Fast Food That’s Healthy for Busy People – Plant-Based Diet

I talk about the benefits of frozen foods and canned foods and other things. I also mention Jeff Novick’s Fast Food DVD series.

Planche – Early Work in Progress – Plant-Based Diet

Here’s another thing I do called a planche progression (not a plank). I just lean forward as much as possible which puts the load on your shoulders and chest. Eventually your feet are off the ground. Easy things you can do at home or at your desk at work.

Push ups – Plant-Based Diet

Push ups are great for men and women to tone your arms, chest and shoulders and even strengthen your core. If you can’t do a full push up you can do them from your knees or put your hands on a desk and push off of that.

I use push up handles but you can also just do them on the floor. The wrists will need to be a bit flexible if you do them on the floor.

Over time you can make them more difficult by putting your hands closer together, or farther apart, put some weight in a backpack and do more reps and sets.

Frog Stand – Work in Progress – Plant-Based Diet

This frog stand pose is fun and I’m certainly no gymnast but takes some strength and balance to support yourself on your hands! Using a bit of bend in my fingers with hands facing forward allows me to balance a bit better. But the wrists need to be flexible bending it this way.

Quick, Easy, Cheap Plant-Based Meal Recipes from Jeff Novick

I scored this amazing page browsing Facebook one day so I thought I’d share. Jeff Novick, RD has a great set of recipes that are simple, often take less than 5 minutes and have less than 5 ingredients and cost less than 5 dollars. Click on each image to see the recipe.

These meals are very low in calorie density and very high in nutrient density so you can eat all you want till you are comfortably full without having to worry about portions size or going hungry.

They are all based on his lecture and DVD Calorie Density: How To Eat more, Weigh Less & Live Longer!

Easy Meals to Make You Thin and Healthy

Chef AJ explains calorie density and discusses some recipes and her book Unprocessed. This is such a critically important topic I will keep doing posts about calorie density, eating lower calorie dense foods first and the need for starches for satiation.

Plant-Based Diet – Spicy Asian Soup

I winged this but:

1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen broccoli
4 baby bok choy chop off the bottom
1 cup chopped Chinese cabbage
1/2 red pepper sliced
1 medium onion
1 cup or more of beans sprouts
2 tbsp vegetable stock powder
1/2 package of vermicelli noodles (depending on how many people are eating enough for bottom of bowl for each person)
Hot sriracha sauce to taste as you eat the soup

(the amounts above are rough estimates, feel free to adjust to your tastes)

I just throw in some frozen peas and broccoli with a cup of water and heat in a big skillet. Then I added chopped onions, the cabbage, bok choy and over time some more water (1 cup or more) and vegetable stock powder to taste. Then I added chopped red pepper and bean sprouts near the end. During this time I’m cooking the vermicelli noodles which only take a few minutes. Put the noodles in a bowl and top with veggies and pour in some of the broth. So yummy! Top with Sriracha hot sauce as you eat the soup for an extra kick!

Beginner Weight Training

I started a plant-based diet in July 2013. In mid-October I decided to start bodyweight training. In the past I had dabbled with dumbbell, barbells and machines but that always seemed very boring. With calisthenics you can set interesting goals like being able to do a handstand or planche (some of the cool gymnastic moves) or at minimum have a routine that you can do almost anywhere using your own body.

To get started I suggest doing the following routine 2 times a week:
1. Chin ups 3 sets 8-12 reps.
2. Push ups 3 sets 8-12 reps.
3. Bodyweight squats 3 sets 8-14 reps.

Rest 1 minute between sets. Rest more/less as needed. I often rest more especially if doing negatives (see pull up video below for explanation of negatives).

That’s it! This should take under an hour. You can get pretty ripped doing these for years by making them harder as you progress. Chin ups can be switched to pull ups. Push ups can be changed to diamond pushups. Things like doing them more slowly, one arm chinups and pushups and one leg pistol squats, or adding progressively more weight to a backpack can really make them much harder.

If you feel good after a few months you could up it to 3 times a week.

I use a Stamina Power Tower for chin ups and push ups. You could do chin ups with a door frame (a bit awkward) or outside in a playground and push ups on the floor. Sometimes I use push up bars in my basement which prevents my wrists from being torqued too much.

Here are some videos by Scooby1961. Don’t be alarmed by his huge size, he has videos showing really good form and is pretty mature about setting expectations for muscle growth.

Young people often have unrealistic expectations. Don’t expect to gain more than 1-2 pounds a month if you’re lucky. A lot of times people eat more and are actually gaining fat. Don’t let this be you. I measure my body fat with an Omron upper body fat monitor or you could get a scale that measures body fat. Take it slow and keep progressing through consistent action.

There’s no hard and fast rule about how much to do, how often, rest between sets, etc. Just doing this week after week, month after month, year after year will garner results. Log what you do and try to improve from week to week, maybe not every single workout. I couldn’t do one chin up and now I’m doing them with 35 lbs on my back so the body naturally will respond if you ask it to!

I eat a high carb diet, 80% carbs, 10% protein and 10% fat. I don’t worry about protein or when to eat, no supplements or other gimmicks. The carbs give you energy and shed the fat so you can see the muscle definition. I’m still a work in progress but things are progressing!

If you’re interested in diving deeper into this subject I recommend picking up Pushing the Limits! by Al Kavadio who does some amazing things would just his body weight!

Plant-Based Diet – Not Losing Weight? – Troubleshooting Tips

I talk about how to troubleshoot your meals and habits to see where the problems might lie. Calorie density is key! And check out The Starch Solution.

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I created a quick start guide so you can get started eating healthy and feeling better. No fluff here, just 3 easy meals to get you started plus some tips and tricks. I’ll also be sending a newsletter from time to time with my best health and wealth loss advice I’ve discovered in case you missed them on my social media sites.