michaelhobson

While I get along well with most people I meet, I wouldn't want to have an intimate relationship with a meat eater. Veganism is not a casual thing for me, it is right up there with not being a canibal! Would you date a canibal? For me it's not really different, more socially acceptable but not different. I think alcohol is okay in moderation. Personally, I chose not to drink for most of my life until I was 30. Now I drink occassionally. I don't think it is nearly the moral issue that taking lives to pleasure the taste buds is. Smoking on the other hand is like a dirrect assault! Someone may as well stroll over and stick poison up my nose as smoke! Smoking brings out my evil side. I just want to smack people in the head and ask them why they are so stupid.

There are plenty of cheap clean calories out there. Beans and rice is the standard of course. A peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat and a couple of glasses of soymilk. A box of taco shells and a can of refried beans. Nature's burger mix from Fantastic Foods is only a couple of bucks and makes about 8 burgers as opposed to Boca Burgers or Gardenburgers at about a dollar each. Bulk nuts can be pretty cheap with loads of calories.

DOMS - Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is pretty common. I don't know if I would call it a good thing, but it isn't anything to worry about. The soreness is very different from an injury. For most people DOMS is only noticeable in the first few weeks of training or after a break. Within a few weeks your body should adapt to your new routine and DOMS will be greatly diminished or completely gone.

It is possible. Veganfitness.net uses this same software and just upgraded or added on a photo gallery section. Of course this site is only a couple of weeks old, so Rob may not be ready for an upgrade yet. In the meantime you can drop your pics on a site like photobucket.com and link them in to your post. This is how folks over at veganfitness did it until last months upgrades.

Hi Ash, we keep bumping in to each other on the web. I love beans and rice in just about any combination. One of my favorite quick meals is the vegetarian burrito from Chipotle. Have you eaten there? Their chips and salsa are good too! Lissa, we also make our own whole wheat pizzas. The bread machine hardly gets used for anything else, just 2 cups ww flour, a cup of warm water, packet of yeast , T oil and tsp salt. Last week we made a more traditional pizza with red sauce and a new vegan cheese. It was very good, can't remember the name of the cheese now. The tofu sauteed with garlic is a good idea too, we have done that one a few times. YUM!

I took ZMA a few years ago and it seemed like a nice boost. I'm thinking of trying it again. Any thoughts on this product, how it works, if it works, food sources for the same effect? Nitric Oxide seems to be getting a lot of hype in the marketplace. Is this stuff worth trying or just another moneymaker? Currently the only sups I use are creatine, rice protein and glucosamine.

My favorite vegan rag is Herbivore magazine. http://www.herbivoreclothing.com/magazine.page.html They had a feature article on Brendan Brazier in the last issue. I'm not much of a writer, but I'm thinking of submitting an article on this summers Vegan Fitness Week in the UK.

Looks like a good plan Riley. You may need to up your calories in the coming weeks as you get settled in to your routine. Lifting weights and building muscle takes a lot of energy. I usually eat 3500+ when trying to gain. Also, make sure you don't cut your fat intake too low and include a source of essential fatty acids such as flaxseed oil. As you gain some confidence with the weights, you may want to add some heavy compound lifts such as deadlifts or squats. Both are great whole body workouts and mass builders!

Hi Melissa, Welcome to the board and thanks for sharing your story. There are many competitive vegan athletes in all different areas. Rob is a first-class example! Definitely give veganbodybuilding.com a thorough read, lots of great info hidden in there. I expecially enjoy the success stories and contest winners. If you still need more help or inspiration, check out a couple of my other favorite sites www.veganfitness.net and www.veganbodybuilding.org Good luck and keep us posted.!

So far today... Cup of orange juice with 40g rice protein and 3g creatine. Banana Choc Chip Clif Bar 1 can Progresso Lentil soup 40g rice protein and 7g creatine - half before workout/half after Another Banana Big size boca burger on whole wheat with mustard and ketchup. Have another Clif bar and an apple with me. Haven't thought about dinner yet?

I use rice protein, usually about 50 grams daily. Also creatine in cycles of 3-6 weeks followed by a 2-3 weeks off, 5-10 grams daily. B12 a few times per week. Just started using vegan glucosamine to see if it helps my joints any. That's all for supliments, although I frequently use fortified products like clif bars and silk soymilk.

Builder Bars are pretty good Bobby and 20 grams of protein!

No triathlons on the horizon. I did two sprints last summer, but traded it in for getting huge this winter. Honestly I'm a bit tired of the powerlifting thing now and will probably switch back to a bodybuilding routine after June's vegan powerlifting event in England. Time to shred some fat and see what I've been working for. I don't really think I have the ability to be a competitive athlete. I don't mind a little friendly competition, but my goals are usually personal. I also have some physical problems that will always be with me, namely Ankylosing Spondylitis which affects all of my lower joints and back. It's really kicking my ass right now attacking my hips. I can't squat or ride my bike most days. No problem though, it's a good time to work on my bench press.

Breakfast - Smoothie 1 cup Silk soymilk enhanced with flax oil for Omega 3s One Orange One Banana 5 grams creatine 40 grams Nutribiotic Rice Protein Lunch Bag - Kind of light today, but I will be going out at lunch as today is not a training day. Usually spend my lunch hour at the gym 3-4 days per week. About a pound of leftover mexican casserole made of corn tortillas, refried beans, fried potatos and onions, tofu and enchilada sauce. Cliff Bar, Carrot Cake flavor Two Bananas 320z. Soymilk Will probably grab a vegan chicken salad sandwich at the local health food store on my break. On a typical day add a couple of bagels or peanut butter and Jelly on whole wheat, another Cliff bar and more leftovers. Dinner tonight will be out with my girlfriend. We are trying to decide between our favorite Thai place or the new Vegan Chinese restaurant with the all you can eat buffet! Damn I love that place! Started bulking in October 2004 at 205 pounds, currently 242 with a goal of 250. Nice to see that goal so close now. Then comes the hard part of shedding all the extra fat. Oh well, there is a lot of new muscle to help with that.

Thanks Kollision. 405 bench press! You must be a monster.

I know what you mean Rob. I have had co-workers approach me and say "I thought you were a vegetarian" or "oh, so you eat chicken." I have sometimes wondered what others are thinking, but just didn't say anything. But I work for a small company, less than 30 people, I think everyone knows by now I don't eat meat. I have worked here 4 years. If anyone says anything, I just use it as an opportunity to introduce them to a new food they may not have realized even existed.

Thanks for the new forum Rob. I am sure things will pick up. I was a bit confused at first. I was reading in the old forum about the new forum. I was thinking, "hm, this looks just like the old forum." It of course was the old forum and then I found the link here. You may want to take the old forum off of your home page when you get a chance and put an ad of sorts for this new forum. Just a suggestion. Thanks for doing this at all. I'm sure it will be a success regardless.

Thanks Rob. I have gotten a lot stonger, but I'm not at all strong for my size. It's nice to do new things that keep me interested in going to the gym every day. Powerlifting has been a lot of fun, especially a little friendly competition with some guys from vegan fitness. Can't wait to meet them in England next month! As I mentioned in another post, your quads are huge and ripped. Amazing that you accomplished most of that with bodyweight squats etc. I am always fascinated with how the body responds to different stimulus and diet. PS I like to wear my vegan bodybuilding shirt when doing those 400+ pound deadlifts.

New dinosaur caught in the act Discovery shows transition from carnivore to vegetarian http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/TECH/science/05/04/dinosaur.diet.ap/dinosaur.jpg (AP) -- Scientists have caught a dinosaur in the act of evolving from meat-eater to vegetarian. The two-legged, feathered creature ate plants, but its bones show that the transition from its carnivorous ancestors was still in progress. All plant-eating dinosaurs were ultimately descended from a meat-eater, and switchovers to plant-eating occurred several times. The newly discovered species, which lived 125 million years ago in what is now Utah, could help scientists understand details of how the changeovers took place. It's "our first really good case of a dinosaur in the midst of shifting from the meat-eating body to a plant-eating one," said an expert not involved in the discovery, Thomas R. Holtz Jr. of the University of Maryland. "It's definitely eating a substantial amount of plants, [but] we still see the original imprint of meat-eating upon it." The creature, with 5-inch claws on its outsized hands, measured some 12 feet from its snout to the tip of its long skinny tail. It stood just over 3 feet tall at the hip and could apparently reach about five feet off the ground with its long neck to munch leaves or fruit, said Utah state paleontologist James Kirkland. He describes the creature in Thursday's issue of the British journal Nature with Lindsay Zanno and Scott Sampson of the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah, among others. They dubbed it Falcarius utahensis. Bones from hundreds or maybe thousands of these dinosaurs were discovered at a two-acre dig site in east-central Utah, south of the town of Green River. Nobody knows why they gathered there or what killed them, Kirkland said. But analysis revealed that Falcarius was the earliest known member of a bizarre-looking group of plant-eaters called therizinosaurs (pronounced THAY-rih-ZY-no-sores.) Found mostly in Asia, the barrel-bodied creatures waddled upright like Godzilla or "a pot-bellied bear," Kirkland said. Falcarius, very early in its evolution into the therizinosaur body type, retained the rather horizontal posture and built-for-speed legs of its meat-eating ancestors. But it had already lost the flattened and serrated teeth used to tear meat and acquired the smaller, more densely packed teeth of a vegetarian, Zanno said. It also showed some change toward the larger gut needed to digest plant material rather than meat, as well as a lengthened neck and smaller head associated with eating plants, she said. Holtz said Falcarius still had fairly slender proportions overall rather than the barrel body of later therizinosaurs. "This one could probably move fairly quickly," he said, whereas its more evolved relatives "would have had problems hunting things faster than a tree." Kirkland and Zanno said they suspect Falcarius probably ate some meat in addition to plants. "I wouldn't doubt this thing would eat a lizard or two in a pinch," Kirkland said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2001964629_hiphopvegan25.html Hip-hop artists spread word on vegetarian, vegan diets in black community By Leslie Fulbright Seattle Times Eastside bureau JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2004/06/24/2001964216.jpg The Jamaican Spice Tofu Sub, with tomatoes, fried tofu slices, grilled onions and vegan mayonnaise sauce, is among the menu items at Hillside Quickies Vegan Sandwich Shop. There are some hip-hop artists who don't drink Tanqueray and Alizé and want no part of the late-night trips to the BK. Take the socially conscious rap duo Dead Prez, whose song "Be Healthy" includes the lyrics: "I don't eat meat, no dairy, no sweets — only ripe vegetables, fresh fruit and whole wheat." In recent years, hip-hop artists have started publicly denouncing the unhealthy diets some of their counterparts have long embraced. They are pushing the benefits of holistic health in the black community, where high blood pressure and cholesterol are common problems. Singer Erykah Badu, an active promoter of the vegan lifestyle, has been known to stop by Seattle's Hillside Quickies Vegan Sandwich Shop, where the Howell family serves up Tempehstrami Subs and Macaroni and Yease to the tune of hip-hop, dance hall and reggae. "We get a lot of artists that come through here," said Ayinde Howell, a 25-year-old vegan and local rapper/poet, "the ones who take care of their bodies." Hillside Quickies Vegan Sandwich Shop Address: 4106 Brooklyn Ave. N.E., Seattle Phone: 206-632-3037 Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday Menu sample: Tofustrami Sub (thin-sliced Tofustrami, potato salad, tomatoes, grilled onions, sweet and spicy cole slaw and vegan mayo), $6.99 The Flaming BBQ Burger (smoked tofu, simmered in natural barbecue sauce, potato salad with raw onions and yellow mustard), $6.60 The Tofu Thingee (thin-sliced smoked tofu, tomatoes, lettuce, green and red cabbage, carrots, grilled onions, vegan mayo on very thin bread), $6.99 The low-key vegan/soul-food cafe in the University District has hosted the likes of The Roots, Saul Williams, Black Anger, Blackalicious and the Lifesavas. Howell opened the business five years ago, inspired by his mother, who has prepared wholesale vegan foods for years. Howell began working for his mother as a teenager, delivering vegan products to stores from Olympia to Everett. Sister Afi, 29, came to help a couple years ago at Quickies, where she now handles all of the vegan desserts, including cookies, cakes, pies, bars and vegan soy cream. "There has always been cooking going on in our family," Ayinde Howell said, "so we may as well make money." Seattle has strong vegan and hip-hop communities, and Howell is part of both. They don't often intersect. "Hip-hop is largely black people and black people are not largely vegans," Howell said. "With hip-hop, there is a little bit of machismo, so 'Save the Animals' is not the most popular slogan. "But now that the big artists are coming out, they are having some influence." At the forefront is rap mogul and entrepreneur Russell Simmons, a strict vegan who is active in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Simmons has, among other things, signed on to PETA's anti-fur ad in Women's Wear Daily, recorded a radio public service announcement promoting vegetarianism and participated in the PETA Celebrity Cookbook. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2004/06/24/2001964219.jpg Ayinde Howell, 25, has been a lifelong vegan and owns the U District vegan sandwich shop Hillside Quickies. The late Notorious B.I.G., who famously indulged in "T-bone steak, cheese, eggs and Welch's grape" in his classic single, "Big Poppa" — and evidenced by his hefty frame — is probably rolling in his grave. But the benefits of going veggie are taking root. A recently released DVD, "Holistic Wellness for the Hip-Hop Generation," speaks to young people about diet and health. Created by filmmaker Supa Nova Slom, the 110-minute documentary features appearances by artists Badu, rapper Common and Stic.man from Dead Prez. Meanwhile, vegetarianism is gaining popularity not only in hip-hop but in black communities across the nation. An informal survey of African-American vegetarians on the Web site www.blackvegetarians.org reveals that the top three reasons given for eliminating meat are health (34 percent), ethical reasons (14 percent) and spiritual or religious reasons (12 percent). Such conversions are changing the look of soul-food restaurants that are now trying to accommodate nonmeat eaters. Similar vegetarian soul-food restaurants are popping up across the country, and Simmons reportedly has plans to open a vegan soul food restaurant in New York. Vegans like Common, Outkast's Andre 3000 and Badu are spotlighting what could become a movement for young people. Common, who also did an ad for PETA, has said he doesn't want to take away animal lives. "It's not where my heart is," he told Ebony magazine. "To the hip-hop community I say, 'If you eat better, you live better and feel better.' " http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2004/06/24/2001964222.jpg Afi Howell, 29, shown serving up a bowl of pasta salad at Hillside Quickies, handles the vegan sandwich shop's desserts, including cookies, cakes, pies, bars and vegan soy cream. Howell, of Hillside Quickies, says bad diets are an epidemic in the black community and are at least partly to blame for diseases including cancer, arthritis, asthma, obesity and diabetes. Nearly 75 percent of African Americans are lactose intolerant and a third suffer from hypertension. Howell hopes hip-hop artists can deliver that message to their listeners. "Russell Simmons is doing a lot of different things on many fronts," he said. "If he can help people see they need to eat healthy, and do it with hip-hop, more power to him." As the youngest of three, Howell says his parents' "hippie stuff" started with him. He was born and raised a Rastafarian in Tacoma, but still has roots and relatives in the South. Though his parents are heavily involved in the religion, which promotes living naturally and not eating animals, Howell says it's not easy telling his Southern relatives that he doesn't want any chicken or ribs.

I spent last summer training for triathlons and slimmed down to 205 pounds. I was looking for something to do over the winter when I started reading veganfitness.net and became interested in powerlifting. My lifts still aren't great, but are getting better. I am happy with my progress in only 4-5 months of training and have gained 35 pounds bodyweight. I'll give my best lifts when I started in December and my current maximums in pounds. December - Current Squat - 275 - 345 Bench - 185 - 225 Deadlift - 275 - 435 Total - 735 - 1005 Bodyweight - 205 - 240