I started working out six months ago, and today I reached my 69th session. I’m currently cutting because I want to get leaner. My progress is slow, but I’m definitely moving forward, and losing weight too.
It’s incredibly important to track the weights I lift; otherwise, I’d have no idea whether I’m making progress. It’s not always steady, I go back and forth with my working weights since there are good and bad days. As long as I record everything and see overall improvement, I think that’s perfectly fine.
I do wonder if I could lift more, and progress faster, if I weren’t cutting. I eat about 1-1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, following a vegan diet, which means lots of tofu and seitan.
I focus on the big compound lifts and add isolation work whenever I feel like it. Sometimes I do certain exercises, sometimes I skip them. it’s roughly a full-body workout with a touch of fuckarounditis.
Today, I confidently pressed 8×27.5 kg, 8×32.5 kg, and 8×32.5 kg per dumbbell on the incline bench, which made me really happy. My goal is to bench 100 kg within a year. Let’s see if I can make it happen!
I eat very little processed food and primarily track my protein intake. I believe tracking every micro-nutrient is unnecessary as long as I eat a wide variety of whole foods. I place virtually no limit on vegetable consumption and only a light limit on fruit. Eating an extra banana isn’t as detrimental as eating a bag of chips. It’s easier to drop an additional banana a day than chocolate.
In the beginning, it was helpful to learn which vitamins specific foods contain, but now that I eat a high volume of diverse greens, I don’t feel the need to track them closely.
being vegan is cheap because tofu is around €6/kg, while meat is at least €8/kg. Seitan (self made) is often even cheaper, and soy chunks are incredibly cost-effective at €10 per dry kilogram. Going vegan does narrow your food selection. There are simply things you can’t eat, and there’s no room for bargaining. However, the industry is developing rapidly, and more vegan options appear every year. Avoiding cheese also removes a massive source of calories. We aren’t quite at the point where vegan cheese can replace dairy one-to-one in terms of variety, but we likely will be in 10 to 20 years which will make it more difficult to stick to a healthy diet based on vegan.
Ultimately, eating unprocessed food is the best choice for both my budget and my well-being. I’m glad I’m not contributing to the suffering of animals, though I believe that choice is a personal one.