vegetarian.......

teenfitness

New member
hi girls!
i was just wondering if any of you are vegetarians? i am a STRICT vegetarian of 6 years, however i think it is F@#$ing up my goals!! by this i mean, i dont think i am getting enough protien, and for a gym rat, thats not good. i mean, i consume TONS of soy. but i hear soy alone isnt good, and may even slow down your thyroid or something..??? overall, i have a huge amout of muscle and muscle tone, but my body seems to be at its peak, but i want to get bigger, and even more muscular. i am starting to think that this is because i dont eat meat. SO many people tell me that. they tell me "you'll never get buff unless you eat meat!" ect. is that true, i mean, could it be that my body wont add any more muscle because i dont eat meat/get enough of the right protien?? i add weight when i lift each time so i max out, and i switch up my routines. i really want to stay true to my vegetarianism..the thought of eating meat sickens me!! i have heard trading soy, for whey is a good idea. is this so? ...its so frusterating because on one hand i want to be buff, and on the other i want to continue to be a veg. but seems like it cant be that way. i eat VERY healthy and i work out 5 days a week for about 2-3 hours. i have been doing so for the past 3 years. and over the past 4 or 5 months no matter how much i lift or workout intensly, my body seems to have hit its peak. seriosuly, if you ladies have any info or suggestions to share with me, i would appriciate it. also, if you have any questions or anything, feel free to ask.thanks!! love, ~Caroline
 
Soy is OK if it is used with other combinations. It has been proven to help aid in the risk of breast cancer if consumed throughout developmental years in life. It is much more difficult to gain results as a vegetarian, however Bill Pearl and his wife proved it can be done(if its something you are intersted in then you must by his fitness book). Why are you a vegetarian is my second question. I was for 4 years but was starving my body of essential fats and aminos that lead to a very unhealthy state. So ask yourself why? My problem was the in humane tereatment of animals that were stuck in animal slaughter houses. So when I decided to make my body No. 1 then I simply stuck to free range chicken, buffalo, cow, etc. Also how does fish/eggs treat you. These are easy ways to get a mixture of essential oils and aminos of different ratios from soy. You need to watch those essential fatty acids though, they seem to be one of the most lagging aspects in most veg/vegan dieters. PM me w/ any other ques
 
thx for the response! i am a vegetarian for many reasons. mostly because i find it completly disgusting to look at/eat meat. when i see raw meat i actually get sick to my stomach! to think you are eating something that was once walking around living makes me sick. also, seeing blood, bones and veins really groses me out too. another reason is, like you said, how poorly the animals are treated. the way they are raised, fed and killed is completly imoral in my opinion. ... but after 6 years of complete vegetarianism i have put something else first. ...myself. ( like you ) i recently talked to a nutritionist friend (along with many trainers and fitness-friends) of mine and he basically told me there is no way in hell i am going to become buff, without some kind of animal protien. i mean, i am very fit for my age, but after 3 years of intese training, i am not at all where i should be. 3 years of training, i should be pretty damn big, right? wrong. not if youre a veg. so through a lot of thought, i have brought myself to start eating fish and fowl. i ate some tuna on a salad the other day and some baked chicken. ( skinless, boneless, all white meat) . it took me about and hour to get the shit from my plate to my mouth, but i did it! however, i will ONLY eat fish and fowl. as long as there are not bones or blood or veins, and someone else has to cook it for me. lol! but i did it. i was proud yet i felt bad at first. i just hope i am doing the right thing. i hope it works for me. i seriosuly have cut out a lot of carbs, and am now eating small amounts of tuna or bird along with my soy foods and shakes. hopefully this works. if you have anything else to say, add, or ask, feel free to do so! thx again, and feel free to pm or e-mail me if you'd like too. :) ~CAROLINE
 
Dont get discouraged, I think you can do it...Ill help you, but make a list of all the shit that you can/cant/wont eat/drink....OK. We will get you there. Also, dont fret so much on carb numbers as carb quality. Many forget that anabolism also encourages amino acid production by the body from carbs....you just need to ingest the essential ones.

PM that stuff!
 
thx for the respone once again :) i am doing a lot better day by day at this whole eating fish and fowl things. i'm eating a lot of chicken and turkey. and i'm trying to get used to fish still. but for the most part i'm doing better then i ever imagined.
my list you asked for is pretty simple. i wont/dont eat any red meat, or any animal meat with veins or bones or shells. also, big NO NO's for me are fried foods, sugary foods, candy, soda, or fast foods. i am a big health nut so i eat anything that is benificial to my health. i am open for ideas and will try anything new as long as its healthy. :) thx again!! ~CAROLINE
p.s. e-mial me if you'd like MVDANCERGIRL@AOL.COM
 
Soy is nasty shit:

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html

It's fine if it's fermented like in real soy sauce or miso, but all these soy foods like tofu, soy milk, and soy protein powder are bad news.

Mike Mahler might just be a freak. Most strict vegetarians are quite thin and even the bodybuilding ones aren't very impressive. I know you can find more than one bodybuilder that eats a lot of junk food, but that doesn't mean a junk food diet is supportive of gains!

Why wouldn't you eat beef if you'd eat chicken or fish? I've never eaten a piece of beef that had veins or shells in it...and there are plenty of cuts that don't have bones.

Good luck with your gains!
 
(I'm a guy)

I've been a vegetarian since I was 15 (I'm 26 now) and haven't found it to be a detriment to my goals at all. I'm 5'7" and around 95kgs with a single dig. bf%. I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian, meaning that I eat eggs and drink milk (and eat milk products).

Mainly I rely on When protein. Have you tried that yet? Soy is nasty...
 
Re: (I'm a guy)

People should definitely realize that the difference between a lacto-ovo vegetarian and a vegan is HUGE. Eggs alone will give a vegetarian a complete amino acid profile, fat soluable vitamins (A, D, E), as well as vitamin B12. Good eggs will have a good amount of EPA and DHA in them as well.

A vegetarian diet can be healthy for some people, but a vegan diet is healthy for no one in the long term (although it does have short-term benefits such as a "cleanse" diet).
 
I actually like tofu. It's all in how it is prepared.

If you'd like I'll give you some recipes which taste very good. :)
 
rubberduckyo said:
I actually like tofu. It's all in how it is prepared.

If you'd like I'll give you some recipes which taste very good. :)

you know im always down for recipes :D

chichy
 
chicmuscle said:
you know im always down for recipes :D

chichy

1 (19-ounce) block firm tofu
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Few dashes of hot pepper sauce
Canola oil to cover skillet by 1/8-inch
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour


Slice the block of tofu into 4 equal portions. Place the slices on paper towels and fold the towels over in both directions to cover the tofu. Place a baking sheet on top of the tofu and weigh it down with a 28-ounce can of tomatoes for 1 hour.
Combine the sherry vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper sauce and place the tofu into the marinade. Marinate for 15 minutes on each side.

Place the flour into a shallow dish and the eggs into another. Lightly beat the eggs.

Heat the canola oil in the skillet over medium-high heat.

Remove tofu from marinade and drain on paper towels to remove any excess marinade.

Lightly dredge the tofu in the flour, knocking off any excess flour and slide into the eggs until completely, but thinly, coated on both sides.

Slide tofu gently into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes until golden brown and delicious. Flip the tofu using the tongs, and cook for another 2 minutes.
 
Not to be rude or anything, but that's a pretty unhealthy recipe. Tofu fried in canola oil...yikes.
 
frosty, pick it apart. what should be done to make it healthy. olive oil instead, or grapeseed? hmmmmm grade seed oil. i havnt eaten anything fried since i was a kid. i always up-chuck and it burns like hell.

chichy
 
Frosty said:
Not to be rude or anything, but that's a pretty unhealthy recipe. Tofu fried in canola oil...yikes.
Not rude at all.

As with any recipe you can switch it up to suit your diet needs. I yanked this one from a cooking site. It's very similar to how I like it but I'm never certain on exact measurements. My cooking is mostly "a little this, a little that".
 
chicmuscle said:
frosty, pick it apart. what should be done to make it healthy. olive oil instead, or grapeseed? hmmmmm grade seed oil. i havnt eaten anything fried since i was a kid. i always up-chuck and it burns like hell.

chichy

Canola oil is made from the modified rapeseed.

"The oil is removed by a combination of high temperature mechanical pressing and solvent extraction. Traces of the solvent (usually hexane) remain in the oil, even after considerable refining. Like all modern vegetable oils, canola oil goes through the process of caustic refining, bleaching and degumming—all of which involve high temperatures or chemicals of questionable safety. And because canola oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which easily become rancid and foul-smelling when subjected to oxygen and high temperatures, it must be deodorized. The standard deodorization process removes a large portion of the omega-3 fatty acids by turning them into trans fatty acids. Although the Canadian government lists the trans content of canola at a minimal 0.2 percent, research at the University of Florida at Gainesville, found trans levels as high as 4.6 percent in commercial liquid oil.24 The consumer has no clue about the presence of trans fatty acids in canola oil because they are not listed on the label."

Add to that frying at high heat, and well, that's why I don't think it's healthy, as a poly and mono fat is not very stable with frying. It's better than frying with soybean oil, but if I were going to fry, I'd either use lard, or preferrably coconut oil due to its high saturated fat content. Coconut oil is much more stable under heat since it is over 90% saturated fat.

There was that thread on soy in the supplement forum, I believe, just recently. And that's just one ingredient in tofu...not sure of what all the other ingredients are.
 
I'm a lacto-vegetarian and I have no problems. I eat plenty of beans, rice, nuts, seeds and cheese (yum cheese). For a vegetarian I don't eat much soy, you can drink mix chocolate whey protein with silk chocolate milk. I hope you find what works for you. Good luck.
 
1 (19-ounce) block firm tofu
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Few dashes of hot pepper sauce
Canola oil to cover skillet by 1/8-inch
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour


Slice the block of tofu into 4 equal portions. Place the slices on paper towels and fold the towels over in both directions to cover the tofu. Place a baking sheet on top of the tofu and weigh it down with a 28-ounce can of tomatoes for 1 hour.
Combine the sherry vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and hot pepper sauce and place the tofu into the marinade. Marinate for 15 minutes on each side.

Place the flour into a shallow dish and the eggs into another. Lightly beat the eggs.

Heat the canola oil in the skillet over medium-high heat.

Remove tofu from marinade and drain on paper towels to remove any excess marinade.

Lightly dredge the tofu in the flour, knocking off any excess flour and slide into the eggs until completely, but thinly, coated on both sides.

Slide tofu gently into the hot oil and fry for 2 minutes until golden brown and delicious. Flip the tofu using the tongs, and cook for another 2 minutes.

My wife is a vegetarian, this recipe looks good, I'll have her try it.
 
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