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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
So after asking folks about their fitness trackers / smart watch etc in the year 2025, I did get one and so far enjoying the minimal features I ask of it:
The main benefit seems to be giving me some numbers to watch other than the one on the scale. Sort of like having animated wait cursor and a moving progress bar: inaccurate, but provides the comfort that the process hasn't hung and died.
Diet
Still struggling to eat meaningful quantities of protein, especially because I'm trying to balance (1) minimize meat eating because animals, (2) Orthodox fast days (3) what the family would eat (4) calories from all the other ingredients I have to put in to make vegetarian/vegan food easy for transitioning carnivores.
I do have a huge package of soya wadi (soy chunks) coming in the mail, cautiously optimistic. From what I hear I need to blanch them first, squeeze out liquid then recook in flavorful liquid.
Looking through old threads for vegan meal recipes. If you guys know any for soy wadi please link me :)
progress
I can fire off 5 sets of 12 arrows now on the recurve without shaky arms now, so that's cool. Upgrading the bow limbs from 22lbs to 26lbs soon. Better aim comes later I guess :p
It's hard to resist thinking "at this rate of weight loss I'll be {projectedWeight} by {date}" - because of course it's not going to be linear, and I'm going to feel stuck and frustrated, but I need to keep going.
Hey, I am vegetarian, but here are some easy recommendations:
Orgain makes a pretty tasty protein powder that is completely vegan and has lots of micronutrient and vitamin/mineral goodies for vegan. I get mine at Costco when it's on sale.
Learning to air fry tofu can be a game changer - https://nosweatvegan.com/air-fry-tofu/ here's a go to recipe I use that is very consistently good. I don't even use a "real" air fryer, just a countertop convection oven with a stainless steel basket.
Textured Vegetable Protein aka TVP is an easy and cheap "ground protein" substitute. I use it to make tacos by reconstituting it in an equal volume of vegetable broth and then adding spices. I also add it straight into pasta sauce for a little "vegan bolognese" style dish.
Learn to love beans - they can be a meat substitute all on their own in things like Chana Masala https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/chana-masala/
I might come back and add more later, I gotta take care of some stuff before the baby wakes up!
Soy curls are awesome and super versatile. I honestly cant believe how much i like them and the meaty texture.
Also, air frying tofu is definitely a game changer. I like mixing buldak sauce and mayo (vegan if you prefer) as a really simple sauce to finish/texturing the tofu at the end.
On YouTube, i find Derek Sarno to be a pretty good source of inspiration or just straight copy his recipes. There's a few folks making solid vegan/vegetarian recipes nowadays with good protein.
For good breakfast protein, i do really suggest baked oats. Might have been overdone on social media a while ago but theyre really easy and a refreshing mix to the usual breakfast palette.
Saved~ I also don't have an air fryer just convection toaster oven, thanks for the note on how you prep yours
Soya wadi look kinda like TVP, you should be able to use them in anything that calls for that. I imagine a very delicious butter soya wadi could come from that. Or maybe a Japanese curry.
If you wanted something not soy, this recipe is my absolute favourite meat replacement. It does take some effort and requires a food processor (or maybe if you did it by hand you could skip 26lb bow arms and go even higher cuz it would be a workout!)
I've made it dozens of times and always been impressed with how meaty it comes out. I've used it in stir fries, bbq, salads, rice bowls, even as a shredded pork substitute for Cuban sandwiches. They're also just great snacks too.
Oh nice I love using vital wheat gluten for that chew bounciness. Will try this right away
Eugh. Haven't exercised in two weeks at this point. Hit a high point of 4 workouts 3 weeks ago and then something happened to me mentally where I couldn't be bothered to actually lift in the mornings even when I woke up on time. So... Hopefully this weekend or next week instead I guess. In fact I'm typing this out when I could be downstairs lifting instead. 😅
More or less still going strong, no pun intended.
Vacation threw me off a little bit more than I thought it would - drive days took a huge chunk out of my active time and aside from some very slow kayaking with the baby, and one walk, I spent a lot more time managing my parents-in-law than chasing the baby around. Still got a good long "hike" (almost entirely flat) in on Sunday, and have done my 30 minutes of running on the elliptical each day since we got back (T, W, Th)
I tried to do an upper body workout last week with minimal (no) equipment. Dips between chairs felt very unstable, inverted rows (pulling myself up to a table) felt very awkward. One-armed bent over rows with a 3 gallons in a water jug worked okay, and push-ups are push-ups. My dad, who is a personal trainer, is coming to visit next weekend and bringing some resistance bands to see if they might work for my needs - we have an okay amount of space but I'd rather not use it up if I don't have to.
Meanwhile I am still working on eating less. It's difficult when both my wife and baby are skinny, so making lean meals can be a little unfair to them, while trying to just "eat less" of a hearty meal is something I find very difficult. Once I am locked in with some strength training and cardio routines I will make that my next focus.
This week has sucked for me. I'm pretty sure I have overtrained from pushing myself too hard. While I didn't have pain in specific parts of my body, I have been really lethargic and have been binge eating on top of that. I took the last two days off at the gym and I was going to make today my return because I was feeling pretty good yesterday, but now I'm tired for other reasons....