Vegan update, acne, soy and bench pressing.

I have officially been a Vegan now for almost three weeks. I feel great. Full of energy and very alert, something I've really been needing with my busy schedule lately. It has also been "fun" to play around with the new diet to see what works for me and what does not. I think I'm already beginning to get a better grip on the best way for me to be Vegan.

Diet Update:

Originally I had been eating fruit smoothies for breakfast, and huge salads for lunch. Two nearly completely raw meals everyday making me probably around 50% raw. I have since moved away from that a little. While I am still eating a lot of fruit in the morning and a big salad for lunch, I realized I had been neglecting to incorporate a lot of grains into my diet. Grains for any diet are extremely important (that is why they are the biggest part of the food pyramid)! To make up for this, I have started to eat more oatmeal for breakfast, and more whole wheat bread for lunch. Doing so has definitely increased my energy levels throughout the day. Plus it fills me up better than fruit and vegetables alone could.

I still want to stay as raw as possible though. Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables are still a huge part of my diet.

I had mentioned in a previous post that I was going to reincorporate a little bit of soy into my diet everyday. I figured that about 10g or less a day could not hurt. I have since cut it back out of my diet. I'm not sure I believe all the critics of soy who say that it increases your estrogen levels though. I have talked to other people who have been vegans for years who say they have experienced no negative results from eating soy. I, on the other hand, have noticed some other negative results.

Before I decided to become Vegan I was, of course, a vegetarian. I also suffered from, at times, severe acne. It had died down as time went on (mostly with the help of strong medicines) but it was still persistently there. About a month or two ago I was driving back to school and was thinking about acne and food. From talking to other people, they have told me their acne had actually decreased once they became a vegetarian. In a way though, it seemed that the opposite was almost true for me. Around the time I became a vegetarian was when my acne got really bad.

I decided to look back at old photos and realized that my acne actually got bad right before I became a vegetarian. I tried to remember if I had made any major changes to my diet around that time and I realized I had. That was around the time that I first began to drink Soymilk. As an experiment, I decided to cut Soymilk out of my diet to see if I noticed any changes. While I did not conduct any form of formal experiment, I did notice an improvement in my skin overall. When I reincorporated soymilk a few weeks ago I figured that one glass a day would not have a huge impact on my skin. For a few days I was fine, but then I noticed that I was breaking out. So I again cut soymilk from my diet and my skin is already looking better.

Like I said, I am no scientist, but my observations have shown me that soymilk makes me break out. And if something has the ability to cause acne, does that mean it is somehow affecting my hormones? I can't say for sure but I don't want to take that risk. Plus I want clear skin :-) Therefore, no more soymilk for me.

I still want to experiment with tempeh to see if it has the same effect on me. I have heard that it goes through a different process than soymilk and tofu does. I would also like to see if unprocessed soybeans themselves have the same effect. It could just be the process that soymilk goes through that causes my skin to break out.

I have decided to enter a bench press comepetition next month (May 7th). At 130lbs, I am in a weight class with very few people so I think I stand a good chance of doing well. Even if I don't place, I'll be happy knowing that I pushed myself to a personal best. Right now I am benching 130lbs on what is known as a Smith Press. The Smith Press is used when you don't have a spotter. It is on a tract and has stoppers so you essentially can't hurt yourself. It does limit your range of motion though and I heard that one can actually lift more on a regular bench press. Additionally I have not yet figured out my one rep max (the most weight I can lift only once). With all that said, I think I should be able to lift 150lbs once on a regular bench press with no problem.

Goal: My ideal goal is to be able to bench 205 lbs. Why 205? Currently my school's bench press record for the 133 lbs and under weight class is only 200 lbs. It would be awesome if I (a vegan) could break that record. Again though, setting a personal best would be awesome as well. (But I'm totally going to reach 205 lbs ;-P )

"Training" for this competition has also caused me to make some alterations to my diet. I've found this awesome website : www.veganbodybuilding.com They have an amazing forum where vegan bodybuilders from around the world compare workouts, pictures and diets. They have already helped me tremedously in just getting me motivated for this competition. It has also been an invaluable wealth of knowledge about veganism and weight training for me. One of the things that was really stressed to me was to workout hard and eat... a lot. Since a vegan diet is largly plant based it means that we get very few calories in the day. In order to gain muscle a vegan has to eat a lot of food. Since I love food, it works great for me!

I am hoping to have another blog soon about the evils of processed foods. I have to do some further research on them though. Ironically I have a good friend who recently decided to eliminate processed foods from his diet as well so I'm sure he can provide me with some new insight.

Have a good week everyone.