Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

My name’s Taija, “T” for all my wonderful friends, who after years, still can’t pronounce my name correctly. I recently decided to browse around the forums again, as I’ve finally made the commitment to start working out regularly. As I was doing a little bit of snooping through other’s fitness journals/logs I noticed a lot of feedback from other members of the site as well as the occasional “Hey where are you? How’s your training going??” if the OP hadn’t posted for some time. This was very encouraging and I decided to go ahead and post my own for that extra liability.

Criticism is welcome!!! Especially with the food journal when I start posting.

Almost three years ago I went Vegan overnight…literally overnight. Which means I didn’t have the greatest eating habits. My diet is literally carbs, carbs and more carbs on top of carbs. Thanks to a couple books *Thrive Fitness has amazing recovery drinks and recipes* I’m working on a more whole food and in some cases raw vegan diet to help me reach my goals.

However, in doing so I lost 90 pounds accidentally and I’ve always wanted to really give body building and gym ratism a good shot. There were several times I went to the gym with high hopes and would only last about a week or so, but I just wasn’t ready. I feel this time is different because I felt a genuine change in my attitude, something I haven’t felt in a long time and I actually look forward to going to the gym, and even inspired a friend to start tagging along with me. So here’s to gettin’ shredded

My Stats:
Height: 5’10
Weight: 185 (x_x)
Biceps: R: 12 1/8 L: 12
Waist: 32
Hips: 38
Thighs: R: 20 L: 20
Calves: 15/15

My Goals: I’m going to be straight, ever since I read up on Marzia Prince’s profile on the site about a year ago I’ve had an Idol Crush on the woman. She’s only an inch away from my height, and I feel that once I get to where I want to be, our frames are very similar so I feel she’s a great inspiration to get my butt in the gym 6 days a week. Where I’m hoping to be weight wise is in the 135-140.

What I’m doing now:
I spend about an hour a day weight training in the gym, and unfortunately where I fall short of my motivation is when my eyes rest on the dreaded treadmill. I despise running with a fiery burning passion. I feel like the elliptical is a waste of time as even if I’m pushing out every ounce of strength I have on the damn thing, it just falls SO short of running. Stationary bikes are so droll I get insatiable urges to drive spoons into my eyes. I own P90X and Insanity. My plan is, next week to start doing Insanity in the mornings *wheezing breath* and weight training in the evenings *L glutamine and ambien here I come* to hopefully offset the need for running on a treadmill.

Areas of needed improvement:
Cardio for sure
Learning to efficiently and accurately count calories // Portion sizes. (I have a massive stomach)

I haven’t been keeping a food diary, I’m going to start today and I have a weeks worth of work outs logged since I’ve been back to the gym. Cheers!

Monday 3*28

Abs:
Plank on Bosu: 1 min / 2 sets
Ceiling reaches: 4kg 2 sets of 15
Leg Raises: 2 sets of 15
Hip Dips: 2 sets of 15
*****
Lower Body:
Bosu Squats: 3 sets of 15
Bosu Jumps: 3 sets of 15
Calves: 45lbs inner/outer/mid 3 sets of 20 a piece
Leg Press: 90lbs 12/12/15
Smith Lunges: 30lbs three sets of 12

Tuesday 3*29
Abs:
Push up plank, alternating every 20 seconds, 2 sets of 1 min
Ceiling reaches: 5kg 2 sets of 15
Leg Raises: 2 sets of 15
Hip Dips: 2 sets of 15
Bicycle Crunches: 2 sets of 30
*****
Push Ups (Knees): 3 sets, 10/12/15
Bench Press: 45lbs 3 sets of 15
DB Lat Raises: 5lbs 3 sets of 15
DB Press: 10lbs 3 sets of 15
21’s: 25lbs 3 sets of 21
Bench Dips: 3 sets of 15
Cable Rows: 70/50/65lbs 3 sets of 15
DB Curls: 10lbs 3 sets of 15

Wednesday 3*30
(Notes: I really…really…really hurt today)
Abs:
Push up plank, alternating every 20 seconds, 2 sets of 1 min
Ceiling reaches: 5kg 2 sets of 15
Leg Raises: 2 sets of 15
Hip Dips: 2 sets of 15
Bicycle Crunches: 2 sets of 30
*****
Lower Body:
Leg Press: 90lbs 3 sets of 15
Calves: 45lbs inner/outer/mid 3 sets of 20 a piece
DB lunges: 25lbs 3 sets of 15 per leg
Bosu Squats: 3 sets of 15

Additional Notes: Yes I know I punked out today, but I hurt :’(

Thursday 3*31

Abs:
Push up plank, alternating every 20 seconds, 2 sets of 1 min
Ceiling reaches: 5kg 2 sets of 15
Leg Raises: 2 sets of 15 (did 2 sets of 15 for side lunges today instead of hip dips, shoulder was hurting)
Bicycle Crunches: 2 sets of 30

Upper Body:

Push ups (Knees): first two sets were on an incline before my shoulder bugged me. 10, 12 and 15.
Did a cardio warm up: Jogging, Jumping Jacks, Heismans, Heismans with step, power squats. 1 min a piece, 30 second rest in between x 2
Drills: (something my trainer made me do a while back.) Three tiers on the little man made bench things <_< Step up DB Curl with 10s 3 sets of 15 for right leg. Step up DB Shoulder press with 8lbs 3 sets of 15 for left leg.
DB Curls: 10lbs 3 sets of 15
DB lat raises: 5lbs 3 sets of 15
DB Press: 10lbs 3 sets of 15
Tricep Extensions: 45/50/45lbs 3 sets of 15

Cardio Notes:
Ran on the f**king treadmill for 20 minutes with intervals of 7.0 for 20 seconds each minute and an avg. speed of 4.5-5.0. I hated life. Seriously I wanted to die. There’s got to be a better hwey.

I’m a bit worn out tonight, so I’ll be posting my food diary on the ‘morrow. Cheers everyone! I do have before pictures <_< but I’m a little bit *squeal* about posting them without some afters to show how awesome I am (lol) so once I muster up some guts, I’ll put em up.

Welcome back T! Hope you stick it out and get the results you're looking for! One step at a time...think life-long journey!