Vegan protein & weight loss / building muscle / body " building"

Firstly, I'm not " body building " in the sense that you might think as bodybuilding , I'm trying to rebuild my body,  and gain muscle mass to give me the muscle I lost during illness, to provide me with optimum strength and help my endurance in the gym . 

This week I've been training with the fun yet hard Harvey , gosh he works you good! Gareth is a softie in comparison , but both of them know exactly what they are doing when it comes to personal training, especially when it comes to nutrition. 

( my food - it's not always really protein rich which is a problem - I need to have 2 -3 times the normal amount at the moment ) 

Gareth's been banging on at me for weeks, I know I need to up my protein, but being vegan minus soya makes it tricky , even though I dislike the soya bean these days after researching it, so id never use soya - but that's personal preference . 

So, after a chat with Harvey yesterday , I thought I'd follow his advice and invest in some more protein powder. I like sun warrior , but it's expensive. Especially when you get through a bag a week or two ! 

I was just wondering what protein powder you guys have? 

I'm starting on the reflex one, I will report back to let you know what it's like , it has mixed reviews ! 

Also, what are your tips on getting 100-150g of protein into a vegan diet minus soya on a daily basis ? Tricky one! 

Why I became Vegan / My weight story .( and pregnancy ) UK Vegan Mom | Parenting | Food Blog

I thought Id share my reason / story for becoming Vegan & my weight journey too.

I'd been a veggie since I was 4, and have no interest at all in eating meat or fish .

My life so far :

I have been on a weightless journey since being in hospital / being cared for at home in bed which lasted almost a year . So I thought I'd share with you the reason I gained weight .

4 years ago, come Autumn , I met my partner , Pauly . It was such a fun, lovely time , we went out a lot together and took Seth ( then 3 ) lots of cute places to eat, and adventure around . We were enjoying life, but eating too much "'sometimes food" ( as I call it with my children ) - I think you can guess what happened ? I gained weight . I went from a size 12 to a size 16/ 18

A year later we decided to have a baby and that's when I got very ill. My illness' are something that still scare me now, at 5.5 weeks pregnant my hyperemisis started, I'd had it with Seth my eldest, and it went by 22 weeks , I was admitted twice for fluids, but coped ok , with my 2nd baby I had it so much worse, by week 8 I'd been admitted to hospital 5 times , stayed for 4/5 days then being ferried out , even though my ( amazing, wonderful, lovely ) independent midwife knew I was going to still suffer was desperately trying to arrange drips at home for me . Lots happened in between, but at 8 weeks I suffered 2, pulmonary embolisms , and was given a 1 in 3 chance . It was horrific , and spent a long time in hospital, the hyperemisis continued at full force ( sick 40-60 times a day ) until the day I had Opeie , who was way over due .

Consultant trying to get blood out of me when I'm really dehydrated isn't fun, it clotted all the time as it came out.

Bump at 32 weeks.

Bump at 35+4 weeks.

 I might talk about hyperemisis again at some point as its something that changed my life forever .

During my time of illness , I was lying on my back 99% of the time in a hospital bed or at home almost completely fed through a tube.

Due to this, laying in one position and not eating it changed the way my body functioned .

When I was able to walk without my wheelchair / support of someone I realised my leg muscles had literally turned to jelly.

I also started eating again normally, after loosing 3.5 stone in the time I was ill ( and I might add also pregnant ) my metabolism was literally like a tumbleweed . So , I started to gain weight . A lot of weight .

Due to becoming vegan in about an hour of discovering Opeies Dairy, Egg, Soya allergy, I was clueless of what to eat . I had to give it it, to make sure he had the correct breast milk .

I really did feel unhappy about giving up dairy ,eggs,soya as I was THE biggest dairy fan you've ever met , loved omelettes , egg mayo , soya burgers the lot . So I started eating things that I liked that weren't healthy to compensate the lack of variety. Crisps , biscuits , flapjacks ( a lot of flapjacks) mash with a ton of pure spread in it , loads of bread, crusty baguettes , and I pretty much put on the 3.5 stone I'd lost ( through my illness) in around 4 months .

When I was eating the things, I wasn't really questioning why I did it , it was more of a " well ... There's nothing else for me to eat that I like " and justifying it that way .

Until I went to Florida and discovered all the amazing vegan foods at wholefoods . I will be forever grateful to the vegan guy there . Amazing guy !

So, getting to now. I know what I should be eating . I know when I should be eating , I know why I should be eating what ... And what foods need to be eaten together to keep me fuller , more energised .

And in the last month - 6 weeks I've thankfully lost over a stone . I've still got around 1.5 - 2 to loose before I'm 100% ready to try on a wedding dress , but I'm getting there . And you know what ? I LOVE my vegan diet . LOVE it !

Why? Because my asthmas completely gone , I haven't had a single chest infection in 3 yrs ( thank goodness! ) I feel cleaner in my body , my digestions improved , I enjoy my meals more, the list goes on ...

I would never go back to eating dairy or eggs now , but would like to have Soya again .

So, that's my reason / story of how I became a vegan . And alittle about my difficult pregnancy.

He was totally worth it though!  I'll leave you with a few pictures.....................