VegannNY

...oh. (Poignant pause.) I see. Ew.

Hey, cool! We're basically the same height, and aiming for about the same weight range. (I'm shooting for 115, but will be happy once I hit 120. I'm about 127 right now...) And yes, the Silk Bailey's is TERRIFIC.

Hey, congrats! (Out of curiosity, what's your height?) Oh- and yes, there ARE tons of vegan drinks out there.... Once you're over the shredding phase, try Chocolate Silk Soy Milk, spiked with vodka. YUM - just like a Bailey's Irish Creme! (But of course, wait until after the three weeks...and drink responsibly!)

Welcome to the group! (Brown tip, Fuji Ryu Jujitsu myself) - Great to see more MMAs!

So - I'm in the process of figuring out how best to coordinate my cardio and weight lifting schedule. I'm actually hoping to do cardio at least 3 times a week (maybe 5), for the goal of losing a little weight. I've also got my lifting on a three way split, M, T, W and Th, F, Sa. Right now, I've actually split up training into two sessions: lifting in the morning (which just works for me best due to the job schedule), and 1/2 hour cardio after work. Question is, would do cardio same-day take away at all from muscular gains? Not sure, and wondered what others had experienced with their routines. Thanks!

More juggling of the routine. The muscle is building steadily - not yet so sure about the weight loss. (I"m staying off the scales for a few days to give it a rest.) I'm still somewhat unsure of how best to structure the balance between cardio and weights (and weight splits.) Right now, I've got a three day weight split, broken down by: Day One: Back and Arms Day Two: Chest and Abs Day Three: Legs I've been also experimenting with doing cardio same day, five days a week. Played with the timing - ie: right after the workout, versus actually later in the day (ie: weights morning, cardio after work.) I'm just not sure about the best method. Should cardio and weights necessarily be separately by at least a day? (In other words, will same day cardio affect muscle synthesis?) I definitely don't want to do cardio immediately before weights, as it's too draining. Yet, I'm looking for a little weight loss, so I'm somewhat hesitant to drop the cardio altogether, and would ideally like to get in three sessions minimum a week. (Then there's the fact that work gets really heavy at the end of each quarter, and I won't then have time to work out in the evenings anyway.) (I currently do morning weights, which works really well for me.) Argh, decisions!

Cool...didn't realize that Nitrofusion was vegan. Picked some up (chocolate) - not bad! Think I'll try supplementing both that and the creatdrive after each workout, see how it goes. (Kind of curious how Vega tastes, but that will have to wait and see, I guess...!)

Vegan baklava? Now that would *definitely* make me happy! Other than that, well.... Warm puppy kisses (absolutely nothing beats puppy breath.) A dinner of really, really good veggie sushi, followed by vegan ice cream The day I finally break through to 4 pullups A job working in visual effects... Okay, and a million dollars would be nice. And a trip to Asia. Or am I getting a little ahead of myself... I'll settle for the puppy kisses, though...

It also depends on how much time you can spare... IE: how many hours per day (and how many days per week?)

Just started GNC Creadrive myself, and am considering adding in some Vega powder. Wondered what everyone else uses, and considers worthwhile supplements. Thanks!

The training continues, with a few positives. I've been rawish for three days, or really more paleo-vegan - focusing on raw fruit, and cooked veggies. (Hence the "ish"...I just don't find raw veggies palatable.) Most importantly, it looks like I'm successfully swapping my usual beverages of choice (Diet Pepsi, Snapple and coffee) for good ole water. It's been a difficult switch, but so far, so good. I'm also playing with splitting my routine into morning and evening sections (thereby giving me time to recup between cardio and weight lifting, but still get both in.) Up until now, I've been doing the weight lifting in the morning, and cardio after work, but am considering switching that up, too. My theory is this: probably the majority of muscle building happens in the night, while you sleep. (Maybe?) So better to do cardio earlier, rev up the metabolism, then rest after the weights, and let everything rebuild. Just a thought...will see how it goes....

FYI, here's info on Yankee Stadium tours...but I think they're sold out (for the obvious reason) . http://mlb.mlb.com/nyy/ballpark/stadium_tours.jsp For what it's worth, I *don't* think the current Yankee Stadium is the original one, either...! (Or at least it was massively rebuilt at one point...)

Was wondering what other people thought about animal rights vis a vis "lower level" life forms like shrimps, mussels, clams and the like. No, I don't eat them...but have to admit that it's mainly because I want to stay easily consistent, and don't want to end up going down any philosophical "slippery slopes." But I can't say I feel as strongly about "clam rights" as compared to obviously intelligent, self-aware creatures (like cows, dogs, pigs, etc.) Even chickens are obviously capable of learning...but mussels? From what I understand, they don't even have a brain per-se. So at what point in the ability of a life form to have self-awareness should rights kick in? Just curious as to other people's thoughts on this. And here I'm *really* going to get flamed...although I hope not: I've also been thinking about such points in relation to abortion issues. Personally, I'm pro-choice. But it's the same issue, really...at what point does a creature go from being basically a non-aware collection of cells, to a life form in it's own right, worthy of "rights"?

..it's just old, and need repairs, so they'd rather build a new one. It's right next to the old one, and almost finished (looks something like a Yankee Stadium pod-version from invasion of the body snatchers. Actually, it's somewhat more retro in design than the current one. But as soon as it's ready to go, they're tearing down the current one...!) PS: Yes, fun day passes rule. But what's so terrible about Philly?

BTW...realized after I posted that I wanted to sympathize re: the bulemia phase that you mentioned in the earlier post. I can only imagine what that must have been like, and congrats on getting through it ok!

...Okay, if we're talking fantasy stuff here, wouldn't it be cool to have a readable gauge in the human body logging calories expended/inputted for the day? (Sort of like a more accurate, cyborg version of fitday?) Would take *all* the guesswork out of diet issues...! That aside...you can inhale alcohol fumes and have an effect? Didn't know that one...

Hey, given prices in NYC, we're all broke anyway. Re: Yankee Stadium. Not sure. You *do* know they're rebuilding it, and will be tearing down the current one probably next year...?

I have to agree - Veganmomma's going to be putting out the most effort for a meetup....let's see what we can figure out, as well as any activities that everyone might want to do...!

2 bags of Oreos? Hmmmm, sounds like a challenge! (Just kidding.) But seriously...the human body isn't perfectly efficient, and there *is* a limitation re: how long food stays in the digestive tract. So it's *possible* that the body just can't absorb all calories that are thrown at it in one sitting. Not that I'm going to go out and test that theory.... Think it would make for a really interesting bio experiment, though...

Tiengarden sounds good...it's one of the few vegan places I've not yet been in NYC. Per dates, I'd be open for suggestions (anything but next weekend....already have Labor Day Plans!)

V. De Vil - Thanks for the post...! I'm actually pretty familiar with fitday, and I may in fact be going the calorie controlled method relatively soon. Honestly, I've been bouncing around in a very unorganized fashion between trying low carb (something that did work in the past), controlled calories, or raw-ish (the few times I tried it a bit, I couldn't feel full...but the concept is extremely interesting.) (Actually, I can't swear that the success I had on low carb wasn't really simply due to reduced calories. At the time, I wasn't logging cals, so maybe it just worked out that way...) I will settle down into a diet routine eventually...hopefully soon. It *would* be great to hold onto the oatmeal and oatbran - both favorites of mine. Have never tried Ezekiel bread, but I've been tempted to buy it in the past, and it looks interesting. How's it taste, esp. compared to standard bread? Re: the potatos - they've mostly been in the form of knishes, which are only 175 cal a shot...great for a single snack when you're spacing meals out every 3 hours or so. And the great thing about potatos is that they're so satiating...!

Welcome! You'll love this forum...lots of people with your exercise interests (yet none of the meat eating habits from some other boards.) Ask lots of questions, they're all great people to know!!

Okay - two days in, and the lifting is going great. I'm wonderfully sore from pullovers, and started jogging 30 min on Sunday...still aching from that, as well - though fortunately the knees seem okay. Trying to figure out if it makes more sense to just alternate cardio/weight days, and/or if I'll be jogging at home at night, vs going to the gym to use the treadmill. I really don't want to be doing cardio RIGHT before or after weights...both because I want to go all out and refreshed with each, and I have a suspicion that cardio right after weights would harm my muscle gains. Yet, going to the gym twice a day just seems like too much...No life, and all that. The creatine's pretty tasty - too early to see if that's working. Picked up Creadrive from CVS, and there's not alot of bloat (yet.) So far, so good. The one thing? I'm finding it really difficult to clean up the diet. Have so far failed to cut out decaff coffee and soda (because of the artificial sweetners), and am still eating some carbs. (Mostly potatoes and oatmeal.) Darn it, they're good...but I really need to cut back if I want to lean out. It's funny. Back when I was an omnivore, I lots TONS of weight effortlessly on Atkins. Now, it's a struggle. Okay, I'm not overweight, but I'm still carrying more fat than I'd like, and find that it's harder to control the calories on a plant based diet. No, there's no chance that I'll go back (going on two years vegan at this point.) But why does it have to be so much harder??

Okay - here goes. I've been aching to get back in prime condition for about a year. (Two years ago, I was down to approximately 115lbs, most of it muscle...and really liked how it looked.) Admittedly, the BF was a little *too* low, but I loved the asthetics....which would have been even better with more muscle added on. These days, I'm running around 129 lbs, and it's been bothering me QUITE a bit. The weight lifting's been pretty much on, but the diet's been sketchy. Today's the day I get REALLY serious. I've purchased the creatine, will be lifting in the morning (as has been my habit for quite some time anyway.) But now I'll be cleaning up the diet, concentrating on more protein, and relatively low carb (most of it--hopefully--from veggies.) Honestly, I feel that my body reacts best to that. I'm also going to try to put in 30 minutes of *light* jogging every weeknight. This might or might not work...two years ago I tore my ACL, and it's never been quite right since. I did a gentle jog tonight as a test run (so to speak), and we'll see if anything swells up in the morning. If so, I'm going to try to fit in elliptical as a substitute, darn it. But I figured I'd start this training log, which will help to keep me honest. Please, wish me luck! (Okay, I admit that one goal is to look REALLY good in this years Halloween costume, based off the Fifth Element...but that'll just be an extra goodie!!) --Janet (Vegan n NYC)

You know, it's funny... I've *never* been able to get sore abs from exercises (crunches, V-ups, machines, etc.) Abs admittedly aren't my strongest body part, but they're okay (and would look even better wi/ lower BF.) But never, ever have I gotten the sore feeling after a day of crunches, etc... Wonder if there's a way to fix that...?