Lean and Green

just donated 6gbp to hillside animal sanctuary - 'Lizzies Appeal' in your name Ruz. 6 more DcNinja and 6 more from VeganEssentials already en route as well. http://www.hillside.org.uk/acatalog/donations.html 18gbp total b/c of fellow participants as well as you and all of us together as a force! Right on Richard; i'm excited you're working there now. Keep us posted on what goes on. That's what it's all about dood Congrats to all! We're doing great things out here together. YB

yea DC! Which charity? Keep the legacy going or switch it up?? Congrats to all btw (forgot to say that in the womens...)

Heck yea! What type? O+ for me. I donate this coming wednesday 07/29 @ 12:15pt woo hoo..... I try to donate blood often as well

congrats Ruz! Which charity?

Just donated = 7GBP to Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Ruz's name. Sorry this took forever girl; I have alot going on. It weas just done though; I did not forget about the animals! fyi - sent it to feed the rescued animals. (there are choices on their page. a big YB to ALYX DJSHREW LILY and MARCINA who all made this donation possible together for Ruz's charity of choice.

best of luck all and remember we're all making a difference together be it participating, voting, fishing this thread out to friends, etc I'm not entering a comp, even for fun until i can get 2 weeks of consistent training in or more. ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH, damn you busy life. @Mikkei; thx for nagging me, you need to get me on the right track. I appreciate the 5am sun calls to get my butt in gear, honest! Keep em' coming. I'll throw it right back at you someday after we've been training together for a bit

best of luck all and remember we're all making a difference together be it participating, voting, fishing this thread out to friends, etc

bump love it guys. I'm contemplating http://www.mentorportland.org. Eventually I am going to choose something to volunteer a good chunk of time with.

100% co-owner of www.veganproteins.com I have been wanting to have convo about what's been going on. I know you've been busy on you end too but let's touch base at some point before this month is over

I Iike And Zin Zen, MFA right on brotha!

this thread is AWESOME! I am loooking forward the polls on monday

YES to Creatine for me. creatine monohydrate. I like to load it to flood my sys the first 5 days. Then I do 10g a day. Marcina, don't matter what time of day; you use the creatine stored from day bf.

Robert, Marcina, Vivalasvegans, VeganGirl2006, Nathan Nearing, Gorilla: I really appreciate all of your kind words you wrote. I needed them at the time. Ask thendanisays just how low I was. I felt worhtless. While I like to whine, I also like to take action as you would say R.C.! The last month has been very rewarding. It's only going to get better for here. Nathan.. I think I want to get kevlar commuter tires for my ride and commute to work 1-3 / 5 work days a week (40m round trip each time). So here's what I wrote while I pted it today on a long trip ; a journal update buuuuHHDAY Ah man… what a day makes! Apparently I said that at the beginning of one of my vlogs and the joke was on me until someone spoiled it and let me know. RC and BVP663 used to say it to me all the time and we’d all laugh. Then I found out they sourced it from me LOLZ. Turns out I short hand to many phrases and wind up sounding stupid WHATEVER I have a good vocab/grammar, I just never use it. Must be that good ole N.Y. State of mind. Well, times they Are a changing. Traditionally, I have kept my workout journal primarily dedicated to physical activity but honestly peeps, ever since the competition, I have barely moved a muscle (with the exception of my jaw getting a great workout from all the wonderful nourishment, day in and day out). I deprived most every facet of my life to do Vegan Bros. In Iron: an influential documentary with R.C., Octopussior and BVP663. With great things, many times it as at a cost. My personal life and financial strife suffered. After the comp (april 25th); a well deserved break of 2 weeks or so is perfect to once again commence a new year of training hard and building for the coming season in the fall of 2010. Had my life been put together, this would have been the case. However, I needed to pick up the broken pieces that still remained after the show and try to rebuild a functioning personal and professional life. In summary: 04/25: Virtually Jobless (15hrs a week at best); thendanisays paying the rent for months and most all bills and our personal relationship suffered immensely. 07/08 (today) I have been working a temp job 40 hours a week for a couple of bucks above min. wage for 4 about 4 weeks and I convinced Wells Fargo Corporation that I was the right man for the job!!!! Did you hear me? I got a full time permanent position at an excellent employer :D:D:D I start next Monday and I couldn’t be happier. With that well under way and in constant routine, I truly feel that my training routine will be implemented both smooth and flawless within a couple of months! As for http://www.VeganProteins.com; DropSoul is teaching me how to edit the site on my own and I’ve been setting up all the back end database entry for better customer service and good recordkeeping when the irs wolf knocks down our door. And and ANNNDuh…… ; I now have shelves (2 wooden and 2 metal) to keep all the inventory organized and accounted for. I am also slowly trying to pay down the credit card that everything was purchased on so that once it is zeroed out and I have surplus funds; I can actually purchase product for distribution without getting hit with big aprs from cc’s….. It’s a long road but I’m taking big strides at a brisk pace with a smile on my face. Thendanisays is all about it too which is why we’re a great team. I would love to visit you again someday Ryan (VeganEssentials) and hear your story of in house to warehouse and best vegan site on the net I miss Troy too. What a guy. So if you somehow bared the length of this overdone post (hey, I’m due for a nice update); then you must really want to know just what kind of workouts I should have been blogging about in the last 2 ½ mos. Well there is nothing to write home about as I can count the amount of times I trained total on two hands. Last time I went to the gym this is how it went down: Incline Barbell Bench Press: 10 sets; 135x12 … I think. Can’t recall. Decline D-Ball Crunches: 5 sets; 12lb x 10 (more soon. I Love You All!!!!!!

Now that I got your attention, read up if you have a moment and let me know what’s up? (confused) I found this to be absolutely HORRIFYING and sadly, truthful. It isn’t good enough to eat processed foods that are marketed as vegan these days. There is a decent chance you’re consuming dairy and even meat… This article is pretty lengthy but if you want the full story (which I HIGHLY suggest), then please follow this link: read more I summarized the conclusion of this article and the shocking exploited truths. If you want more proof of how this is so upon reading on this post, you have the link. Please feel free to share some comments. I am curious of other’s opinions and who already knew this as fact. (conclusions from) Operation Pancake: Undercover investigation of LA vegan restaurants Getting to the Root of the Problem Feeling that we were on to something here, we decided to go “up the chain” beyond the restaurants to their suppliers, as many restaurants purchase their supplies (especially fake meats, many of which which cannot be manufactured in a typical restaurant kitchen) from a local bulk supplier. Just as a restaurant owner might visit Costco once a week to purchase toilet paper, they will also visit places like “Bodhi Vegetarian Supply” in Rosemead, CA to get their “veggie meats” and other ingredients. Bodhi Supply has stacks of freezers FULL of fake “veggie meats”, including all the variants you would typically find as ingredients in dishes from the restaurants that tested positive for egg and/or casein. Posing as owners of a new LA area vegetarian restaurant, we arrived at Bodhi and asked to speak with a customer service manager. We were quickly introduced to a helpful lady who was ready to advise us on what products to buy. She was either the manager or the owner, and most definitely the senior person on-premise at that time. She showed us to a freezer of “veggie chicken”, and we checked the ingredients on the label (all vegan). We asked her why some products have a better mouth texture than others, even though they have no eggs listed as ingredients, and after a long conversation and questions, she said the following: “We buy most of this veggie meat from a manufacturer in Taiwan. It’s produced for the Taiwanese and Chinese vegetarian market then re-labeled for export, often to the USA. I do know of times when things have been labelled incorrectly, but I do my best to make sure that what they send me is what they say it is.” Upon further questioning, she kindly gave us the email address of her contact in Taiwan. She specifically asked that we didn’t mention Bodhi Vegetarian Supply when we contacted them, and so we’re not disclosing the name of the manufacturer here. From Rosemead to Taiwan Posing as a potential US importer of allergen-free veggie meats, we emailed the Taiwanese manufacturer and asked whether their products could contain casein, whey, egg or milk without being listed on the label. We engaged in a an email exchange and we were also able to speak with somebody in the US who worked in the restaurant business in Taiwan for many years. The results of these interactions are paraphrased below, with with our emphasis in [square brackets]: * In the Taiwanese and Chinese market [where most of these products are made and sold] vegetarian customers are only concerned with meat ingredients and not bothered at all if egg or milk ingredients are included [this is due to religious reasons in many cases, typically to accommodate Buddhists, who are often not vegan] * Sometimes the ingredient listings are not 100% inclusive of what’s in the product [we asked what things are usually added but not labeled] * Sometimes eggs, fish flakes and milk might be added but not on the label, and we never include ingredients of all the additives – there would be too many * The veggie meats are re-labeled for the western market, usually by a non-English speaker who is translating the bulk ingredients list manifest, so there are many occasions where the translations were not correct. Also, the labels are small in size, and rarely have enough room for all ingredients. * If the ingredients change due to cost or availability the list manifest isn’t always updated, and we only revise our translated labels when we introduce new products * Most of the time, the “veggie meat” products contain egg albumen because the isolated soy protein base we purchase comes that way from the manufacturer * There are few labeling regulations in Taiwan and they are rarely, if ever, enforced. We usually list the ingredients we put into food directly, but if if we’re using something from a third party we don’t always list the ingredients in that. It’s just not important in Taiwan. So, we had just been told in no uncertain terms that egg-containing isolated soy protein COULD be used as an ingredient in veggie meats that were labelled appropriately for the Taiwanese market (ignoring the fact that eggs, in this case, were present in them). We can also assume that the egg ingredients were not written onto the label, as the original ingredients of the soy protein were not available at the time of labeling, and even if they were they would have been ignored as being irrelevant for the local market. While none of this proves that non-vegan ingredients found their way from Taiwan to our local vegan Thai restaurant, it does show a suspicious chain of events, half-way around the world and well away from US FDA labeling requirements. So, we decided to do some research into the matter and began with the Taiwanese media. Google led us to this recent story right away: “Over 50% of processed foods for vegetarians contain meat”, which we found to be absolutely shocking. After all, if vegetarian foods contain MEAT (in this case pork and beef), who knows what else they could really contain. Remember: MOST, if not all, of the fake meats you buy come from Taiwan. The Bottom Line If you want to eat an entirely vegan diet where there’s no chance whatsoever of any non-vegan contamination, the only way is to grow your own raw materials, and prepare them at home, “seed to plate”. That’s not practical for most people these days, so we place our trust in establishments to prepare food for us, hopefully to reasonable standards of non-contamination. Sadly, there are people out there ready to take advantage of any minority, particularly the operators of vegan Thai establishments who have a long and dubious record of serving non-vegan food items.

For those of you who are only following this thread; thought I might bump up the interest level by giving a re-post of how the show’s going down Every person who enters a muscle contest, your first order through http://www.veganproteins.com, 100% of your proceeds will go to the winner of any contest winners charity of choice. Also anyone who has been watching the contest(s); 50% of your proceeds will apply to the same principle on your first order (please let me know after you place your order). Of course don’t forget that we’re still rewarding our winners with free product from VP and a $25 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials. Also, when I can start to update VP manually, which I need time to do, all participants are going into a fitness gallery unless you let me know you’d prefer to not be up on the site. I hope that everyone understands that these are not ‘ego’ contests and more to just get everyone interested in fitness and actively participating in the community to support and lean on one another. No matter where you are in your journey of health and wellness, please consider.. Perhaps these incentives will get us all to increase our exposure in making a direct difference in our little tight knit community as well as honorable surrounding ones like DCNinja’s and Ruz’s. Oh and if you don’t live in the states, that doesn’t mean you should expect to pay for shipping from VP. I offered a winning gift package of awesome products to all winners and that is on my end. If you feel compelled to subsidize my costs, just donate somewhere to the chain of giving that is well under way over here at VBBF where we all make a huge impact and difference speak up over here about it. … full article (biceps thread)

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread so we could all recognize and feed off each other’s ambitions to help. At some point or another, we all feel compelled to give. Some do so in the form of monetary contribution, others with time and indispensible skills. We give our hearts and souls around us to those who need it most. I’d like to open this thread to everyone who wants to and already has made a difference in the lives around us. Please share your thoughts within the community. Maybe you’ll encourage someone else; it always puts a smile on my face to see what my friends are doing! I’d like to start off with a post highlighting the impact of the muscle contests of 2009, currently running in the photos and videos forum for the next couple of months… In regards to the muscle contests (which just began), we have donated as a whole community together: $78 to DCNinja’s charity of choice: Family Dogs New Life $20 to Ruz charity of choice: Hillside Animal Sanctuary How it all began . … (biceps thread) If anyone else feels compelled to further contribute and wishes to express the fact they are sharing in the fun of giving; please do so here!

Every person who enters a muscle contest, your first order through http://www.veganproteins.com, 100% of your proceeds will go to the winner of any contest winners charity of choice. Also anyone who has been watching the contest(s); 50% of your proceeds will apply to the same principle on your first order (please let me know after you place your order). Of course don’t forget that we’re still rewarding our winners with free product from VP and a $25 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials. Also, when I can start to update VP manually, which I need time to do, all participants are going into a fitness gallery unless you let me know you’d prefer to not be up on the site. I hope that everyone understands that these are not ‘ego’ contests and more to just get everyone interested in fitness and actively participating in the community to support and lean on one another. No matter where you are in your journey of health and wellness, please consider.. Perhaps these incentives will get us all to increase our exposure in making a direct difference in our little tight knit community as well as honorable surrounding ones like DCNinja’s and Ruz’s. Oh and if you don’t live in the states, that doesn’t mean you should expect to pay for shipping from VP. I offered a winning gift package of awesome products to all winners and that is on my end. If you feel compelled to subsidize my costs, just donate somewhere to the chain of giving that is well under way over here at VBBF where we all make a huge impact and difference speak up over here about it. … full article (biceps thread) edit: add url to 'speak up over here about it'

We are slowly but surely creating a mini warehouse for Vegan Proteins and there was my job search and preparation for it being that I am now working full time  Anyhow point is, I’ve been backed up and not able to post on V.B.B.F. much. I’d like to explain that upon RUZ taking first place in this contest, she requested Vegan Proteins to donate in her name to Hillside Animal Sanctuary. We answered and also contacted Ryan Wilson of VEGAN ESSENTIALS who has always supported everything and anything that the VBBF community has had involvement with (including a very generous amount to the Vegan Bros in Iron!). Ryan told me he wanted to donate $@ for each competitor to the winner of every muscle contest we host right now. We matched him and so we donated $10 each to RUZ’s charity of choice. Maybe this contagious sequence will grow even more! feel free to speak up over here about it, to let others know. We decided to do more as a result of DCNinja’s generosity and here’s the pitch: Every person who enters a muscle contest, your first order through http://www.VeganProteins.com, 100% of your proceeds will go to the winner of any contest winners charity of choice. Also anyone who has been watching the contest(s); 50% of your proceeds will apply to the same principle on your first order (please let me know after you place your order). Of course don’t forget that we’re still rewarding our winners with free product from VP and a $25 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials. Also, when I can start to update VP manually, which I need time to do, all participants are going into a fitness gallery unless you let me know you’d prefer to not be up on the site. I hope that everyone understands that these are not ‘ego’ contests and more to just get everyone interested in fitness and actively participating in the community to support and lean on one another. No matter where you are in your journey of health and wellness, please consider.. Perhaps these incentives will get us all to increase our exposure in making a direct difference in our little tight knit community as well as honorable surrounding ones like DCNinja’s and Ruz’s. Oh and if you don’t live in the states, that doesn’t mean you should expect to pay for shipping from VP. I offered a winning gift package of awesome products to all winners and that is on my end. If you feel compelled to subsidize my costs, just donate somewhere to the chain of giving that is well under way over here at VBBF where we all make a huge impact and difference

We are slowly but surely creating a mini warehouse for Vegan Proteins and there was my job search and preparation for it being that I am now working full time  Anyhow point is, I’ve been backed up and not able to post on V.B.B.F. much. I’d like to explain that upon DCNINJA taking first place in this contest, he requested Vegan Proteins to donate in his name to Family Dogs New Life We answered and also contacted Ryan Wilson of VEGAN ESSENTIALS who has always supported everything and anything that the VBBF community has had involvement with (including a very generous amount to the Vegan Bros in Iron!). Ryan told me he wanted to donate $2 for each competitor to the winner of every muscle contest we host right now. We matched him and so we donated $26 each to DCNINJA’s charity of choice. Wait it gets better… DCNINJA has decided to not only match us ($26) out of his own pocket; he wishes to match us for every single competition in the men’s category going forward for the ENTIRE MUSCLE CONTEST OF 2009. This blew my mind. Maybe this contagious sequence will grow even more! feel free to speak up over here about it, to let others know We decided to do more as well as a result of DCNinja’s generosity and here’s the pitch: Every person who enters a muscle contest, your first order through http://www.veganproteins.com, 100% of your proceeds will go to the winner of any contest winners charity of choice. Also anyone who has been watching the contest(s); 50% of your proceeds will apply to the same principle on your first order (please let me know after you place your order). Of course don’t forget that we’re still rewarding our winners with free product from VP and a $25 gift certificate to Vegan Essentials. Also, when I can start to update VP manually, which I need time to do, all participants are going into a fitness gallery unless you let me know you’d prefer to not be up on the site. I hope that everyone understands that these are not ‘ego’ contests and more to just get everyone interested in fitness and actively participating in the community to support and lean on one another. No matter where you are in your journey of health and wellness, please consider.. Perhaps these incentives will get us all to increase our exposure in making a direct difference in our little tight knit community as well as honorable surrounding ones like DCNinja’s and Ruz’s. Oh and if you don’t live in the states, that doesn’t mean you should expect to pay for shipping from VP. I offered a winning gift package of awesome products to all winners and that is on my end. If you feel compelled to subsidize my costs, just donate somewhere to the chain of giving that is well under way over here at VBBF where we all make a huge impact and difference >: - ) yeaaaaaaaAAAAAH buuuu uuu uuuuuuuu dEEEEEEEE >: - )

I'd say he's referring to keeping your transvers abdominus contracted by breathing through your diaphragm and tensing the muscle as opposed to expending and contracting your lungs and expelling you rectus absominus while performing core specific exercises as well as every single thing you do whilst being active or sedentary. Just a hunch I'd compare it to a wind up toy doll with the string attached to the innermost core muscles and picture that string being pulled directly behind you. That 'tense' feeling you'd have on your transverse would be equated to a hpyothetical feeling like that. Does this explanation make sense? I may be going off on one of my patented 'side story' tangents over here, (ask thedanisays, lol). I have only explained this hands on not over the internet.

Thanks for making this thread Richard. I'm around just very out of sorts. Workin 40hr temp job just got interviewed and hired for 4ohr perm job somewhere else and with commute, it's a 15hr shift essentially dedicated to commute with no online during commuting yet (that'll change). Planning etc etc, my bad. Anyhow we donated a total of $78 to DCNINJA's charity of choice, i'll explain more by tomorrow tonight on the biceps thread when I have more time at my disposal If we have to extend time for submissions we will but let's try to get them in within a weeks timeframe peeps I lok forward to a consistent and secure personal/professional schedule so that I can make myself present on the forum. See you all soon... consistentlly!!

LOLZ! Love it!!!! R.C. i'm wit u BUDDAY; lookin sweet. No comp till 2010 seattle for me nxt yr but your string of comps may sway me otherwise. No telling what's in the cards but as of right now i'm still in the mix and out of the curcuit and unfortunately gthe gym. Gonna get back into it soone I hope. Bum knee/shldr but med n dental with my new job inclusive + for dani. SWEET So i'm gonna stasrt kicking things up sev notches soon!! anyhow the point of this post was simply to congratulate you my friend on many comps well done. You live what you speak many times over and i'm very proud of you and what you do for activism and the community. miss ya man; hope to meet up soon......

Awesome you rocked out with the MVS! Just checkin in to say what's up and congrats on 2 new PB's ALWAYS an awesome feeling. I dunno if the package I sent out to the MVS guys included you. If it did, hope you enjoy. If not, I am in the midst of an established connection that will give me the ability to broker SunWarrior locally from a bulk buyer in AU. He isn't equipped to sell yet but he's almost there. Just going through red tape bs with customs etc etc. I'm on it though and then the price will be much more reasonable. Anyhow, glad to see you at it strong. Keep it up big dude

Would you be able to substitute the Gatorade for Coconut water? Fresh is better but prepackaged coconut water is better than gatorade for you. Zico is a really good tasting brand. cinammon instead of brown sugar with the sweet potato but i'm sure you only do it sparingly and i bet you don't have an issue with extra cals judging by ur avatar. I like the workout alot! You also seem pretty determined and that's the most important thing

Happy birthyday dude!