HighVelocity

Sari~ I used to do TKD, so yes, I bet you are right about the martial arts conditioning your legs. Once you are done with your current program, you might want to try a couple of things...first anytime you exercise the large muscle groups, your body releases growth hormone and assuming you are looking to try and optimize strength, speed and endurance in your lower body, I would try and alternate squat days and hamstring days and spit the upper body into push/pull muscles. So if you wanted to maintain the 3 days a week weight workout, you could go... Day 1 squats chest shoulders triceps Day 2 hamstrings back biceps abs and calves could follow which ever day you wanted...then just like BFL, alternate the 2 through the week, beginning the following week with day 2. Depending on the type of martial arts you do, you may want to spend a some time working in the lower range of reps...4-8 because this is the rep range that typically builds strength. BUT, if you are involved with a martial art that requires leg speed, like TKD, then be careful about spending too much time there. You want to train for your sport. If you need speed, do explosive lifts, full body compound exercises, add plyometrics supersetted between sets...things like this to train your muscles to explode and contract faster. Another thing you might need to consider is how many days a week you are practicing martial arts. This is a heavy energy demanding sport. If you are working out in the gym doing both HIIT and weights as well as spending a lot of time in the dojo, you might be overtraining. In which case your body would be producing a lot of cortisol and definetly put the breaks on any fat loss efforts. Good luck!

Thanks so much for all your help!! I entered everything in fitday, and assuming I eat both the goji and hemp seeds as well as the other foods I listed, it comes out to: Total: 1102 Fat: 10 87 8% Sat: 1 9 1% Poly: 1 13 1% Mono: 1 5 0% Carbs: 255 855 83% Fiber: 41 0 0% Protein: 23 91 9% Alcohol: 0 0 0% All these cals are eaten before dinner. I am assuming I need approximately 1750 cals to cut fat w/o sacrificing LBM. Add in raw nuts before bed and it is... Total: 1375 Fat: 33 301 23% Sat: 3 26 2% Poly: 7 65 5% Mono: 16 141 11% Carbs: 264 870 67% Fiber: 47 0 0% Protein: 33 132 10% Alcohol: 0 0 0% Leaving approximately 400 cals for dinner. Assuming dinner contains at least 25 g protein, that brings me up to 58 ish for the average day. So 2 questions... I didn't think the cals were to low, if they are, let me know. And, coming from a background of having the standard body building dogma drummed into my head about needing 1 g of protein per BW, is 58 too low? I have read so many different opinions from raw food "guru's" and read things by people such as Storm and Richard Blackman as well as Doug Graham and I am totally confused!!!!

First off, I am guessing that this is the right forum for this question, if not, let me know and I will gladly move it! I am currently sitting at about 122 lbs and 17.5% . My goals are to decrease that BF% by either decreasing BF or increasing LM while decreasing the BF. I woud love to see first a 4 pack and then a six pack! My current thoughts are that I would ideally love to eat raw foods all day, a cooked vegan meal for dinner and raw nuts before bed. Problem is, everytime I try, I end up bingeing! Lately my diet would resemble this.. Grapefruit 2 bananas green smoothie consisting of 1 entire bag of what ever green leafy stuff looks the freshest at Trader Joes, and anywhere between 2-5 peices of fruit depending on the size either hemp seeds or goji berries cooked vegan dinner...here is where everything falls apart! My usual portion control goes flying out the window and I end up bingeing on vegan foods for the rest of the evening! I cannot figure out if it is physical (am I mssing some nutrient my body needs or not consuming enough cals...although I think I am?) or is is psychological...and I just need to reign in those obbsessive food thoughts? Any thoughts or ideas?????

Hi Sari! I'm new here too! I looked at your pics and I agree, I do see some improvement. It does take time, and I realize how hard that can be when a goal is decied upon and action taken...You want results NOW! While I have never personally done the BFL program, I have read the book and many of the transformational success stories. One thing to keep in mind is that quite a few of the people who made these huge transformations either did more work than is required, (in the form of daily cardio), or took 2-3 times through the program to achieve their results. And keeping all that in mind, there are a few things you can do to check on how tight your current program is... off the top of my head... 1. Check for sneaky calories...the ones we actually totally forget about...calories from supplements...creatine or omegas..., soy cream or sugar in your coffee or tea, gum, soda, vitamin waters...anything that passes your lips 2. How clean have your carbs been? Have they been from whole foods like fruits and veggies or from processed sources like breads, pasta and bagels? 3. Are you perhaps sensitive to any food sources you are eating...wheat, preservatives, additives...many can mess with our biochemistry, thus making our bodies unwilling to release extra fat or water weight. 4. Check all labels for hidden sugars and corn syrups...they show up in the weirdest places! 5. Again check labels and see if any of the foods you are eating have an entire paragraph for an ingredient list 6. How is your level of hydration? 7. Check and see how much sodium you are consuming...both in the foods and salt you may be adding either before or after cooking 8. Are you really hitting a "10" on your workouts?? Your legs should be so sore you can barely handle a flight of stairs, and on upper body day you should find it extremely difficult to even stir that protein shake! And as for your cardio...well, you should hit that wall! When you leave the gym you should know deep within you that you gave it absolutely everything you had, you brought it and you left it all on the mat! I can't think of anything else now...if I do, I'll let ya know!

Thanks Tuc~ Make ya a deal...I'll post some pics in 2 weeks...that gives me incentive to eat clean through Easter and spring break!

Ahhhhhh...the old sand paper trick....do you find the quick and hard or the slow and long more effective??? Wait a minute, maybe I don't wanna know!!

Gotta knife??

Yes, I believe ab work done with weights and lower reps I would be best for building up the ab muscles. Unfortunately most people spending hours doing crunches till the cows come home are not yet at a low enough BF% to know if they have flat abs or not. And as with everthing, symmetry is also important. You can build too much muscle in one area, in effect, overpowering other muscles. Sounds like Owen had over developed obliques.

When I squat or lunge, I automatically engage my core to stabilize my spine...hence strengthening the ab muscles. Owen McKibben was discussing how direct ab work can lead to a thickening of the waist rather than the thin waist that most people are after. Six pack abs come from a low body fat percentage and a clean diet, not crunches. I rarley do any dirct ab work and even though my body percent is momentarily a tad higher than I desire, I have a definate 2 pack and when doing compound exersices, I can see my 4 pack and obliques bursting to get out. Just gotta tighten up that diet a bit before summer! At least that is what I have found.

I totally agree...the body naturally functions in unison, not just individual muslces. Strengthen the entire body and the core is forced to stregthen as well. I cannot think of any "real life" examples of when you would simply flex your trunk to perform any movement...be it reaching, lifting, hitting, pulling, pushing, stepping, sitting, standing...no, your body recruits a whole array of muscles in perfoming even the simplist of tasks.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! HSOrlando~You'd think that personal training and vegan would go hand in hand, unfortunately, I think most of the weight lifting community as well as fitness professional still operate under the old "need meat" dogma. And unfortunately they pass this misguided information onto their poor unsuspecting clients that are eagerly yearning for their direction. I am however very inspired by all the people who are actively trying to change this (like everyone here )! And I plan to prove to my future clients that you can be even healthier, fitter and more built with out animal protein! And I feel I will learn a ton from all of you! Marcina~I am keeping the faith with you. I do not want to see my kids inherit an unhealthy future. And if I can change just one person's life, words alone cannot express how happy that would make me. Robert~Your writing has been instumental in my journey...THANK YOU!!! Richard~Thanks for the chuckle! No, my mistake, my DS is 18 and DD will be 17 in about 4 weeks...YIKES! Veganpotter, DV, Michelle, cubby, flanders, and anyone else...Thanks again for the warm welcome and as I said before, I look forward to learning a TON!!! THANKS!!! Sandy

Hi Lean and Green! Are my kids influenced...hmmm...yes and no. After a few weeks, my son did decide to go vegan, that lasted 1 week, followed by a 1 week stint into raw veganism. Now, although he has gone back to some of is old ways, I do notice he does at least make some better choices. My DD, not so much. Actually she has been quite vocal on her love of meat...but I am hopeful she will come around a bit. My DH has been pretty good about it, although I do supplement his meals once in a while with leftove meat from preparing my DD's meals. Actually the one's that have been influenced the most is my mom and one of my son's friends. Whenever he is over at dinner time, he always chooses the vegan dinner option!

Hello everyone! My name is Sandy and I am a 43 year young mom. I became vegan in November after 2 people I was close with passed away...one from heart disease and one from cancer. This was my wake up call. I began researching and came to the conclusion that becoming a vegan was not only the best thing I could do for my own health and longevity, but also the best thing I could do for our planet and all it's inhabitants. My beautiful children are now 18 and soon to be 17. As I look over my life and to my future, I know that NOTHING in life would give me greater pleasure than to devote the second part of my adulthood to helping people reclaim their health and vibrancy. As I watch people, it hurts to see our elderly try and manuvre through restraunt aisles, unsure of their next steps...or people younger than I walking around with this "dead" look upon their faces, just going through the motions of life without any energy or hopes. I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that health and fitness are the cornerstones of a happy and successfully lived long life. I want to not only add more years, but add more life to those years as well! I have lifted weights fairly consistently for the past 20 years, and while I am in fantastic shape compared to the large majority of my peers, I have never challenged myself to take it to that next level. So that's where I am at now... And dispite my best intentions, I slowly began backsliding into my previous bad habits, first with the "evil" white stuff, then slowly dairy and ... once meat. After a couple weeks of backsliding, I began to feel awful. My previosly high energy level began evaporating and a varicose vein in one of my legs began talking back to me. I knew it was my body yelling at me. So I have returned to what I believe to be the best way to nourish my body and soul. I look forward to getting to know more people who believe as I believe and I am hoping to learn from all of you as well! Thanks for listening! Sandy