Where do you get your Protein?

How do you keep down your cholesterol?

It's all about being intentional in what you put into your body.  If you never analyze what you are eating you are almost without doubt lacking some level of nutrition or getting way too much of something you shouldn't.  I've known strong and weak vegans, healthy and unhealthy vegetarians, strong and weak meat eaters... It's not the diet you choose, it's how you choose to fill your diet that will give you health, and for those who enjoy sports... recovery/performance.

So back to the title.  The 4 most common questions you hear as a vegetarian are:
1. Where do you get your Protein?
2. What about B12?
3. Where do you get your Iron?
4. Are you overly Effeminate?

Vegan sources of Complete Protein

- Amaranth
- Buckwheat

- Nutritional Yeast

- Quinoa
- Spirulina
- Hemp

- Soy Beans

- Chlorella



Vegetarian Sources of complete protein
- Eggs
- Milk



Vegan Sources of B12
- Chlorella

- Nutritional Yeast



Iron

- Chlorella
- Spirulina
- Spinich
- Flax

- Legumes
- Quinoa

Vegetarian Sources of Manliness
- Sports
- Cars
- My wife in a bikini
- Robots/Stereo equipment

Now, a bit in depth on Protein.  Proteins are made up of Amino Acids, depending on who you talk to there are between 8 and 10 essential amino acids.  Essential amino acids are what our bodies cannot produce and require for building muscle/sustaining strength.

Most health and fitness professionals subscribe to the idea that animal proteins as superior to vegetable proteins as they are closer in cell structure to what humans need for growth.  Therefore there is less work the body has to do to break down the protein and reorganize it into muscle.  I believe this is true, however, I don't believe that means animal proteins are superior.  It just means if you want faster results animal proteins, in particular meat, will get you there.  A combination of this along with the painfully obvious recognition of whole foods over processed foods is why Paleo gets awesome results so quickly.

However, FASTER is the key here. It's not that your body can't do the same thing with vegetable protein, it's just a longer process.  In my experience the longer it takes me to get to a new level of fitness the more natural it is for my body to sustain that level of fitness.  This, in my opinion is the strength of vegetable based proteins.  Slow and steady, if you will.

Yes, if you are a vegetarian you have to be more intentional about getting all of your essential amino acids (Protein) than someone who eats meat (unless your goal is to get beat up a lot and be weak).  But, as long as you're paying attention, it's easy to do.

Chlorella - ella - ella - ella - a - a - lovin' my - Chlorella - ella - ella - ella - oh - oh

Suck it Thrive

We chose Thrive because, as far as I know, it's the only documented vegetarian based diet with sports performance in mind.  What we ignored was that we already eat a pretty healthy, well balanced diet and are getting great results.  We have stopped the Thrive diet.  We got over the 'carb withdraws' that Thrive/Paleo talks about and got into the core of the diet that was easy enough.  Here's my main complaint, not enough calories.

Both Jenni and I had a hard time getting in more than 1500 calories a day.  Simply not enough to sustain at CrossFit or any solid form of working out.  Hell, you can't even maintain weight @ 1500 calories a day.  We both had extreme fatigue during the day and I can't help but worry about getting too thin on such a dainty diet.

We are back on our normal diet, which we have seen amazing results with.  It's a basic Lacto Vegetarian diet, which basically means no meat/fish of any kind, however we eat all forms of dairy.  I've done a million tweaks to this diet everything from super protein heavy, low carb to high fat, medium carb, low protein to a 33/33/33 split.

Honestly, I've found a lot more results from how I'm working out than how I change my diet.  The only consistent thing I've found I need to watch out for, is when I go below around 1800 calories a day I start to lose muscle.  Not cool.

In my opinion, for my body.  Here is what I've found...

Eat well, cook food, stick with whole grain breads/pastas.  Be wary of processed soy products and processed products in general, really anything that comes in a box.  Eat lots of veggies, fruit, nuts.  Eggs and milk are awesome.  Use high quality vitamins, yes spend the money on good ones.  Chlorella, Spirulina, Flax and Hemp are gifts from God and it's a shame meat eaters tend to ignore them.  Don't eat too much taco bell or pizza.  Eat as much as you can.
That's basically what we've found works best for us.

To end this one, here are a couple of before/after shots.  These shots are after 11 weeks of CrossFit.  My weight has remained at 148lbs, my bodyfat has dropped from 15% to 12.4%.

The last pictures are of me when I was 25. I ate poorly, I didn't work out, I ate meat, my cholesterol was high and I was well on my way to being fat and unhealthy... wait no, I was already there...

Barbells for Boobs

Today we did our first Crossfit competition.  It was a fund raiser for Breast Cancer.  The workout was 'Grace' which is 30 x Clean & Jerks for time.

Jenni placed 2nd in the Womens Intermediate category.  She did 65lbs in 3:22!
I didn't place, but did 95lbs in 4:38, a big step forward just 6 weeks ago I was at 85lbs in 6:06.

Good fun for a good cause, great job Jenni!

Baseline

10/7/2010
Nate - 9:56 (jumping pull up)
Jenni - 10:24 (blue band pull up)
Rob - 8:30 Rx

I'm including Rob, as he is going to be doing the Thrive diet with us.

Please note, here are our original baseline scores.

7/28/2010
Nate - 12:03 (jumping pull up)
Jenni - 12:19 (jumping pull up)

Beginning Stats

Nate: 148lbs, 12.4% body fat
Jenni: 130.5lbs, 14.7% body fat

This test was done via water immersion at Fitness Wave This is the most accurate form of body fat testing.

Side note, where as Jenni has been smart enough to stay pretty fit for her whole life.  I'm excited to say only 4 years ago I was 177lbs, 28% body fat.  Medically obese.

Also, a shout out to CrossFit Costa Mesa, we have had pretty substantial increases in lean mass and decreases in body fat % in only 2 months.  Pretty amazing stuff.

============================

Body Fat Chart

Classification	Women (% fat)	Men (% fat)
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-25%
Obese	32% plus	25% plus

The Paleo Challenge...

...is not for us.  It's an awesome diet if you eat meat.  However, neither of us eat meat.

Thrive Diet, that's more my speed.  To my knowledge it is the only Vegan diet that is based in the mindset of sports performance.

Now, I'm not a vegan, but to keep things interesting while I watch my fellow gym-mates munch on chicken and walnuts, my wife and I are going to do a Thrive diet inspired challenge.

Please keep in mind, we are following the thrive diet in the same way that most people follow the bible.  Taking some liberties and twisting some meanings, so as to make it easier on ourselves.

Here's the basic plan:

Breakfast - Smoothie
    - 3 oz OJ juice
    - 3 oz Grapefruit juice
    - 4 oz Almond Milk
    - 1 oz beet juice
    - 1/2 oz ginger juice
    - 2 Leafs of Kale
    - 2 TBSP Hemp Protein
Lunch
    - Vegetables / Sprouts
    - 2 Slices Ezekiel Bread
    - 1 TBSP Veganiase
    - 8 oz Hemp Milk
Mid day Snack
    - Energy Bar from Thrive Diet book
Anytime snack
    - Nuts / Seeds
Dinner
    - Dinner outlined in Thrive Diet book
    or
    - Vegan Raw Meals from Mothers Market
    - 8 oz Hemp milk

We are also, likely going to be adding 1 egg per day and some milk.  To aid in calories and protein.


Duration: Oct. 9th - Dec 5th, 58 days

Cheat days
    - Wedding anniversary
    - Halloween
    - Thanksgiving
    - Day after Thanksgiving

Elliminated Vices
    - Fast food (3 x week)
    - Pasta (2 x week)
    - Cheese (almost daily)
    - Red Bull (3 cups/week)
    - Alcohol (4 cups/week)
    - Soda (2 cups/week)
    - Donuts (as needed)

Basic Info

Me: 29 year old male, vegetarian 1 year
Her: 31 year old female, vegetarian 16 years

CrossFitting: 2 months

Vices include Cheese, Red Bull and Del Taco.  After all, what's more american than mexican fast food?

No we don't eat fish.