Over 5 years ago, I ate so bad. I would exercise but get absolutely nowhere. I consumed so many processed foods that I'm surprised I didn't get full-blown diabetes. But that just goes to show how the body can heal itself.
I never realized how important healthier foods choices were back then. Finishing off a half gallon of ice cream in two days, you can see I was on the wrong track. It took pre-hypertension to wake me up. No way was I going to rely on meds!
Bodybuilders require a lot more calories than most people. As for myself, I already reached my goal weight and I'm not looking to lose more weight so I have to make sure I eat enough.
As a vegan for almost four months now, a lot of people have asked me about what foods I eat. I figured I should take the time to go through my diet as it might help others that are looking for a way to change to a plant based diet but not really familiar with what foods to eat.
When I started this vegan weight lifting challenge over 13 weeks ago, I weighed about 192 pounds. Today, when I weighed myself, the scale read 204. Normally, this would be a time to panic and up the cardio, cut back on foods, etc. Except this time, I'm building muscle and I know that the weight gain is not because of extra fat.
For one thing, my waist size hasn't changed. Everything fits the same. The only way to know for sure is to get my body fat checked again. I had it checked a few weeks ago and found out the extra weight then was muscle. In anther few weeks, I will find out if the other extra weight is indeed muscle growth.
Today marks 3 months since I last had animal products. I actually started the "Shred It!" challenge on Sept. 3rd, but had chicken on Sept. 6th. Ever since then, I've had no animal products. The purpose of this challenge is to build muscle as a plant based eater, rather than load up my body with too much protein that other bodybuilders do.
I didn't want the health problems that other weight lifters get.. kidney or liver damage from too much protein. Robert Cheeke's book proved that all that extra protein was not needed and that muscle growth can happen with just plants.
To quote my vegan friend Robert Cheeke and the shirt I just bought from his website, "No Meat, No Problem"!
I've been following the Shred It! Challenge for about 10 or 11 weeks now. The 13 week challenge has been helping with my muscle strength but requires no meat.
