Adena

Oh, and I forgot to mention I always do cardio. I change it up a lot. I'm not really looking for any improvements there anyway, which is why I didn't add it in. Sometimes I just run at a steady pace for about half an hour, sometimes I do twenty minutes worth of sprints (minute sprints with a minute rest between) sometimes I just ride my bike or do bike sprints at the gym. Just kind of depends on my mood. But variety seems to keep it fun, and keep me from getting too much of a belly.

Hi, everyone! I'm pretty new to this forum so I thought I might as well start a training log on here. I don't know that I'll be able to update it every day, but I'll get in here as often as I can. My main goal is to get as strong as possible with as natural of a diet as possible. It's expensive, but I've really been trying to buy only organic food lately. The weight training program I'm currently doing is Jim Wendler's 5 / 3 / 1 which I'll illustrate. Basically it focuses on compound movements, heavy weights, low reps. I currently weigh about 125 lbs, and I am 5' 1". I'll probably gain weight, but I pretty much never step on a scale. I'm mostly looking for higher numbers on my squat, deadlift, and bench. This is a weird time to start my log because I'm in the middle of Week Four, which is a De-load week. So I'm doing significantly lighter weights than I can actually lift and it's a little boring, but it'll get really difficult again in about a week. The program goes in four week cycles. So I forgot to write anything down for Week One, so I'll just start with Week Two: Day One: Overhead Press 1x3x45 1x3x55 1x3x60 Five sets of dips and assisted chin-ups (didn't write down how many repetitions, but it's just assistance work anyway.) Day Two: Deadlift 1x3x110 1x3x125 1x3x140 Good Mornings and Hanging Leg Raises, five sets of each Day Three: Bench Press 1x3x65 1x3x75 1x3x85 Five sets of push-ups and dips Day Four: Squats 1x3x105 1x3x120 1x3x130 Leg Press 5x15 Leg Curl 5x10 I didn't write down the weights for my assistance exercises, sorry. Ok, Week Three: Day One: Overhead Press 1x5x50 1x3x55 1x1x65 Dips & Assisted Chin-Ups Day Two: Deadlifts 1x5x120 1x3x135 1x1x150 Good Mornings and Hanging Leg Raises Day Three: Bench Press 1x5x70 1x3x75 1x1x85 Bent-Over Rows & Push-Ups Day Four: Squats 1x5x110 1x3x125 1x1x140 Leg Press & Leg Curl And now, I am in the midst of De-Load week, where you intentionally lift quite a bit less than you are able. Week Four: Day One: Overhead Press 3x5x45 Dips & Assisted Chin-Ups Deadlifts 1x5x70 1x5x85 1x5x105 Good Mornings, Hanging Leg Raises, assorted ab work Sorry for all the wordiness, but I didn't want to be judged based on the super light weights I'm using this week, haha! Here's an example of a typical food fest in the life of Adena: Breakfast: oatmeal with peanut butter, milled flax seed, little bit of brown sugar or maple syrup, and a tofu scramble (about 1/2 a block) with various spices, light on the olive oil and salt Snack: carrot sticks and almonds Lunch: chickpea quinoa pilaf, sauteed broccoli and cauliflower Snack: hummus and a pita Supper: adzuki bean stew with kabocha squash, sauteed kale with garlic, smoothie made with about 1 cup of soy milk, 1 banana, some frozen strawberries, cinnamon and just a dash or two of ginger BUT...here's an example of my cheat day(s).... Breakfast: cinnamon rolls Lunch: leftover chickpea quinoa pilaf, sauteed broccoli and cauliflower Snack: peanut butter sandwich on homemade whole wheat bread Supper: whole grain pasta with homemade tomato and lentil sauce, oven braised leeks, some vegan truffles I ordered online for Valentine's Day I promise any further entries will be a shorter read. Haha.

I think an 8 minute mile sounds great! Nice work cutting your time in half!

Awesome! At work we had a health screening a few months ago, and I was definitely way healthier than anyone else...it wasn't really the same thing where they tracked nutrients, it was more of a fat and cholesterol thing. My HDL was high and LDL was low, unlike all those sedentary meat eaters. They gave us a questionnaire where we filled out how many servings of this or that we eat, and I got to put zero servings down for milk (they had that on there like it was its own food group), so hopefully that will go into some statistics somewhere and show that my teeth and bones are healthy without milk. There are still so many people who think you can only get calcium in milk. Sad.

Sounds interesting! I've been wanting to try making some kind of cheesy sauce without using soy. I've heard it can be done with nutritional yeast and cashews, but now I have an actual recipe. Thanks!

Really??! I just buy dried beans because they're way cheaper. So even if you buy canned chickpeas that are organic and all natural, they're still not as healthy as the dried ones? What do you mean by the antinutrient content? Do you have some sources I could look at?

You can do it! I know from my own experience that you can gain strength. I'm definitely a fan of free weights over machines, but you don't want to hurt yourself if you're not sure how to properly perform a squat or deadlift. Those are my two favorites. I'd recommend looking up videos of those lifts and adding them to your routine whenever you feel ready. Just start out with the bar only for a little while to make sure you're keeping your back straight and using proper form. But those are definitely two very powerful lifts that will strengthen your core. Also, I've been vegan for seven years and I've kind of been off and on with the lifting, but the last time I stuck to it for a few months at a time, I gained about 30 pounds and went from squatting about 65 to about 155, my bench went from 65 to 135, and my deadlift went up to 175 (can't remember what I started out at) and I weigh about 125. So I think that's pretty good. Welcome to the forum! I hope you find it informative and encouraging.

Oh yeah, my boyfriend got me The Kind Diet for Christmas and I forgot to mention that. I've already tried out some of the recipes, and they're actually pretty good. I probably would never have tried kabocha squash before I had this book. The black soybean with kabocha squash stew is pretty good. I've also made the adzuki bean with kabocha squash stew a couple of times because I like it so much, and the lentil stew with yams. I don't remember the exact titles, but those recipes are all pretty good and very healthy, as near as I can tell. I tend to throw in twice as many legumes as she says and not use quite as much water.

Oh yeah, I own that book too....I make a few things from it sometimes. I like this thing with rice, lentils, tomatoes, and onions, and then you're supposed to make a butter sauce...it's just fine with olive oil, fresh mint leaves, and black pepper though. I used to make that all the time. Filling and cheap!

Ok, my usual daily diet is not quite as health conscious as the rest of you, but I'm working on it. I also need more calories in general because I'm trying to power lift and I need MORE POWER! Haha. Ok: Breakfast: large helping of oatmeal with peanut butter, milled flaxseed, and brown sugar, because I'm sooo healthy... Snack: Carrot sticks and almonds, or a piece of fruit and almonds Lunch: something based on whole grains and legums with a side of veggies. Today It was my attempt at Indian influenced stuff. So I had quinoa with chickpeas, and kind of Indian-ish spices, and plain brussels sprouts on the side. Snack: Peanut butter sandwich on homemade whole wheat bread Supper: Haven't decided yet, but again kind of a repeat of lunch, with a lot of emphasis on whole grains, legumes, and veggies. Probably a soy milk smoothie with fruit, cinnamon, and ginger, and NO SUGAR, FATTIE. Yeah. That's me talking to myself.

Did you know that there's a ton of selenium in Brazil nuts? Like, you should only eat one Brazil nut a day and consider it your "selenium supplement;" any more and you might OD!

Have you ever read Jack Norris' blog? He is a registered dietician and I think the president or founder or cofounder or something of Vegan Outreach. I know he has an article in there on soy and links to other articles regarding medical research. Most of the research that has been done apparently has been performed by injecting megadoses of soy into animals. That's not even remotely close to a normal human eating a little tofu and having some soy milk now and then.

Are you doing any cardio?

Yeah, I usually just use less oil than they say and add some water.

I've been trying to figure this out too. It depends on the recipe, but sometimes you really can't just replace a liquid (brown rice syrup, agave nectar, maple syrup) for sugar. It totally messes up the texture. I've used evaporated cane juice, but I'm really not happy with that since basically, sugar is sugar and it's all bad for you. I think brown rice syrup and maple syrup would be just as bad for me, and agave nectar still doesn't work very well in baking when the recipe calls for regular sugar because it comes out too liquidy. I'm also pretty nervous about using standard artificial sweeteners since I'm trying to have only natural, whole foods. I'm so frustrated! I guess I just don't get too have desserts anymore. Except on cheat day.

Cardamom is actually pretty hard to find in the US. Really? I see cardamom everywhere. Do you mean cardamom pods, or ground cardamom? I usually see ground cardamom in the baking/spice aisle of any grocery store, but cardamom pods I've only seen once at an Indian grocery store.

I'm definitely an Isa & Terry fan. I love Veganomicon, Vegan With a Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, and Vegan Brunch. The thing is, I'm looking for more ideas for healthier recipes...not that those books don't have some healthy recipes, but I would like more cookbooks that have JUST healthy recipes. Thanks for sharing some of the titles you use, everybody!

Cashews sound like a good snack. I love snacking on almonds, cashews, and peanuts. Um, the first thing that comes to mind for me is replacing rice with quinoa in your meals. I guess I don't know what kind of meals you cook, but a lot of people use rice often, and if you replace it with quinoa it will give you more protein, amino acids, and other nutrients. There's a chickpea quinoa pilaf in Veganomicon that I love. You could add more oil to your sauteed veggies, and put more flax seed in your smoothies and on your cereal or soups or what have you.

There are pre-made vegan meal replacement bars and protein bars that you can usually find just about anywhere, like Clif bars and Luna bars. (I think those are all vegan.) If you just need to replace milk in your recipes, you could try soy milk, rice milk, almond milk, or hemp milk. Usually I find that soy milk works best in baking recipes, though. If you need to replace butter, use Earth Balance, if you can find it. Also, you could try canola oil.

I agree with pretty much everyone on here so far. I'm a pretty small girl, and when I did a 5x5 program for eight weeks I gained about 20 pounds. Not in a bad way. I looked about as toned as before, but I'm not actually striving to be a bodybuilder. I'm more interested in powerlifting. Anyway, I stuffed myself (in a healthy way) and focused on compound lifts. I think you need to eat more complex carbs, proteins, and healthy fats. It actually doesn't sound like you eat very much. Also, the compound lifts are key. Focus on bench, squats, deadlifts, and overhead presses. Oh, and I weigh a little more than you now and I'm 5'1". Keep trying. I know from my own experience that you can gain some muscle mass!

Do you post on the ppk? I recognize that screen name!

Thanks, guys! One other thing that helps if you just miss the taste of coffee is Teeccino, but it's really expensive. So for now, I just have green tea in the mornings and coffee on the weekends. I figure two days out of seven isn't too bad. So I forgot to post a little bit about what my training schedule looks like. Right now I'm doing Jim Wendler's 5 / 3 / 1. You can read more about that here: http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/how_to_build_pure_strength Before that I did Bill Starr's 5x5, which I can't find an article to explain, but it's basically a good beginner program, with lots of emphasis on the key compound lifts: bench press, squats, and deadlifts. A lot of repetition helps you to get your form where it should be.

Here are some of my easy to make things that don't require a cookbook: Black bean and potato burritos Basically, chop up some potatoes and boil them for about 20 minutes (this would be healthier with sweet potatoes or yams), and sautee chopped onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers in canola or olive oil in a skillet on medium heat. Then add canned black beans and the potatoes, or for crispier potatoes you can fry them in a separate skillet. Add good burrito spices, hot peppers, whatever. Put them in whole wheat tortillas. Lentil stew In a big stock pot, dump some vegetable broth, chopped onions, carrots, whole wheat noodles, dried lentils, and good soup spices like bay leaves, garlic, thyme, etc. Let it cook for at least 20 minutes. Or you can always just buy lots of veggie burgers, hummus and pita bread, and stuff like that to tide you over while you're learning how to cook vegan. I'm not sure where your cooking skills lie. Some of my favorite cookbooks are Veganomicon, Vegan With A Vengeance, and anything else Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero came up with. They have a website at www.theppk.com and sometimes people post recipes. You can also check out www.vegcooking.com and www.vegweb.com for more recipes.

Hi everyone. My name is Adena. I'm 29 years old and I have been vegan for seven years. I flirted with powerlifting about two years ago and then lost my job and couldn't afford a gym membership anymore, then recently at my new job I got fitness reimbursement so I could once again afford a gym. Aaaanyway...I'm definitely a beginner at this powerlifting thing, but it has been fun and rewarding so far. I'm currently making noob gains, but I recently passed my short term goal of being able to squat and deadlift over my bodyweight. Hopefully sometime soon my bench will get better. I'm trying to do this on a much healtheir, more natural diet these days. Even though it's more expensive, I've been buying only organic food for quite a while. Here's a typical example of my daily diet: Breakfast: oatmeal with applesauce, bananas, blueberries and maybe a little soymilk; green tea Snack: almonds and carrot sticks Lunch: lentil stew with yams, coconut milk, curry, ginger, and all that good stuff; broccoli Snack: toast with peanut butter Supper: chickpea and spinach stir fry over brown rice; rooibos tea I'm trying to have sugar and coffee only on the weekends for now. I miss it, but it hasn't been that bad. Also, I know I don't eat much for a powerlifter, but I only weigh 124 and I'm 5'1" soooo.. yeah. Definitely a beginner. I shudder to think how much I'll be spending on groceries when I put on some weight!