My Vegetarian Experiment

So, in dealing with my digestive issues, I've tried lots of things. Fibre supplements. Whole grains. Eliminating dairy. Eliminating gluten. The thing with IBS is that it's not always a dietary issue. It can also act up due to other factors. In my case, it's usually stress. So it's not always something I can control with diet. Each of the attempts above have worked for a limited period of time, and then it just stops working. So now I'm going to tell you about my latest try!

I've been vegetarian for almost a week now. If you've known me for a long time, you'll know that I used to be a vegetarian while I was a teenager. Back then, I just did it because I wanted to. I also did what a lot of vegetarians do when they go vegetarian...replace everything they eat with pasta and cheese. That's the problem with not really having a solid reason behind doing something. You do it halfway and wrong, and it ends up being pointless. However, many of my dietary changes lately have been for the sake of my health, and that's a pretty strong incentive to do something properly. I am also doing this for the sake of my fitness. One of the best examples I have found of the things that are possible on a vegetarian or vegan diet while focusing on building muscle and losing fat is a woman named Amber, who runs the website gokaleo.com. She used to be obese, and is now totally smoking hot, and very strong, all while being on a vegan diet. In terms of fitness and diet, she encourages people to be critical of the messages they are receiving and not to go along with fad diets. I find her to be very informative and encouraging of all body types and abilities. She's definitely inspired me to give this a try!

So far this is what I've been eating:

The same thing for breakfast I usually do: a smoothie. ½ banana, some frozen organic strawberries, greek yogurt (made the switch to FULL FAT om nom!), almond/coconut milk (not a huge fan of coconut but I'm getting used to it!), and some whey protein power (ya it's not vegetarian protein powder but it's all I've got).

Snack: usually the rest of my banana with some natural peanut butter. Sometimes almonds and some dark chocolate chips. I had some rice chips and salsa the other day...yum!

Lunch which is more like dinner: if we make pizza, I put tomatoes on my half instead of pepperoni. I made a fried rice thing the other night with frozen veggies, an egg, and rice. It was delicious. I also love rice and beans, and I'll make some kind of salad to go with that. We also like to have burritos with homemade tortillas and beans and cheese in them. I put salsa in mine too. Yum! If we have pasta, I like to have corn pasta with butter on it and tomatoes in it.

Another snack if I get hungry: veggies with yogurt-based ranch dip or a salad. Or eggs and fruit.

'Dinner': I sometimes eat some and sometimes don't. I'll usually have a salad of some type or some fruit. I don't normally get hungry at this time, and I don't like to eat heavy things because we usually go to bed an hour later.

So that's pretty much been my first week of vegetarianism. It's not quite as varied as other diets so far. I'm still trying to find my place in it. At first I was concerned about eating so much rice, but I've been fine so far. We have a huge bag of Basmati rice that we are working our way through right now, and after that is gone, we will switch to brown rice with the occasional Basmati because Basmati is OM NOMS. As you can also see, I'm still eating eggs. Since I'm not going vegetarian for moral reasons, I don't really feel the need to justify this, but I'll just say that chickens lay eggs normally anyways, and there's no reason to waste them. Plus eggs are pretty much the perfect food and super healthy for you (even the yolks...yes they contain cholesterol, but they also have choline which prevents cholesterol buildup so ha!). And every once in awhile I'll still have some kind of meat. Like this weekend we wanted burgers so we're going to go for burgers. In any diet change I make, I still want to make sure that I can live a life that's not separate from my husband's. I cannot picture him ever being a vegetarian, although his diet has gotten much healthier lately. Therefore, if he wants to take me out and it's for burgers, I'll eat it. Once a week won't be that bad.

So far these are my results:

Digestion – has been much better. I haven't been as bloated as I usually am, and my stomach hurts less than it usually does. What had been happening is that I'd feel like my stomach wasn't emptying. My NP blamed it on eating fibre-rich food, but honestly that makes no sense to me. Shouldn't that improve my digestion? But since cutting meat, I haven't had that feeling in my stomach, and my digestion feels a lot smoother. My IBS hasn't been acting up either. Yay! I'm going to keep this up for a couple more weeks and see if it stays this way. To date, these have been my most encouraging 'week one' results.

Fitness/Body – I lost a pound this week. I also lost about ½ an inch around my belly. I've noticed the tone in my arms is more visible, and even Daric remarked on it the other day. I definitely think I've lost a bit of fat or bloat or something because I can see a difference in my legs too. The big thing is that I haven't been to the gym in a while as my car is broken. However, we have begun taking kickboxing, boxing, and doing circuit training classes, all at the MMA gym we recently joined. Therefore, I've taken it a little easier for the workouts I do on my own. I have noticed an increase in my muscle awareness when working out though. This could be because my body feels better due to the dietary change, it could be because I'm more than halfway through my personal trainer course and I've just learned enough to be more aware about effective movements, or it could be that changing up my fitness routine with the new workouts has made me more aware. Focusing on having power or speed while moving is not easy, so you really need to be aware. An example of this muscle awareness would be a workout I did yesterday. I used a 10-20lb resistance band to do a little full body workout. I did some lat pulls and rear delt flies with the band and I can definitely feel it in my back today. Quite honestly, I didn't think I would, but it was extremely effective because I concentrated really hard on using my back muscles. This proves what every personal trainer knows: you don't need a gym to get a good workout, as long as you make your workout effective and concentrated.

So far vegetarianism is working for me, mostly because I'm doing it right this time. I will continue to add in more variety to my diet, and so it will only get better! I am a more mature cook this time as well, so the flavours in my food are more interesting and varied.

I don't intend this post to say everyone should be vegetarian. Whenever I say 'every body is different', I mean it. Natural shape, natural skills, natural diet. These things will vary for everyone. The one thing I emphasize for myself is to eat real food. I try not to eat a lot of packaged and processed food. As long as you focus on that, then whatever your diet is will be up to you. Some people thrive on a no-grain diet. Some people do well on the Paleo diet. Some people enjoy vegan/vegetarian diets. If you think your diet is holding you back, you might try eliminating some things from it, little by little, substituting them for others. For example, at present I have substituted different kinds of beans for meats in my food. Maybe try doing that swap and see how you feel.

Next time I'll share some of my favourite vegetarian meals!

Amanda <3

Tips for Working Out at Home

So, I usually work out at the gym, but sometimes that's not possible. For instance, my car broke down the other morning (darn you, 14 year old alternator!), so I can't hit up the gym until we get it fixed. What to do until then? WORK OUT AT HOME!!!

Lots of people work out at home, for various reasons. Sometimes they're too embarrassed to go to the gym, or they can't afford a gym membership, or getting to the gym is just too difficult because they work long hours or don't have a car and would have to rely on the bus. Well, luckily, there are lots of things out there that can help you get in shape at home, and if you make good use of your time and use the proper equipment, you'll be quite successful! These are the things you may need:

Space
Well, this one is obvious. You can't be doing jumping jacks or lunges or pushups if you don't have enough room. Make sure you have a space big enough so that you're not running into your furniture or catching your limbs/clothing on corners of things. To ensure you don't get injured, clear a big enough space.

Weights
If you work hard enough and do the right moves, you don't really need the machines at the gym. The key is to use heavier weights to challenge yourself. I see trainers at my gym giving their ladies 5 pound dumbbells, and I think it's quite a shame. Sure, 5 pounds is enough if you're just starting out, but you should be consistently increasing those weights over time. The thing is that people think that the more reps you do, the stronger you'll get. But the truth is that the more power and strength you demand from your muscles, the quicker they'll adapt. So instead of curling 5 pounds for 12 reps, do 10 for 6-8. You want to use a weight heavy enough that you can use it for 6-8 reps of what you're doing, but can't do more than 10 reps maximum with it. The key to making working out at home successful is to push yourself.

A Plan
Anyone who doesn't go into the gym with a plan is probably going to waste a lot of time. I write out all of my workouts in a notebook before the gym, and I take that notebook with me. When I'm done with something, I check it off, and if I changed my planned weights, I make a note.
Having a plan when working out at home can be a little difficult if you don't know what to do for what your goals are. Luckily, there are tons of plans out there already! Look on bodybuilding.com and you can find tons. Oxygen magazine puts workout plans in each new issue, and you can look up exercises on their website (oxygenmag.com). I actually started working with weights because of the workout in their January issue (I can scan it and email it to you if you let me know you want it...it's awesome!). Oxygen also releases guides every few months that are sold on magazine racks and they're all focused on a certain body part or goal. I also like the Women's Health Big Book of Exercises. It's literally full of hundreds of exercises with good instructions, and there are workout plans in the back. It's pretty sweet!

Other Aids
If you don't want to put much thought into planning your own workout for doing at home, you can always rely on video workouts. The type of equipment you'll need varies on what you pick. Most of them will require some kind of weights and maybe a workout mat. Pilates based ones may require more equipment. The great thing about workout videos is that you can always find one for your level and goal. If you're a new exerciser, you could try a Biggest Loser video ( I have a few, and they're pretty low-impact/easy). Or if you're more advanced or want more intense workouts, you could try P90X or Insanity, which are both made by Beachbody. Beachbody also makes TurboJam, which is a fun, dance-type workout (which I have also tried). A lot of people start out with Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred, which is what I did when I started working out way back when. It's a good starting point, because it's designed to be 30 days, and it's pretty well rounded.
For more advanced exercisers, there are two things I'd like to point out. If you have a smartphone, there are TONS of apps related to exercising. Some are even free. The Nike Training Club app is free and unfortunately only for iPhone so far. I tried it for the first time yesterday, doubting it's difficulty at first. That is, until my arms were jelly, my quads were on fire (and that's not easy to do to my beast legs), and I was literally dripping sweat off my face. What I like best about it is that it doesn't cop out on the weights. It had you select your fitness level and type of exercise you want to do, and then it tells you how much weight to use within a range. It told me to use 12-20lb weights for my workout, and that's great! No more telling women they need puny weights! The only thing I didn't like is they don't give you a pause between exercises to get set up for the next one, so that eats into your time a bit.
And for people who don't have an iPhone, but have the interwebz, another great resource is bodyrock.tv. You do need extra equipment for their workouts, but not for all of them, and you can modify some of the moves to work with what you have if you don't want to buy the extra equipment. They've also started doing real time workout videos and posting them on their website, so you can do the workout with them and follow their timing and see them struggle right along with you. Their workouts are short, intense, and don't waste your time.

Extras
There are lots of other things you can incorporate into your home workouts. Bosu balls, stability balls, skipping ropes, a TRX system or other resistance band workout system, pull-up bars...all are things easy to use at home. And for when you're not strength training and want to do some cardio, well just go outside! Go for a speed walk, go for a run, go swimming, go biking. The possibilities are endless!

There's not a lot you need to work out at home, and the monetary investment is definitely doable for most people on a budget. You can slowly accumulate what you need and will use over time. And of course, there are tons of bodyweight only exercises that are great for beginners to get started, and then they can move up to equipment when they're ready.

The one sticking point about working out at home is finding the motivation. I don't know about you, but if I have to work out at home, it's difficult to get going. The drive to the gym is something that really mentally prepares me. So make sure you're finding the proper motivation. Maybe taking a walk around the block will help clear your mind and focus you. Maybe it's best that you get your work out in before you ever turn the tv on for the day. Maybe getting dressed in your work out clothes as soon as you get up will help you focus. Whatever you do, make sure you find a strategy to block out all the distractions that home can offer so you can really focus. A focused work out will do wonders for you, even if you can't use fancy gym equipment.

Do you work out at home? Do you have tips to share or questions to ask? Leave a comment!
<3 Amanda