tebriel

Afaik, yes.

Wait, those shoes are made from PU Leather (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicast_leather) PolyUrathane Coated leather...am I missing something? (Not the chucks, the ones listed, I always lift in chucks.)

Thank you!

425lb here. Grip and rip. Man that's exciting.

I want in on this chart. I assume you want everything in kg, converted using google. BW 88.9kg DL 192.7kg Squat 156.5kg Bench 93kg

I'm doing starting strength right now. Multi-joint all the way. I do 3x a week MWF alternating A & B A: Squat, Bench, Clean B: Squat, Overhead Press, Deadlift

Server died again...Crap. Well, here, this one I'll just post straight to the forum. Been losing some weight and gaining muscle, that's progress

Did you join? What's your name on Fitocracy?

Hey, I didn't know where the best place to put this was, but I hope a lot of people see it. Fitocracy is kind of like a Role Playing Game, but for fitness, it's a lot of fun, has challenges to get you to try new exercises and rewards for reaching heavier lifts, it's fantastic. I've talked to one of the mods and he got me an Invite code that has 1,000 invites! I think it automatically drops you in the VeganBodyBuilding group that I created for it, but if not, join that too. This thing is great fun and everyone should give it a shot, you don't even have to create a new account if you have a FB or Twitter account, you can just log in with that. I'm tebriel on there, so hit me up if you join! Let's represent the vegan community everywhere we can. http://fitocracy.com/register/?invite_code=VEGANBB

That's amazing. What a beast!

I wash mine when I use them from the can, that liquid contains tons of sodium!!

Yeah, but aren't these non-natural BB competitions with all the steroids and such? Doesn't seem fair to compare yourself to a steroid user.

It is tough to keep going sometimes when you're discouraged, do you have specific size goals set? I was facing the same feeling you were, but I realized it was because I didn't have any way to accurately measure my results. I've started using a tape measure around my body to record and have set some goals for where I'd like to be in 6mo and 1yr. I don't know if that will help you, but it has made me feel a lot better about my progress.

I'll agree with this too. He just said that he was eating very little protein, but yes, lots of calories is a must as well!

Bump up your protein! If you're only eating "tiny amounts" of protein, you won't see major gains. Eat more beans (drink some Vega or other vegan protein drink), eat nuts (as long as you don't mind the fat content), etc. There are plenty of ways to get protein on a veg*an diet, but if you're barely getting any, expect small gains.

If you need food ideas, I really recommend the Veganomicon. It has a bunch of sides (both grain and veggie) and protein mains, so there's plenty of room for mix and match. The book is geared to everyone, from novice to expert, plenty of room for personalizing, great tips, and plenty of good one-pot-meal recipes (these are my fav). This is where the majority of my meals come from when I'm planning out the week!

wear a weighted belt all day and squat down as if you keep dropping something, people will just think you're clumsy lol

agreed! I had to stop eating this stuff, I was almost drinking it out of the bottle. It's very good!

Yes, it's a bit of a challenge at first, it's an addiction, those types of food. Your body seems to want those things as they're what it's used to. Once your body (fairly quickly) gets adjusted to having healthy foods, if/when you ever snack on something really unhealthy like that again, you won't enjoy it nearly as much as you remembered and you'll notice you don't feel very good after you eat. It was interesting at first for me to keep a log of what I ate and how I felt immediately and 1 hour after I ate that food. I noticed that when I at heavier, crappier things, I felt sluggish and crappy, when I ate healthier things, I felt much happier and energized. I recommend keeping a log like that, I'd look through a few pages before I'd eat something and it always compelled me to choose better foods!

I typically make a homemade balsamic vin (just balsamic vin, olive oil, pressed garlic, salt and pepper) or just rice vinegar and a bit of olive oil. I go very light, I love the taste of a bunch of fresh veggies mixed together, my salads are always short on lettuce and big on things like green peppers, onion, tomato, sprouts, cucumber, etc. I try to make a flax-oil dressing 2-3 times a week (just use it instead of olive oil) for the omega-3 benefits

I eat fresh fruits whenever I want a snack. I refrigerate apples, and love pineapple and watermelon when in season. I make lots of soy-milk smoothes (often with a Tbsp of peanut butter (the kind that is /just/ ground peanuts) ). I also find that if I'm craving some food, a Vega or similar meal replacement shake will fix that right up. I'm no longer hungry and I've filled my body with something nutritious as well! My other go-to snack is homemade hummus on a tortilla with fresh, crunch veggies (like cucumber, carrot, fresh dark lettuce, etc). I'll make a garlic tahini sauce and it's very delicious, though you have to be careful, store-bought hummus has a lot of oil in it, that's why I make my own. It's super simple to do.

I second this recommendation! I cook from this book 4-5 times a week and the rest of my meals are often from the co-others' other books. When you cook the beans/grains yourself you get to control how much salt and fat go into these foods, which can be beneficial if you're watching these things while cutting.

I shell out for a gym that is within jogging distance from my apartment because, well, that's awesome. My University offers memberships to alums for pretty cheap, but it's pretty out of the way for me, so I don't bother, even though it's the most awesome gym I've ever been to. Olympic size pool, whirlpools, sauna, whole floor devoted to weight lifting, another floor to resistance machines, 45 foot rock wall and bouldering gym, indoor track, multiple basketball courts (the list keeps going but you get the point). I miss that thing so much! Depending on your strength, I know you can pick up those interchangeable dumbbell sets (one handle with a bunch of different clip-on weights) on craigslist for cheap. Treadmills can be simulated with good 'ol fashioned outside running. I got a pull-up bar from my local sports store for $20. Barbells would be a bit harder, but if you have room and a few months to save you could probably score something cool on craigslist.

Haha my girlfriend showed me this the other day while I was making pad thai for dinner. We were both rocking out to it as I sauteed some tofu!

Negatives are how I learned, they're great, before I could do pull-ups I would just do negatives until failure.