Why Go Vegan?

Hello everyone!

This is a huge decision, as you can imagine. I want to explain myself as to why I’m choosing this venue. Let me explain my history.

My father was very young when his family went from Quebec to New Brunswick. Speaking little to no English, they struggled for awhile to because accustom to the new province. My grandfather was a woodsmen complete with a team of horses and later big machinery. My father quit school after grade 9 to work with my grandfather. And so the lifestyle of “meat and potatoes” began. Whatever they shot was their meat, and whatever my grandmother grew in the garden was their produce. A very simple, carnivorous life.

Naturally, I grew up eating A LOT of meat. Not because we didn’t go shopping, but I was still a hunter’s daughter, and meat was a regular, every-meal thing. When I was young, it would be no big deal for me to sit down to a pound of bacon myself. It’s a miracle I wasn’t obese!

When I met my first vegetarians in grade 8, I was amazed. This concept that I believed to only belong to celebrities belonged to real life people! I was the only vegetarian in my area, and the lack of knowledge was evident in a quick trip to a hospital with extensive stomach pains. The doctor then informed me of some vital nutrition I was missing, and instead of telling me to eat meat again, told me some vital vegetables I needed to be sure I ate daily.

I was vegetarian for around 10 years. I quit meat cold turkey. My grandfather of course was convinced I was going to die, and was continuously trying to feed me meat. My only family was shocked, but my grandmother on my mother’s side, who has always had an interest in health, was happy. She basically went vegetarian with me! (She never was much of a meat eater).

When I met my husband, he was vegetarian and had been his whole life. My university graduation had led my brother to convince my future husband to try the “real stuff”. From then on, he was hooked.

Eventually, it was the smell of beef jerky that won me back. That smell in my very house all over again won me in. In fact, it opened up the whole new realm of macro counting with my interest in fitness peaking too. With the high levels of protein “needed”, it seemed as if I couldn’t survive without meat. And so I ate meat again for roughly 4 years.

Now, I’ve done so much research. And to keep it short, there is so much evidence that a plant-based diet is the way to go. I would like to think of myself as “getting back to the basics”, naturally. The world of fitness and diet will continuously battle itself. All information can be conflicting. But nothing can deny the way you feel both mentally, physically, and spiritually. Mentally, I’m not hating my food, I’m not worried about going over my “macros”, and I’m not worried about having to stop myself from eating while still feeling like I’m starving. Physically, I feel better. I don’t have to worry about eliminating things to figure out what’s wrong with my body, I get to look forward to younger, more flawless skin. And spiritually, I can feel good about being accountable for selecting the best foods that I can. I can also feel good about my choice not to inflict pain on animals that I myself could not kill. If I couldn’t do it, why do I take part in the process at all?

Some things I’m going to be doing are:
-Trying to buy as much organic as I can
-Continuing my workouts
-Drinking 3L of water a day
-Learning more about, and sticking to food combining rules
-Cutting processed sugar 95%
-Eating mostly fruit until supper
-Eating raw 90% of the time
-Eating until I’m full!

I will keep you posted on my journey! I’m excited for this new phase 🙂

Back on Track

I have to admit, I have taken a long break from tracking my food. I didn’t always make the best food decisions, didn’t always eat as often as I should, and though I made sure I made choices with protein in them, I didn’t always aim to have the most protein either.

I also haven’t been going to the gym for about a month between being sick and hurting my rib. I basically “quit” my everyday life for a bit of time.

Normally it would bother me as I reached a higher weight and then somehow stayed there (my own fault). But the fact I was maintaining was also a sort of good thing as my weight was not continuing to rise. I chose to look at it as somewhat of a healing phase as well. I needed to rest and not stress about lack of gym time.

My clothes don’t fit the way they used to. Obviously I’ve gained some size. But instead of that causing my world to crash, I decided to focus on how I felt otherwise. In fact, a pair of dress pants that used to be too big for me now look awesome on me (as much as I don’t encourage that type of transformation).

But after all this, and really not wanting to go back to the task of tracking, I’m back. I’ve set my calories at 2000 (I’ll explain reasons why later). My protein is set at 0.8 per pound of bodyweight. And this is my first day back to tracking.

My workouts (I’ve done 3 so far), are modified in such a way that allows my rib muscle to still heal and yet lightly work at the same time. What I’ve noticed is that mainly and PUSH motion is what aggravates it the most so I avoid those. But a lot of things I thought I’d have to go super light weight in, I’m actually as strong, if not stronger. The month off from the gym honestly did nothing in hindering my strength progress.

Sometimes it’s all about listening to your body. Do I wish I controlled what I ate a little more? Yeah, I probably do. But I’m not going to let that ruin my happiness and motivation for the future. So I’m back to working out, and I’m back to eating properly. Let’s see how this goes!

Week 4 Day 5

Am I ever thankful I took a rest day yesterday! I still feel tired, but my body physically feels so much better than before.

Getting up for work still was not the easiest, but I had a pretty good day at work, and felt like I had so much more power for my workouts this evening.

The workout is still on a circuit style of training, covering most parts of the body. Pretty soon the program will be separating into separate body parts and eventually phase out of circuits.

RIght now, I’m feeling great!

Celebrate Your Successes!

I’ve been working out fairly seriously for about 2 years. It actually has probably been 3 years, but there were periods of time where I took breaks (later regretted). In those two years, I have changed my view on so many things.

At first, I just wanted to be thin and worked out in so specific routine, but whatever I felt like for the day.

My next phase involved my husband introducing me to structured workouts. This was a bit of a battle at first, but I came to appreciate and realize the potential of structured workouts. This is the stage I also realized that I could not even bench press the 45-lb bar! I honestly couldn’t do it!

The next phase involved my diet and changing what I ate. I was still in the mindset of not wanting to look muscle-y but wanting to be thin. There were a few arguments involved in this stage as well and I’ve “wobbled” on this a few times.

After that phase, I think it finally became serious. I no longer thought that having some muscle was anti-feminine. In fact, I’ve grown to love the look. I would never compete in women’s bodybuliding as that is not the amount of muscle I would be comfortable in. But a shapely body with muscle is very beautiful on a women, and that’s been a total mind-change.

I had a 2-month phase where I was actually tired of working out. I had a rough year and just wanted to have a break from everything (except my marriage). I was on vacation, didn’t want to be so structured, and totally rebelled. This of course led to some awful weight gain and I kicked myself about it for a long time after.

But after that 2-month period, I’ve been in my final phase, and that is dedication. I’m dedicated to my workouts because I want them. I’m dedicated to eating clean and fitting my macros because I want to. Nobody is forcing me to do it. It’s all me and I love it. I have goals, I have an ideal body look, and I’m going to continue to fight day after day to get there!

When I look at how far I’ve come, it’s incredible. I’m nowhere near my end, quite close to the beginning. But the funny thing that I realized tonight was my success with that bench press. You see, I mentioned I couldn’t lift the bar because when I started, I honestly couldn’t. I was so much weaker than I thought. Tonight I was able to bench press 70 lbs for 5 sets without help. I hope to bench press much more than this, but just the fact that I’ve not only become strong enough to lift the bar but to go above and beyond that is something to celebrate.

Celebrate the successes. Make the successes and progress your own. Don’t do it for someone else, do it for yourself. When you want it, and you own it, you will do that much better.