Review: Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Happy Halloween and last day of Vegan MoFo!! Even though I didn't blog every single day, this really got me off my butt and back to blogging more regularly. So thank you!

I asked Robert Cheeke for a copy of his book Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness: The Complete Guide to Building Your Body on a Plant-Based Diet and he kindly sent me one, signed even! It seems to be pretty relative to my current lifestyle, as I started the P90X program and wanted more info on how to train on a vegan diet. Now, I'm not actually doing bodybuilding, but it is a pretty intensive workout program combining cardio, yoga, and weight training.

I finally got through the book and really wanted to review it during Vegan Mofo....I've been ultra busy, but I finally did it.

He begins by telling us how he started eating a plant-based diet and how he got into bodybuilding. It's always nice to have some sort of background information. It brings you closer to the writer. He talks about how he started his company, Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness and he lays out some great points for starting out in the bodybuilding world, which could really go for any hobby or career.

He then goes on to discuss a nutrition program and how to go about putting one together. Cheeke encourages you to go out and research what your body needs and gives a great overview of various nutrients and how they interact with your body. He gives some sample meal programs, some to build mass, some for fat burning, and some for competing in bodybuilding competitions. Though he doesn't follow a raw food diet himself, he also gives sample raw food meal programs, based on a fellow bodybuilder, Giacomo Marchese.

Cheeke discusses how to create your own training programs from warm-ups to exercises to include that don't require any equipment at all. He includes sample training programs in Chapter 4 and makes sure to include the inevitable question: "Where do you get your protein?" in Chapter 5.

Now I did skim my way through parts of the book, as I'm not competing in any bodybuilding competitions, nor do I want to bulk up. But there's definitely good info in there for those of you that are doing just that. Towards the end of the book he talks about various supplements and amino acids, and gives sources for finding equipment and products/supplements needed for bodybuilding.

This is definitely a great book to have if you're ready to start bodybuilding on a plant-based diet. Or even if you just want some helpful tips on what to eat pre or post workout, what supplements to add to your diet, and which exercises are most helpful for you.

Thanks, Robert!

Eat smart,
T.

Pumpkin Pie Granola

It's that time of year again...pumpkin time! I have to admit, the idea of cutting a pumpkin open and scooping out its insides doesn't really sound appetizing. But a lot of people do it....and that's why we get pumpkin in a can :)

Yay!

So today I have a seasonal recipe for you:

Pumpkin Pie Granola
-adapted from Oh She Glows.

2 cups oats (any kind, you can even use quick oats, barley flakes, etc.)
1/2 cup uncooked millet
2 TB chia seeds
2 TB flaxmeal
1/2 cup chopped almonds & walnuts
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 TB date sugar


1/4 cup agave nectar (or 1/2 cup if you like your granola really sweet)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup water (leave out if using 1/2 cup agave instead of 1/4 cup)
1 tsp vanilla extract


Preheat the oven to 325 F. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a smaller bowl, stir together the wet ingredients, then add them to the dry. Mix well, coating everything. Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and spread the granola out as much as you can. Bake  for about 35 minutes, stirring twice. Take it out of the oven and let it sit for about 15 minutes, to dry out even more. This is not a very sweet granola, but if you serve it with yogurt and/or dried fruit, it will taste sweeter.

I like it in yogurt with dried cranberries, but you could use almond milk instead of yogurt.

Hope you have a nice Halloween weekend. I'm still super busy, but hope to crank out at least one more post before VeganMoFo is over.

Eat smart,
T.

Starter tips and recipes for new vegans

Yesterday, I posted about transitioning to a plant-based diet. Today I'm going to give you a few easy meal and snack ideas for those new to the diet.

The idea is to eat as many "whole foods" you can. Try to ease up on the processed food. That means buying lots of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. 

Do you have a steamer basket at home? Or a big steamer pot? I steam vegetables ALL the time. It may be one of the healthier ways to eat cooked vegetables, because it doesn't cook them for that long (so they keep more of their nutrients) and there's no oil involved (like frying). Pre-cut vegetables don't last as long as whole ones. Just keep that in mind. If you buy pre-shredded carrots and florets of broccoli in a bag, use them up fairly quickly. I tend to buy whole heads of broccoli and cauliflower, as well as the big whole carrots (not baby carrots, but if you like those, go ahead). 

Cutting vegetables doesn't really take all that long. Or do it in advance....maybe in the morning, before work, or the evening before. Store them in a container in the fridge and then take them out when you're ready to throw them in the steamer. Try to keep the vegetables similar in size so they take the same amount of time to cook. Always throw any greens in for the last couple of minutes only (spinach, kale, collards, etc.). Keep pricking them with a fork to see if they're done. I like mine a little al dente! 

I love meals in a bowl. Three layers: grains, vegetables, sauce. That's all. Cook up some brown rice or barley. Put that in a bowl, and top it with those steamed vegetables and some sauce. You can try this cashew tomato sauce (it's also great on pasta), or maybe an Asian sauce (scroll down to the Asian Ginger Sauce, it's delicious!). Actually, that page has several grain and sauce variations to try, so it's a good link to keep.

How about a salad? Throw all the vegetables you love into a big bowl (I'd chop them up first!), and add a sauce. Be careful with pre-made bottled sauces. A lot of them have cheese and other dairy products in them. I try not to use much oil, so I avoid those dressings. You can try my Avocado Dressing...it's really refreshing! And easy.  Here's another salad variation (and you leave out the kelp noodles if you can't find them).  Maybe you want some potato salad instead? Those are the rare occasions I use vegan mayo (Vegenaise). 

Another easy recipe is this Vegetable Barley Stew. A great meal for the upcoming winter months! Again, this just involves cooking up the barley in one pot and the broth and cut up veggies in another.

What? You want pasta? That's easy too! I prefer brown rice pasta, but you could use whole wheat instead. I'd stay away from all things white flour. That's not a vegan thing, it's just a healthy thing. This is a great pasta sauce, using cashews. Or try some peanut sauce for a change. Looking for parmesan? I've got a super simple recipe for a vegan parmesan substitute! I even have a great pesto recipe, without cheese!

Hummus and guacamole are great healthy snacks. Serve them with cut up veggies or tortilla chips. Or you can try my muesli in yogurt.

Breakfast is easy. If you eat cereal, just make sure there aren't any funny ingredients hiding in there. My biggest worry about cereal is the sugar. The sugar content can be so high.....watch out for that. You can just switch our regular milk for a non-dairy milk, like almond milk or hemp milk. I find that hemp milk seems to be a bit sweeter and creamier than the others. I use unsweetened plain soy milk in my coffee, and hemp and almond milk for other things, like oats. I love oats. Every which way. You can see my whole post on oats here. 

Feel free to peruse my recipes page for more suggestions.

If you eat a variety of whole foods, you'll get most of your nutrients and vitamins. You have to include lots of different colors of fruits and vegetables, as well as various grains, beans, lentils, and some nuts and seeds. Don't worry, you'll get plenty of protein if you are able to do this! Sometimes, those that follow a plant-based diet are deficient in Vitamin B-12. You can find this in nutritional yeast and fortified non-dairy milks. You may have to take a supplement, if you don't get enough.

And again, if you have questions, just ask. 

Also, if you have any major health problems, you may want to consult a doctor first, before drastically changing your diet.

Eat smart,

T.

Helpful tips for transitioning to a plant-based diet

I thought I'd put together a few helpful tips on transitioning to a plant-based diet. Probably most of you that read this already eat this way, but perhaps a few of you don't know exactly how to get started.

I've been vegetarian for several years now. At first, I still ate fish, but dropped that about 3-4 years ago. And now, I've dropped all animal products from my diet and have eaten this way for almost 2 years! It wasn't really that difficult, though it may seem so at first. The hardest part about a plant-based diet is eating out, and even then, once you know what to look for/order, it's not really all that difficult. And besides, there are more and more vegan restaurants popping up all over the place these days.

When I became a vegetarian (there was no "transitioning"...it was just cold tofurkey for me), I ate a lot of processed veggie foods, because they were easy. Easy to find, easy to cook up, and fast. I ate a lot of faux veggie meat slices in sandwiches, veggie dogs, etc. And I still ate regular yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, so there was plenty for me to eat. But perhaps this wasn't the healthiest way to go about it. Now there are even more "quick" and "easy" fake meat sources. Just go to Whole Foods and you will see a whole refrigerator and  freezer packed with the stuff. Veggie meals galore, from Amy's (not all of their items are vegan), Candle Cafe, Gardein, Kashi, etc. They are not cheap either. I won't say not to buy them, because I do occasionally, when I need something quick and it's on sale.

Becoming vegan (or eating a completely plant-based diet), is more of a challenge. I used to love cheese and yogurt. And now I don't really crave them anymore. Your body gets used to it. Besides, if you really want it, the non-dairy industry has really changed a lot in the past few years. There are several non-dairy yogurts you can buy (yes, they've got the cultures!). Some made with soy, others with coconut milk. There's even non-dairy ice cream! And that stuff is delicious. Mind you, I don't eat it all the time. It's high calorie, high fat, and high sugar, like regular ice cream. Though it's made with healthier ingredients. I was never really an egg person, but there are substitutions you can make when you're baking. As for eating, lots of vegans make scrambled tofu. It's very popular.

There are so many non-dairy milks out there, I couldn't possibly name them all. They're made from nuts, hemp, rice, oats, soy, etc.

So you see, there's not really a lack of food out there for those of us on a plant-based diet! And in time, you'll learn to make your own foods too, instead of buying them pre-packaged in the store.

Here is a list of staples that I keep (not all of them all the time, I try to vary the fruits and vegetables) in my kitchen.

Watch out for the "dirty dozen" in the case of fruits/vegetables. Those items you'll want to buy organic, if you can.

Vegetables: kale, spinach, zucchini, carrots, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, celery, cucumbers, ginger, beets, cabbage, peppers, there are limitless options!

Fruit: apples, pears, lemons, limes, frozen berries, bananas, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, avocados, dates, dried fruit, also limitless options!

Other items:

Nuts (cashews, almonds, walnuts, etc.)
tahini
almond butter or sunflower seed butter (there are many other nut butters out there too)
pureed/strained tomatoes in a jar
Pasta (I use brown rice pasta, but there are lots to choose from)
Oats (quick cooking, steel cut,  and whole oat groats)
Buckwheat (raw, hulled groats)
Brown rice
Millet
Barley
Quinoa
Flax seeds, ground
Lentils
Chickpeas, black beans, etc. (I buy Eden Organic in a BPA-free can)
Earth Balance "butter"
Daiya shredded cheese (I keep it in the freezer), great on pizza
Teese Mozzarella
Rice Vegan Cheddar slices and vegan cream cheese
Tempeh
Almond milk, soymilk, and hemp milk-all unsweetened (Silk, Almond Dream, Tempt)
Sprouted grain English muffins and tortillas (Ezekiel)
Corn tortillas
Nutritional Yeast (great for B-12, tastes cheesy, sprinkle on top of pasta, etc.)
Non-dairy yogurt (Silk, WholeSoy,etc)
Non-dairy ice cream (So Delicious, Coconut Bliss, etc)
Lots of spices

This is not a complete list, but you get the idea. If I forget something, I'll come back and add it to the list.
Most of these things are easy to cook. I highly recommend a rice cooker (Zojirushi) for cooking rice and whole oat groats. You can set them to be ready at a certain time.....breakfast or dinner! There are great recipes out there for raw, soaked buckwheat or oat groats as breakfast oatmeal. Though you can easily cook up quick oats for breakfast too (S eats those every morning).  Other handy appliances are: a food processor, juicer (Breville), and a highspeed blender (Vitamix).

Many products contain dairy ingredients. See here for a pretty good list of ingredients that are made from dairy. Even some cheeses that are made from soy or rice have CASEIN in them (this is a dairy product!). Watch out for those. Some soy yogurts also contain casein. Read the label!! (don't worry, you'll eventually learn what products you can eat, without looking at the label single every time)

I've learned to read labels. A lot.

Whatever the reason is.....you love animals, you'd like to be healthier.......choosing a plant-based diet is an amazing choice! Good for you for even thinking about it.

I lost about 50 pounds after becoming vegetarian. And after transitioning over to a totally plant-based diet, I lost another 30! That's 80 pounds lost!!! So yes, that's another plus. My cholesterol numbers went down too! You can do it.

There are so many vegan cookbooks out there now. Just go to Amazon....they are all listed there.

PS-if you are also gluten free, or have other allergies, there are also tons of blogs out there for you!

Tomorrow: Easy first vegan meal/snack ideas.

PLEASE don't hesitate to ask questions if you need help with your transition. I'm here to help, since I've already been through that phase.


Eat smart,
T.