Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I am excited to embark on this journey-albeit a little late!! I am new to the vegan lifestyle although I have toyed around with it for close to a year now. I am coming off a back injury and this afternoon I actually felt pretty good so I am super pumped to hit tomorrow morning's Spin Class!! I appreciate any and all advice!!

January 5

AM workout: 1 hour Spin class
I could feel the holidays taking its toll-but that was why I was in class to begin with!!

Breakfast: Oats w/ almond milk, small amount of peanut butter, agave nectar, raisins, almonds

I know how you feel about being new to vegan- I have been vegetarian for about a year and a half and flirting with vegan for about 6 months. It's tough because I like cheese and once a week I eat eggs (plus all the processed crap that includes ingredients you can't pronounce!).
However, this past week has been so easy! I think it's because I'm doing the 5-6 meals a day- it's so easy to stay vegan that way. I bring my food to work and keep it there - just bring in lunch if I need to.
Good idea on the oats- I need to add more calories to my breakfast- I think I will buy some almond butter for next week!
Good luck!

_________________
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1 Cor. 9:27
vegontherun.com (vegetarian blog)

The oats are actually crazy good! I got the recipe from Bonzai Aphrodite's blog-check it out!
SOOOO much easier than cooking it in the morning-you do it the night before!

http://bonzaiaphrodite.com/2010/12/reci ... -in-a-jar/

Very interesting- I have been wanting to try alternative yogurts but haven't made the leap yet. Will have to check it out

_________________
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
1 Cor. 9:27
vegontherun.com (vegetarian blog)

January 6, 2012

Remainder Meals from January 5
Lunch: Hummus, pita bread, black bean burger, w/tomato and cucumber, one orange
Snack: Banana, celery with organic peanut butter
Dinner: Vegetable Soup w/Triscuits

January 6 Breakfast: Green Smoothie (Spinach, banana, blueberries, Maximum Green Powder, Flax Seeds

There was no AM workout. I did not leave work until after the Gym was closed last night and I had to be in work early this morning. Yes-this is an excuse. This is actually my number one and horribly overused excuse. I know that I can get my workouts in-even if it would require getting up at 4 am to do so. While this doesn't seem like too early of a time to some-when you can't get to bed until midnight, it takes its toll. I am hoping by forcing myself to document my food and exercise to a large vegan bodybuilding community, I will not only come to terms with my excuses and accept myself for them-but to overcome them. To leave them behind. To make them a part of myself that I have shed. The weight, honestly, is a bonus.

January 7

Remainder meals from Jan 6:
Lunch: Special K with almond milk
Dinner: Tomato soup with triscuits


JAN 7 Meals:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie (Spinach, water, flax seed, blueberries, banana, maximum green powder), muesli bread
Lunch: Special K with almond milk, muesli bread
Dinner: Tofu Curry with Quinoa

JAN 7 Workout
I did the workout this evening-considering I overslept this morning! I have been convinced to start P90X by my co-worker. Today was Chest and back and holy crap do I have a long way to go. My arms feel like jelly and it is satisfying!! I can not do a pullup. Heck no! I havent been able to do one for a long time and for the P90X workout I used resistance bands. I dont feel that I get the same workout as I would hanging from a bar-but I have to start somewhere and it is more beneficial than hanging pathetically from a bar with no upward movement! I feel that it is someone proper-me using my own bodyweight against myself in order to lose said bodyweight! Anyways-here was the workout. overall time was one hour.

Standard pushups
Wide Front Pull-Ups
Military Push-ups
Reverse Grip Cin-Ups
Wide Fly Push-Ups
Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups
Decline Push-Ups
Heavy Pants
Diamond Push-Ups
Lawnmowers
Dive-Bomber Push-Ups
Back Flys

These exercises were done for no more than one minute and after the first set was completed, the routine began again but in an alternate order!

Whew! I'm excited!

January 8, 2012

I woke up feeling sore-and it was such an awesome feeling. I know that it is going to get worse-but that means better, right?! I worked half a day today so I chose to workout Day 2 of Phase 1 this afternoon.

Meals:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie (Spinach, blueberries, banana, maximum greens powder, flax seed, tiny bit of organic peanut butter)
Snack: 1 orange
Lunch: Leftover dinner-Quinoa with tofu curry. So completely awesome the next day!! I may have found one of my go to recipes! (I am looking forward to playing with stir fry-can't let those veggies go to waste!)
Snack: This is where I fell off the wagon. I made little vegan cookies last night (I don't know why-but I had the urge) and I ate about 5 of them. They are no more than an inch and a half in diameter and vegan-but still. No Good.
also-a small bowl of special K. oh the gluttony!
Dinner: Gardein chicken, carrots with hummus

So this is where I pay for my cookie attack-Day 2 of P90X. This means Plyometrics. 50 some odd minutes of jumping and squatting. I found out real quick that I have no moves whatsoever. If I thought I could dance at the club-well I was probably drunk.
I slowly got the hang of it-but oy.
I also neglected to notice that yesterday I was supposed to do the Ab Ripper X as well. So I did it today. and I will have to do it tomorrow as well!

January 9, 2012

Feeling deliciously sore, I snoozed a bit longer this morning and went to yoga class. It stretched me out well-although there were so many inversions that I got a monster headache. Food wasn't too terribly bad either-only one little sneak treat! I'm over my cookies though I think!
oh-and I did have a little bowl of special k last night before I went to bed

Meals:
Breakfast: Green smoothie (same as above)
Lunch: Black Bean burger in pita bread with tomato and cucumber.
Afternoon snacks: orange, a few pretzel rods, carrots with hummus
Dinner: Tofu Curry with Quinoa

Workouts:
AM: Yoga
PM: Shoulders and Arms from Day 3 of P90X
All exercises were done twice on alternating groups of three (do the first three, then repeat. do the next three, then repeat)
Alternating Shoulder Presses
In & Out Bicep Curls
Two-Arm Tricep Kicks
Deep Swimmer's Presses
Full Supination Concentration Curls
Chair Dips
Upright rows
Static ARm Curls
Flip-Grip Twist Tricep Kickbacks
Two-Angle Shoulder Flys
Crouching Cohen Curls
Tricep Extensions
In & Out straight Arm Shoulder Flye
Congdon Curls

Whew! Bedtime quickly approaches! Tomorrow more yoga!

January 10, 2012

Today I decided to take a rest day. It was Yoga day for P90X and I decided to swap day 4 with the actual rest day 7. My reasoning? I attend a live yoga class Monday and Friday morning and my class decided we wanted to do easy yoga on Monday and hard Yoga on Friday-guess what Friday is supposed to be? Rest Day!! So, I pulled the ol' switcharoo!

Nutrition
Breakfast: overnight oats-wasn't a fan so I threw them out!
Snack: Pretzels
Lunch: Quinoa with black beanburger, tomato, two scallions I also juiced two kale leaves, one apple, and half a cucumber
Snack: Pretzels
Dinner: Pita Bread with Chik'n patty, tomato, spinach with guacamole, tiny piece of vegan fudge (one inch by one inch)

Ready for Legs tomorrow!

January 11, 2012

So I was waaaaay to tired last night to post my activities! It was a very busy day at work-and I had meetings that didn't get over until 930 at night. oy.

Nutrition:
Breakfast: english muffin, "Sausage" patty Morningstar is awesome!
snack: banana
Lunch: Quinoa, black beans, tomato, scallions, guacamole
Dinner: english muffin w/maranara sauce, pita bread w/ salsa and quacamole (Carb attack!!)
Snack: pickle

Fitness

Day 5 of P90X!
Legs and back! Ton of squats and a 6 rotations of various pull-ups using Level 3 resistance band!!

January 12 was a crap day. I dont remember what I ate and I dont remember my workouts too well. 15-20 minutes of Kenpo.

January 13 is no better.
I've been having a very bad day at work and that has not improved. Considering it is 815 at night and I am still here.

As far as workouts go-I went to a yoga class and definately feel it now!! It helped calm me down in the morning-but thats shot to hell now.

Day 8 of P90X tomorrow!

Yeah okay. Im not living up to my potential. I did not work out today. I have let work and the stress of it get the better of me and I chose to relax this evening and made a mexican casserole. AFter I was in work all day long. Im wallowing. I hate it. But it is my fault and I will continue my workouts tomorrow. I have lost two pounds and it does feel good!

Breakfast: bagel with hummus (Einstein bagel's hummus is vegan!)
Lunch: sushi-not vegan. Also feel bad I fell off the wagon. It really wans't that good so its a lose lose for me
dinner: mexican casserole.


So yes-there is a lot of self loathing happening. BUT tomorrow is a new day!

apparently tomorrow was the same as yesterday.

when you fall off the wagon-you fall a bit hard. I have been a bit unhappy and totally stressed out with my job lately and it does not help my mood at all. My fiance is 4 and a half hours away from me and I havent seen him in 14 days. It may not seem like a lot to most people and I know it can be a lot worse. It actually has been a lot worse-for about 8 months we lived in different countries and only saw each other twice in that entire time. We are creeping closer and closer to our wedding date and it feels like it will never come! We are both working stressful jobs and time to see each other has grown smaller and smaller. When I get home-all I want to do is talk to him. If I don't work out in the morning-it is clear that I never will. I have all the intentions in the world-but as the day gets worse and worse, my resolve fails. It is a part of getting back into a routine-and I just need to muddle through!

My eating habits are always better during the week than on the weekend!

Breakfast: green smoothie! this time with strawberries
Snack: cashews
Lunch: Pita bread, chick'n sandwich with avocado, cucumber, tomato
dinner: mexican casserole

I dont like to be mean and I dont like to push my food beliefs and choices down other people's throats-and I had to resist it a big time today! We (my co-workers) were doing a rather large and important briefing to a bunch of the leadership today and while I had a big hand in building the presentation-I was not actually briefing it. AFter the morning session ended, I started heading out to go grab my cruelty-free lunch, when I was stopped by one of the presenters. He held out money and asked if I would go get him (and two other presenters) a sandwich. I dont particularly like any three of these individuals and i would rather not go run an errand for any one of them, but I was going to be a team player because the briefing was horribly stressful.

guess what was requested? One 12 inch italian sub and one 12 inch salami sub (number 3 said he was a trooper and didn't want anything)

i felt so disgusting actually writing down the order and then asking the deli to please make them quickly as I was in a hurry.

I swear-if those people ate better, they would be in far better moods. It is consuming all that random meat (and in HUGE quantities) that is exacerbating their stress and anger levels.

sigh-I have one coworker eating more fruit so it is just one step at a time!