Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Saturday 7 Jan 2012

Exercise
Looking like a rest day!

Food
Definitely a "rest day" with regards to food as well...
Breakfast: Cookie Crisp with soya milk, cup of tea
Snack: soya latte and half a cupcake
Lunch: big ol' salad (lettuce, cuke, red onion, fresh dill), Amy's Daiya mac 'n' cheeze
Snack: almonds
Dinner: dumplings, veggie burger, chips at Loving Hut

etc
Really excited about upcoming training--our coaches have arranged for us to work with a group that trains all sorts of athletes on strength, speed, and agility training; mental conditioning; etc. once a week for a trial month, and possibly longer if we like it. Can't wait for that!

Sunday 8 Jan 2012

Exercise
Roller derby practice! Just over 2 hours of skating (it's a 3 hours practice, but structured so that teams take turns so not many people get to skate the full 3 hours).

Food
Breakfast: Mini wheetabix with soya milk
Snack: Hot 'soya almond protein drink'
Lunch: tortilla with tofutti slice, broccoli/chickpea/garlic dish
Dinner: Spaghetti "bolognese"
Snack: Another cup of hot soya almond drink

Notes
Was our first practice back after holiday break. It's been 4 weeks off. I didn't feel bad fitness-wise, but felt a little sub-par awareness and strategy-wise. Overall it was a bit scrappy. Not too bad for the first practice after a break though. Feeling a bit achey now.

Monday 9 Jan 2012

Exercise
Lifted weights (all weights in pounds):
Cleans: 69x5, 74x5, 79x5
Overhead Press: 69 x5/4/4
Deadlift: 153 x5 (took weight down because I hurt my back last time)

Food
Breakfast: my usual smoothie
Snack: soya latte
Lunch: leftover spag bol & broc/chickpea, three caramelized biscuits
Snack: cup of tea and Nakd mint choc bar
Dinner: Ginger bok choi & soba w tofu, veggie dumplings

Notes
My bike's in the shop getting new brakes, so couldn't cycle today. But it's now done and I can pick it up tomorrow morning so will cycle tomorrow. Not feeling too bad from last night's practice, but it definitely is hard on the body being knocked around in a way that just exercising doesn't quite match.

I weighed myself today; I plan to weigh myself weekly, always on Monday morning. Scale hovered between 70 & 71 kg (it's analog, so it can be hard to get a really precise reading). So I haven't lost much of anything but I'm actually pretty pleased with that start because I at least didn't go up! And my exercise is going to be higher starting this week, so I expect it to get a bit easier.

I might take more photos tonight... maybe I'll do that each Monday. I don't know if I'll always post them.

Another goal I need to set for myself is to drink more water! I know I drink nowhere near enough. Yesterday I had a soya/almond drink, then a cup of tea. Then shortly before leaving for practice I realised that I hadn't had any plain water at all, so gulped down a glass before leaving (long commute, so that was close to 2 hours before starting to skate). I then had a small bottle of water over the 3 hours I was at practice. That's it. I do get water from my smoothies and the couple of cups of tea I have, but as the tea is also a diuretic, I know I should be getting more.

Took a few crap pictures today. My partner was falling asleep so these are mirror shots and not very clear. I don't look much different, but I thought I'd attempt to take some that would show some muscle. One day I'll get pictures of my legs.

Tuesday 10 Jan 2012

Exercise
Cycled to and from work (8mi)

Food
Breakfast: my usual smoothie
Lunch: lentil shepherd's pie thing, shared a slice of apple/pear cake, soya flat white (really full now!)
Snack: cup of tea
Dinner: leftover ginger bok choi/soba/tofu
Dinner2 (after getting home from work): Salad (romaine, bean sprouts, red onion, fresh coriander, peanutty dressing)

Notes
My bike was finished yesterday, so I was able to pick it up this morning and ride it in to work. Yay!

Unfortunately worked until 9pm so didn't make it to derby practice. At least I rode my bike so I get some exercise today.

Wednesday 11 Jan 2012

Exercise
Cycled to and from work, to and from plyo (~9-10mi)
1 hr plyo and stuff

Food
Breakfast: my usual smoothie
Snack: cup of tea and nakd choc mint bar
Lunch: food from health food shop food bar (potatoes, chickpea/spinach, brown rice), mint cheesecake thing
Snack: little veggie snack sausage type thing
Dinner: big salad (romaine, bean sprouts, carrot, cuke, coriander, red onion), veggie dumplings

Notes
One of the skaters from my league, who is also a firefighter, has put together a plyo workout that led for some of us tonight. It included stair running and jumping, all sorts of jumping around, press ups and dips, and ab work. It was pretty tiring, and I enjoyed it.

Thursday 12 Jan 2012

Exercise
2 hour roller derby practice. Half drills, half scrimmage.

Food
Mini wheetabix with soya milk
My usual smoothie
Coffee (brewed at home) with soya milk x2
Bagel sandwich with vegideli slices and tofutti slice
Salad (romaine, carrot, cucumber, red onion, balsamic dressing (homemade))
Bagel sandwich with vegideli slices and tofutti slice
Crisps and hummus (was really hungry after practice so grabbed on way home)

Notes
My eating has been kind of weird today. I'm working at home and have just been eating something every couple of hours, so I didn't bother trying to label things as specific meals. Was really craving sandwiches today.

One thing about London is that it's big and can take a long time to travel around. We have practices in two different locations and neither is very close to home. Sundays we have three hours practices but with travel it takes 6 hours out of my day. For weeknight practice (2 hours) I head there right from work around 6:30-7:00 and get home around 11:00-11:30. So getting 7 hours of skate time in a week takes 15 hours out of my week. It's like that for most of us. But it can make it hard to fit in other things, like cooking meals.

Friday 13 Jan 2012

Exercise
None--today is my rest day

Food
Breakfast: My usual smoothie
Snack: Soya latte
Lunch: Selection from Planet Organic food bar: brown rice, veg stew, dahl, chickpea/spinach; some dehydrated kale 'chips'
Snack: Cup of tea and Nakd choco mint bar
Dinner: Big meal at Loving Hut

Notes
Today is going to be my rest day. Though Saturday is my rest day on my schedule, I'll probably be switching it around because my partner (my girlfriend, that is, not my workout partner, though she is actually also my workout partner) likes to go to the pub with her coworkers after work on Fridays rather than go home and lift weights (imagine that!). So I'll be lifting weights tomorrow instead of today. As I'm lifting weights only 2x per week, I prefer to try to spread them out a little more instead of doing it Sat and Monday, but what can I do--I need someone there to spot or at least watch and help in case something goes wrong (we lift weights at home, so don't want to be all alone while lifting). But it's probably good timing for the rest anyway, as I was really tired after last night's practice. Scrimmage was very physical and tough.

Starting Monday I am going to try to get up slightly earlier in the morning, for two reasons. One, I'd like to get to work a little earlier so I can leave earlier and have more evening time on non-practice days. Two, I'm going to try to do a short routine for my core three weekday mornings (Mon, Wed, Fri). It'll probably just be about 10 minutes or so. I am NOT a morning person, so we'll see how it goes.

I also need to try to give up coffee other than the stuff I brew at home myself once or twice a week. It'll save me money and lattes are obviously useless calories.

Saturday 14 Jan 2012

Exercise
Lifted weights (all weight in pounds):
Front squats: 104 x5/4/4
Bench press: 89 x3/3/3
Bent over barbell row: 99 x3/3/5
Stiff-legged deadlift: 99 x12
Plank
Speed skater stance

Food
Breakfast: 2 pancakes, 2 Redwood rashers, cup of tea
Snack: hot almond soya drink
Lunch: Amy's Daiya mac 'n' cheese
Snack (post weights): watered down choc soya with protein powder
Dinner: big salad (romaine, cuke, carrot, red onion, balsamic dressing), Fry's chicken-style nuggets

Week Summary, 8-14 January 2012

Exercise
My exercise went pretty well and according to schedule. I exercised 6 days out of 7. I did miss one derby practice due to work, but at least still rode my bike that day. Overall I am pretty pleased and am feeling pretty good.

Food
My eating was OK. It can certainly be better, but it's already improved a bit, with a bit less eating out a bit less junk.

Upcoming week
Hoping to continue to stick to my exercise this week. Thursday is my partner's birthday and we have plans, so that will be an additional rest day (missing a derby practice) with an indulgent meal out. I might be able to sneak in a workout on Thursday or possibly on Friday night so that Thursday is my only rest day. I'm planning to add some short morning workouts if I can manage to pull myself from bed. Mon, Wed, and Fri I plan to do ab work and Tues and Thurs I'll do speed skater stance. I'm going to try to continue to improve my diet. My two main aims for this week are to cut down on buying coffee out and continue to cut down on sugary snacks.

Sunday 15 Jan 2012

Exercise
3-hour derby practice. There weren't many people there (one team was away playing a game) so I got to scrimmage the whole 3 hours and got lots of track time.

Food
Breakfast: bowl of mini wheetabix with soya milk, 2 cups coffee (made at home)
Lunch: spaghetti "bolognese"
Dinner pt1: salad (romaine, cuke, carrot, red onion, coriander, peanutty dressing)
Dinner pt2: pizza (with broccoli and peppers, no cheeze)

Nice journal!

We've got to catch up one of these days. You were always one of my favorite people to hang out with!

Hope all is wonderful. I saw a few others from the early days, 2005-ish posting lately too. SeaSiren, sydneyvegan, etc. Yay! I'm excited.

Always great to see you, hope to hang out again in the future.

Let me know if you're ever in the UK, Robert! I might make it over to the US in 2012 for some derby--we'll see how that goes.

Monday 16 Jan 2012

Exercise
Morning core exercises
Lifted weights (all weights in pounds):
Cleans: 74x5, 79x5, 84x3
Overhead press: 69 x3/1/3
Deadlift: 158x5
Plank
Speed skater stance

Food
Breakfast: smoothie, now with blueberries (apple, pear, banana, blueberries, spinach, protein powder)
Snack: soya latte
Lunch: falafel from Maoz
Snack: cup of tea and Nakd choco mint bar
Snack: bag of crisps
Dinner: salad (romaine, cuke, red onion, tofu, soy dressing), bit of leftover spag bol

Notes
Managed to get up a bit earlier and do my new morning core routine. I just did 2 rounds of three different exercises, so I did exercise 1, exercise 2, exercise 3, 30-second rest, then repeat. Next time I'll do three reptitions. I think that's probably enough. Tomorrow I'll be doing speed skater stance, aiming for 3 reps of 90sec each.

I forgot to weigh myself this morning, so will have to try to remember to do it tomorrow morning.

Still got a latte today. I won't get any more this week, though. Oh, I also didn't ride my bike as it has suddenly got colder here in London and I couldn't face it this morning. So that wasn't good, but I'll still be doing some exercise today, and that's the only allowance I'm going to give myself for this week, so if it stays cold I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it!