xvx ben

Nov. 10 squats: 1x20x45 2x8x125 1x6x135 incline bench, dumbbells: 1x20x10 1x8x35 1x6x35 1x4x35 seated shoulder press, dumbbells: 1x15x10 1x8x20 1x6x20 1x3x25 bicep curls: 1x20x10 1x8x25 1x6x25 1x2x30 standing calf raises, each leg: 1x22x20 1x20x20 1x18x20 weighted crunches: 55 w/ 10 lb. plate

today's workout: squats: 1x20x45, warmup w/ the bar 2x8x125 1x5x135 1x3x135 flat bench press, dumbbells: 1x8x35 1x6x35 1x5x35 bent over rows, dumbbells: 1x12x60 each side 1x8x60 each side 1x6x60 each side calf raises, one leg, holding dumbbell: 1x20x20 each leg 1x18x20 each leg 1x16x20 each leg 50 crunches, holding 10 lb. plate food: 7:45 am breakfast: cheerios w/ soymilk, soy yogurt, orange juice, toaster waffles w/ peanut butter 9:30 bike to gym, workout, bike home 11am post-workout snack: apple, builder bar, smoothie (strawberries, banana, hemp protein, soymilk) 1pm lunch: tofu scrambler w/ nutritional yeast, mushrooms, green peppers; 2 slices whole wheat toast w/ earth balance; apple juice 2:30 pre-work snack: soymilk, banana, multivitamin 2:40 bike to work 5:30 clif bar 6:30 handful of french fries 10:30 bike home 11pm wheat gluten nuggets, orange juice, some peanut butter, and a shake (soymilk ,rice protein) 3000 calories, 145 g protein, 400 carbs

Thanks for posting this - I just called my dad and asked him to tape it for me! Sea Shepherd rules!

I'm an activist, not a legislator. Apart from the above-mentioned lesbian couple seeking to hold a ceremony in a park, I found 1.) articles on county clerks being sued for refusing to perform legal ceremonies (employed by the state, not the church.) 2.) lawsuits challenging state laws denying gay couple the ability to be married. 3.) An incident in which 11 state lawmakers in Pennsylvania sued a gay couple for publicly challenging a gay-marriage ban, and 4.) the only incident other than the NJ park suit in which a church has been sued, an Episcopal priest was removed from his post by the church authorities, supposedly because he opposed their practice of ordaining gay ministers. So he sued the church to be allowed back in. If you have knowledge of some other cases, please share.

This has already been done. I hope you read up on it more and discover for yourself that is's just not as simple as people would have you believe. Well to be up front, while I want to keep a cool head and not stoop to name-calling, I am an activist and have marched for gay rights. So I'm not coming into this unbiased or unfamiliar with the topic. But, per your post, I did some googling. In the articles I found, there seems to be one lawsuit that the opponents of gay marraige are focusing on, in which a lesbian couple in New jersey sued a Methodist church for refusing to let them hold a civil union ceremony at a park the church ran. The church was not being asked to perform the ceremony, and the park was registered as a non-profit entity and received state funds. In any case, these new amendments were not worded in such a way that they merely protected churches. They were worded to deny legal marriage status to gay couples. That's the only "freedom" I can see that's under attack in this recent round of legislation - the freedom of gays to have the legal rights that come with state-recognized marriage.

rest day - slept in till 9:30! 9:30 breakfast - oatmeal w/ agave nectar, soy yogurt, apple juice 12:30 builder bar, banana. 1pm bike to grocery store & back. 2pm lunch - last of the macaroni & yeast cheese, soy salami & avocado on whole wheat, strawberry banana soymilk smoothie with hemp protein, multivitamin 2:30 bike to work 5:30 clif bar 9:30 apple, builder bar, bike home. 10pm dinner - carrots, almonds, strawberry soymilk shake with rice protein 3500 calories, 150 g protein, 460 carbs. Got distracted and didn't eat as much as I'm trying to. Resorted to eating 3 protein bars today - I'd rather be using those to supplement more solid food, not as a substitute!

I don't think anyone involved is saying that a particular church has to marry anyone. Just that churches that want to, would be able to. These amendments take away that freedom. That's like a law being passed that says all restaurants have to have at least one meat item on the menu, because the majority of voters don't want "that vegan lifestyle" crammed down their throats. (Also, coming from someone new to this site - you're coming off as very defensive here. Perhaps you've been attacked before during discussions on this issue, but I haven't seen anyone call you a name or attack you personally in this thread... )

Gym day 3! Did my main exercises of squats, incline bench, rows and threw in a little extra arm and chest stuff. Still figuring out what weight to start back at with some of these. squats: 1 warmup set 20 reps with the bar 1x8x115 2x6x125 1x5x135 incline bench press, dumbbells: 1x10x30 1x6x35 1x3x35 1x1x40 just to see if I could. bent over rows, dumbbells: 1x10x60 1x8x60 1x6x60 (wanted to write seven but didn't quite make it all the way up) dumbbell flies: 1x10x20 1x2x25 (ooops too heavy) 1x8x20 seated shoulder press, dumbells: 1x10x20 1x4x25 1x6x20 biceps curls, dumbbells: 1x8x25 1x5x25 1x1x30 weighted crunches: 45 with a 10lb. plate behind my head The rest of the day, with food and accidental cardio, went like this: 5am cheerios, orange juice, toaster waffles, soy yogurt 8am iced soy latte 9am bagel, banana 12:30 hit the gym 1:30 builder bar, bike home 2pm smoothie (banana, strawberry, soymilk, rice protein), whole wheat spaghetti, tomato sauce, 1/2 can chickpeas 2:30 bike to second job 4:30 banana, pb&j on whole wheat 5:30 clif bar 7pm some grilled tofu that a picky customer sent back to the kitchen - tasted fine to me! 8pm banana 8:15 lecture from the boss about eating at work 9:30 bike from work to a meeting 11pm got a ride home from someone with a bike rack! shake (hemp protein, strawberries, soymilk) biked about 10 miles. 3800 calories, 155 g protein, 600 carbs.

Thanks a lot for the tips DV! I've definitely upped my calories considerably in the past week, since I've been back in the gym. I think diet was the main reason i gained so little before, especially since I was making gains in strength but not adding mass.

Zappos.com has a search function that you can type "vegan" into. Sometimes something on sale pops up. Free shipping usually, and I've mailed a pair back on their dime to swap out the size before.

Rest day. My original plan was to do a full-body workout every other day, but I'm thinking of switching to a 2-day split, just because my schedule is hectic and there may be weeks where the only way to get 3-4 days in at the gym is to do a couple back-to-back. 6:30am breakfast - cheerios w/ soymilk, soy yogurt, orange juice 6:50 bike to work 10 am soymilk, clif bar 12:30 bike home 1pm lunch: leftovers! mac n' yeast "cheese", black beans, 1 wheat tortilla. Smoothie: strawberries, banana, soymilk, hemp protein. And a builder bar. 2:45 flaxseed toaster waffles w/ peanut butter, grape juice 3:30 bike 2 mi. running an errand 5pm carrot and apple juice 7pm dinner: baked potato with tvp, tofutti sour cream, raw spinach 8pm shake:soymilk, rice protein, strawberries, peanut butter; multivitamin 3800 calories, 175 g protein, 540 carbs. biked 6 miles. working both jobs tomorrow, gonna be tough to get enough meals in... gonna make some sammiches to take with me.

Worst part of trying to bulk so far? Doing all these @#$% dishes!!!!

Today: 5am breakfast oat cereal with soymilk, orange juice, flaxseed toaster waffles 5:20 bike to work 8:30 snack: 16 oz. soymilk, banana 11 am snack bagel w/ peanut butter 1pm workout: 5 min warmup, treadmill squats: 3x10 warmup with the bar, 3x8x125 (3 sets 8 reps 125 lbs.) incline bench press, dumbbells: 1x12x30, 1x9x30, 1x5x30 seated overhead press, dumbbells: 1x8x20, 1x7x20, 1x6x20 bent over rows, more dumbbells: 1x9x60 each side; 1x7x60 each side; 1x5x60 each side standing calf raises, holding dumbbell: 1x20x20 each side; 1x18x20 each side 40 crunches holding 10 lb. plate behind my head. Remembered to stretch afterward. 2pm builder bar 3 pm lunch: avocado, tomato and soy salami sandwich on whole wheat with vegenaise; garlic sticks; carrots; banana, strawberries, soymilk and hemp protein smoothie 4:30 clif bar 5:45 soymilk, apple, multivitamin 6pm bike to grocery store & back (seems like i go there a lot now ) 7:30 dinner: 3 black bean and avocado burritos on whole wheat tortillas with tofutti sour cream and hash browns; 1 cup raw spinach; grape juice 7:45 pm bike to infoshop collective meeting, 9:30 bike home 10 pm shake w/ soymilk and rice protein, soy yogurt Around 4000 calories, 150 g protein, 570 carbs. Accidentally biked about 14 miles. Today at the gym I was still feeling sore from the last workout, and kind of tight. Got loosened up once I got into it, but it messed with the first set of squats and i didn't go as deep as I'd like. Considering how long I was out of the gym though, I should probably take my time these first few weeks. Still sore - but feeling good to be back.

I'm lucky, my mom went veg when I did in high school. So the whole Thanksgiving & Christmas tables are meatless, with some special vegan dishes for lil' old me as well. She makes a rockin' vegan pumpkin pie. (Not to mention the greenbean casserole, cranberry nut bread, roasted potatoes, candied yams...) My meat-eating dad and brother just have to deal with it! Amy, here's a recipe for a "cheese" sauce that I always use when baking. Poured it over 3 1/2 cups (measured dry) cooked macaroni and baked at 350 it makes vegan mac and cheese, I also use it for enchiladas. It's from the "New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook." (I took mac and cheese made with this to a vegan potluck a few weeks ago and three different people asked for the recipe...) 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup earth balance (or other veg. margarine) 3 1/2 cups water 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 Tbsp soy sauce 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder pinch of turmeric 1 cup of nutritional yeast flakes 1/4 cup oil start the water boiling. melt the earth balance in a skillet, medium heat. Whisk in the flour a little bit at a time to make a roux. Whip it up 'till it's creamy, then let it thicken and bubble. Add your now-boiling water, stir it up and stir in the salt, turmeric, soy sauce and garlic powder. (I also add a 'lil squirt of yellow mustard here but it's not in the original recipe.) Let it thicken and bubble again. Stir in the nutritional yeast and oil. (You can use less oil here if you want, or leave it out. It mostly makes the sauce less "sticky" and easier to pour when adding it to dishes...)

Exactly

LOL @ this thread! Here's my starter kit: http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/anokskin/IMG_0019.jpg

Day 2, rest day 5:30 breakfast oatmeal, orange juice, 2 flaxseed toaster waffles 6 am bike to work 7:30 am snack at work: banana, clif bar, 16 oz. soymilk 11:30 am bagel with peanut butter noon bike home from work 12:30 lunch: 2 spinach & soy baloney wraps on wheat tortillas, macaroni and yeast "cheese," smoothie with strawberries, banana, soymilk and hemp protein 3 pm snack builder bar, apple 4:30 pm peanut butter & jelly on whole wheat, a couple carrots, a multivitamin 5pm bike to the grocery store and back 7 pm dinner: spaghetti with chickpeas in tomato sauce, 2 cups steamed broccoli, grape juice 9pm bedtime shake: strawberries, soymilk, rice protein and peanut butter just over 4000 calories, 170 g protein, 590 g carbs biked about 6 miles today hittin' the gym after work tomorrow!

I know it's a popular saying but I was wondering if anyone had seen/heard anything scientific about coffee affecting growth negatively. I never used to drink it but they moved me to the opening shift at the coffee shop where I work a few months ago, so 5am mornings plus free coffee = a two or three cup per morning habit...

Oh yeah and the food, today I ate: 5:30 am breakfast: oat cereal with soymilk, orange juice, soy yogurt 7:30 am snack at work: bagel with peanut butter, banana, iced soy latte noon hit the gym, spent about an hour on the workout above 1:30 pm post workout snack: banana, strawberry and sopymilk smoothie with brown rice protein, builder bar 2:30 pm snack: a couple carrots 3:30 late lunch: baked potato w/ tvp and tofutti sour cream, a multivitamin and some grape juice 5:30 pm snack: peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread 7 pm snack: clif bar 9 pm dinner: nutritional yeast mac n' "cheese", 1 cup raw spinach, grape juice I figure it at a little over 3500 calories, 130 grams protein, 550 grams carbs. and now I'm heading off to bed at 10pm, which will give me 7 1/2 hours of sleep... Is there some way that eating just before I go to sleep like this would affect my gains adversely? Well I just asked a crapload of n00bish questions, I should probably give it (and me) a rest. good night!

First day back in the gym! Before I was doing a 3-day split routine: day 1 legs, day 2 chest & arms, day 3 back & shoulders. I got stronger but I added only 5 pounds in 9 months. I plan on switching to a full-body workout, especially considering i'll probably only be able to fit in 3 or 4 days/week at the gym. I haven't been in months, so I spent today feeling out what weight levels I should be using. Here's what I did today: 5 min warmup on the treadmill squats: 3 sets of 10 reps with just the bar, to warm up 6 reps at 145 (form not so great, my right knee was drifting inward so I decided to drop the weight, and go deeper on them) 8x125 8x125 incline bench press, dumbbells: 10x30 lbs. each arm 8x35 5x35 (went to muscle failure going for 6.. maybe 30 was right after all) bent over rows, with dumbbells: 10x60, right side; 10x60, left side 8x60, right; 7x60, left 6x60, R; 5x60, L seated overhead press, with dumbells: 8x25 4x25 5x20 (maybe just start with 20 next time - or try barbell instead? Never done those...) standing calf raises, one leg at a time, holding a dumbbell in the same side arm: 20x20 right leg, same left 15x20 right, same left and then the 2 mile bike ride home for a cooldown. Definitely felt those squats in my legs, and my triceps were shaky afterwards too - it was actually kind of hard to hold myself up on the bike handlebars on the ride home! So I have a bunch of questions now that I have a starting place to work from. I'm thinking of doing something like this 3-4 times a week, adding in some weighted crunches to the routine and then mixing in side stuff like bicep curls or pull ups, etc. Also I forgot to stretch afterwards, I wanna make sure I do that... It seems to me like this has compounds that would hit legs, shoulders, back and chest each time. Anybody see any glaring omissions? I'd like to add in some deadlifting but it's quite intimidating to me, seems like if i did it wrong I could screw myself up easy.. Some other questions - do those warm up squats make the treadmill unnecessary? I bike to work everyday, and to run errands, 4 to 10 miles a day all told. Will that be enough cardio to interfere with weight gains? Also I notice in other people's logs that they start out with lower weights and then go heavier to finish off the exercise, is there a reason I should I be doing it that way? Less importantly, am I doing the notation right, ie. 8x30 means 8 reps with 30 lbs.? And when I record things with dumbbells, i use the weight per dumbbell, so my bench press is 10x30 even though it uses two dumbbells and I'm therefore lifting 60 lbs total? I know, the main purpose of a log is to track my progress against myself, but I'd like to be able to show properly right once it get up there more!

I'd love to be built like like this guy! Buakaw Por Pramuk - the greatest Thai boxer alive http://www.mymuaythai.com/wp-content/gallery/buakaw/2305-Buakaw-Dragoweb.jpg http://www.mymuaythai.com/wp-content/gallery/buakaw/img31qg7.jpg

Animal rights: I find animal liberationist Rob Coronado's writings inspiring, I particularly enjoyed his "Strong Hearts" 'zine written from prison. (It's included in the book "Flaming Arrows" which is a collection of his writings.) Also, I first went vegan thanks in no small part to reading the liner notes and lyrics of Conflict albums, not a book I know but influenced me a lot when I was 17! Cooking: "New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook" was written by a hippy commune that went vegan in the sixties and grew most of if not all their own food. how to make soymilk from scratch, tofu, tempeh, plus the best nutritional yeast "cheese" ever. I got this when I first went vegan and had to learn how to cook for myself, still use it often. Other books that have stirred me to the core: "Feminism is for Everybody" by bell hooks, "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell, about the antifascist militias in the Spanish civil war "Assata: An Autobiography" by Assata Shakur, Black liberation fighter, currently living in exile in Cuba after escaping from a US prison oh yeah and I volunteer at a radical bookstore here in Houston called Sedition Books, we have a decent selection of AR lit and veg cookbooks so if you're ever in town look us up!

Took some soon-to-be before pics last night. I was having trouble getting the angles and focus right in the little bathroom mirror, over-the-shoulder kind of stuff... but I'm not confident enough yet to get someone else to take the pics, so it'll have to do! http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/anokskin/vbbfbathroomposing012.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/anokskin/vbbfbathroomposing003.jpg http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g71/anokskin/IMG_0009.jpg A little background: I'm 26 years old, been vegan a total of 6 years. About a year ago I decided I wanted to get into lifting, an idea I had had before but not acted on. Growing up I was never very athletic, I did enjoy running around a lot but never stuck with anything structured like sports or working out. So I signed up at a gym, found this website, and read up on the articles and forums. I never posted, but I got a lot of helpful info (thanks y'all!) My main goal is to get bigger, not huge but I'm 6'3" and would like to fill out my frame quite a bit. I kept a log and settled on free weights, mostly dumbbells as my preferred method. I was hitting the gym 3 to four times a week, doing one day chest and arms, one day legs, and one day back and shoulders. Once I could do more than 12 reps at a given weight I would step up the weight, and was doing so regularly. I started out around 160 lbs, dropped a couple pounds at first and then after like nine months was still only at 165... but getting stronger all the time... Well about three months ago I was at a hardcore show and messed my back up good in the pit. Really made me fel old, i used to get hurt in the pit and it would be a black eye or a busted lip, but a pulled back? C'mon. Well I couldn't go to the gym and even though it only took maybe a month for my back to feel totally healed, the slackness in discipline stuck and i have been to the gym maybe once since! So... I'm signing back up at the gym this Saturday and gonna get serious this time. I feel like last time I made progress but not as much as I would have liked, so this time I think it will help if I'm active on here, soliciting advice and to stay motivated/inspired! Yeah!

Now i don't know how healthy this recipe is, but it's vegan and tasty... it's my own recipe and I usually cook by "feel," so sorry if some of the measurements aren't super exact! Oh and I use the "cheese" sauce from the "New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook," so props to them... enchilada filling: 1 block extra firm tofu soy sauce Adobo seasoning (try the "hispanic foods" or "international foods" aisle. if you cant find it, use a mix of garlic powder, cumin and a dash of salt.) 1 medium onion 1 poblano pepper (if they don't have these in your area, use green bell pepper) 1 can black beans handful of mushrooms a little canola oil press the tofu (I cut it into strips, layer some paper towels on a cutting board, then the tofu, then another layer of towels, then another cutting board, press it down, then repeat once or twice with fresh towels. The goal is to get some of the excess moisture out of the tofu so it will have more texture, there are loads of other methods I'm sure...) toss the tofu in a bowl with some soy sauce and adobo. let it sit there during the next steps to let it soak up some flavor. dice up the tofu, onion, pepper and mushrooms. In a skillet with a little oil over medium heat, begin cooking up the onions till they start to get translucent. Then add the tofu and let it brown a little. Add the mushrooms and pepper last, so they don't turn to mush. Once they're in simmer it all for another five minutes or so. (if I want the end result to have more kick, I'll put a couple diced jalapenos or some hot sauce in with the tofu. But if you're not from Texas, you might want to try it this way first.. ) the New Farm recipe for the sauce: 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup earth balance (or other veg. margarine) 3 1/2 cups water 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 Tbsp soy sauce 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder pinch of turmeric 1 cup of nutritional yeast flakes 1/4 cup oil start the water boiling. melt the earth balance in a skillet, medium heat. whisk in the flour a little bit at a time. (Careful - if you add it too quickly, then it gets clumpy, if you have the heat too high then it scorches. either one messes with the texture in the end.) Whip it up 'till it's creamy, then let this "roux" thicken and bubble. Add your now-boiling water, stir it up and stir in the salt, turmeric, soy sauce and garlic powder. (I also add a 'lil squirt of yellow mustard here but it's not in the original recipe.) Let it thicken and bubble again. Stir in the nutritional yeast and oil. (You can use less oil here if you want, or leave it out. It mostly makes the sauce less "sticky" and easier to pour in the next steps...) final touches: 1 can salsa verde (or red enchilada sauce, depending which mood i'm in.. you have to read the ingredients closer on the red sauce though, sometimes it has animal stock or other nastiness) a dozen or so corn tortillas preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Warm up your tortillas. I usually microwave them for about a minute with a shallow dish of water in the microwave for moisture. The old school method is to use a lightly oiled skillet. You have to warm them somehow though, because corn tortillas will crack really easily otherwise. get out a casserole dish. Start rolling up the stuffing inside the tortillas, and laying them in the bottom of the dish, closely packed. Then pour your cheese sauce on top. Spread it out with a spoon so that none of the enchiladas' ends are poking out. Pour the salsa over the top of it all. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. I like to serve it with rice on the side, and garnish 'em up with sliced avocados and Tofutti sour cream. I gravitate towards being a skinny bastard though, so I can get away with it...

Awesome that was the one! Thanks so much