BlueRose

Per month, approximate expenses for me: Two shipments of Boston Organic veggies with some bananas per month: ~$60 Trips to Whole Foods for my cats and for my bananas, pineapple, almond milk, veggie burgers, Daiya cheese, and occasionally chickpeas, black beans, salsa, and broccoli: ~100-150 I buy Vega Whole Meal Optimizer when it's on sale for about $60--and I get the large size. That's included in the WF estimation. Go to Farmer's Markets, buy non-perishables when they're in sale and in bulk. The above prices include enough food for myself and TWO cats per month.

Bananas are awesome. I have them for breakfast in my Vega drink and in my protein smoothies along with pineapple and brown rice protein powder.

OMG, replace my apples and PB- blasphemy lol. Nah I'll look into hummus. I've had it a fewtimes in my lifebut it's been a while. Advice on PB: don't get the kind that contains any additional ingredients listed beyond "peanuts". MAYBE salt. That eliminates about 99% of the gook and all you get is pure, peanut-y awesome. Additional points if you get to a place where the peanuts are ground and that's ALL YOU'RE EATING. That and just don't eat a ton of it, is all. It's so flavorful that what I do is heat up a little bit on bread and then it spreads around much better and I don't need more of it. I hate American food. They add CORN SYRUP to peanuts. Bread! Why does everything have to be so freakin' sweet? And people wonder why they can't break their sugar addictions. My only addictions are chocolate and red wine, and I consume those in extreme moderation.

It'd be fun! And thanks. We have a LOT of good stuff here! Depending on where you're at in Boston. Davis Square in Somerville (Boston suburb maybe 5-10 min from the city) has Pulse Cafe, which is AWESOME. Diesel Cafe, Blue T-Shirt, and Johnny D's also all have vegan options. Johnny D's has a separate vegetarian fryer, and if you go there for jazz brunch on Sunday and ask for the scramble meal to be made vegan, they will bring to you hash browns, toast, and tofu scramble. Cambridge has the Elephant Walk which has a separate vegetarian/vegan menu (I think it's ALL vegan but check there or online), Attis Red Sea is a lovely Ethiopian place that also has vegan options, Veggie Planet is vegetarian with vegan options and is also in Cambridge. Lizzie's Ice Cream is in Cambridge and Waltham, and has Tofutti ice cream and a listing of their toppings and what allergens they contain. In Boston proper, head to Chinatown to My Thai near the Theatre District. They are a vegan Asian restaurant and very, very good. In Allston there's Grasshopper, which is another vegan Asian place, and you MUST MUST MUST go to Peace o Pie a few doors down, which is an entirely vegan pizzeria. They use Daiya. <3 If you towards the North Shore and head into Beverly, there's the Organic Garden which is a raw vegan place. They also have a beer and wine menu. There's also Red Lentil and the Prana Cafe. I think Red Lentil is in Watertown and Prana Cafe in Newton. Prana Cafe I believe is a raw vegan joint, Red Lentil is another vegan place. We have another vegan restaurant opening up in Somerville soon but I forget what the name will be.

I've never prepared for a competition; I'm a long ways off from that. I'll be psyched once I finally fit into the remainder of my clothes again, but am happy that I'm actually starting to see muscle def in my upper arms and have some now in my abs....

For the love of the gods, WHY? Do you have a medical condition that necessitates the lowering of carbs and sugars? Seriously, you NEED healthy carbs. Do NOT start removing veggies and other healthy things in your diet. You won't lose weight; you'll have NO energy to work out and your body will go into starvation mode. Trust me on this one. Also, similar rant with fat. You need healthy fats in your diet: EVOO, avocado, et cetera. Unless you've had your gall bladder removed.... Everything in moderation, folks. Now I'm going to go bang my head on the wall and lament the conception of fad diets and misinformation about nutrition...

Today was Max Cardio Recovery. Loved it!!

Software engineer. I work out mostly in the evenings since I have the most energy then, but I do strength training and light yoga in the mornings if I can.

Morning: 20 min of leg lifts with ankle weights, bicep/tricep work Eve: Max Cardio Conditioning I actually LIKED this one. I hated the Plyo. D:

It's the one with side pushups, power jumps like whoa, power pushups...oi!

Max Interval Plyo after my chiro appt today to fix my back. Chiro = great Max Plyo = wtfdeathareyouKIDDINGme... but I did it

Quinoa, black beans, and salsa salad.

Yup! Been trying to add more healthy carbs to the mix: bought Ezedkiel bread, made quinoa/beans/and salsa salad...doing my best to be as creative as I can. Tonight I did Max Interval Circuit. O holy hell. XD

Okay! My fit test results: Switch Kicks: 82 -> 122 -> 150 (singles) Power Jacks: 43 -> 50 -> 56 Power Knees: 77 -> 95 -> 97 Power Jumps: 56 -> 59 -> 68 I managed to have perfect form for the FIRST TIME, then suffered halfway through with an asthma attack, had to stop, recover, then redo after a period of rest. Naturally I couldn't get my knees as high as I did to start. O well. Globe Jumps: 8 -> 10 -> 13 Suicide Jumps: 14 -> 19 -> 21 Push-Up Jacks: 12 -> 28 -> 40 (modified) Low Plank Oblique: 75 -> 93 -> 108 (singles) Tonight is Max Interval Circuit. O. Holy. Hell.

Awesome! The mixture is what I'm planning on for myself after my first round of Insanity is over. I start Month 2 today. Also, nice to meet a fellow BB enthusiast and neighbor.

Sat: 20 min of resistance band work, dumbbell deadlifts, tricep work Last Core Cardio and Balance exercise, and thus ended recovery week! I went to my sports massage therapist...VERY happy I had made that appointment and it was perfectly timed. I definitely needed some adjustments. Today's my rest day, going to spend it doing some stretching and light yoga.

Stairs rock! It's like city-fied hiking--Ha, ha! Baby Herc It totally is. Biggest pet peeve: seeing young, able-bodied people with no heavy bags on them just standing on the escalator going down. What the HELL folks? How lazy can you be?

+1 A story, if you will, of my beginnings of my fitness insanity when I began this year: Back in March, I came home after several days of rain with the intention of grabbing some stuff and getting back in the car to go to a friend's house. My neighbor stopped me. "You better check your basement," he told me. "Several people's basements on our streets have flooded and I'm pumping out mine now with a friend." Now when people think basement, they think storage. Mine had carpet. An elliptical. TV, VCR, DVD player. A shit load of books on shelves. Washer and dryer. And I had a ton of papers on the floor I was trying to reorganize before the weather insanity occurred. So I ran down there, and discovered the water was past my ankles. The carpet was rippling cause water had gotten underneath. Given its size we're talking a LOT of water. After shutting off the circuit breaker for the electricity down there and washer and dryer, I stopped and stared at my brand new Slim in 6 DVDs and resistance band. I had just started the program two days ago, had made a space down there to work out and everything. Then I began to calculate how much the damage would undoubtedly cost me. Given my savings account had already been burnt out during my unemployment the previous year and could already barely afford my bills, you can imagine how my mental state was at that point. I figured at that point given the severity of the situation, I had one of two options: 1) Indulge in a pint of Soy Delicious' awesome chocolate drenched in Santa Cruz chocolate syrup, nicely heated in the microwave, and wash it down in a bottle of wine. 2) Bring the exercise stuff upstairs, buy a mat from Whole Foods and a tv from Best Buy, and work my ass off. #2 was what won out. I am almost done paying off that tv, and believe me when I tell you during my worst moments of depression from various things in my personal life and stress due to finances, exercise was what kept me going. I sincerely do not know what I would've done without it. Every time I hear from people undergoing some sort of personal struggle or trauma I advise them to get physically active, work it out in exercise, and it's a win-win scenario: you get to fit into all your old clothes and at the end of it you feel vaguely sane. Anyhow, sorry for the tl;dr...but I just wanted to chime in and say yeah, that situation's more common than you may think. And if anyone would like to see what I did with my basement after most of my life, including yearbooks, first edition books, magazines, and what-not were tossed away, I will gladly show you. It's now my exercise room and it looks pretty damned good!

I take public trans and run up lots and lots of stairs, and it's about half a mile each way to and from the stop to my place of work. It's small but I tell people...it adds up over time. On occasion I can escape and go for a brisk walk around downtown for about 20 min or so, and that's good too.

How cool! That is where I am as well. Next week I start my recovery week. I am doing the insanity in addition to my regular weight training. It's awesome. Be prepared to be challenged and look like you took a dive in a swimming pool afterwards, but you do get results and damn, I feel great. Also don't be convinced by those who claim no strength training goes on; due to it I upped my dumbbells from 10 to 15 and can now do regular pushups.

Hmm...I get results from NEAT. Everybody's different. Just because they don't follow your exact path does not make theirs "BS." Baby Herc I'm just sayin', the idea that you're a slave to the cube is this universal barrier to fitness just ain't so. Maybe for some, but not for all--and the article is implying all.

VeganEssentials.com is squee. Which reminds me, I need to put in another order of Sheese garlic and herb cream cheese.

Standard day for me: 1st meal: 2 scoops chocolate Vega Whole Meal Optimizer, 1.25 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 banana, ice in a blender. 2nd meal: veggie burger, with or without Daiya cheese, either with salsa or mustard. 3rd meal: some form of veggie mixture, either a serving of my veggie casserole or a veggie wrap 4th meal: repeat of second 5th meal: Veggies with hummus 6th meal: protein smoothie: 1 banana, 1/4 cup pineapple, 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1 serving vanilla flavored brown rice protein powder, 1 serving vanilla flavored Vegan Protein, ice in a blender

I call BS. I'm a software engineer, spend LOTS of hours in front of the computer and still get results.

Soy Delicious awesome chocolate, and it's actually pretty low cal and lo fat, rather akin to frozen yogurt but tastes way better. You can do it!!! I once lost 100 lbs. Dedication, healthy diet, and exercise. GO! I'll be cheering you on. And welcome!