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And that's why I enjoyed your food when I was out there. Aww, thanks. It's the best way to prepare food.

Welcome, Bockman! I will be starting my first attempt at serious bulking next month. I can tell you what my trainer's plan is for me and the reasoning behind it. We'll be training with more weight, less reps and to failure on each exercise. It will be mostly compound exercises. No training session will go beyond 60 minutes and I'll cut down my cardio to no more than 3 times per week (30-45 minutes). Compound exercises are best at building bulk and too much cardio will work against you. I'll sleep at least 7 hours per night, 8 if possible. This is key, as muscle grows during your down time and certain stress hormones (especially cortisol) can keep you from building. These hormones remain elevated if you don't get enough sleep. Eating may be different for me than for you. I'm looking to put on 1 pound of muscle per week with little fat. I'll only add 500 calories per day. I have a difficult time putting on muscle and find that I need at least 100 grams of protein per day to do so. I am 178 cm and 63 kg so I believe you would need the same amount of protein, but possibly more. I'll also be eating carbs and protein immediately following my training sessions. And I'll spread my food intake evenly over the day, eating every 3 hours (carbs and protein in every meal). Spreading out your eating means your muscles are always being fed and there are no excessive periods of caloric intake that will be stored as fat. That's my plan and we won't know how well it works until I do it. I will definitely keep a journal and will change the plan if nothing happens in the first 2 weeks. I find a journal to be invaluable if you don't want to waste time doing the same ineffective plan. I assume you're male so you may be able to put on more muscle than I (I'm female) considering your testosterone levels. From what I've read on this forum, you may need to eat a LOT more than usual in order to bulk up. I'm sure someone else will jump in here and give you some advice and encouragement soon. Good luck. I hope we hear about your progress.

Hi Health Freak, I am so sorry you had Youth Osteoarthritis. The only positive is that it wasn't rheumatoid arthritis. Considering your long bedrest and the type of physical activity you've had, it is most certain you've lost some of your muscle mass. In my opinion, and others, it is almost impossible to put on any substantial muscle mass without weight training. Even if you manage to lose the last pounds of fat that are making your appearance soft, you may find that your lean mass is so small you would be too thin, so adding muscle is important. Additionally, losing that fat may be extremely difficult without increasing your metabolism by increasing muscle mass. A sports medicine or rehabilitation trainer can help you to do weight bearing exercises within your capability. An added bonus is that weight bearing exercises will help you avoid osteoporosis, of which you are at risk, and help to strengthen the ligaments around your arthritic joints. To answer another question, any aerobic exercise that will burn calories. Losing your "flabbyness" is simply eating a bit less (ie, 250-500 calories) and burning more (ie, 250-500 calories) per day for a 1 to 2 pound weight loss per week. Losing any more than that means that you are either losing water weight, or muscle mass (very bad) so don't go for more than 1 to 2 pounds of loss per week. Measuring your body fat percentage, rather than your weight, is the only way to know what you are actually losing. You can body build without powders or substances. Many on this forum do that. For raw food advice, you can look in that section on this forum and others. Good luck with your goals. You've done an amazing job of reaching them so far.

The sprouts don't have to be in a flat pan. I recently sprouted wheat and barley in a big bowl. You just have to make sure they're rinsed often and do not sit in water - easier to do in a colander. When I make buckwheat granola, I just add whatever comes to mind really. Sweeteners include soaked, pureed dates or agave (or maple syrup if you don't mind that it's not raw). The more you add, the longer it will take to dry. Flavorings include carob, cocoa, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, cloves, allspice, ginger, etc. I don't measure anything but just go by taste.

Anti-anxiety meds and anti-depressants are notorious for screwing up metabolism! Sorry you had to deal with that but glad you're going off them. It sounds as though you've figured out what works for you to some extent. The only suggestion I have is to change the amount of calories every few days so that you don't reset your metabolism to become efficient at only 1500 calories per day. Also, try to track your body fat percentage so that you know you're not losing muscle mass. You may have to lose a bit more fat before this will be very accurate however. You could certainly look awesome in January if you work hard at it now. Good luck!!

I try to make it a weekend project. I have gotten my soaking/sprouting information from various raw foods prep books and a book on sprouting. Here's the info from the book "Sprouts" by Kathleen O'Bannon, CNC: Soak Buckwheat (hulled, the unhulled is for wheatgrass) for 6 hours, no longer. Sprouting time is 1-2 days. For best results, rinse every 30 minutes for the first few hours. 1 cup dried should yield 2 cups sprouted. I then dehydrate it for however many hours it takes to get it crunchy. I'm sure you could eat it sprouted but if you're going to make granola or store it for longer than a few days you will need to dehydrate it. There are different recipes for dehydrated buckwheat granola and I've tried it various ways. I've also added nutritional yeast and salt for a savory "popcorn" like snack (dehydrated). Hope that helped.

I tend to triple or quadruple recipes when I'm using the dehydrator so I might use different containers than some for sprouting buckwheat. Here's my method: Soak the buckwheat in water for 6 hours. RINSE WELL with lots of water. Put in colander inside a larger bowl and cover with a towel to keep out light. RINSE WELL every 6 hours or more often if the weather is very warm. Do this for 48 hours and your should have lovely buckwheat sprouts. If you have sprouted other grains then be prepared for something a bit different with buckwheat. Rinsing well can't be stressed enough. Otherwise, you'll have a slimy coating on your sprouts and the granola won't turn out quite right.

I'll add to what FormicaLinoleum said. You need to know about how many calories you burn on a normal day in order to decrease your calories by 500 (or more for very short periods, never more than 3 days). That's the starting point. In order to lose only fat and not muscle, you also need to spread out your calories throughout the day, eating approximately 300 calories every 3 hours. Make sure to eat breakfast and try to spread out your protein as well. Cutting your calories more than 500 (or possibly 800 for 3 days MAX) will change your metabolism for the worse and keep you from getting all the micronutrients you need. Burning more calories per day is the only healthy way to change your calorie intake vs. output more than that. Aim for 30 - 45 minutes of cardio a day at this point and lift weights as well. Keeping a journal of caloric intake, weightlifting and cardio is key. If you want to spend the money, there is an e-book you can purchase called "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" (can't remember the author but you can google it) that gives one of the best explanations of how we burn fat that I've read for the lay person. He makes an important point about how, unless you are fairly obese, you cannot lose more than 1% of your body weight per week (or 2 lb. max) without losing muscle with it. He also gives a great description of the reason why you can put on a very small amount of muscle during a fat loss cycle, but not much. It's great that you know you need to lose fat and not just weight. Keeping track of your body fat percentage is very important. Depending on how much lean body mass you have, you may not be able to lose all the fat before adding a cycle where you put on lean mass. I'm doing this myself. I started out a few months ago at a "normal" weight - 5' 10" and 146 lb. female, but 28% body fat. I am down to 139 lb. and 22% body fat. I've put on a little lean mass (about 3 lbs) and taken off 10 lbs. of fat. I'm looking to get down to about 16% body fat but I'll obviously have to stop before I get there to add more lean mass or I'll look too thin. I hope that made sense as an example. Everyone's fat loss/muscle gain program is going to be somewhat different depending on factors like beginning weight, age, sex, height, etc. Keeping a food and activity journal is the only way to figure out what works for you. Online sources such as www.nutritiondata.com can help with figuring out the calories/protein/carbs/fats in your food. Unless you only eat prepackaged foods, a kitchen scale is a good investment. Good luck!

People who laugh about coupons, Lotus, are the same people who probably have nothing in their savings account and lots of debt. Living below your means is the best way to save and be prepared for emergeincies yet most people live well above their means. You are teaching your children a great lesson about finances.

I'm sure the headaches and tiredness are coincidental. Removing animal products from your diet does not cause headaches or tiredness, but there many other reasons for this to happen. I have an acquaintance who went vegan an then had an attack of bursitis (which he had a history of) in his ankle. His wife begged him to go back to being an omni because obviously, to her anyway, the bursitis was caused by veganism. If you've replaced calorically dense animal foods with lower calorie plant foods then perhaps you're not taking in enough calories and therefore have low blood sugar - which causes headache, tiredness and weakness. Just a thought. Same goes for the acne - there could be many reasons for acne, most likely not related to removing animal products from your diet.

Sounds like you've had quite a wonderful summer so far, David!! Nothing like watching the whole family go vegan! Great post.

Pure Food and Wine is a FABULOUS restaurant. Your picture looks very similar to what we had at the restaurant, minus some garnish and such.

It completely changed my relationship with money. I am an avid saver now as I never was before. Living below your means (i.e. saving money instead of being in debt) is the "secret" of the real successful retirees - it's not so much related to how you invest in the stock market. If you hear something on the news or in conversation often then someone is probably trying to sell you something because someone is making money off of it. It's like veganism and eating whole foods - no one is making a ton of money off it so no one is pushing it, so you don't hear too much about it. But compound interest and investing in the stock market for the long haul? There are entire shows about that type of stuff. You can do the math yourself. Except that you can't, and that's the whole idea. I could really get on my soapbox about money (this thread hit a nerve) but I'll stop now. I'm old enough to have been burned by the system while following all the "rules" and have discovered that following conventional advice about money is as intelligent as following conventional advice about health or nutrition.

Good luck, Moxie. I wish I had an idea for your theme. Looking forward to more posts from you!

Clever, Do you have a goal right now - such as weight loss or calorie restriction? If you're trying to avoid overeating, or eating beyond the point of feeling full then you might want to stay away from Clif Bars or any other bars, if you have the same problem with them that I do. Sometimes the bars actually stimulate my appetite for more dense, sugary or high fat foods. I keep them in my locker at work for emergencies. Hopefully, you don't have the same problem with them as they are very convenient!

Welcome, Rebecca! Good luck with your plans in Portland. There is certainly a lot of interest in raw foods here!

It's always interesting to hear about how others handle their finances. I don't have a strict budget right now but before I completed my final degree and got out of debt, I kept a fairly strict budget. I reworked that budget every month and new exactly where I was with my finances. It was a bit of a security blanket for me and I felt lost if I went off it. This was a bit before debit cards became so popular, therefore I did carry cash with me for the "entertainment/miscellaneous" part of my budget. I took that out of the bank at the beginning of the month and when it was gone - it was gone. I also had savings, gifts, charity and debt worked into my budget. I found that writing down the amounts helped me stick to it. Seeing the actual numbers is eye opening. Similar to Ravi actually holding money physically. Debit cards and credit cards are designed to distance us from our money so that we'll spend more. It's ingenious and it works!

Welcome to the forum! Shoulder injuries are not fun, as several of us here can attest. I had an anterior injury that lasted about 6 months last year and am working through a posterior injury on the same shoulder for the past 3 months. I would be careful about taking anyone's advice on how to treat your injury unless that person is qualified to treat you and has examined you personally. Some injuries benefit from physical therapy while others can actually be worsened from it. The same goes for stretching and injuries. If you are starting physical therapy then it sounds as though you've already gotten a diagnosis for your shoulder pain. That person could probably give you a specific answers about working out with your injury - although we'd love to hear how your training is going, especially with an injury. Looking forward to your posts!

Welcome! I like the dream intro to vegetarianism. It took an entire book to convince me. Perhaps I should pay more attention to dreams.......

Flanders, if you liked this one then you're really going to love Sunday's potluck. It's mostly raw!

Welcome to the forum Ben!! And now I must ask - is there an awesome place to get vegan scones here in Portland? Are they really good, true scones and not just triangular shaped muffins? Please, please tell me where. Soon.

Philly girl here - used to live in Delaware County. Nice to have you on the forum. Welcome. Please don't sweat the 1% non-vegan aspect of your life. You're doing 99% better than most people!!

It was great meeting all of those who showed up at the potluck tonight! I only wish it had been longer with less mosquitoes towards the end. Hopefully, I'll get to spend more time with everyone before Monday. You're a fun group of people.

Congrats! You look great, especially considering everything you've been through recently.

Ahh, then obviously Germans have good taste (Germans are on both sides of my family).