BethL

Sweetie, were you hungry when you wrote this?

LMAO

Well I eat really clean outside of Tofu, but on a Free day I indulge in. Vegan Nachos and French Fries And way too many Margaritas Anything made from the potato is a weakness, but I have controlled my love for the spud pretty good over the last 5 years Other foods I have to be careful of are fresh Cashew Butter and Almond Butter, vegan chocolate and icecream. But I just don't keep these foods in the house, once in a while I will buy a small amount and split it with the kids. I can gain fat by just looking at food I swear lol

Funny Reubens and Cheesecake were more favorite foods when I was a meat eater. I haven't tried any Vegan versions yet.

Thanks Melissa, I have been a very healthy eater for several years now, but the scale hasn't moved much in a year. Especially since I became a vegetarian. I should probably reduce my starchy carbs and replace some of that with fat and protein, but I want to keep my power outage high. I mean what is the point of being an athlete if we are exhausted all the time. Tweek Tweek Tweek the plans lol

Oprah needs to look at this as "not as a diet cleasing" and more of a spiritual awakening. Hopefully she will. As far as losing weight goes, she has all she needs education wise to lose weight and keep it off, but she has a food addiction. From personal experience with my own, I can lose fat much easier eating lean meats as staples. But I am not going back there just to lose 5 pounds of fat, not worth it!

Its just a game..Nothing more...And life is not about winning others...Its about improving yourself and entering these contests can give you motivation to train harder... Just my opinion,and don't worry, you have great body! Thanks Oselifer, I guess from playing sports growing up and being programmed to win, I still have that in me. I love lifting weights and working out in general, it makes me feel fantastic. Being fit in my 40's is awesome, and I will continue on this road as long as I am on this planet. Still always great to have compliments and encouragement. My primary goal in life now is to become completely happy with me, to become a lot less vain. But not too fair the other way either

I guess it would depend on who is doing the cooking. If she still has her own chef then her Tofu can be made from scratch and she is rich so she has no reason to buy processed foods really. BTW I just can't get into Tempeh at all lol

Seems quite the opposite here in Pittsburgh. Almost all of the vegans I know approach it from a contemplative if not spiritual angle. Of course, I would trade my spiritual vegans for your rude vegans if I could live in a place where the sun comes out more than once a month. LOL you are funny. Thanks for the giggle

Happy Hump Day. I am in a pretty good mood, I was very excited for Hillary last night when she took Kentucky, her speech was excellent as always. It would be wonderful if she pulled this off. I wonder how much money she received last night. Obama has a lot of weathly supporters which really is hurting Hillary as far as the Super Delegates go. She speaks for the poor, the under educated, the blue collar workers and of coures women and children. Who don't have any money unfortuantly to really support her But I have a good feeling she will be back in 2012. Okay back to my traning and food log, but he things going on in our lives has a huge effect on our progress. This reminds me I need to meditate a couple times this week still. Slacking there. Today is Leg and Butt day WOOHOO my favorite. I am getting ready to take a power walk with some sprints and around 100 walking lunges. Then when I get home I will do squats, calf raises, and glute kickbacks. Maybe some more lunges depending on fatigue. Then before dark I will take an hour power walk. Food today, Cutting back on whole grains to just 2 servings instead of my usual 4 to 6. This will take a little gettign used to the next few days, but I am determined to get a little belly fat off. I plan on eating around 1400 calories. Preworkout meal - 1 Serving of oatmeal, 1/2 cup of black beans Post workout - 1 cup lite soy milk, 1 serving of hemp protein powder, 1/2 cup berries, 1/2 banana, and 1/2 serving of soy protein Lunch - 1 cup black beans, 1/2 cup brown rice, 1 cup steamed spinach Midafternoon - 1 serving of sunflower seeds Dinner - 1/4 block of lite tofu with steamed veggies Evening Snack - Depends on total calories already used, getting ready to figure that out now

Robert thanks for posting this. I love Oprah, she has had a personal battle with food, that I totally understand. I truely believe if she switched to vegetarian diet she would have a better shot at controlling her addiction. And of course her voice speaks loud. I totally agree with her guest. Becoming Vegan is very spiritual. But many of the Vegans I have met don't appear to be that spiritual and are rather rude and obnoxious lol But to be fair, it is very difficult to be kind and selfless in this world.

Thanks for the votes, I probably wont be entering in any more contests though, too much stress and disappointment, I don't do well competiting unless it is sports. When it comes to outer beauty bests to just stay out of stuff like this.

I think Hemp taste fine myself, I usually mix it with lite soy milk and fruit, but have added it to my sprouted grain cereals, and yep turns everything green. Green is Great

I ate dandilion greens for the first time ever a month a go. I ate them raw and enjoyed them. I lived most my life in the midwest and never thought of eating them lol My husband won't eat them because he would see the dogs pee on them when he lived on a farm as a child lol

Hi Melissa, thanks for your advise. I have enough complex carbs in my diet that is forsure I can easily add some more veggies, a little more protein and some sunflower seeds. Not a problem getting more calories is it lol Have a great day!

So far so good. I will be leaving for Illinois next Weds for two weeks, but plan on going to the gym a couple times a week and doing a lot of walking and hiking. But I would like to get a couple more pounds off before leaving. Game Plan Stay at the lower end of my calorie range which would be around 1250 calories. Continue to workout as always. I already had a 90 min power walk today. Got that done early since it could be as high as 102 degree today. I will be weight lifting before noon, working on my back and chest today. Still using light dumbbells for these two areas, just 15 pounders, but better than nothing. I wonder if it will ever be safe for me to bench over 100 pounds again. I guess it really doesn't matter that much.

Hi Kate, well here is my two cents. Start Strength Training. You can do cardio till you drop and it will not fix your problem area. If it did, you would not be asking for advise right? Much of this is genetics so you have to fight fire with fire. Also 80% of success comes from what we eat, so make sure your food program is not hindering your success too. I don't have this particular problem myself, but do to my age, I have to keep strengthening my buttock area to keep it high and round. What works the best for me is, Walking Lunges, Squats and glute kickbacks, you can do these weighted or with your own bodyweight. Also I see some differences of opinions when it comes to Traditional Cardio vs HIIT. Personally I know that HIIT works better than traditional cardio like running, cycling and walking for me. More and more data is backing this up too. Anaerobics is the best thing for fat loss, especially for those of us who don't have too much left to lose. You gain muscle mass which in turns using even more fuel, so you continue to burn more calories all the time compaired to just a 2 hour cardio session which may increase your metabolism for just a couple hours after a workout. More muscle means more calories needed to fuel it. (don't start eating more though) And women should lift hard and heavy, none of those little pink dumbbells lol I do a 6 day split weight lifting program, which hits all major muscle groups twice a week along with 3 HIIT workouts plus 3 to 4 traditional cardio workouts. I love to hike, power walk and cycle, and I will continue to do these, I figure with all the mumble jumble out there, might as well do both. I also like to keep my endurance up. When I do my Interval training I usually power walk with 6- 50 yard dashs, so I am actually mixing these up pretty good. Jumping rope, jumping jacks are great too. If you go to a gym, I recommend that Stairmaster Stepper on the interval level, Or an RMP Spin class. Both are great. Have a great day!

Hey Marcina, I am so glad you posted pics, I was wondering if any other women would. You look good, minus the hangover . Been there done that one forsure.

Thank you You always have the nicest things to say, got to love ya! You look great! really building up some nice pecs there. I am looking forward to voting, and I don't mind looking at the guys chest photos either, I am a chest woman hehehe! Yeah I hope other women do enter, but if not maybe some of the other muscle groups will draw more enteries. I figured why not try them all, it is good for motivation and really shows what areas we need to work on.

I don't really want to nitpick, but one of my pet peeves is people using the term Carbs to mean only starchy carbs. Greens are carbs, fruit is carbs, bottom line is everything is carbs out side of Fat and protein, and for a vegan diet, everything you eat has some carbs in it, unless it is pure fat products. I totally believe in food combinations for satisfation, nutrition and fat loss. The perfect combination for me was different than now when I was a meat eater, But when I became a vegetarian I had to change that up and it was trial and error for a few months but found that if I ate 60% carbs, 25% protein and 15% fat, I could still lose fat and gain muscle. Of course I have to keep my calories in check too. Calories is still the #1 Key. Combinding all three energy sources in every meal which include fiber obviously keeps a persons blood sugar level even, keeps a person feeling less hungry which come primarily from the fat and protein, and also provides all the necessary nutrients for a healthy body and mind. But the percentage breakdown is different for different people depending on their metabolisms, so my diet my not be perfect for the person next to me.

Saturday Early morning, getting ready for a short Camping trip. Will be hiking today for my cardio, just a two hour hike today. Desided what to take for food. Will take fruit and nuts for sure, maybe some fake lunch meat. Pretty much today is a Free Day so there will be some Margarita's too I posted a photo for the chest contest, photo is pretty good, I sure hope other women join in the contest, but if not well at least I had the courage to do it.

I disagree ( hey its VBB! ) about the need to count carbs if calories are accounted for. It isn't a woman only thing either. I exercised like a bear ( hey you can count carbs like a hawk ) for years and could not get my weight to go down until I started counting calories. Thanks for the post veggieprincess and beforewisdom. Actually I agree with you both. Although I honestly believe that I need to watch my fat intake as much as my starchy carb intake. I am big on calorie counting and don't see it as a downside at all, I would love to be free from it, but chances are I will have to continue to keep things in check forever. Yes age does play a big part in keeping our BF down, but I am happy to say I am at my lightest weight as an adult. Over the last few years I have lost more than 50 pounds of bodyfat. it came off in chunks and pretty slow but I am happy I did it the way I did. No crazy diets or excessive exercising, although some people think I exercise excessive anyway. I have been working out seriously for 26 years, but until I took full control of my food I never was at a normal weight. It wasn't just counting calories, it was changing the foods I ate. Getting rid of processed foods was a major key, but also finding a the right ratio of Carbs, Protein and Fat was essential. Not because I don't believe that a calorie is a calorie, but calories are not created equal, for instance some burn a lot faster while some keep us satified longer. By having a perfect balance, helps keep me in my calorie range. I really appreaciate the posts though, you guys are great

Hi People Thanks a bunch I would have participated sooner, but I joined the group just a little to late to enter a Tricep photo. But I am here now

OKay here goes. I do hope some other women enter this one. I don't have as much chest muscle as last year, but starting to get some back. http://i31.tinypic.com/15o75du.jpg

There will be a lot of different views here, so best to go by your own body. If you need to pick up weight and can eat late at night without nightmares or and upset stomach, then Go for It. I do believe in fueling the body within 1 hour after a weight lifting session, but only if you ate lite before the sesson. I mean if someone has consumed a pretty good amount of food before working-out, it is still there, no reason to put in more food. Having said that, try to eat a couple hours before you workout. People say they can't at work, I don't buy this at all, unless you are literally chained to a area. Take food with you and eat when ever you get a chance. I don't know I just never had a problem finding time or a way to eat lol. I am trying to lose more weight (BF) so I would suggest a person do the opposite of me