Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I am so confused about what the hell to eat! I started trying a vegan diet for the health benefits and I think I feel less weighted down after eating vegan than with the SAD. I am getting sort of discouraged though because I really need to loose about 20lbs of pure FAT and I've done it on a SAD with fantastic results. I'm tempted to just go back to that, loose the weight, then approach a vegan diet again. Just to get rid of the weight without so much effort on what the hell to eat. I do not want to spend my days farting! sorry, but really..that's embarrassing, I'm a chic, I have a husband..yeah, not too cute hanging out farting or trying NOT to. I eat tofu. I drink protein shakes consisting of pea protein and brown rice protein mixed up. I eat about 2 bananas a day with that and some healthy nut butters for my healthy fats. I have been eating 2 slices of ezekial bread with my morning protein shake and I do put eb soy free butter on top. I can't do it DRY. I drink lots of coffee..tiny bit of creamer (that's not vegan..working on going totally black but for some reason I enjoy my first cup black and my second cup with creamer..?) I eat asparagus with my tofu..I do salads..I've tried to eat like chickpea patties (homemade) or black bean burgers for change but I have issues, umm, digesting them..I've read tips on soaking beans etc. I'm soaking lentils as we speak to try, try again. I just want to eat healthy vegan (I prefer it) but damn I can't spend my life farting over here. ALSO..BIG THING...what the heck do you season your tofu with? I've tried marinade's but most call for soy or tamari and it's soooooo salty, even with must a tiny bit (to me)...what can I marinate or season with that makes it tasty but still conducive to trying to cut the fat? I usually freeze my tofu..defrost, press and 'dry fry' it (without oils or anything..just press on a hot pan until moisture runs out) and the consistency is sort of tough but that gets old. I just can't figure out how to make it taste like I look forward to eating it. I have a few tofu books and I'm preparing it like they suggest. I've tried some of the marinades and they are either not really good for cutting or they are too salty. I know, complainer! I just want to like what I eat!! this is my current daily diet for the most part.

M1 - 2 slices ezekial with about 1 tblspoon earth balance
protein shake (2 cups water, ice, 2 teaspoons stevia, 1/2 banana, 10g all natural peanut butter, mixture of pea and brown rice protein - approx 21 g. protein )

M2 - usually post workout - Same shake as above and 1/2 cup oats or I'll do ezekial bread again cause I love it.

M3 - about 1/2 tub of tofu (seasoned with anything (but I've not found anything I like yet) and asparagus spears briefly sauteed with 1 tblspoon of organic coconut oil, seasonings (no salt) and maybe some lemon

M4 - Same as M3 usually

M5 - Protein shake like earlier or a big salad with light dressing.

I take flax seed oil, multi, vit e, b12, vit c, probiotic

I don't drink anything but water, coffee and xtend ( a bcaa supplement drink - delicious)

I probably don't drink enough water and too much coffee. I'm working on that.

Lately I haven't been 100% true to the above diet though.. frustration and starvation took over several times.

Heeeeeelp!

Where are your vegetables?

Boil/steam a mix of vegetables.

Just to add to this post, I say I don't want to spend my life farting over here because I have had bad results eating beans as an alternative protein source to tofu. I WANT to eat beans, but I can't deal with walking around farting or holding it in all day and night! I just want to be freeeeeee! lol. So..tofu isn't too bad so far as the farting thing goes, but it's so boring to eat and plain and so not my favorite food. I've tried tempeh and did not like that at all. I just need suggestions or other options or something!! thanks

Well, I eat my asparagus..with meals 3 and 4 and sometimes 5 if I'm doing a big salad, I put green peppers, carrots, spinach, mixed lettuce, cucumber...is that too little?

thanks!

I dont know since I don't how much all those veggies weigh.

Let me put it in simple english. Carotenes burn fat. Fresh carrot juice is an option and steamed veggies are another option. Its not hard boiling or steaming a pot mixed with lots of veggies every evening for the next day.

You can try replacing the foods that make you fart with steamed/boiled veggies and see how you feel. You can also play around with foods on http://cronometer.com/.

OK so would I equally benefit from drinking (juicing) my veggies instead of eating them up? Sounds obvious but I want to double check there isn't some digestive, hence fat burning, difference going on between the two ways of consuming them.

Whole, raw fruits and veggies are harder for the body to digest than cooked or juiced fruits and veggies. Vegetable juicing is fine to get some quick nutrients, but I would stick to the whole food when eating fruits. Smoothies are good too.


Do you chew your food well? I find that the better I chew, the less gas I have. Also, eating a high protein diet is going to cause some gas, just due to how the body responds to protein digestion.

For other foods with good protein, look into lentils, peas, edamame, quinoa, and limited quantities of nuts and seeds.

If you aren't losing the weight you want, your best bet is to monitor your caloric intake for a few days (as well as the carb/fat/prot breakdown) and see how your numbers compare to others'.

+1 Fallen_Horse



Vegetables are obviously better consumed whole and steamed/boiled however carrot juice is an excellent add on supplement to clean up the organs and balance metabolism.

Fallen_Horse has it right. You need to start processing your food in your mouth. You need to break it down more by chewing more, and getting saliva/digestive juices mixed in right away. You might say that is what you do, but if it was, then you could eat your toast without the EB butter spread, because you will chew it well till you have the digestive juice mixed in to swallow it nicely down.

Oh, and while you chew your food, make sure you sip water in between bites of food to keep the food moist and starting to go into solution for your digestive enzymes to digest properly (especially dry toast! even with all that saliva in it, it still needs more moisture to break up the food particles into smaller particles). Not too much extra moisture, as you do not want the digestive enzymes from your saliva and stomach to become detached from the food and go into the water/liquid - delicate balance I know. I usually drink 8 ounces of water with my meal, and if I still feel light and comfortable after eating the meal, then it is processing smoothly. It is when it feels like a big lump in your tummy, that you might need to drink some more liquid to get it moving comfortably.

My only extra advise is to eat it slower. Not only does that spread the contains of your food out along your GI tract/small intestines (in order for it to make contact with your small intestine's mucosal lining and take in the nutrients), but the signals to your brain that you have eaten something have time to react (how many times have you eaten something in less than a minute, and still find yourself hungry - only to wait for 5 minutes more and then the brain tells you that you are eating something and that you are now satisfied).

Overall, you need to have small particles of food going thru your GI tract for the body to effectively digest the food. If you have big chunks going thru the small intestine part, the digestive enzymes can only penetrate the outer surface, and then when it gets to the large intestine, where your body doesn't digest the food anymore, but gets it ready for elimination - that is where the bacteria who eat undigestive food live. Thus they have a smorgasbord of chunky food to eat and give off their by-products - of which gas substances that produce farts is a big part of their wastes.

It takes a while for your digestive enzymes to realize the amount of fibrous food you are now consuming. Give it a couple of weeks for it to increase certain digestive enzymes - but making your food smaller to digest will always help.