etc. The only traditional carbs I am getting is oatmeal every few days, an occassional wrap, and whatever I get from various beans. The key is that almost all of my carbs are really low GI. I remain convinced this is why I have been able to get to very lean levels with no cardio. The only downside has been that I have depleted too much in my diet and have suffered a larger loss of muscle mass due to what I perceive to be a lack of protein.

interesting observations
I'll be following with great interest as I'm trying to cut bodyfat% without losing much mass.

btw.... how do you define a "butt load of soy icecream" ?

MMM, defining could be hard, but I ate an entire container in one day. You know the way you start with a reasonable sensible serving, then a black hole appears, some physics happen, and it like disappears. I have a vague recollection of consuming more of it than I ever thought I would without someone having an intervention. MMMMM, chocolate.

Have you looked into bodyopus or any of the Dan Duchaine diet stuff from the 90's? It is pretty high in protein and it is not for the faint of heart. I did it back in my omnivore days, and it was effective, but time consuming, and did not afford cartons of soy ice cream. I am told there is a new varient on his work, UD2 (ultimate diet 2). I have not read the book, but it looks like Dan's stuff, and I am told it is similar. I am thinking of doing it after I start cutting for shows in the fall. There a few lacto-ovo's who have had good luck with it, and I read a blog from a female in Spain who said it worked, but sounds like she had some of the problems I had with it. That being I felt like dying many days. The good news is that I was really tight. The bad news was that I was very grumpy and felt run down at least one day in seven to ten.

fortunately I've lost my taste for soy icecream. Not sure why but I just don't like the taste much anymore.

Haven't read up on that diet but I'll definitely take a look.
I am amazed at how slowly that stubborn lower belly fat wants to disappear
(I'll have to remember just how stubborn when I get junk food cravings!)

Work conflict precluded me from doing the show in NYC this weekend. So now it is wait for a while. Nikki's desire to compete has been fun. This morning I saw that in three weeks we have cut an inch and a half off her waist. Total weight loss is one pound.

As for me, I am back up to 175, which is a good thing. I want to bring my size back to the level I saw a few years ago when I competed heavier, and get a little leaner to hit the middle weight mark and not get pushed into light heavies. That said, my ideal is always build the best physique you can and see how it all shakes out.

My workouts are ultra high reps these days. For example last night's leg presses were in the 25-30 rep range with ten plates (five a side). Today's shoulders were 55 to 65 pounds with rep ranges from 15-25. This is in part because of my arms feeling sore whenever I lift. It feels like the connective tissue to the elbow is just stretched or something. I am compensating with higher reps. Secondly I was going heavy right up to my last show including heavy weighted pullups with two 45s on my waist. Changing it up is probably good at this point. I see a number of old school guys who have done this and recent research seems to suggest changing rep ranges will give you a a boost.

Started creatine today, and found some good vegan BCAA's from Dave Draper's site. I always like to support the old school boglass dybuilders since without them I would be nowhere.

I have a new recipe for home made protein bars. Two cups of Sun Warrior from veganproteins.com I love how great their customer service is, and nobody else delivers better. 18 oz jar of peanut butter, a half cup of oatmeal. I use the stuff with hemp in it, I just like the additional omega 3. I crush the oatmeal into a powder. Add the protein until it is mixed, add the peanut butter with a mixer and some water. I use a little stevia to sweeten it. Get it to where it is about cookie dough consistency, then put it into a glass baking pan and freeze it. Cut into squares and you have a high protein low carb quick hit. Some people will say it is too high in fat, but I like to keep my calories about a third from fat, a third protein, and a third from carbs. This has been a real challenge since becoming vegan, so this lets me even the mix over all.

The gym was crowded last night so I was there longer than I like to be. I am a firm believer in getting in and out in less than an hour. I did 15 sets of back with a few warm ups prior. I have been really hammering my protein. I am back on every two hours. In prep for the High Desert I kept my carbs higher and my protein lower. I felt small doing that. Now I am back to a more one third from carbs, one third from fat, and one third of my calories from protein approach that I have done in the past. Last time I wrote about my protein bar recipe, which I use a lot. I also have been pounding hemp and sun warrior protein with flax seed or Udo's oil.

My rep range on workouts is still high. My arms still hurt when I lift heavy. I think it is all of the heavy curling I have been doing, and the heavier rows. So I keep the range around 20. Last night it was:
Warm up with chest to bar chins for a few sets.
Dead lift:
25@190--still didn't feel completely warm so I eased in
20@230
16@250
Rest on these was a little more than my normal rest, but they are deadlifts and we had three people working.

Cable pull downs
20@165
17@165
12@165 I noticed here I am starting to get tired. My rest period was just enough to catch my breath. Also I didn't eat close enough to the workout.

Dumbbell rows
20@60X3--needed to go heavier

Seated cable rows
20@140-160X3

High pulls
20-25@90X3 I am trying to take it easy with these because of my elbows giving me pain.

I cut bi's and abs, but will make them up today since it is an "off day". I have not been doing weighted pull ups, but am going back since I saw someone last night do them with 135 and perfrect form. I usually hit two plates around my waist, and seeing this dude do 3 really made me feel weak. It was a new PR for him. I was pretty impressed.

Diet has been roughly 30g-40g protein every 2-3 hours between 7 and 7. I am trying to keep my fats at about 100g per day, and less than 200g carbs. I did not weigh in last night because I was at a different gym, and I don't know if the scale has bias.

Your commitment is inspiring It's gonna pay off when you compete.

Just want to drop by to say hi!

Hope all is awesome!

Catch up soon....keep hitting it hard!

Love your pics Steve

I also like the story about the no pulse Yoga instructor !

Yeah, can you believe it. I have been unable to go to yoga since. It is like I need a therapist to get me back into class. Silly since the other teachers there are really great. Maybe I need to go to couples counseling with the yoga teacher.

This week was a good week of training. I have increased my running, with some sciatica pain. I also did some extra martial arts teaching this weekend, which was fun. I think if I could do anything, I would be a ninja bum.

The high reps training is still going well. It is nice to do something different. I will probably keep up this training style for a few months, then increase my weight and decrease reps. Then slowly reel my reps back out.

My elbows and forearms have been absolutely killing me. I have gone to wearing neoprene sleeves and doing more warm ups, but they just keep hurting like mad. This is really making lifting less fun. In short, I am getting pissed off. They started hurting six months ago, and it has gotten progressively worse. That said my training is still pretty strong. My deads are solid, 275 in the 20 rep range. Pullups are not weighted these days, but I hit sets of 20-25. Everything is high reps to keep the strain down.

that sucks about the arm pain
hopefully you'll get through this without having to stop training

Worst case I will load up on pain killers. LOL

Had a good workout yesterday. I warmed up my elbows with two sets of sixty 25 pound dumbell curls and a couple sets of push ups.

I hit incline bells at 70 pounds for four sets in the 16-20 rep range. HItting high reps to keep the strain off my elbows.
Flat flies, 3 sets of 25 at 50.
Iso decline press with 3 plates per side for 3 sets with a drop set at the end.

I hit some one handed cable cross overs to finish my chest for 3 more sets.

The shoulders were a little harder. I tried clean and press at 135 only to see my elbows burn. I tried the same exercise iwth dumbbells at 55 pounds. It was a good move. I did them with 25 pound rear delts for 3 sets at 20 reps each. I finished shoulders with three sets of 20 rep supersets. side laterals and front delt raises. Weight 35#.

Other than the one rep of clean and press with a barbell I was pretty much pain free.