Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

This is a journal about me trying to feel healthier and happier.

Today I am starting the P90X work-out, which I have heard some good things about. I decided to do this mostly because I did not want to pay for another gym membership to go to the gym and do all the same exercises I used to do and get all the same results, but I don't know enough exercises to feel like I am getting a full work out at home. So these videos using free weights + pull up bar seemed like a really good idea.

I am pretty excited about it. I have gone through phases where I work out in the past... but I have always avoided doing pull ups so I wasn't too disappointed that I only did 18 during the whole hour.

Exercise Day 1: Chest/Back + Ab Ripper X
61 push-ups various kinds
18 pull ups
other interesting things like 'heavy pants', 'lawn mower', 'dive bomber', 'back flys'.
I could -almost- keep up with the ab ripper X video which I was pretty proud of.

I feel very good!! After my work out I went to class and for the first time in a long time I felt great. I looked around at my classmates who, like me, have been doing nothing but studying pharmacy drugs for the last week, and I thought about how great I feel right now and how they all look so worn out and tired. It was a feeling I haven't had for at least 5 months now.

Food
I had 2 large meals (2 avacado + boca burger then 2 tofurky sausage + bread + veggies), 1 protein shake, 1 vega shake and 4 slices of bread before bed. I think I need to be eating more but right now I am already pushing feeling queezy so I am going to ease into it.

Sleep
I really want to get my sleeping habits back in line. About 2 years ago I used to wake up every morning at 8 AM wide awake and feeling excellent regardless of what I did the night before or if I set an alarm clock. Now I sleep in whenever possible, feel terrible all the time, hate waking up, and worst of all it takes me 2-4 hours to fall asleep (over half the nights in the last 2 weeks). It has slowly been getting worse over time and I feel that it is indicating some onset of depression.

To try and encourage better sleeping habits, I am using 4 alarm clocks and trying to get up each morning at 7:30 to build good habits. So far I have failed miserably... Even with 3 alarm clocks this morning I turned them all off and when I finally did wake up at 12:30 PM with a feeling of regret and helplessness. Part of me wants to say it is out of my control but that sort of thinking would only make it worse so I am trying to take responsibility and stay positive.

Nice, please keep posting about how the P90X training is going. A few others are doing it and a lot of us that aren't doing it are interested. Also your section on sleep is an important reminder. I sometimes forget how important sleep is towards energy levels and fitness progress.

-Dylan

Cool. I will have to browse for them and see if any are trying to modify it to add bulk like I am.

I think that my recent problems with sleep + P90X will help encourage me to work harder than I ever have before so I am a bit thankful for the sleep problems.

P90X Day 2
Shoulders / Arms. Normally someone on P90X would be doing cardio on day 2, but since I want to bulk up and I am not eating a ton of calories yet I decided to use a modified P90X as explained here:
http://www.dostrong.com/blog/build-muscle/how-to-bulk-up-with-p90x-for-skinny-guys/

The cardio has been cut out completely, and theres more of everything else, but still with 72 hours between working a specific muscle group.

Diet
Taco bell... Oops. 1 vega shake. 2 smart dogs. 1 protein shake. ?dinner? and ?snack? planned for later.

Sleep
It took me about 40 minutes to fall asleep last night, which I consider pretty good!! I got about 8 hours of sleep and woke up at 8:30 AM.

I have a very important test tomorrow so I might stay up despite efforts to keep up with studying I still am not as far as I should be to get good sleep.

I missed a day yesterday because I had a really big exam. On the night before yesterday I slept 3 hours + 4 hours nap that afternoon. I didn't eat well. Today:

P90X: Legs / Back / Abs
This went well. I was planning to just do Legs and Abs on Wednesdays but since I'm doing Wednesdays work out on friday I decided to throw back in too. I was able to do almost twice as many pull ups than last time, wow.

Diet
I didn't do great with food today... 1/2 a vega shake. chipotle. protein shake. 2 english muffins and starbucks chai tea. I have a bad habit of not eating... On a normal day I would do this minus the shakes and english muffins. It is bad I know...

Sleep
Last night I slept 7.8 hours and woke up at 9AM. I have been using a cool app called sleepbot to keep track of my sleeping, it is rather good.

This weekend I was very sore. I didn't do well with food or sleep.

P90X: Chest / Back / Abs
Made improvements since last time.

Diet
Not well today. Del taco. For dinner I had fried rice (not much protein). Then a shake, a smoothie, and 4 pieces of PB&J toast.

Sleep
Woke up very late today. Tomorrow I have an exam so I have to stay up until 4 or 6 AM tonight because I slacked a lot over the weekend. But I think tomorrow I can get my sleep back on schedule and wednesday I should get a full nights rest and wake up at a good time!