[HollywoodBlvd]

Well, I've lost 40 lbs in the past 6 months by eating better and working out hard (kickboxing, weights, running).

BEFORE 232lbs

NOW 194lbs

But now I'm ready to go all the way. I bought a DVD by Dr. Andrew Wiel, Building The Optimum Diet'. I watched it insesintly

 

[Tesseract]

Welcome, and lookin' good! Cool tat. Is that a fairy? Not many guys I know would be brave enough to put a fairy tattoo on their bicep.

 

[HollywoodBlvd]

Well, I've lost 40 lbs in the past 6 months by eating better and working out hard (kickboxing, weights, running).

BEFORE 232lbs

NOW 194lbs

But now I'm ready to go all the way. I bought a DVD by Dr. Andrew Wiel, 'Building The Optimum Diet'. I watched it insessently. Then I got the PETA DVD, that was a real freak show. I wanted to jump thru the TV an save the little pig. And of course I'm hooked on 'Super Size Me'.

I'm surrounded by vegiterians. A lot of my clients are veggies, here's a question I have;

Some of them look healthy and some look dried out to me. Bad hair and skin. Also I'm a voice coach and some veggie people have really dry sounding voices as though they are dehidrated. Is this common? Am I imagining things? What can you do to not make it happen? I sing for a living so I can't sound bad vocally.

I bought the book 'The Encyclopedia Of Foods' so I've been reading and started cooking this week for myself for the first time in my life. Here's last nights meal.

Now there's fish on the plate. I've been off dairy, chicken and meat for a couple of days but some of my clients still do a little fish. Is that OK?

As you can tell I'm VERY new at this. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Amy SF]

Come to our next Southern California VB meetup (as yet unscheduled), so we can ogle your new physique in person!

Plus it'll be at a vegan restaurant, so you can try some yummy meatless food!

 

[GhostUser]

Congratulations! You've come a long way.

 

[HollywoodBlvd]

I some how screwed up my first post here and double posted.

Thanks, I'll come for sure.

 

[Tesseract]

Oh, now I see the rest of your post. I dunno about some of the people looking "dried out," but my first guess woudl be that they eaither are not eating enough calories are not eating healthy. Don't make the mistake of assuming that once you're eating vegetarian you'll automatically be healthy! It's very possible to eat an unhealthy, unbalanced vegetarian diet. It's also sad but true that there are a lot of anorexics out there who use vegetarianism as a front, and these people are often not getting proper nutrition. As far as sounding dehydrated, maybe it's because they are dehydrated. That has nothing to do with being veg or not.

Oh, and eat fish all you want, but be aware fish are animals, and eating them isn't vegetarian.

 

[codemonkey]

As long as you eat a balanced, plant-based diet you shouldn't have any problems with you health or you voice. Actually being off dairy should help your voice.

And yeah, fish isn't vegetarian. There's really no reason to eat it nutrition-wise. There are healthier ways to get good fats without the mercury and stuff that fish usually has in it (flax seeds, walnuts, etc.) Fish is a good transitional food though. A lot of people give up fish last.

 

[HollywoodBlvd]

Thanks guys.

I just ate some spinich linguini, organic tomato sauce and soy suasage. It was really good.

 

[Amy SF]

I merged your two threads and messed things up a little. Sorry.

I hope that spinach wasn't bagged...

It's true about dairy messing up the voice. My sister sings professionally (especially classical/opera), and she tries to keep dairy out of her diet because she says it messes up her singing voice because it's mucus-producing. She does eat it, but doesn't overdo it.

 

[GhostUser]

i'm a terrible singer and vegan, but i doubt highly the two are related, seeing as how i wasn't picked for chorus in grade school.

*sob*

 

[epski]

For fitness, check out http://www.veganbodybuilding.com and http://www.veganmusclepower.com

Welcome to VB.

I'm also in L.A., so maybe I'll meet you at one of our meet-ups.

 

[HollywoodBlvd]

Thanks epski. I'd love to hook up with anything to do with this lifestyle.

 

[iammatto]

About the "dried up" veggies...I have a good friend who went veggie back in high school (...it seems like just yesterday (but it was actually about 6 or 7 years ago)), and when he went off to college he got really sickly looking, pale, thinned out/greasy hair, he seemed lethargic at times...he has since turned around and actually looks quite good now, and I assume that he is still veggie...so yeah, if you arn't careful turning veggie can be really unhealthy (well, that sounds really ominous and evil, but it shouldn't have)

 

[Laura_I]

Well, a lot of vegetarians are 'health nuts' and try and avoid 'all' fats. This is what they told people to do in the early 90's and some people never got the message that plant based fats are very good for you. People get dry skin/hair, etc when they avoid fats.

My husband became a vegetarian a year ago and I was worried that his guy friends would make fun of him for it (especially since they're all military). I didn't know any male vegetarians at the time. But everyone was pretty excepting and no one makes fun of him for it, so I'm glad.

 

[GhostUser]

congrats!

 

[Aimra]

I hope that spinach wasn't bagged...

QUOTE]

Uh oh. Why not the bagged spinach? Just curious.

 

[codemonkey]

There's been a problem recently with e. coli found in fresh spinich that was processed at a particular processing plant in California. It was sold under the Dole brand name and some others. It's looking like spinich grown outside of that particular area of California is fine.

 

[Aimra]

Oh, okay. I knew about that. I thought maybe there was something wrong with frozen spinach period. Gotcha.

 

[Aimra]

Oh, okay. I knew about that. I thought maybe there was something wrong with frozen spinach period. Gotcha.