Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

I began the "Shred It!" challenge with a lot of confusion. I did vegan challenges before where I would give up animal products for weeks at a time. I never imagined I would go this long without any turkey or eggs and feel good in the process. All I have to say is that the challenge works!

I may not have perfect muscle definition yet, but I'm closer than I ever was. Yes, 13 weeks might be enough for some people, but for me it will take a while longer. However, I can feel the muscle growth, especially in my arms and chest. A lot of the loose skin I had there is now covered with muscle. There is still some loose skin left on the arms, but I know I'm on the right track.

I'm almost done with the Shred It! workout journal, just a few more workouts. As this challenge winds down, I've come to realize that everyone is a work in progress. It's not like once I finish the challenge, that goals will have been reached.

I'm still evolving and learning a lot about muscle building along the way. This challenge has been a real eye opener though. When I think of how much money I wasted on protein powders before this, it's so unnecessary! They were plant based protein powders so they were less damaging to the body than whey protein, but still, I could have achieved netter results over the past few years just eating whole plant based foods. But that's why challenges are so important, you hopefully learn how to better yourself.

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.