The progress and now ready for my new goal...

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this forum and wanted to share my progress. I've been a vegetarian for 13 years now and have worked out occasionally until one day, after a long stretch of eating bad and not working out at all I looked like this:

I weighed 94 kg (207 pounds) with 27% body fat. I'm 183 cm (6 ft) tall. (We were taking a cast of my head for a short film we were doing. Hence the white stuff on my neck. This is the only time I allowed myself to be photographed without three layers of clothing!)

Since changing my diet and exercising regularly, my body now looks like this:

I now weigh 72 kg (158 pounds) with 11% body fat. It took me roughly 18 months to get here.

Now is a crucial moment for me because I have actually had this cycle a couple of times before (gain and lose weight, I gain and lose easily). I know that continuously setting a new goal keeps me from slacking off. So my goal now is to build muscle, as I look a bit scrawny

I want to look like this:

For me this is the next level, because where I am now I've been here before... and in the past I slipped... and now I want to break the cycle and get my body in great shape!

Also lose the last ounces of fat I have. It's not visible in the picture, but all my fat is now mainly located on my lower back and buttocks.

I've enlisted the help of a personal trainer both for guidance and motivation. And I've realized that food is so important and have been wracking my brain compiling a good meal plan... any suggestions are more than welcome! I'll probably post my own meal plan idea's in the meal section for feedback.

Up until a couple of months ago I had a pretty good meal plan that worked for me... but it had a looooot of dairy products and I want to eliminate those from my diet. But now I'm a bit stumped on how to get my protein intake but have been slowly learning more and more about that thanks to this great forum!

Since I have the motivation and dedication to get this far, the above goal is realistic, right? It's just that sometimes when I share my goal picture some people will look at me funny and say "Riiiiiight...". I've even had a personal trainer give me that look

I'd say it's realistic. Well some people aren't as vascular as others so you may not get the vein!

I like peanut butter, tofu, navy beans, ezekiel bread, gardein products, chick peas, soy milk unsweetened, gardein products, protein plus cereal, clif builders bars, soy crisps..

Hey, having a goal to work towards is a good form of motivation. Some might say that you need an "achievable" goal (read: "easy" goal), but if you ask me, for some people, a very difficult goal will push you harder. Firstly because you will be aware at the start how much hard work it will take to get from where you are now to your goal, but also because it's a longterm thing, not just a small goal that you reach in a few weeks, rather it is changing your whole approach to life and saying that this is your priority and that you are going to put everything into this.

Post up what you are currently eating and we'll give you some advice on how to alter it. Also I'd be interested to hear what your personal trainer has suggested so far

Since I have the motivation and dedication to get this far, the above goal is realistic, right? It's just that sometimes when I share my goal picture some people will look at me funny and say "Riiiiiight...". I've even had a personal trainer give me that look

Well he is a professional fitness model with favorable lighting conditions, a good tan, and Photoshop, but you do have a similar body shape, so achieving something like that is not impossible. What you need to work on now is SLOWLY building muscle, so that you add almost no fat in the process, and you will be well on your way to your goal. Good luck!

Well he is a professional fitness model with favorable lighting conditions, a good tan, and Photoshop, but you do have a similar body shape, so achieving something like that is not impossible.

Hahaha, that's true! You forgot better genes as well...

Perhaps I can better use this picture for my goal:

Hey, having a goal to work towards is a good form of motivation. Some might say that you need an "achievable" goal (read: "easy" goal), but if you ask me, for some people, a very difficult goal will push you harder. Post up what you are currently eating and we'll give you some advice on how to alter it. Also I'd be interested to hear what your personal trainer has suggested so far

I got that feeling too that by "achievable" sometimes "easy" is meant. But that doesn't work for me, if it's easy, I don't even bother. The biggest problem I'm having is coming up with easy ways to get my protein... I've calculated that I'll need roughly 100gr of protein a day. Spread across 5 meals that's about 20gr of protein per meal. So that means I need to eat seitan/tofu/... with every meal?

Gosh, this really is an attitude change for me I'm used to easy quick meals (read: cottage cheese with dried fruit) to get my protein. I'm sure there's quick easy vegan meals as well, that's why I'm here. I'm also gonna try out other protein shakes, cause the ones I've tried so far give me horrible stomach cramps!

I've got oats for breakfast, then a veggie burger wrap for mid-morning, lunch I don't know yet... and that's it for the moment! Dinner will probably be rice, vegetables with soy or seitan. I'll start adding legumes too.

My first personal trainer thought it would be impossible to get the right kind of nutrients on a vegan diet and refused to continue training with me if I went the vegan route! So now I've started with another personal trainer, who doesn't incorporate nutritional advice, so I'm on my own for that. At first I'm gonna train for balance and my core, because I need that before I start training for strength and size. But the trainer I have now is on board for getting me to my goal. Training for balance will allow me to cut the last remaining fat too, before I start adding muscle.

Where I live vegan lifestyle is almost unheard of, so to find vegan personal trainers is almost impossible (I don't know if they even exist here). That's why I'm working with a regular personal trainer.

I'd say it's realistic. Well some people aren't as vascular as others so you may not get the vein!

I'm sure I wouldn't mind the veins or not if the rest would look like that.

If anyone gives you any bullshit about the vegan diet, just show them some of the profiles from this site to shut them up

Looks Great!!!