Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I have a dozen in constant use, especially for chai mugs!

Jan 5: Thursday

8 Mile Run in the cold and snow flurries of Upstate NY. Felt great and loved it! New music pumping and thinking about the hard work of everyone in the program made me feel even more energized! You guys are seriously rockin' my world!

Breakfast: Smoothie w/vega, banana, celery, spinach and berries
Breakfast 2 (1/2 pre run other 1/2 post run): Oats w/ chia, cranberries, apples and pumpkin seeds - pumpkin seeds are so awesome for protein and iron- one tip- make sure you're getting them from a good source like a co op where they replenish bulk goods often. I've gotten them at stores where they were very bitter which means they're rancid! They should have a creamy, nutty flavor if they're fresh.

Lunch: Salad w/tempeh and dried fruit
Snack: Lydia's Organics bar w/decaf coffee
Dinner: Not there yet, but I think I'm going to do steamed veggies on a salad and a smoothie- when I'm feeling lazy I like to do a smoothie for my dinner protein rather than cooking

I also need to drink more water since I ran long today. I'm 2 liters in- but I'll drink at least 1 more before the end of the day.

Have a fab rest of the day and make sure to check out the NY Times article featuring VBBF!

XO

Hello Group! It's Friday! Hope you are all excited for the weekend- our first weekend of the program!

I AM SO PROUD OF ALL OF YOU! EVERYONE is doing so great! KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK!

Weekends can be great- more time for food prep and more time to work out (usually). Weekends can also be very hard- less structure = more excuses to not get to the gym and more distractions and social settings that pull us away from clean, whole foods.

I want to encourage you to get a game plan in place for your weekend!

What's your workout going to look like? Are you taking a rest day (I always take 1 day to let my body rest)?
What social settings might come up (like a dinner out) and how will you handle them? (I always check out menus before I go out to eat so I am prepared and know what I'm going to order. If I don't see a vegan friendly protein option like beans, lentils, tofu, etc I make myself a protein shake or eat some hummus or quinoa before I head to the spot. This also ensures I'm not super hungry when I get out to eat and end up eating too much)

When I eat out I usually try to find spots with salad bars where I can fully control what goes on and in my food. I'll order a side of steamed veggies or a plan baked sweet potato. You can't live on salad alone and getting proper protein is so important especially for all of us ATHLETES (that's what you are)... but if there's nothing available that's clean and veg friendly- ask for a entree sized garden salad hold the cheese and croutons (of course).

Will you allow yourself a treat this weekend? I like to plan my treats rather than splurging for no reason. One treat to look forward to is always nice. Mine? Kinda silly maybe but I love trail mix- dried fruit and granola- and olive bars with peppers and marinated veggies. There's a local market that has all kinds of goodies like that- so I go and get just one small sample size of each of my favorite things- I look forward to it and enjoy it... but just bring home enough for one treat- not bags of goodies tempting me for the rest of the week!

Weekends are also a great time to look at your schedule (work and social) and plan your work outs and do your food shopping and prep! You can cut up salad veggies, bake some sweet potatoes, make a batch of quinoa or grill up some tempeh and veggies. Also, making a large batch of chili or lentil soup is great- lasts several days and is high protein!

I hope these tips help you this weekend! If you have tips too, please share them with the group so we can learn from each other!

xoxox amanda

Saturday is my rest day. Today was meetings, returning emails and hitting to co op. Breakfast was a green smoothie, oatmeal and pumpkin seeds.

Lunch- meet a friend at a salad bar and filled up on all raw, fresh veggies and edamame, peas, and a few sunflower seeds.
Snack- Soy milk and coffee, dried fruit and grapes
Dinner- Puffed Kamut, soymilk and berries
After dinner- Almond milk + unsweetened cocoa + stevia (my hot cocoa recipe)

Tomorrow will be a run and private boxing lesson with my coach! Favorite part of my training week cuz it kicks my booty hard core!

xoxo

Hey! It's Monday Again! We made it through our first week of the program and the first weekend! My team is doing so great and I'm so encouraged by their progress and just so proud!

Yesterday was busy- I ran 4 miles and had a boxing lesson with my coach! It was GREAT! I love the workout I get when I'm working with my coach! I left just wanting to do another hour of training- because I'm crazy - maybe? It really says a lot about what fueling properly will do for your energy levels!

So far today I've had my green smoothie and oatmeal. I'm meeting my husband for lunch at one of our favorites spots- I'll order a veggie bowl with lots of sprouts! YUM

Monday mornings I usually don't hit the gym. I'm working returning emails and writing down my goals for the week- workouts/ work/ etc.

I'll head to the gym later! Everyone have a wonderful day!

xoxo Amanda

Wednesday, Jan 11

Yesterday I lifted full upper body, did the Arc trainer for 40 mins (AM) and boxed for an our after work.

Today- Speed work on the treadmill- 10 x 400's + warm up and cool down at jogging pace

Breakfast:
Green smoothie

Post workout:
handfull of puffed rice and pumpkin seeds and a smoothie with vega, celery, banana and strawberres

Breakfast #2:
Oatmeal w/cranberries and chia

Lunch:
Split pea soup with tempeh and a salad

Snack:
Puffed Kamut cereal w/almond milk and a lydia's crunch bar

Dinner:
Steamed veggies with sprouts

Snack:
Blueberries with almond milk and raw cocoa

Have an amazing day! xo

Split pea soup with tempeh sounds delish!! Did you make the soup yourself?

Hey love! I get Dr. McDougall's brand when I'm feeling lazy... Low sodium and no added oils... This way I can make my own additions of healthy fats and seasoning! I did 1 cup soup and 1 cup frozen green beans and 1 serving of low fat tempeh... Organic non GMO. I think it was soy boy brand.

I also made this soup with McDougall's lentil soup that was amazing:
1 cup lentil soup
1 serving low fat silken tofu
1/2 cup unsweetened plain almond milk
1/2 cup frozen carrots

Blend together milk, carrots, and tofu until creamy. Add to soup and heat with cumin, sea salt, pepper or other seasonings to taste. So easy and so so yummy!

What?!? I had no idea Dr. McDougall had a food line out! Where in the world do you find that?

I'm excited that Whole Foods is developing and will be coming out soon with a Rip Esselstyn/Engine 2 food line! Woohoo!

Oh nice! I didn't know about the Engine 2 line! WORD! I get Dr. Mc @ my local co op! It's really good! I bet you can find it on Amazon too! You can get anything on Amazon! haha

LONG, busy day! Happy Fri. 13th!

Workout AM:
Upper Body strength
40 Mins Cardio- 30 min arc trainer, 10 mins running

PM:
Boxing

Breakfast:
Green smoothie

Breakfast 2:
Oatmeal w/berries

Lunch:
Lentil Soup
Salad w/nutritional yeast and sprouts for protein

Snack:
Pineapple and veggies
Lydia's Organic Bar
Soy milk in coffee

Dinner:
Big Buddha Bowl with tons of veggies and lots of sprouts and ginger (water cooked)

Dessert:
Carob powder, soymilk, kamut puffed cereal with lots of blueberries

Have a wonderful weekend!

XOXOX

Sunday! Yesterday was my rest day and I was traveling. I went to an awesome health food store that I haven't been to in 6 years! They still serve this amazing salad with cabbage, grilled tofu, roasted almonds and sesame seeds! I also found a no-oil hummus and no-oil black bean dip! No, I'm all about healthy fats- but I like to add my own! Normally a black bean or hummus dip (store bought) has 50- 80 calories for just 2 tablespoons and the oil is usually a blend of canola and others. These were between 11 to 18 calories for the same size serving! Then you can drizzle on your own high quality oil or add nuts, avocados, seeds, etc! You can also easily make your own black bean dip with black beans, garlic, water, cumin and other seasonings!

Today was a boxing lesson with my coach. Usually I like to run prior to training but it was only 1 degree out this morning and I thought that would probably not be a very good 'warm up' so I skipped the run and will run tomorrow!

My coach gave me a great pep talk today about my mentality in the ring! He said I'm boxing like a long distance runner! And I was thinking? What? I am a long distance runner... I thought that was good. He said you're pacing yourself like you're on a 12 mile run. You can't do that in the ring! It's a sprint in here- you only have 3 minutes- make them count!

I'm always planning. I'm worried I'm going to 'bonk' like I'm running a marathon and I can't do that! It's a good metaphor for life too- sometimes you just have to sprint- just get in there and get it done!

Breakfast was a smoothie with vega sport.
After training: Oats
Snack: Raw buckwheat cereal with cocoa and nuts and dried fruit- unsweetened banana chips (favorite)
Lunch: Lentil soap with quinoa and a salad with nutritional yeast
Snacks: Fruit and coffee w/unsweetened organic soymilk
Dinner: homemade seitan and salad
After dinner: Vega and blueberries with almond milk

xoxox

Monday, Jan 16th:

AM Workout: 40 Mins Arc Trainer
30 Mins Running
Cardio only day

Pre workout: 1/2 green smoothie
Post workout: 1/2 green smoothie
Breakfast: Oats w/ chia and berries
Soy milk and coffee
Lunch: Homemade seitan sauteed with green beans and mushrooms over salad with sprouts and topped with nutritional yeast
Snacks & Dinner: Not there yet, but Dinner will probably be homemade soup and I'll have some fruit or protein shake for snacks!

Enjoy your day and your week! xoxox Amanda

Hi Amanda!!
How is your Tuesday going??
I have never tried to prepare seitan, but have always wanted to. We need to exchange recipes!!
I like reading your posts also! You are one hard working woman, that's for sure!!
You definitely got it goin' on GIRL!!

How's the weather today? The bitter cold has finally lifted here in Toronto, actually it is drizzling rain today, which is a nice change from temps dipping down past 10F!!
Hope you enjoy the rest of your day my dear!!
Talk to you soon!!

Oh!! I need you to walk me through how to upload a pic on this site, I can't seem to get it right!

Ciao Bella!
xo

Hi Jenny,

OK- so the picture thing- took me FOREVER. But I googled' forum avitar generator' and several sites came up. You upload the photo there and it will generate a code. See if that works, if not I'll see if I can find the site that I used!

YES- we def need to exchange recipes. The seitan was actually so easy! My first attempt too. I bought a box of vital wheat gluten and then followed the box- the secret for me was I boiled it in mushroom broth rather than veggie stock to cook it! It gave it an awesome flavor and then I stored it in the broth I cooked it in! I also got out my food scale and divided up the batch into servings to I can just grab them and use the seitan in any recipes. It's 70 cals and 10 grams of protein per serving! NICE

Today I discovered that if you mix vega choc sport with unsweetened, plain almond milk you can use it as chocolate milk over your cereal (I was eating puffed Kamut with strawberries)

Weather here is rough! So windy today! I need to go visit RC in Texas I think! Let's plan a trip! xoxo Hope you are fab! Enjoy your day!