Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Hey.

Got to this board by doing an internet search. Debatable whether or not I fit any of the terms, really. I'm an athlete in the sense that I do athletic things, but I'm certainly not at peak or anything, not yet. I'm a vegan for, um, only about two days now as I type this... not from any kind of moralistic viewpoint but instead simply as a way to try to have a better diet. Just being upfront, not really sure if I belong here? Don't want to impose or be impolite or anything. I'm no spring chicken and I'm not exactly a bodybuilder either, though I do have a tall and large frame, but also I am very short on income as well so buying food is tricky. I don't really know where to begin, really. I never really bothered with diet before - just if I thought I wasn't good enough, tended to simply add more exercise and ignore diet. Hasn't really worked for me, doing it that way. Bit lost, bit clueless, looking for some advice, really. My aim is to turn myself into a heavy jammer in roller derby. One of my brothers was saying about all kinds of benefits of a vegan diet (alongside hazards of dairy), so I thought I'd try it. I don't really want to try it wrongly, and I do get very muddled sometimes. So in general I like to ask about stuff.

Stats in case they're useful:
Female. 31 years old. 6' 2''. 210 lbs currently. Main strong points shoulders and back, main weak points stomach and arms. UK. Very limited income (can't afford gym membership). Autistic. Often unable to properly detect when I'm overheating (has lead to seizures; just something I have to be careful of). No big past injuries like snapped limbs or anything like that.

Well, um... hope I'm in the right place and if not then my apologies. I'd really love to get past minimum skills requirements and get out there and actually play for my team... I'm thinking that'll move along a lot faster (time not being a luxury I have) if I become a lot fitter. But, I still want to remain big, because I'm not getting small and stealthy any time in this lifetime, and so I am much more useful being big and smashy (which I like the idea of, anyway).

Oh and my name's Jane.
End of introduction, I suppose.
Always I am quite awkward at first introductions.

Hi and welcome Jane.

There are ways to go wrong on a vegan diet, so good you found us. Take a look around and check out some of the posted links on vegan nutrition. They will be helpful to you. And feel free to ask questions.

Vegan food can be very cheap.. or very expensive .. there are options to go either way. Grains and beans are the cheap route whereas specialty foods like quinoa or processed vegan meats are more expensive.

Many MMA fighters are going vegan these days .. apparently unclogging arteries helps with high intensity cardio.. lol. I think in roller derby you would need some good cardio fitness ... so you are probably on the right track.

Good luck.

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If it's important to you, you'll find a way. If it isn't, you'll find an excuse.

Hey Jane! Welcome to the forum.
I'm kind of new here, too, but I can already tell you you'll like it here. There's a lot of great advice about fitness and nutrition all over this board, and if you have any specific questions people are usually really quick to offer helpful tips.

Vegan food can certainly be expensive if you go the route of processed "meat" and "cheese" replacements. However, if you try to stick more with fresh produce (cheaper on-season than off-season, of course), you'll probably find your grocery bill shrinking before you know it. I keep a pretty tight food budget myself, and can usually feed two adults (my girlfriend and myself) for only $30-40/week, all meals included. It helps to keep a lot of staples around, like beans and lentils and rice, and cook portions much larger than you intend to consume in one sitting and then freeze away the extras for later. If you do that regularly enough, very quickly you'll have a fully stocked freezer ready to grab cheap, healthy, delicious homemade meals from. One of my biggest hurdles was figuring out how to get the "convenience" that I had really relied on to mesh with my new eating plans without creating a grocery budget I couldn't handle, and making extra and freezing it quickly became my best solution. If you want any tips on this sort of thing or help meal planning, let me know. I'm not a professional by any means, but I am a scientist and a big nutrition nut so I might be able to help

Anyway, welcome! I hope you have fun perusing the forum and just give a shout if you need anything or have questions. I've found everyone to be very helpful here.

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Hi Jane! No reason at all to be nervous, haha! We're a pretty welcoming bunch around here. Welcome to the Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness forum!

I see you've received a couple of welcomes already, and the two above me have certainly given you some great advice. You may wish to check out the book "Eating Vegan on $4 a Day" by Ellen Jaffee Jones, which also gives some great advice on how to eat on a tight budget. Basically, the advice is similar to what you read above: eat whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible. Buy beans and grains from the bulk section, where they're much cheaper (not to mention more eco-friendly!). Eat as many green veggies as you can, too!

Anyhow, you're definitely in the right spot. There are tons of people here who are not bodybuilders, per se, but it's a great source of information (and inspiration) for all things related to vegan fitness, in general. I hope you'll take the time to look around and familiarize yourself with the forum, the main website, and all that it has to offer. And I wish you the very best of luck with it. Done correctly, switching to a vegan diet can be the best thing one ever does for themself!

Take care,
Karen

The book recommendation from Karen made me think of another book you might want to check out, called "Vegan on the Cheap." It's got recipes in it that are between $0.50 to $2.50/serving (and it's indicated on the page how expensive each recipe is expected to be), and the author uses all whole foods and homemade, cheap, healthier versions of a lot of popular vegan convenience foods (like recipes to make your own seitan sausage, etc). I've made quite a few recipes out of that book that I've been very happy with (the Savory Vegetable Cobbler with sweet potatoes instead of the white potatoes the recipe calls for has been a favorite around my house for a few months now).

I also can't second enough what Karen said about buying your grains, legumes, etc from the bulk section. She couldn't be more right. I feel like I probably should have specified in my original post when I said "keep staples in your pantry" that I meant "keep dry staples in your pantry" vs. "keep cans of staples in your pantry." Dried beans, lentils, etc are fantastic. I know it can be a bit of a pain and somewhat time consuming to make your own beans, but the beauty of it is that you can make a huge gigantic batch and they'll keep for months in the freezer. If you're into canning, I would bet you could can them as well. I also like to make my own beans because I don't like to eat all the sodium that they pack them in when you get them canned, and the preservatives like EDTA that you sometimes see.

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Hey all you lovely peoples and thankyou for all the lovely welcomes!

I haven't been back in a few days because unfortunately I got struck with a bad strain of flu. Only just finding myself now to be strong enough to operate my computer again. That's a huge bunch of cool advice u'all gave me. $4 a day sounds fairly doable... I'm guessing it probably converts to about £3.50 a day over this side of the pond... I'm on £40 a week, most of which has to go on transport (very rural, very disconnected around here)... however, if I can convince that my keep payment stops including food, then I can buy my own food (which is something I've always wanted anyway) instead of just not eating most of what I get. So that should be very doable indeed, I think. There are farms around here... unfortunately, mostly livestock (toxic soil, as I hear it)... but there are certainly supermarkets, all the same. Bulk section... I'll remember that. Bulk section.

I have tried to be a bodybuilder. Used to train in pro wrestling and for that, you pretty much need to be a bodybuilder as well. Ran out of money, though. Usual story. Really enjoyed gymning while I could do it, though... awesome stuff... loved bucking the stereotype, too. Come in, see all the girls on the cardio and most of the boys on the weights and after my warm-up I'd just be like, go over to a free weights machine and "YARRRR!!!" hahaha that was so much fun. And looking at your biceps grow in the mirror was a lot more addictive than I imagined it to be. Wish I could do that again. Ah well, I'd have to find a job. Or win the lottery. (both about equally likely these days, lmao)

Pleased to meet you all!

Hey Jane, another big welcome here. You sound like you fit in perfectly here. Its all about people that want to improve. It could be their eating habits, their fitness, their physique, or over all health. There are people here from those that eat meat that want to eat healthier to those that have been vegan for their whole lives. There are professional athletes and there are those in horrible shape and health that want to improve their lives. The great thing is that we get to hear success stories constantly and that this forum is open no matter what your levels and goals for people to learn and share. That's why I dig it, and the fact that Robert has been an inspiration to me. I hope you feel welcome and decide to stick around, learn from, and share with us here.

-Dylan