I get asked what I eat on a weekly basis. Most people can’t fathom being vegetarian, let alone vegan. I don’t find it hard at all. Even travelling abroad is a doable thing as vegan, you just need a little preparation and willpower. Here are some of my favorite high protein vegan foods. Unlike meat, these foods all have a fair amount of carbohydrates. This isn’t a problem. It just means that you eat more of them to get enough total protein, while limiting intake of other more carb-rich sources of food (e.g. pasta, rice, bread) to keep overall calories in check. Lastly, I’ve found that when you eat a more balanced diet based on whole foods, your body runs more efficiently and the fat starts to melt off, even though you are ingesting a fair amount of carbs. So here it is, my top ten favorite high protein vegan foods:

1. Tofu: it is a staple of my diet. I’ll go through 32 ounces a week. I try to avoid soy-protein isolates and soy-milk. I prefer to ingest actual soybeans (edamame) or tofu in stir-fry’s and soups.
2. Sprouts: I buy packs of sprouts and take them to work. I prefer the crunchy variety (as opposed to alfalfa or broccoli sprouts). Mung bean sprouts are the best.
3. Black Beans: great in wraps/burritos.
4. Quinoa: It’s a grain that is really high in protein. I eat it in the same way you would eat rice. It has a much lower glycemic index (which means it causes less of an affect on blood sugar) and has a more complete amino acid profile than other grains. The Inca used to subsist on this grain, corn and potatoes for the bulk of their calories.
5. Raw Almonds: I just eat them whenever I feel like a snack. It is better if you soak them for a few hours first. This is supposed to activate enzymes in the raw nuts that helps your body break them down faster/more effectively.
6. Hemp Seed Powder: I don’t use soy protein, and this is a great substitute. It is really high in Omega fatty acids, and tastes much better than soy (in my opinion). I love Manitoba Harvest brand Hemp Protein.
7. Cliff Builder Bars: In a pinch, these do the trick. They also taste really good and have a nice consistency.
8. Soy Dogs: I don’t have a favorite variety, but they cook really fast, are pretty inexpensive and have a % of calories from protein. I’ll usually chop them up and throw them into a stir fry, or just toast them and eat them with ketchup and mustard.
9. Meatless Meatballs: I usually get’s Nate’s variety. Good with any pasta. I’ll usually crush them to make a “meat sauce” with pasta.
10. “Chicken” Patties: I prefer the Boca brand “Chik n Grill” variety. These fake chicken patties that have a more meaty texture. I will just eat a few of these plain with some type of sauce or make a sandwich out of them.  

I wrote a post last week about my lack of motivation when it comes to weight training. In fact, for the past several months I have been hard pressed to put more than 30 minutes at a stretch in at the gym. I would walk in, do some squats and…and just get bored/tired and leave. This has never been such an issue for me in the past.

At first, I thought it was some issue with my diet. However, I haven’t made any radical changes of late. I thought it might have been an issue with my sleep schedule, but again, nothing really has changed there. Ultimately, I just figured I needed to change the way I lifted, and see what happens.

So starting last week, I made a few changes.

• First of all, I am starting my lifting sessions with 20 minutes slow running on the treadmill. I despise treadmills, but with the cold weather in Seattle right now, it is convenient. My logic was that….I am a good runner, and just getting in the running groove at the start of my workout would have some carry-over to the weight training.
• Next, I changed my lifting routine to minimize downtime. I don’t give myself any time to sit or stand still. In between sets, I will run over and do another exercise. For example, in between each of my three sets of squats, I will do a set of pull ups and push ups (or dips).
• Lastly, I am continuing to focus primarily on compound exercises (those that invovle multi-joint movements like squats, presses, dips, pull ups, rows, dead lifts, etc.).
• From a dietary standpoint, I am also consuming food about 1 hour prior to lifting. This would usually be an energy/protein bar, shake or some fruit (bananas, goji berries) and almonds.
• Outside of the gym, I resumed communication with a few friends who are also weight training pretty hard. I had stopped regular communication with them, and realize that it is much easier to stay motivated when you are not going at it alone.  

So far so good. I am able to do more and my motivation has gone way up. Start my workouts with a 20 minute run is a big help. It makes me break a sweat, and there is something about sweating while lifting that makes you feel like you are working hard, and gives you motivation to work even more!

I’ve gotten hooked on a series on the Discovery Channel, Everest: Beyond The Limit. You can watch full episodes on the Discovery Channel website, download series 1 (2006) or series (2007) on iTunes, or get the DVD. It’s a great show, full of all the drama and adventure you could every want. Best of all, it’s real.

I am a big fan of mountaineering books and stories, though I have never actually strapped on (or even held) crampons before in my life. I just finished Ed Viestur’s new book, “No Shortcuts To The Top,” detailing his conquest of the world’s 14 highest peaks over 8000 meters, all without bottled oxygen. There’s something about these mountaineering stories, and the extreme effort, patience and long-term planning they require; that are really gripping to read. Even though any expedition has massive logistical and team considerations, there is a huge focus on individual will that just appeals to me in the same way individual pursuits like racing an Ironman or other endurance events have.

I’ve read dozens of accounts of Everest summit attempts, but I never really understood how extreme the effort really was. This show takes you all the way to the top, using helmet cams shots from base camp (using a high powered telescope). What I was also amazed with, was how so many of the adventurers were absolutely clueless about mountaineering, yet expected to summit. Several appeared extremely out of shape, and just plain uncoordinated and unskilled on the mountain.

I can’t imagine how someone could travel to a remote region of the world, spend 3 months and $50K to land on an expedition team….and yet not put in the full effort to at least master the technical skills involved with such a climb. At the same time, the power and strength of the Sherpa people was awe inspiring. They climb ahead of the expedition teams, breaking trail, setting all the fixed ropes (miles and miles worth) up the mountain, and climbing backbreaking loads. In many cases, top Sherpa crew members will summit several times in a single season! They are the real heros of the story.

I am a mouse on a wheel. It might be a shiny, diamond-studded wheel that spins all nice and smooth, but it is still a wheel. I’m a stimulus/response machine. I don’t see this as an inherently bad thing. It is what it is. It’s this behavior that has helped me succeed in many things. It helps to multi-task at work. It helps me to juggle multiple to-do’s at home. It helps me just put the blinders on and get things done even when those things might not be fun or overly exciting (like training hard or doing the laundry).

Part of this change has to do with my new role as a manager. I am no longer defining my success at work in terms of what I do, but in terms of what my team can do. I am having to deal with many more varied projects and problems than I have ever had to do in the past. Like it or not, since I spend so much time at or thinking about work; this work-based stimulus response behavior pervades the rest of my life. It is not good or bad, it is what it is.

However, I’m starting to see a dramatic contrast. I just returned from a whirlwind 8 day trip to China, Korea and Taiwan (for work). Talk about stimulus-response overload! Now, in the throes of holiday season, most of my team and peers are on vacation. E-mail has flowed to a trickle. I haven’t had a phone call in days. My stimuli are all gone! Oh no, what to do! It’s actually taken me a bit of time (a day or so) to make the switch from dancing monkey (stimulus response addict) to normal human being.

As a “normal human being”, I feel much more calm; but also less excited about stuff. I am able to think long term, but am actually not nearly as motivated to get a bunch of near-term (easy) stuff done. I am more looking forward to going to work in the morning (less pressure) but a little more bored when I get there.

So yes, there is a change. It’s not good or bad. It is what it is.

Think about your five closest friends. These are the people you spend the most time with, either in person or via e-mail, Facebook, MySpace and phone conversations. According to popular wisdom (and it proves to be correct in my life), these five people will define, over the long term:

• The level of your bank account and your salary
• Your overall health and fitness
• Your willingness to take risks and go on adventures
• Your career level and aspirations
• Your overall level of happiness and well-being
• Your attitude and demeanour while relating to other people
• etc.

This is a very unscientific, but highly demonstrable truth. Think about it. Your peer group defines not just who you are, but who you become. Choose your friends wisely.

Lately I’ve been suffering from a lack of motivation to train hard in the gym. I don’t have much of an issue going to Yoga, but weight training has been very tough. I haven’t been making steady progress which is part of the reason why I am lacking motivation.

I can get to the gym without issue, but once there, my workout becomes more of a chore. In a conversation with a friend yesterday, he mentioned that too often we do things as a “transition” “from” something else and “towards” something else. In other words, what we are doing doesn’t have any purpose, it is just a gap-filler for some cooler, more fun and more exciting thing that might be happening in the future. That future never arrives, or at least if it did, I wouldn’t know it.

So what to do? I (this week) have been combating my lack of motivation in the gym, by going back to my roots, running! I’ve been starting my weight training with 10-20 minutes on the treadmill. I used to pride myself on never using a dread-mill, but at this point I’ve thrown all my pre-conceptions out the window.

There is something about running that gets me out of my head and lets me just be. I also work up a sweat (it takes about 10 minutes running at 8 minute mile pace indoors to do that for me).  As a result, my weight workouts are much more intense. They are not very long, but at least they are more intense. This is progress.

The first step in my goal to start teaching yoga is complete. Today was the last day in the Teacher Assistant Program (TAP) that I have been go through at my studio. It was 4 weekends of training (24 hours in total). The focus of the program was how to deliver hands-on adjustments to the 50+ postures in Baptiste Vinyasa Power Yoga. We learned how to align, correct and deepen.

Next, I’ll have to continue practicing what I learned and start assisting during classes. For the style of yoga I am practicing, there are actual Teacher Training programs that I will need to go to before I can start teaching at my studio. These are 1-2 week residential programs. It will be a year or two before I will be able to complete those.

In the meantime, my plan is to first start assisting at my studio to deepen my own knowledge, and then, start teaching at a smaller studio or gym (that might not require me to have gone through a formal teacher training).