Life Without My Meat, Part 2

Make sure you've first read Life Without My Meat, Part 1 to see the beginning of my vegetarian experiment. We now pick up at the mid-way point...

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And Then I Became a Vegan... But Not Really

To say that I spent a month as a vegan isn't very accurate. It's like saying I did the Velocity Diet, but used grilled chicken breasts instead of Metabolic Drive. I trained DC-style, but skipped those annoying rest-pause sets. I spent the night at Pauline Nordin's house, but we just talked.



It's more accurate to say that I adopted a vegan diet. I still covered up with a down comforter at night and I wore my black leather jacket to Fonzie appreciation night at the diner, but I didn't eat anything that came from an animal source. Every sort of meat and dairy was still, literally, off the table, and now things like honey and butter were off limits too.

My Sample Vegan Menu

Breakfast: 1/2 cup amaranth, 1 apple.

Lunch: 2 slices Ezekiel bread, ghetto guacamole (1 fork-smashed avocado, garlic powder, kosher salt).

Afternoon: 3 scoops rice protein in water with 1 orange.

Dinner: 2 cups of vegan "chili" (black beans, red beans, corn, tomatoes, peppers), 1/4 cup quinoa.

Night: 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds.


The exact definition of a "vegan" still causes confusion and arguments, even between vegans and wannabe-vegans. Is somebody a true vegan if they avoid eating animal products, but still wear the wool sweater their Great-Aunt Martha hand-knitted on her deathbed?

What about a lady who avoids animal foods and products, but has a husband who mercilessly grills steaks with the guys every weekend. If there are dead cow parts in her fridge, can she really be a vegan? These are philosophical issues way beyond the scope of my little experiment.

I had a hard enough time just watching what I ate, and that included double-checking my supplements. Rez-V, which I've taken daily for months, comes in a gelatin capsule. I could either drop it altogether or crack open the cap and apply it transdermally. I went the second route, and didn't notice any changes compared to taking them orally.

And yes, Virginia, there are also vegan bodybuilders. Guys like Joe DeMarco and Alex Dargatz maintain vegan lifestyles while building serious muscle.

Joe DeMarco, 2007 NPC lightweight Master's Nationals Champion


My First Workout as a Vegan

Two days after going vegan, I had my first weight training session, and it sucked. I'm used to having Surge Workout Fuel during my training, but since it includes some milk ingredients, it was a no-go for this month.

During the workout, I decided to drink about 20 ounces of water and 20 ounces of coconut water (not coconut milk, huge difference), for some simple sugars. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing.

Just like Brawndo, coconut water's got electrolytes. It's lacking significant sodium, but it delivers a pretty high dose of potassium. It tastes great, but I suggest you ease into it and don't chug a whole bunch at once. It's sometimes used as a laxative, probably due to it's relatively-high potassium content.

Immediately after training, I had a rice protein shake, and then a solid food meal a while after that. On a related note, Sun Warrior rice protein mixed in water and stirred with a spoon is like drinking spackle. Not fun. A blender and fruit are mandatory.


Why Didn't I Get Jacked or Ripped?

Back in junior high, I remember Mrs. Berman teaching one crucial rule about science experiments: Only change one variable at a time, otherwise you won't know why you get the results you get.

For the past several months, my training has been mostly full-body workouts done three times a week, lifting fairly heavy for low volume and moderate reps... and then I started this diet experiment. If I also changed my workouts, then I couldn't accurately determine the effects of a vegetarian/vegan diet, now, could I?

I started the journey weighing 217 and I was 205 on my last morning as a vegan. Along the way, my strength continued to increase at its usual rate (the same as it did with my standard omni diet), but I "accidentally" lost 12 pounds of scale weight.

Several people said that my face leaned out; my girlfriend actually said my face looked "hollow." I think it was supposed to be a compliment. My t-shirt and jeans also filled out a bit in the shoulders, arms, and thighs, not the waist.

Add all that up — strength gains, reduced scale weight, and visible/tangible changes — and you get positive physique results. I'm not at all saying it was entirely fat loss, but I didn't whither away as some may've expected.

This physique was "built" with nothing but apples, but I wasn't worried of following suit.

Technically-speaking, since my original goal was to maintain my weight, the overall experiment could be called a "failure." However, despite my bodyweight reduction, I do believe that it's possible to be a vegan and build large muscles.

I'd attribute my unintentional weight loss to "newbie diet errors" and calorie miscalculations, as Dr. Berardi inferred were common. That was "my bad," as the kids say.

To see how it can be done right, we should look at folks who really know what they're doing. Mike Mahler and Robert Dos Remedios have each been vegan for nearly two decades, and they're bigger and stronger now than they were back then.

Joe DeMarco and Alex Dargatz stick to a vegan diet and compete as successful bodybuilders. If they can go through off-season and pre-contest conditions, and still beat omni's to win bodybuilding contests, then with some work and attention, Average Joe can be a vegan and get built.

Plus, when you've got things like peanut butter-banana-coconut milk shakes, guacamole by the bowlful, and that Sir Mix-a-Lot classic (red beans and rice), a vegan bulking cycle can deliver plenty of high quality, mass-building calories.


Why Aren't There More Vegetarian Pro Bodybuilders?

Hell if I know, but riddle me this... why aren't there more tattooed bodybuilders? Sure, there are some, but I can't think of any pro bodybuilders with full sleeve tattoos. I want to see a really impressive physique that showcases some fully detailed, shoulder-to-wrist ink.

Okay, so there's at least one.

Maybe the type of person who lifts weights and gets a full sleeve tattoo isn't going to be interested in competing. Maybe the people who get full sleeve tattoos recognize that it might not be ideal to have their tattoos and compete successfully. Or maybe it's just a freaking coincidence and not a sign that tattooed people are incapable of winning bodybuilding competitions.

The bottom line is that there are vegetarians/vegans who compete in bodybuilding, and there are vegetarians/vegans who weigh more than that imaginary 200-pound "barrier." But if you're wondering why there aren't many who compete in bodybuilding competitions while weighing over 200 pounds, you'll have to ask them yourself, because only they could tell you.


What I Learned Afterwards

My before/after fasting cholesterol levels were, respectively:

Total: 168/155
HDL: 43/34
LDL: 125/121
Triglycerides: 151/124

Cholesterol levels aren't exactly an accurate picture of your inner workings, but it's interesting to see that my "good" levels dropped even though I had plenty of quality fats and fiber. However, the decrease in Triglycerides is a great thing for overall heart health.

Because of two major lab SNAFUs, I wasn't able to get my hormone levels before or after. Those would've been much more relevant, but my doctor is a dope.

Call me hopelessly open-minded, but the nutrition world should be big enough for the low-carbers, vegetarians, dirty bulkers, the 40:30:30 crowd, and everyone else to co-exist. It's a waste of time, energy, and breath to debate the "supreme effectiveness" of one method over another, but people still will.

The bottom-line, take-away idea isn't really anything new: add more diverse foods to your diet and don't over-emphasize any one food group. There's really not much more to it than that.

No, you don't have to be a full-fledged vegetarian to build muscle, just like you don't have to be a full-fledged powerlifter to get strong. But if you steal some of the basic concepts and apply them to your own situation, it's only going to be a good thing.

If nothing else, I now have one more reason to strike up a conversation with vegetarian vixens like Natalie Portman, Alyssa Milano, and Shannon Elizabeth, so how'd'ya like them apples?

Life Without My Meat, Part 1

I'd always known about Mahler, but then I read about Dos Remedios, and then Ferruggia, Berardi, and Alvino. Over the last year or two, I noticed that all of these top guys were removing meat from their diet, and the reports were good.

I finally had to see for myself what it was all about, so I spent a full month as a dedicated vegetarian and another month as a meat-fearing vegan. To get the classic experience, I asked my girlfriend to stop shaving and I called Tommy Chong to score some premium reefer, but they both shot me down, so all I can report is what I went through when I removed animal products from my diet for two months.


Am I Trying to Convert You?

Before I get too far into it, I can already hear people groaning, "I'd never be a vegetarian. Steak's delicious. I love being a carnivore." I hate to break it to you, but you're not a carnivore, dummy. You're an omnivore, and eating a little less meat and some more vegetables will probably be a good thing for your body.

In the meatless community, omnivores (or "omnis" as they're known) are pretty much left to do their own thing. It's not like vegetarians hold meetings to seek new recruits. "Okay Steve, you take the crew and head to the supermarket. Try to hang around the frozen foods section. I want ten new signatures or you get no tofu tonight."

Those soy-marinated, throw-paint-on-the-fur, confrontational vegans are an embarrassment to both sides and nobody wants to be associated with them. The non-meat-eaters I spoke with were pretty much, "It's just food, man. You eat your stuff and I'll eat mine. Let's just get in the gym."


So What Can I Eat?

I lost track of how many times I was asked, "You're a vegetarian now? But you can still eat fish, right?" Nope. Fish, or "sea kittens" as PETA recently tried to rename them, are animals and they're off-limits to vegetarians.

It was actually a pretty small step for me to go from an omni to vegetarian. Over the last year or so, I've seriously reduced the red meat in my diet because I finally recognized that it just runs through my system faster than Usain Bolt on a quintuple espresso.

I began the experiment as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, which allowed eggs, milk and other dairy products, but no animal meat. After two weeks, I dropped the eggs and went strictly lacto-vegetarian, only allowing dairy products (including Metabolic Drive and Surge).

It turns out that this approach is similar to how long-time vegan strength coach Mike Mahler suggests someone adopt the lifestyle. As a vegan for 15 years, Mahler is 6-feet tall and a lean 205 pounds without ever training for hypertrophy, and he treats 88-pound kettlebells like they were made of Styrofoam.

"You want to make the transition over the course of several months to a year, rather than overnight or over the course of a few weeks." He says.

No animals were harmed in the building of this muscle.


"For example, go from eating meat daily to eating it three times per week, and gradually reduce down to one or two times per week. Most veggie burgers and fake meat products are okay as transition foods, but shouldn't be staples because they're too high in sodium and processed junk.

Next, cut out meat completely, but stick with organic cheese and organic free-range eggs. You have to decide what you're comfortable with and how far you want to go. If you want to continue on to being vegan, gradually phase out eggs and dairy the same way that meat was phased out."

Almost as a sign from above, no sooner did I cook dinner on my first night as a vegetarian (roasted eggplant parmesan with whole wheat pasta), then I caught Pulp Fiction on TV. Did you know that Jules' girlfriend is a vegetarian, which pretty much makes him a vegetarian.

I was also reminded of what I'll be missing these next two months with Vincent's declarations, "Bacon tastes good. Pork chops taste good." Why do you taunt me, Quentin? Why?

On a related note, when a vegan tells you, "This is the best pseudo-beef jerky I've ever tried," remember that it's probably been a long time since they've had real beef jerky. "Stonewall's Jerquee" received good reviews from several vegan sites, but tasted exactly how I'd imagine cow tongue to taste: rubbery and juicy, with a funky aftertaste.


Doing It The Right Way

One of my goals for this test was to maintain my current bodyweight while improving my performance in the gym (this was also my goal before the experiment, so no point in changing that now). I kept a general eye on my daily calories, and at my current weight and activity level, I need around 3,000 calories to keep the scale steady.

My Sample Lacto-Ovo Menu

Breakfast: 3 whole eggs, 1/2 cup shredded cheese, 1Tbsp. butter, 1 cup grapes.

Lunch: 15 blue corn tortilla chips, 1 cup 4% cottage cheese, 1/2 cup salsa.

Afternoon: 1 pear, 1 scoop of Metabolic Drive in about 10 ounces of 1% milk.

Dinner: 2 cups whole wheat pasta, 3 thick slices eggplant, 1 cup shredded whole milk mozzarella, 2 cups chopped tomato.

Night: 2 scoops of Metabolic Drive in water with two tablespoons of sunflower seeds.


Along the way, I discovered that rice milk tastes good, but lacks protein, while hemp milk really does taste like the gym class rope at the end of a hot June day. I never got around to trying almond milk, but it's a popular alternative, even though it contains surprisingly little protein. On a side note, I have a friend who firmly believes that "soy milk" should be more appropriately named "soy juice" since you can't "milk" a soybean. Makes sense to me. You don't see V8 Tomato Milk on the shelves, do you?

I checked with Dr. John Berardi, himself a recent vegetarian experimenter, to get his ideas on a designing a vegetarian muscle-building plan. "If you're training hard, have a calorie surplus, and meet your protein needs — all of which are possible with a plant-based diet — you can build muscle.

Plant-based eaters want to ensure they're getting about one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight from nuts, seeds, protein-rich grains, legumes, and, if necessary, supplements. Nowadays there are a host of nice-tasting, soy-free, vegan protein powders.

I've seen lots of plant-based eaters give up on muscle gain because they figured it was impossible. However, one look at their diet made it clear that they were simply undereating. Once they added calories, and some of them needed a lot of calories, bodyweight went up."

Berardi's advice is right in line with an example I've used before. If a 200-pound guy lifts heavy and consistently while eating 4,500 calories — 300 grams of protein, 500 grams of carbs, and 150 grams of fat — he's going to get bigger and stronger, vegetarian or not.

The Mayo Clinic's lacto-ovo food pyramid is as useful as any other food pyramid. Close, but no cigar.


Because protein is obviously essential for muscle building, Mahler also reminds us, "Make sure that you get complete protein, which can be achieved by combining legumes with nuts and seeds. Some examples include lentils with pumpkin seeds or black beans with hemp seeds.

This also ensures you have a good amount of fat, which ensures that hormone production is optimal. That's essential for creating an optimal muscle-building environment. High quality rice protein or pea protein isolate shakes are also a good idea to assure that your bases are covered."


The Soy Situation

More misunderstood than Eddie Vedder on novocaine, soy has gotten tons of attention over the years. While it's not an essential part of a meatless diet, soy can be eaten in moderation, just like any other foodstuff.

This article from Dr. Berardi and Ryan Andrews is an absolute must-read before you decide to rank soy slightly lower than deep-fried Twinkies on the nutritional food chain.

While I think there are some legitimate issues regarding potential hormone influence, mostly coming from people overdoing it with soy protein powders, the whole topic has been blown out of proportion. If you're going to include soy foods in your diet, keep them as natural as possible, just like you'd do with meat.

The same way you'd lean more towards a ribeye than a hot dog, you should lean more towards raw soybeans or tempeh, rather than soy burgers or super-processed soy protein powders.


Let's Name Names

I'm clearly not the first guy who wanted to lift weights while "saving the animals." Some of the more well-known vegetarian bodybuilders include 1980 Mr. International Andreas Cahling, perennial pro Albert Beckles (or not... more on him later), four-time Mr. Universe Bill Pearl (only one of which was won sans-meat), and 1951 Mr. America Roy Hilligenn.

Lifelong vegetarian Roy Hilligenn weighed less than 180 pounds and had a nearly 400-pound clean and jerk.


Back to Albert Beckles, who, with nearly 30 years of contests, had one of the longest competitive bodybuilding careers. Almost every list of vegetarian athletes claims Beckles as an example, so I got in touch and asked for some advice on how to design a productive vegetarian bodybuilder's diet.

"I get asked this from time to time," he told me. "I don't know where the rumor got started, but I'm not a vegetarian." Curse you, Internet, that's twice you've mislead me. The first time involved an AOL chat room in 1995, but let's not talk about that right now.


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Be sure to read Life Without My Meat, Part 2 for my vegan experience and a wrap-up of this whole journey.