Rain Forrest

Cool link Bigbwii

How is the actual comic book? I was thinking of trying to get my hands on it just cuz the characters are cool, is it worth it? Did you learn any valuable health and nutrition tips from it?

Hey, have you tried getting iodine from sea-weed? I think iodine could be potentially lacking in the vegan diet, and it is important for thyroid health. Since I started snacking on sea-weed I feel really great!

I just got a job as a package handler loading up trucks for Fed Ex Ground. I work all night from 2:30-7:30 am, right now I am trying to adjust my sleep schedule and also my diet so that I can make it through the night with full energy. I did pretty good on bananas/peanut butter/hummus/pita/cereal/soy milk/hemp protein last night but I am curious if anybody else has any ideas for meals or foods that will last me through 5 hours of moderate-to-intense constant manual labor.

I never realized you were supposed to touch your chest so I tried doing it last workout and it seems like I recruited way more of my pecs. Thanx for bringin this up!!

Really????

Hindu squats are really great, I picked em up after readin that article too. How did you know you were overtraining?

Cool guys.. My face is gonna be buff.

Your face is part of your body... A bodybuilder need not neglect their face. DO you do any exercises for your facial muscles? I started working out the muscles in my face a bit ago and it is a really interesting experience. There are so many different groups of muscles it might be easy to neglect one. I realized I couldn't properly frown tonight when a friend was frowning in a crescent shape. My muscles couldn't pull my lips that far. Also another friend of mine could contract his lips and pull them to one side of his face but not the other. i've found that exercising your facial muscles is good for it, since I started doing it I feel much more experessive. I also started flexing my tongue and using it to squish garbanzo beans against the roof of my mouth If I truly am not crazy and other people facialcize... What are your experiences or favorite exercises?

I'm doin great, school's out for summer so I am back home, it is real nice to see all my friends from back home. I also have a bit more free time now, (although I still need to find a summer job...) In any case I am starting to bike more and fueling up on lotsa good vegan food. I am on my own personal body transformation quest as well, still trying to get a bit leaner- I feel great, my fitness level is at an all time high strength-wise and cardiovascularly, but I still have a ways to go... I believe in vegan power!

Keep it up everybody!! it's inspiring to hear about rapidly improving fitness and healthy choices. Lookin real good + strong there Bigbwii.

I too have been trying to make sure I get lots of whole foods in my diet. Some whole foods that leave me pretty satisfied and the typical meals I eat them with are.. Breakfast: Oatmeal!! Lunch: Brown rice and beans (Ive taken a liking to garbanzo recently), with some soy sauce Dinner: A salad (a green leafy veggie, then whatever else:: more veggies and maybe some beans, seeds, and/or nuts, oil and vinegar as desired) Snacks and sides: Fruit, nuts, or peanut butter on whole grain bread, also veggies

It's awesome to hear about you competing Robert. How'd it go?

Hey pull ups are hard!~

Hehe this is a cool thread. You guys have some wicked veins. I'm surprised nobody posted a picture with the big vein on the outer side of the biceps, that is a thick vein. i've never been able to get mine to pop out tho.

What Gorilla said... If I eat a huge meal sometimes it will take me quite some hours till it's all gone, but I wouldn't say it's really hard to digest exactly. Also, if I eat a lot of peanut butter I know it's gonna take some time to make its way down into my guts.. but I don't have any difficulty getting it down there really if I give it time. However, if in the event I try to eat something before it's done digesting, especially something that wants quick passage like fruit, then I may have some digestive discomfort. I find it interesting what Shelby wrote.. I feel like the perceived trouble digesting those raw veggies and salad items may have something to do with all of the dietary insoluble fiber in them. You don't actually digest that fiber but it does take some time to empty out of your stomach. This could seem like digestive problems but it may just really be some good cleansing fiber action doin it's thing. Just my two cents. Cool thread by the way Robert, quite interesting.

Recently hamstring soreness and lower back soreness both of them make me feel like I been workin out good!

Just the other day I finished a jar of peanut butter in like four days, which I thought was pretty impressive. I ate it on bananas, in sandwiches, in protein shakes, I even drank it straight from the jar.

I'm always cold and it sucks.

I realized I never replied, so I just wanted to say thanks! I've learned a lot from this... both reinforing what I had already been hearing and how to apply it to my personal habits.

recently I've been digging clif bars even more... eatin like 4 various types (builder/luna/clif/mojo) at a time, it's intense.

I've read the sticky and other threads, some bodybuilding.com stuff too and just random articles. I was hoping someone would present some magic secret to leanness. The past couple weeks I've been doing cardio like 3-4 times a week, sometimes more, generally first thing in the morning. As far as my diet is concerned, I had been eating mostly fruitarian but recently I've recently been eating some cooked food like tofu and bean burgers, and builders bars.. cereal w/ soy milk + hemp protein, etc. I did get a little leaner on the fruitarian diet (I bet I have like 11% or thereabouts body fat), but I am still not cut like I want to be. I am liking the extra protein. Still, the thing is that I can never tell if I am in a fat loss state.. Generally I can assume I am first thing in the morning, especially after the cardio. Sometimes even after I eat fruit or something after that, I still feel like I am burning fat after that. Do you burn fat all the time or only like 3 hours after youve eaten? Does eating automatically cancel out your fat loss? Should I eat less often (still in small meals) or more often. Is snacking every 2 hours OK to still lose fat? At around 135 lbs (guestimate), I think somewhere between 1400 and 1800 calories would be good for losing fat. Or is that too much a deficit? Here is about what I ate yesterday: 1 cup oatmeal w/ soy milk - 250 Apple- 80 Banana – 100 Banana/date/chocolate balls~ 300 calories Small avocado – 100 Tofu + Soybean + Spinach (+a couple other veggies) Salad – 250 Halva – 300 Builder bar – 270 Total: 1650 calories A little low on protein, but I am still working on getting protein sources in my diet while maintaining a balance of raw fruits + veggies. Also, more fat than I would like. Overall, I think it was an OK day. I doubt I lost much fat, but i don't think I really gained any either.. Hmm... sorry that this became a journal entry. I guess I will have to keep a log. Lemme know if you have any input to anything, though.

Also, how important is a carb cut-off for getting to a low body fat?

I guess what I'm wondering is how do you keep yourself in that fat loss stage? How do you tell if you are burning fat or if you are gaining? I know that eating is important for muscle - but I don't know how much not eating you need to do to burn the fat... I am doing regular cardio... I am thinking maybe the cardio itself is all you need and then just eating sensibly will do the trick. I've never had an intense regular cardio regime before and I am hoping that in itself will help me do all the burning I need. Has anybody had good results with counting calories they couldn't get otherwise? I think sometime soon I may start doing that if I am not getting the results I want. It is hard to tell if the fat is coming off. I guess persistence is key. I hope I am not babbling, or beating a dead horse> I know "cutting" is talked about a lot but it is an important part of fitness, I figure new light can be shed on understanding continually because, you really never stop learning or growing.

I've seen L-Carnitine around and even took it once from a gym that sells "shots" of various supplements around... It seemed pretty nifty but I only used it once. I was just sort of curious if you guys are still using this and if it's produced any noteworthy effects.