I'm Back, thank you for your support

Hello Try-Athlete's, welcome to Try-Athlete, the blog where I try all the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. It has been awhile since my last post and I wanted to explain where I've been at in my life.

I started this blog because I'm passionate about health and fitness and I wanted to share my experiences with others. In February I found myself doing the same workout program and had nothing new to share about trying new workouts. I ended up not writing, and I also lost my drive to share my experiences. This year my priorities have changed a little and although I'm still very passionate about fitness sometimes I would like to write about others thinks such as diet, health and vegan recipes.

Last year I tried becoming a vegan for 30 days, after that 30 day period I continued to be vegan. So I have decided to revamp my blog a little to encompass being a vegan too. I will now include vegan recipes and knowledge about being a vegan athlete. I will continue to try different workouts but instead of doing something different every week I will do it for a month to see the further results of the new workout. 

With that said I have been doing Insanity and Asylum DVD's and kind of burnt out with them since I have done them for so many years. I was also not seeing the results I wanted and I am in a Six-Pack Challenge with a co-worker to see who has a better six-pack by July 28. I've been eating super healthy and working out daily but not seeing the results I want. I am already very fit but I am ready to take my fitness to the next level. I have decided to shake up my workout routine because I feel like I have just been going through the motions since I have done the same workouts so many times.

Since becoming vegan I have been researching how to get everything my body needs without eating animal protein. I am going today to the book store to find a book about vegan athletes so that I can become an expert on that too. I have been told on numerous occasions that abs are made in the kitchen and I completely agree. I have also found out that you must eat the necessary calories that your body needs as well or you won't see results. I feel like I wasn't seeing results because I wasn't taking in the all the calories I needed. 

I have a new plan of attack, changing my workout routine to work different muscle groups and research exactly what to eat to have the six-pack I have always dreamed of. I also believe food combining has something to do with it, not combining the right foods together can also affect your results. 

I hope you are excited to join me on this journey and I look forward to seeing the progress I make and sharing it with all of you. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to catch up with me. Until next time stay strong and stay fit! 

Are you a Vegetarian?

Welcome to Try-Athlete, the blog where I try the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. This week I struggled with my Vegetarianism. I don't like labels I eat healthy but I don't necessarily put myself into any categories even though I pretty much am vegan and vegetarian and eat mostly raw as well. I'm not sure why I don't really tell people I am these things.
I have watched so many food documentaries lately that it seems cruel and horrible to eat animals that lived an inhumane life just to die for me to eat. I haven't eaten any meat, poultry or fish in over a month and I haven't missed it. It's interesting when you cut something out of your diet for a few weeks and you end up never looking back.
I just want to be socially conscious about what I'm putting in my body and how it was raised and treated. This week was a struggle because we went to a seafood restaurant right by the ocean and I love seafood. As soon as we sat down I saw this lobster salad that looked amazing and I don't even like lobster. But something else caught my eye when scanning the menu the Crab & Shrimp Louis, I used to love crab and shrimp before I started on this journey.
I ordered the Louis with no egg and the dressing on the side but I still ordered it with the crab and shrimp. When it arrived it looked healthy and delicious but a part of me felt guilty because or the crab and shrimp. I ate it plain without the dressing and each one of the components was so flavorful the dressing wasn't needed. I ate the whole thing and once I was done the remorse set in. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had done something wrong I didn't know where they got their seafood from or if it was caught wild and not harmful to other sea life. I knew if my some of my girl-friends were with me they would look down on me.
I feel like we all make mistakes and struggle sometimes with change and new ideas. I got myself out of my funk by realizing I'm not perfect and no one really is even though we all try to come off like we have all the answers we don't. Sometimes we mess up or fuck up or order the wrong thing but it's our future choices that can help us feel better about ourselves. Next time I go to a seafood restaurant I most likely won't order fish because I will remember how I felt the previous time. Or next time I won't even put myself in that situation I will just pick a different restaurant something vegan or vegetarian or raw.
As long as you feel good about your decisions and find out if the meat/poultry/fish you are consuming was humanly raised, grass fed, wild and all the other things we need to ask then enjoy. I choose to cut all animal protein out of my diet because I've seen and heard too much to eat those things but even I had a slip up and I think it's normal to sometimes fall and get back up, dust yourself off and continue on your healthy path. This is a journey that has just started for some of us and I believe hiccups will happen but we can overcome them and it will just make us stronger! It is a marathon not a sprint so until next time stay strong and stay fit!

Vegucated

Welcome to Try-Athlete the blog where I try the latest fitness and diet trends so you don't have to. Last week I watched a very informative documentary called "Vegucated." It was about a young woman who is a vegan and got 3 New Yorkers to become vegan for 6 weeks. It was a very inspiring film and I learned a lot about how farm animals are treated in this country. Some of the scenes in the movie where hard to watch because they showed the inhumane treatment of the animals. At the end of the film all 3 of the people stayed vegan.
I decided hey I should do that, I already eat mostly fruits and veggies. I do indulge in the occasional turkey burger with cheese, which would have to be cut out. I realized that not everyone knows what a vegan is when my co-worker brought ceviche (fish) to our employee party and said he thought it was vegan. A vegan is no meat (including fish), poultry and dairy. Vegan's don't purchase leather or any animal products to wear as clothing as well.
I decided to try a week of being vegan and see how I felt at the end of it. I usually eat oatmeal with almond milk for breakfast. No meat or dairy to start my day. Almond milk is a fabulous milk substitute and it's delicious. I work at a breakfast/lunch joint which serves epic bacon. I haven't had a piece of bacon in probably over 6 months but I serve it everyday. This week I felt conflicted serving bacon after I had watched what happens to pigs in the film. The restaurant I work at serves local farm fresh food so I was optimistic that the bacon I was serving was treated with respect. All week at work I was bothered by how much meat and dairy people ordered. Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day and all these people were starting their day with grease, fat and cholesterol.
Lunch was a little hard because the kitchen staff makes our lunch and they made a salad with cheese covering it and fried chicken sandwiches. I didn't eat either of them instead I waited till work was over and went to our local organic cafe Palm Green and ordered a hummus wrap. No meat, no cheese and it was amazing!
The week started to fly by and I didn't really struggle with being a vegan because when I saw meat or thought about it I remembered all the horrible but true facts I had learned about in the film Vegucated. One night I made myself a smoothie with spinach, banana, mango, coconut oil and almond milk and I got all the protein and nutrients needed and was full just from eating a smoothie that was 100% vegan.
At the end of the week I decided to stay vegan for another week, it wasn't that much of a challenge for me any more to eat vegan so why stop. I challenge everyone to research where your food is coming from especially the meat products you are eating. If everyone saw what was happening to animals behind closed doors they would be vegan too.
Overall I recommend becoming a vegan I had more energy this week, so until next time stay fit!