VeganResistance

You have no doubt explored this, but have you seen an osteopath recently about your back? I find they are truely amazing, and might be able to help you with your sitting posture?

8 January 2012 My daughter is up for school holidays so getting to the gym will be hard over the next two weeks - back into bodyweight exercises. Overslept last night - around 10 hours. Had a big walk into the city, played on my daughters ripstick for a bit (those things are hard!), and had a good home workout: ~200 rope skips as warmup (until I hit my toes...) Pullups: 5-5-5-5-4 Pressups (knuckles): 5-5-10-10-10 Seat dips: 10-10-10-10-10 One legged squats: 5-5-5 Meal1: Bowl of fresh fruit, nuts, seeds; smoothie with rice milk, soy milk, hemp protein (3Tbs), cinnamon, 1 sml banana. Meal2: Pad Pak with white rice Meal3: 2x toast with avocado and tomato; L-Glutamine tablet; smoothie with banana, coconut cream and hemp protein (post workout) Meal4: Great salad, whole tempeh pattie, steamed potato and kumara, vege dumplings; soy ice cream with strawberries and dark chocolate. Snacks: Oat slice, fruits, raisins, nuts, Heh, half the 8 meals many people recommend. Hope I still manage to gain!

After what I've read in your book - if anyone can do it, you can! Work hard, but work smart and don't ruin yourself

7 January 2012 I have felt terrible all day today. Neighbours had a very loud party most of the night, and their back deck is metres from my bedroom window... Noise control were absolutely useless also. SO, today I have done a few pullups and that is it thus far - I do plan to bust out a few sets of pushups and handstands a wee bit later though. Eating has been good - massive breakfast of fruit, hemp, banana, soy smoothie and fried tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms of wholegrain toast. mmmmm Lunch was wholemeal pasta with homemade vege sauce. Dinner chickpea dish with brown rice. Snacks were fruit and nuts mostly. Had a soy mocha around mid day which made me feel much worse for the rest of the day. I look forward to a good sleep but can hear the neighbours starting up again :/

I made the tofu chard tart last night. Substituted the swiss chard for spinach and added a bit more garlic though. It was well received by my girlfriend and daughter, and I also loved it. Wicked effort dude

Yup, I' m an avid gardener, always trying to make use of the little good space I have. Presently have tomatos (much taller than me), spinach, sorrrel, kale, capsicums, herbs, strawberries, corn on the go in my 1x3m plot plus a few pots. I am also fortunate enough to have a couple of plum trees and a persimmon in the back yard. My dream is to buy out of city property with about 8 acres which I will spend my days developing into a permaculture heaven, plus a completely off the grid home.

You look like you're doing fantastically!

6 January 2012 I DID IT! Up at 5am to hit the gym before work. It felt great..... and then I got to work to find that someone had changed this weeks hours to start an hour later. Gah. But I had a good sit down with a spirulina. Sleep: 4.5 hours Weight: 70.9kg Gym: w/up rows: .786km @ setting 12 Bench: 20kgx25 40kg 8-8-6 Leg Press 20-20-20 Setting 9 BB Curl 20kgx15 25kg 9-8 (these were hard today!) dips x8 ultra wide pullups x3 Obviously lack of sleep is not great. Meal1: Tomato tahini sandwich in walnut wholemeal bread, soy + cacao with hemp protein Meal2: Lentil pie, banana, organic carrrot Meal3: chickpea curry, samosa, potato and bean curry Meal 4: I am about to make this - one of Vege's recipes! Yet to come: smoothie, fruit Snacks: Fruit, toast

5 January 2012 ~ 7.5 hours sleep. No workout today, just work which was at least enough to keep me quite active. After work I needed to do shopping and then do work for my gfs music which I manage and get the house sorted for my daughter staying tomorrow. The sun came out this afternoon! Meal1: Fruit, Nuts, Seeds, tahini, Hemp Seed Powder - first and last time I pile hemp seed over my fruit. ICK! Meal2: Leftover steamed spuds, kumara, chickpea salad, slice of wholegrain bread Meal3: Leftover tofu, black bean, vege dish Meal4: Mung Bean + kelp Salad, vege dumplings, tofu, seasonal veges. MASSIVE amount of food. Large amount of time between 3+4 unfortunately. Snacked but not really enough. Snacks: soy flat white, large soy with raw cacao, plums, bread, RAW bar. It is 11:46pm and I hoped to get up at 4:30am to get to the gym pre work. Sigh.

I don't know how we are ever to get our 8 hours Looks like we both have the struggle with that one. Best of luck with your workouts and busy days.

3 January 2012 No workouts today, my body was telling me to hold off for another day - lower back aching still and my thighs, well my thighs are popping up with muscles I never knew existed! I did do one set of chinups and 5ish hours of waterblasting. Meal1: Fruit, nuts, seeds, oats, soy milk Meal2: Leftover vege/black bean/tofu fry-up with wholegrain couscous Meal3: Banana soymilk smothie Meal4: 3x vege sausages, 2x slices bread, small amount of salad Meal5: Tomato sausage sauce with wholegrain spaghetti and avocado Snacks: Fresh fruit, chocolate soy milk, toast. 4 January 2012 Hit the gym after 6 hours of waterblasting (I WILL NEVER LOOK AT A PICNIC TABLE THE SAME AGAIN OMG!) Warm-up rows: .802km at setting 12 Bench: 20kg 20 (warmup) 30kg 15-9-10 (less than previous workouts but I worked all day..) Shoulder press - 7kg dumbells - standing x12. Then decided sitting was better, 15-16 Squat - 35kg warmup x20 - Then lost the squat rack to someone else (so much for alternating sets) Leg Press - Setting 8 - 18-16 BB Curl 25kg - 15-9-8 (THIS is a good achievement for me!) Some random end of workout trap pulls, followed by 10 mins of yoga Meal1: Fruit, nuts, seeds Meal2: 2x bananas, 1xcarrot, small amount of leftover vege sausage sauce with wholemeal pasta. Meal3: Falafel kebab wrap, 2x OSM bars Meal4: Smoothie with hemp protein, 2x bananas, apple juice and tahini. Meal5: About to make it Mashed steamed kumara and potato with steamed veges and a fresh garden salad with chickpeas. Snacks: Fruit, RAW bar. Weight: 70.7kg Sleep: Last night was about 7 hours.

Ohhh yeah! Good to see The recipes on the blog look amazing, I'm very keen to try the tart. A no oil/sugar/salt cookbook is a brilliant thing.

DevilsAdvocate, the B12 in Marmite is an added supplement, there are zero vegan food sources of B12 (as far as I am aware). sure, you could eat a whole bunch of Marmite, but personally I'd rather supplement - at least then I can control which form of B12 is being used.

Wow the training journals are going off big time! Very cool to see so many people getting into it 2 January 2012 No gym today, instead I waterblasted and moved picnic tables around for 6 hours at work, then came home and struggled with three sets of close grip pull-ups (8-5-4). I still believe that pull-ups are one of the greatest all-body workouts for me, though they can be extremely challenging sometimes! I snacked a lot today rather than having many meals. Meal1: Bowl of fresh fruit, nuts, seeds, tahini, oats, rice milk Meal2: Steamed veges, two wholegrain tomato and avocado sandwiches, a small container of leftover pasta bake from last night, banana. Meal3: Large plate of stir fry with heaps of veges, tofu, black beans with wholegrain couscous, garden greens and avocado Snacks: Muesli Bar, 1L Chocolate Soy Milk, Toast, Some others I cannot remember right now. Probably a smoothie later on. Oh, and my legs are reminding me that we have discovered squats and deadlifts recently! I'm sure I'll adapt soon And on a bit of a down side, my lower back has been aching, I believe as a result of poor squat technique a few days ago.

A great start to the new year! After yesterdays post I went to a New Years Party (after busting out 22 pushups before running out the door), came home at about 1am after a couple of drinks, did three sets of pull-ups (8-5-5) and ate a good snack. TODAY: Meal1 - Massive vegan benedict. Meal2 - Curries - chickpea, and saag aloo Meal3 - A huge helping of wholemeal pasta/brown lentil bake, some greens and a protein packed smoothie, plus an L-Glutamine tablet (this was post workout). Meal5 - 5 grain toast with plum jam, pumpkin curry and brown rice (last of the leftovers!) Snacks - a bunch of bananas, and plums from our tree plus a bunch of nuts and seeds. Also a small amount of chocolate and a soy hot chocolate. Gym - Had a massive workout but my figures are away in my gym back and I need to sleep. Started deadlifts and made great improvement on my squatting technique. I was extremely proud of my progress. MY WEIGHT! I had to weigh myself three times to believe it - 71.3kg - I have been trying to get over 70kg for AGES! I had made a plan to maintain 71kg by the end of Jan but am now bumping that upto 72kg. Had a couple of great ocean swims today and overall had a very good day. Peace out!

January 31 2011 - 9pm - End of year note! January 30 Hit the gym yesterday after 14 days of busy work followed by holidaying. Brought resistance bands on the holiday and kept up working out, although less intense and sitting in the car so much meant that by yesterday I was feeling blue and a little worn down. Bench - 20kg w/up x25. 30kg 16-11-10 Bent-over Dumbell Row - 17.5kg 20-14-12 Barbell Curl - 20kg 15-12-13 Dips - 10-8-7 Squats (I am so new to squats that my technique was poor, didn't go low enough and hence managed a much bigger weight than I should be squatting) - 20-16-16 Shoulder press 9kg 12 7kg 15-12 I am so new to lifting weights that I am still sussing out some of my weights, technique etc. But I am getting there, which is cool. Meal1 - Fresh fruit with nuts, seeds, tahini Meal2 - small soy flat white and an oat slice Meal3 - vegan salad bread roll Meal4 - Post workout - Smoothie with Soy protein, tahini, banana, rice milk, cinnamon, agave. L-Glutamine Tablet, Bowl of whole grain couscous with tomato chickpea dish and greens direct from the garden Meal5 - Pumpkin curry with brown rice Januray 31 (today) Meal1 - Fresh fruit with tahini, nuts, seeds, oats and rice milk with a slice of wholegrain toast spread with plum jam and tahini. Meal2 - potato Pea Risolle, Salad, fresh carrot/beetroot/celery/barley grass juice, date and almond balls Meal3 - really just a snack of a small amount of pumpkin curry leftovers and a chocolate nut ball. Meal4 - 5 vegan sausages in bread with some salad, and a small slice of cake. (NYE BBQ!) Meal5 - Yet to come! Just notice I seem to gravitate naturally to 5 meals. Todays workout was morning Kum Nye, one set of handstand pressups (still can't quite go a full motion rep). I am about to do some sets of pullups and pressups, and in about an hour a bit of a cycle.

What a great idea, and very generous too!

Awesome change! You look fantastically healthier Bodyrock.tv is awesome. I also got lots of home workout ideas from Ross Enamait.

If I'm using molasses, and dates too for that matter, I usually soak in warm water first. Dissolves the molasses, and softens the dates

Yeah boy! Dooo it! Looking forward to seeing your progress

Oh awesome tip about the hemp store, I'll head there very soon Hrm, the Safe shop up here sells vegan omega 3 from algae for a very good price. I don't use much supplementation outside of some protein, omega and b12. I don't know anybody down in Wellington who's into vegan bodybuilding sorry.

Yeah I use a lot of bodyweight, I have just recently joined the gym to add some more options and variety and I got a cheap deal. Way to go with bodyweight exercises. I'm moving the pistol squat and handstand push-up at the moment.

I've seen L-Glutamine mentioned a few times now in reference to strength training, but am generally weary of supplementation. What do you knowledgeable, experienced people have to say about it?

Booya! Been going strong with the bodyweight routines, resistance bands, and now rejoined the gym. No more shoulder pain! It only took almost a year.... So I've hit the gym twice this week so far, with home workouts in between, and am feeling damn good. I am up from last years levels which is great. I've got the upper body pretty sussed, and am getting into the squats, but lower body and core I'm not too sure about. Can anyone recommend some good weights workouts for these?

Hey VeganBod! Good progress dude Myself and Kumaramash are located in Auckland. I consider myself a slight fitness freak, without it being freaky (Surely those who let themselves descend into unhealthy lifestyles are the freaks?).