Ruz

OK..I don't think anyone is taking my reply about eating more fat seriously..I wouldn't have done so either before I tried it! It was recommended to me by "Built" on the vegeterian bodybuilders site. Just to put things into perspective, I've gone from 19.4 % bodyfat, to 11.7% bodyfat (as measured today), in 2.5 months and managed to retain all my muscle. I started on the UD2 diet but it left me starving and then I learnt the secret about eating more fat! So, I'm never as hungry now as I was before when I ate a lot of carbs and less fat, I've been intaking a lot less calories without even trying (I'm used to eating as a response to hunger and fat curbs my hunger while carbs stimulate it), and I've lost a lot of body fat. Investigate a little more, you might be surprised to find that this concept isn't so strange and that many athletes eat like this to maintain low bodyfat levels

I used to be hungry all the time! but then I discovered something surprising about my appetite when I was doing a low carb diet..carbs make me hungry! I have since started adding a load of raw oilve oil to my food and it cuts my hunger so much that my total calorie intake is much lower and I've lost all the fat I've been battling with for many years Worth a try no?

I use both..and actually 80% of my total daily calories comes from fat! I was a little concerned when I analized my diet and went for a blood test about 2 months ago. My bad colesterol was lowish, which is the first time I can say that because I have that faimily inherited colesterol thing when your body just produces a lot of it naturally. Also, my GOOD colesterol was above the recommended limit! My doctor was a little stunned but assured me it was no cause for concern! By the way, coconut oil protects against muscle loss actually so it's not just empty calories

Thanks...I'll think about what you've said...

the polen i take is gathered from flowers...all this nitpickin is a bit daft in my opinion

Ditto to that! I thought about visiting Spain some time, but now I don't know... If I moved to live there, I'd probably get into fights all the time, as I get really fucking angry when I see animal abuse, even though I'm a really calm and - hopefully - friendly guy most of the time. That's my problem...but don't worry, the police over here mostly resemble the typical donut eating slobs in american films, so they can't catch u if you can run medium fast Also, if they do catch you the majority are easy to bribe which is another thing in your favor if you like to graffiti bullrings or put through windows in shops which sell fur etc Last time I got caught I gave them a bag of weed and they let me go! They once pulled up in the car while I was ripping down a huge billboard poster in the middle of the street advertising the bullfights. The fine for what I was doing is actually 3,000 euros (because the local government buys the posters with our tax money) but they didn't even bother chasing me because it was raining..they really are lazy, corrupt bastards. Actually, its a funny story about when I was finding out how much the various fines were for different acts of sabotage. I walked into the police headquarters and just asked "how much is the fine if you catch me doing...." and I went through the list. As the policeman was telling me the various amounts you could be fined, I was taking notes and commenting "Oh? only 300 euros? Uff!" Its worth doing THAT then because the possibilities of you catching me are slim, and even if you do, I can affort to pay". Course the officer got severely pissed off with me but there was basically nothing he could do..and I love to PROVOKE the police! Course, if they do get you they often rob you blind and kick the shit out of you..so you can see why I hate the evil bastards. If anyone still has their doubts about visiting spain let me remind you of something, in my city, the government pays for small children to go to the bullfights for free with their mums on "Cordoba Women's day". This is a government who doesn't have money to build libraries in villages or pay for dental treatment for these same children..but they quite happily take an average of 50 euros a year in taxes from every family to sponsor and promote sadism..evil savages!

Allt this about teachers..as a teacher I find it interesting Things today aren't like when you were in school and sadly due to the politics of teaching, if a teacher says anything not directly to what she/he has to teach from the book, they can lose their job. Personally, I'm on my final written warning

No..Zinzen's got a point..life is shit and sometimes its too hard to face. It's not that things "get outta whack"..cause you are taking drugs...have you seen the state of the world today? I really don't see how life as we know it can continue beyond the next 10 years. if its not through water shortage or food shortage (yep, i hold all those fuckin bone chompers directly and personally responsible), it will be through some war concocted by our corrupt governments to keep themselves fat and rich, or if not, maybe some virus they created in their labs to get rid of 80% of us before the shit really hits the fan! And that's before I even start talking about the other very real problems coming our way as a result of global warming/climate change! Anyone who denies that we have a real crisis impending is just plain stupid or ignorant or both and sometimes I dont know how people stay sane and pretend like everything is just fine, and that our kids are going to have a good future etc without the help of some really strong drugs. I really, honestly and truly believe that life in the future is going to get much, much worse that any of us like to imagine and I really honesstly and truly believe that my beautiful daughter won't live to reach my age I've often said I got stoned to protect the ones i love from what I really feel about the future of the human race, the planet and exactly how ing humans are in general..like my best m8 always said, we are the cancer of mother earth..pure scum! I feel its too late for humans to change..and even if it weren't ..as a species we are just too selfish to make the necessary changes to stop what is definitely coming our way. Unlike so many others who are able to switch off from the reality of what's happening, hypnotise themselves with soap operas, daytime TV and excessive consumerism, I just can't pretend that it's all going swimmingly however good my personal situation may be at this very moment! So tell me..should I bring down everyone else around me. who are relatively happy believing the lie that everything is just fine? Or should i just smoke another spliff, grab the guitar and make everyone smile for a while? Marijuana blurrs the edges of it all, really it has to be said. I don't want to smoke, at the moment, because I want to look the world in the eye for a change..but it's hard and the sadness of reality weighs me down.- I honestly don't know if it's worth the while! So what do I do? Well like a "normal" `person I go to the doctor for something to stop me feeling so utterly desolate and depressed and he perscribes a drug FAR more addictive and dangerous than the natural plant I was smoking..oh, but that's OK, because its a LEGAL drug and so socially acceptable. Fucking bullshit!

Porcierto is "by the way.." and mogollon si "a lot/loads" but it's a very colloquial expression so I'm not surprised you don't know it..I was just testing you! Well I think u are doing very well to understand the rest of it after so little time! you're the opposite to me..I HATE studying grammar and have refused to do so as spanish grammer is really tough. I've just learnt in the street so I know "un mogollon" of vocabluary and "casi zero grammatica"! About moving to a spanish speaking country..maybe NOT the best idea for a vegan. Its not that they are "not vegan friendly" countries, that wouldn't be so bad. Its that they are "very vegan unfriendly" countries! It can hurt you...A LOT , to see how cruel people can be to animals. Until recently they used to throw a goat off the belltower over here to start a fiesta. They still have traditional pig slaughters in the middle of the streets where kids go up to collect the flowing blood in glasses for good luck. Hunnting is really popular as it hiding bits of bacon, for example, in your food and seeing if you notice..apparently that's hysterically funny! then the bull torture..its not just the corridas, they set fire to them, dunk them in the sea, chase them with fork lift trucks..you name it they do it! Greyhounds are routinely nailed to trees and its not unusual for someone to take a kick at my dog when I'm out walking him just because they hate dogs. Obviously, its not everyone, but even if people dont agree with the huge amount of animal abuse going on over here..the culture is one of live and let live, so no-one will complain. So go if you want, but don't say i didn't warn you. Many time I've thought the best solution for the spanish problem is to nuke the whole fuckin country..and yes, Ive gone beyond the point where I even CARE about sounding racist!

K es una camiseta k llevo siempre a las protestas antitaurinas. Delante pone "¿porque?" y detras tiene el simbolo de la frente de liberacion animal. Besitos guapa. ¡Muakla!jajajjjaj Porcierto, me gusta un mogollon tus triceps (perdona pero no tengo tildes)

Thanks a lot! I think maybe women suffer from this problem more as we don't tend to work traps..well I don't at least. They grow really quickly and I like having a neck

And her is one NOT for the competition..but especially for Marcina..to show her that she is not the only one with a freaky "batwing"

Ok..I think these fotos are a LITTLE better! My daughter took them with her camera so you may understand why they are a little blurry..so I'm going to upload a few so you can get a better idea.

Yeah..good point

Yeah I do! And I'm getting like this like wierd "hole thing" starting to happen above my kneecap!..very strange But it seems to be strengthening my knees and I do like the way the leteral squats feel on my outer quads Also the hungarian squats must be incredible for your ass, judging my the way it hurts the day after! My knees were hurting yesterday actually, I think it was because I had been running downhill in the park..but I did some sumo squats, ATG, and they feel find today! I actually find that running uphill takes any pressure off my knees. I'm doing a lot of cardio at the mo and a lot of interval training and my knees were hurting until I started putting the running machine on a steep incline. I really don't think squats ever hurt my knees..just running.

That happens to me too with some poses..I've worked out however that if you push your chest up and out the batwing thing disappears As regards posing, Gia left a link on Octo's training log, its not brilliant but at least its something: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/posing.htm I tried out the triceps pose as described and discovered that just pressing my arm against my side makes my tris look about twice as big! It's obvious if you think about it but I'm new to this photos/posing stuff... However, I feel that taking fotos of your muscles is slightly different from posing in a show as you can take advantage of your light source. A direct light is shit for showing off your muscles. I think for triceps a light which comes from behind and slightly to one side is probably your best bet. Anyway, off to the gym..I'm going to experiment a bit with fotos and light angles later..although a tripod would be a definite advantage.balancing my camera ontop of a wobbbly pile of objects I have lying around the house isn't really ideal

I'd just like to say to everyone thanks so much for all the positive feedback and support! I'm so glad I found this site!!! I'd being feeling so isolated out here, the only vegan in my whole city, and the only woman who trains to build muscle and not just get toned. Always recieving negative comments and feedback from the people I live around had made me feel like a freak so its nice to come here and get some sanity and a sense of proportion back and start feeling much more positive about myself. Just these few comments have really changed my attitude and next time some guy gives me shit, I think I'lll just laugh it off and tell him if he wasn't suck a wimp he wouldn't feel so threatened my an 8 stone woman! I've also had a chance to use that classic quote I read here the other day..the "where do you get your protein from?", "I keep a jar of cum in my fridge" absolute classic!!! You guys are GREAT! Thanks for everything!

The most dangerous addiction I saw was when I was a student. I was sharing a flat with a girl addicted to sex! Yes, I know lots of you are probably thinking "I know/am someone addicted to sex!" but addiction to sex is really dangerous. Apart from having No friends whatsoever because she tried it on with your dad, or boyfriend etc...she was so desperate for sex that she used to walk through hyde park at 4 in the morning wearing practically nothing. One day she came home with a huge gash in her head. Some guy had hit her with a wheel brace and raped her. We went to the police and I remember in the interview, when the police asked her to describe her attacker, all she did was talk about how good looking he was and how she would have fucked him if he had thought to simply ask. The police were looking at me astounded..obviously! Turned out she had a fractured skull and could have been killed. However, this didn't stop her asking the police that, if they found her attaker, could they please give her his phone number. Obviously, she wanted to fuck him again! Moral of the story, whatever your addiction, there's always someone WAY worse off than you!

Does anyone else do hungarian split squats or laterall squats? You can't use much weight but they are killers!

I like the box jumps..or "table" jumps should I say! there's no way I could jump like that! you're like a kangaroo!

Marcina..DON'T crop your face out..your absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Thanks Everyone! Marcina...your physique will be MUCH better than mine if you keep up the level of dedication you possess! I've read lots of your posts and you clearly know what you are talking about regarding exercise and nutrition and am, I suspect, suffering from the same illness as myself: vigorexia! ..maybe you should try my M8 Dave's workout plan "Try to give yourself a heart attack each and every time you go in the gym..or if not, at least nearly puke"..it's VERY effective! BTW this is what 10% BF looks like on me..I've NEVER got down this low but it's like the weights has just dropped off using the "how to do cardio if you really must" plan and stopping eating bread, rice and pasta after lunch. DCNINJA I'll send u a private note about the low carb stuff later today. But basically my everyday diet is high fat/lmedium carb/low protein SCORNELL Thanks SO much for the positive comment about my back. All I ever get, outside the gym of course, is men slagging me off and insulting me for my back, so it makes me feel really happy to have some positive comments for a change!. However, I must admit that I feel a little bad accepting any praise for my back muscle as it is basically all natural. Until I started doggcrapp training a month or so ago, I only ever worked it directly with close grip pulldowns and stiff leg deadlifts, one set of each, once a week or every other week...same as pecks. Guys have on occasion come up to me in the gym, and i mean BIG guys, and asked "OMG! How did you get your rhomboids like that", I give them the honest answer "!Birth!". It's like i only have to LOOK at a back or peck exercise and I put muscle on!! I don't do anything for back width because for me it's all about proportion and until i get my thighs and calves into line, I'll have to stop looking directly at the pull-up bar

The first drug people try is generally alcohol or cigarettes...and they are STILL responsible for killing more people then any other drugs...

Fancy a holiday in Spain?

Yep..I think it depends on the person. For me, sweet mary jane wasn't a gateway drug. I loved it and stuck with it. I once read a book called the psychology of the drug user, which detailed why some drugs appeal to some people and not others For example, I'm extremely nervous and hyperactive and annoy just about anyone who lives with me because its impossible for me to sit down for more than five minutes in a row..this is why mary was MY perfect drug. Coke on the other hand, only exaggerated my natural hyperactivity and I absolutely hated it! Like halluconogenics..I already have an over active imagination so taking acid for example is terrifying for me! Its all down to personality. I know lots of people who smoke dope and keep to one spliff a night, but for me, as I love it so much, this isn't possible. But my M8 who can limit himself to one spliff a night gets paraletic on alcohol several times a week..so its all relative. I think when you get to the point where you're drugging yourself BEFORE you go to work, or buying drugs BEFORE you buy food its time to admit you have a problem...WHATEVER the drug, legal or not!