AndiMorris

The only one I've ever used is MyProtein Vegan Blend. I have no basis for comparison, but I know it blends hemp, pea and brown rice protein so should be pretty complete.

Today I brought the following to work: 25g mixed nuts 1 protein green smoothie kale & lentil soup 1 mass gainer shake

Cheers buddy

Nice details here, and excellent sounding food!!! I like the formatting too. Nice work all round.

Myfitnesspal is great, and very simple. In the food diary you click the 'Add Food' link under the meal section you want, eg, 'Breakfast'. You get taken to a search screen where you type in the food you want to enter, to use your example you search for 'Plum' and it will return back with several (often too many) options. You just choose which fits what you have eaten the best. If there is an exact match, then select that, if not you may need to perhaps weigh the fruit and find one of the results that allow you to choose the plum by weight, rather than just a generic size. As you get used to it it's really handy to add in your own recipes, or standard meals to make it less tiresome adding each individual ingredient of a meal each time you eat.

Yesterday's food was as follows: 7am - 50g oats with 200ml almond milk 10am - protein smoothie plus 25g mixed nuts 12pm - kale soup 2.30pm - banana 4.30pm - 25g whole peanut butter 7pm - post workout recovery shake 8.30pm - 2 x baked potato with homemade baked beans My evening meal yesterday was roughly twice the size of my usual one, but my girlfriend was out so I had free reign to stuff my face, and it felt good! As of today I'm looking to swap out the afternoon snacks for a mass gainer shake. I got the recipe from this forum, and made it up last night. According to myfitnesspal it's around 565 calories with 72g carbs, 18g fat and 27g protein. I think I can quite easily bump this up by another 100 calories and another 10g of protein, but I'll see how it goes to start with, I don't want to put on weight too quickly, but I do want to gain strength and so need the fuel.

Workout 04/09/13 Warm Up: 400m run 3 rounds of: 10 slow air squats 5 burpee tuck jumps 400m run Strength: 5 rounds for time: 5 front squat (level 1 50kg) 5 burpee box jump Finished in 7:30 WOD: Row 1km (between you and partner) Run 1 mile Finished in around 15 minutes I had to go for level 1 on this WOD, as the bar was to be power cleaned into position, and level 2 was 70kg. I don’t think I could have completed one round of even the front squats at this weight, let alone cleaning on top. The 50kg was a struggle, but doable and I mostly kept form throughout, so I chose the correct weight there. Burpee box jumps didn’t cause any issues, I could have recycled them faster, but to be frank I was mostly putting off getting back on the bar. The WOD was supposed to be row 1km and run 1 mile for time without a partner, but the class was so busy we had to split the row down, which after strength session I was grateful for. I was told by my mate Justin that my row form is good, I generally just try to keep the chain straight at all times, keep my back straight and use my back and legs for power, however I could also put more power into each pull to get more bang for my buck on the form. It was nice to have the compliment I have to say. Big up to my training partner for the night Ellis, who has just got back from getting married in Crete to Miriam, and hit the workout hard tonight, looking really strong on the front squats. I am umming and ahhing at the moment again whether I need to bring in a secondary progressive strength training programme to do alongside, or instead of a couple of the WODs each week. I do trust the programming of the coaches at Celtic, but my strength has plateaued for some time now, and I do wonder if an auxiliary programme might help. I know this would be fine if I could make the classes more times each week, up to 5, but at the moment I’m only getting there 3 times at most, which is hindering me I think. I’ll have a chat to one of them next time I’m there and see what they recommend.

Welcome Ethan, this place is great and full of interesting people. You'll find a wealth of information here.

Ha, yes we're not the most straight edge band going, in fact we're pretty much alcohol fuelled. We play Germany fairly often, and usually it's Berlin as there's a lot of crust punks there.

i dont know it depends from the "scene" of people, in the hardcore punk scene most of the people just take the 3 rules of no smoke no drink no drugs, but they drink coffeine, energy drinks and crap like that, the reasoning is the same, in berlin there is a big sxe community but is justabout...well being drug free, they donthave such a big political mindset behind that, i mean yeah they are antifascist but it seems more like a fashion. they have the t-shirts (berlin straight edge), the concerts, the flyers they want to show that in berlin there is a big community of militant people and stuff like this, they have a straight edge bar, which i think is merely stupid, you refuse the bar culture the uselessness of just being sit and drinking and drinking, but at the same time you do the same thing but in a alcoholfree way? Personally i was happy when first i came to live in berlin because it was a big thing, but then i realised they are not so much into it, no one talks about the agriculture of tobacco and coffee that is destroying the planet, or the animal tests for the cigarettes, the alcohol culture that is bringing people to self-annihilation, or abuse and exploitation of people in cocaine fields etc etc. but well i think is like this everywhere. Interesting points. I am around straight edge people very often when my band tours, but it's not something I would consider myself, I enjoy alcohol too much. Next time we play Berlin I will give you a message and we can meet at the show maybe.

Exactly what I was going to say. My girlfriend is gluten intolerant, and when I switched to eating mostly gluten free due to us both eating the same meals I noticed a considerable difference in how bloated I felt.

Workout 29/08/13 Warm Up: 1km run 3 rounds: 5 pull ups 10 deadlift @ 20kg WOD A 8 min AMRAP 7 deadlift @ 80kg (Level 1) 5 pull ups 5 rounds and 2 deadlifts completed WOD B 3 x 1km run 1:1 rest Completed 4:53, 4:28, 4.30 Slightly different last night, there was no lift/skills session as the WOD had a lot of heavy lifting in. I opted for level 1 @ 80kg on the deadlift, level 2 was 100kg and Rx was 120kg, which is too heavy. At 80kg I could maintain solid form, but it was still hard. The endurance part of the WOD wasn’t as bad as I initially thought, mainly due to the 1:1 rest, meaning for me it was over 4 minutes of rest time in between runs. It wasn’t so long back that even at this amount of rest I’d be struggling to do this, but I felt ready to go at the beginning of each round, and was pleased with my times. I probably could have gone faster, and for the last 200m of the last round I really tried to empty the tank of any remaining fuel. All surprisingly great fun though, considering how rubbish I am at any sports, and how much I still struggle with nearly all the movements we do in Crossfit, I thoroughly enjoy every session.

Yep, keep posting. I'm new here, and don't post much, but yours is one of the journals that I do follow.

I wish Vega was for sale anywhere in the UK. For now I use MyProtein's Vegan Blend.

Workout 27/08/13 Warm Up: 400m run Mobility Power Snatch Technique Pistols progressions Skills: 4 min max effort on one of the following, depending on where you’re at: Muscle Ups Chest-to-bar pull ups Pull ups WOD: 5 rounds - 90s on, 90s off: 5 x power snatch 35kg 5 x pistol variant (5 each leg) (Completed 7 rounds and 2 power snatch) A great session last night, I really enjoyed it. I used the skills session to try and get my first chest-to-bar pull up, rather than going for a max amount of reps on kipping pull ups. I’m now very close each time, there must be millimeters in it! The second to last rep I did actually feel my chest touch the bar, finally!!!! That’s my first PR in a while, and I hope that next time I try I can get a couple more in. The power snatches were supposed to be at 40kg for level 1, but again I really want to make sure my form is good before bumping the weight up too high in a WOD environment. I dropped it to 35kg, which I think was the right choice. It never felt too easy, but it wasn’t so hard that I started to get sloppy with form. The pistol variants I did was where my trailing foot was flat on the floor behind me. This felt easy with my right leg, but still difficult with the left. I’m glad I learned these pistol progressions though, it’s something I can practise at home to build up the strength I need in both legs to do these properly.

Thanks. Looking around this site I've found a nice recipe for a mass gainer shake, and also a nut breakfast bar, which I think could give me an extra 1000 calories per day if I was to have them both. This would probably be too much, so perhaps I'd look to replace a couple of the snacks with those high calorie recipes.

I got my first pull up by working with negative pull ups to increase the strength. Jump up to the top of the pull up position on the bar, and then slowly lower yourself down. The slower the better.

Amazing! I tried to enter this into myfitnesspal to work out the macros, but I can't convert cups to grams in my head, so it'll have to wait until I can make them myself.

Fine by me, I can do the basic greetings, but if you'd asked me how to find the train station I'd be screwed

Sut mae! Dw i'n dod o Gasnewydd ar hyn o bryd. Wyt i'n Cymro?

Wagamama is good for eating out and Vegan. You've probably got one in your town centre. The menu doesn't label things as vegan, and some thing need to be modified in order to be vegan (their pickles are soaked in milk), but the staff are always helpful and knowledgable in how they can cater for vegans.

I'm thinking of replacing one of my daytime snacks with a home made mass gainer. Looking to get around 2500 calories on a training day.

Workout 24/08/13 Warm Up: 400m run 3 rounds of: 10 KB Swings 16kg 10 sit ups 10 double unders Lift: 5x3 back squat - 70kg WOD: 800m run 50 sit ups 30 KB swings (24kg) 20 box jumps (24”) 150 double unders Completed in 14:50 - Rx More working on squat form rather than trying to get PRs here. I stuck at 70kg, and really tried to make sure that my knees stayed out and chest was up on each rep. Mostly I got there, with the odd little slip. Coach Ffred suggested I tried a wider foot stance, which I think did help, but felt weird. I’ll keep trying this and see if I can get used to it. I was going to go for a mix of Rx and level 1 on this WOD, as I wanted to use a 16kg kettlebell, but I got talked into doing it Rx, and I’m really glad I did! 24kg felt heavy, but totally doable, the hardest part was the box jumps and I didn’t managed to chain any of these together, just doing slow and steady singles. 150 double unders were frustrating, as I couldn’t seem to get more than 10-20 in a chain, but against all odds I finished the workout just ten seconds short of the time cap, which I was chuffed to beans with. Fist bumps to my training partner for the day, Andy.

I sleep at least 8 hours a night. I wouldn't say I was overtraining, perhaps undertraining. Most weeks I make the gym (Crossfit class) 3 times a week, sometimes it's 4, sometimes it's 2. I do drink, not excessively but I do. On your average week I'll probably have a beer on a Wednesday, and maybe 2 beers on a Saturday, unless it's a special occasion and we go out, when I'll have several. That only happens every couple of months though. The other time that I drink is if I'm on tour with the band, and that is usually pretty excessive, but again that's perhaps once a month, usually less. I work in IT, so is primarily office based, seated, and low stress.

Since going vegan a few months ago I've lost around a stone in weight, which thankfully is mostly fat, but I've also lost some muscle mass, and with it some strength. With my stats being roughly as below for 1RM I really need to be upping my strength, and certainly can't warrant losing any more: 85kg squat 40kg OH press 110kg deadlift At around 65~70kg body weight When vegetarian I tried bulking, getting around 3000 cals/day, and the weight did go up, but unfortunately so did the waistline. Recently my diet has become very clean, and vegan, so I was hoping that just simply by eating more I should increase my strength without increasing too much bodyfat, but this doesn't seem to be happening. My daily food intake tends to be: Breakfast: almond milk and 50g oats ~ 300 cals Morning snack: Fruit, veg, protein smoothie ~ 400 cals Lunch: Leftovers from previous nights dinner ~ 300-400 cals Afternoon snack: 25g nuts & a piece of fruit ~ 300 cals Post workout if training day: Thrive recovery drink ~ 300 cals Dinner: homecooked, vegan meal ~ 300-400 cals Now, after adding all this up I'm getting around 2000 calories per day on training days, and 1700 on rest days. (Shit, just writing this down I can see I need more than that!) SO......is 3000 calories something I should still be aiming for as a rough guide to do a clean bulk? I don't mind putting on some fat, but I'd rather stay the right side of 14% bf, and I'm around 13% now. I just get the feeling that adding another 1000 calories/day on top of this is just going to result in my belly coming out at me again. Apologies for this stream of consciousness.....