I’m not going to lie to you…I wanted to write an article today about how Mac Danzig, the UFC fighter who follows a vegan diet, won his fight last night…but unfortunately Mac lost.

But that doesn’t take away from the message that athletes can achieve peak performance without high-protein meat-based diets.

We’ll take a look at a few in a second. You’ll be shocked at a few of the names that come up.

Unfortunately the UFC pay-per-view didn’t show Mac’s fight last night, but I tuned in with some friends to watch the rest of the matches. Some guys ordered pizza and wings, but I kept it vegan and ate a bag of pistachios.

(Pistachios are a good “fat loss diet” movie/TV snack because it takes some work to get the little suckers out of their shells. And that way you don’t eat as many as if you were eating peanuts or almonds out of the bag.)

According to the internet, Mac ended up losing a thrilling match in the lightweight division and almost won by submission in the 2nd round but his opponent was saved by the bell. Danzig, who won Season 6 of “The Ultimate Fighter”, has put on a lot of great matches and should get another shot in the UFC. Hopefully he’ll get some PPV action in the future.

As for me, I continued my vegetarian experiment this morning with more vegan eating and another good workout. I started the day with a vegan breakfast bowl of:

• oat groats (soaked in water overnight)
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon organic peanut butter
• some blueberries
• And 1 apple and 1 pear

After that, I hit the gym. Here’s my workout, you’ll notice it included a lot of bodyweight exercises:

1A) Overhead Squat – 135x3x5
1B) Pullups – 3×12

2A) DB Chest Press – 90x3x6
2B) Inverted Bodyweight Row – 25,20,20

3A) Pistols – 3×3
3B) Hanging Leg Raises – 3×8
3C) Dips – 3×15

Good and fast. Finished in about 35 minutes.

After my workout I walked home and then blended up a shake/smoothie with…

• pineapple
• banana
• almond milk
• hemp bliss
• cacao nibs.

It was okay. Should have added some nut butter.

Then I had lunch which was one of my infamous “big boy salads” and 1 cup of almond milk.

• Spinach
• Black beans
• 1/2 avocado
• salsa
• red onion, red and green peppers, and broccoli

Then I hit the park with Bally the Dog.

When we got back, I tried another smoothie. The2nd shake attempt featured:

• Frozen strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon cashew butter
• hemp bliss
• almond milk.

This was much better, although it still could have used more cashew butter. And possibly some chocolate…

So that’s the day in the life of this vegetarian “athlete” for now. As I mentioned before there are many vegetarian athletes, and a couple of them hitting world class performance levels.

First, I stumbled across this quote from gold-medal winner Carl Lewis.

“Can a world-class athlete get enough protein from a vegetarian diet to compete? I’ve found that a person does not need protein from meat to be a successful athlete. In fact, my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet. Moreover, by continuing to eat a vegan diet, my weight is under control, I like the way I look. (I know that sounds vain, but all of us want to like the way we look.) I enjoy eating more, and I feel great.”

But an even better example is Tony Gonzalez, all-pro tight end in the NFL.

Tony is a vegan and has gotten help from my friend, strength coach, and all-around nice guy, Jon Hinds.

Tony’s change in diet has even been featured on the Wall Street Journal’s website.

Here’s a little video of the 247 pound NFL pro-bowler showing you how to make a high protein vegan shake.

Let me know if there are other vegetarian athletes that I’ve missed, or if you are achieving peak performance on a vegetarian diet.

And hey, no matter what diet you use, just remember to…

Stay Strong!

Looking forward to your success,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Got a good shake or smoothie recipe?

Just let me know in the comments section below.

Alright, so my strep throat is gone. Hurray! What a difference a day makes.

So now I’m back on track…with a new diet for this month and a new workout program.

I’m sticking with the vegan diet, but switching it up a bit. Last month I ate a lot of grains…you might even call them processed – depending on how literal you want to be. But as you know, I was eating whole grain breads, spelt bread and pasta, and oatmeal.

This month I’m going to cut that out and go with as many raw foods as possible. I’ll probably cook beans and chili for some dinners, but I’m going to skip the pastas and breads.

Really makes me feel like I’m running out of food sometimes, but it will make me do even more digging for ideas. 

Gotta keep learning. Never stop!

Plus, I always have my friend Kardena for ideas…she’s the queen of raw food and vegan eating and will help me get enough calories to gain more weight and hopefully get up to 190-ish by the end of the month.

And another go to resource is Jay Ferruggia. He’s always posting big vegan smoothie recipes on Twitter or Facebook. Click here to read Jay’s diet and workouts on Twitter.

Or check out his gym here:

Now let’s look at what I’ve had to eat today…

Started the day with breakfast of oat groats (soaked 24 hours in water to soften them up) mixed with organic cashew butter, a banana, and blueberries. Also had a pear.

Before my workout, I had raw vegetables and hummus, and a quinoa bread sandwich (last sandwich before I stop eating all bread for the month). The sandwich spread was Mystery Butter #2 (I swear that’s what the label says!) and a banana.

(The actual contents of mystery butter #2 are peanut butter and hazelnut butter. The company that makes it calls it mystery butter.)

After my workout I had a bowl of aat groats with almond milk, blueberries, and a banana. On the side I had a bowl of cherries, and an apple with another tablespoon of mystery butter.

I need a snack, then dinner, and then another snack to finish off. But even that won’t be enough. I have to add a big power smoothie to the plan tomorrow. And more raw nuts.

Did you see the mistake I made?

I was not fully prepared. My bad. Don’t let this happen to you!

And that’s the same mistake I see a lot of TT users making. That’s why I recommend getting Done-For-You Meal Plans.

Alright, more to come on better nutrition tomorrow. Now let’s look at my workout today…

1) Power Clean 2×5

2A) Squat – 4×4-6 (worked up to 335)
2B) Chinups – 3 sets going 2 reps short of failure

3A) Good Morning – 2×8
3B) Close-Grip Bench Press – 2×6

and for the Meatheads

4A) DB Curl – 3×6
4B) DB Triceps Extension – 3×8

Got that done in about 40 minutes. Very little rest. Very efficient warm-up.

Back in on Friday to deadlift,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Let me know your diet plans for this month. Please comment below!

Well, June’s over, so the Diet Reconstruction is done!

Or is it?

I’m having a lot of fun with this vegan diet and learning new foods and trying out different meals, so I’m going to keep it going.

I’m going to knock out the meat and dairy for another month…then I have a new secret diet plan scheduled for August…it will be a very interesting experiment you won’t want to miss.

I’ve learned so much in the last month and tried so many new foods for the first time, including:

• spelt flour bread, spelt flour linguine, and a spelt flour veggie patty
• pumpkin seed butter
• organic cashew butter
• oat groats
• coconut meat
• almond milk
• hemp beverage (not so good!)
• quinoa
• ezekial cereal
• kamut pasta

But I still think I can do better. As you can see, I was heavy on the grains this month. So in July I’m going to cut back on a lot of the boxed foods (even though they are healthy) and eat more fruit instead.

So I’ll be moving away from the box-vegetarian diet towards more of a raw vegan diet, and I’ll keep pushing to force-feed myself more calories.

I actually lost about a pound and a half in the 4 weeks for 2 reasons. First, it’s hard to eat a lot of calories when you cut out meat, dairy, all added sugar, and alcohol. The fiber-rich, low-processed food diet I was on fills you up fast. So that’s good if you want to lose weight.

Second, I got sick twice. Strange, isn’t it? I go two years without getting sick, and then I switch to a vegan diet and get sick twice in a month.

I still claim the first one was food poisoning. And the second one – my strep throat – was just bad luck. And bad timing. So I wasn’t able to eat much the last 3 days.

But I’m going to bounce back in July and gain that weight back fast. My throat is already a lot better and ready to take on more calories.

Plus, I finally bought myself a big-time blender to create smoothies. That will help get more calories in. My buddy Jay Ferruggia is the master of creating high-calorie muscle building smoothies.

Alright, so who is with me?

Who is going to continue to improve their diet for July as well?

Are you ready to give up alcohol for 4 weeks?

Going to give up chocolate for 31 days?

Ready to ban the booze from your belly for just a few short weeks?

I guarantee you’ll feel better in days just by doing it.

And yes, I know that July 4th is right around the corner…so you have two options. First, start the Diet Reconstruction on July 5th. Or second, stay strong and be loud and proud and start your Diet Reconstruction right now!

Either way, I’m proud of what you are doing…keep on striving to be a little bit better everyday!

That’s the baby-step way to success, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Let me know how this month went for you,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Click here to discover the original diet depletion challenge

The #1 question I get about eating a vegan diet is, “How do you get enough protein?”. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that question, I’d be able to afford another Bally the Dog.

Well, it’s actually quite simple when you’re eating to build muscle for a couple of reasons.

First of all, we just don’t need as much protein to gain mass as the supplement companies and bodybuilding magazines try to make us believe.

And second, if you’re eating a lot of calories, you’ll have no problem getting enough protein even on a vegan diet.

Just take a look at this quick video to discover how most foods commonly known as “carbohydrate foods” actually contain a large amount of protein (10-25 % of the calories in these foods come from protein).

I love hearing from you about your bodyweight workouts you are doing…so darn cool!

You rock!

And thanks for teaching me about the circuits you are making up for your own workouts. Please keep sharing here (in the comments area below) and on Facebook (click here to add me as a friend).

In this week’s fat burning coaching call we’re going to go over Phase 1 of the 6-Month Turbulence Training Bodyweight program. Over 11,251 men and women have used this program that I developed way back at the end of 2005. I hope you’ll join them!

Click here to listen to this week’s TT Podcast

Oh, and we also have some new vegan eating adventures to discuss this week…but let’s get started with our transformation tip of the week…

Monday – June 22

This week’s best transformation tip is…”You can’t soar with eagles if you’re hanging around turkeys”.

I know, I know, it’s a “cheesy” saying, but you want to succeed you need to hang around others who want to lose weight so that you can leverage their knowledge, commitment, support, and success. In fact, you need to do that for everything in life…

Let me know what changes you make and how this works for you!

Good luck. And now let’s look at Phase 1 of the 6-Month Bodyweight Workout.

Workout A – 3 circuits
Prisoner Squat (15 reps)
Jumping Jacks (40 reps)
Plank (45 seconds)
Stability Ball Leg Curl (15 reps)
[Incline] Pushup (12 reps)
Side Plank (20 seconds)
Sumo Squat (15 reps)
[Beginner] Inverted Row (8 reps)
Interval Workout A

Tuesday
Do your 30 minutes of fun activity, and try to head out to a local farmer’s market some day this week. Take a nice walk to the market, buy fresh vegetables and fruit, and then test your grip strength by walking home with your goodies.

Wednesday
Workout B
Step-up (12 reps)
Siff Squat (20 reps)
Off-set Pushup (8 reps)
Split Squat with Front Foot Elevated (10 reps)
Plank on Ball (20 seconds)
Reverse Lunge (10 reps)
Assisted Chin-up (8 reps)
Stability Ball Rollout (10 reps)
Stick-up (12 reps) — check out the video below for the stick up exercise
Bird Dog (5 reps)
Interval Workout B

Thursday
30 minutes of fun activity…and now for a funny little vegan eating adventure story…

So last week in California I met up with vegetarian diet expert Kardena Pauza so that she could do a diet consultation for me, and to film a few videos for you.

Unfortunately, I fell ill after the flight from Toronto to LA. Really weird, not sure why, but I felt terrible and had no appetite – I was feeling sick to my stomach.

But we soldiered on and went to a famous raw restaurant (home of the famous raw chef named Julian) and we filmed Kardena talking about raw foods and why she made the change to vegetarian eating. If you’re into that stuff, you’ll love her story – and the other videos we made where she scolds me on some of my diet choices. Pretty funny!

One last thing…while on my trip I had to eat a lot of restaurant meals with friends and other trainers who I was learning from…and we went to plenty of “American-style” family restaurants where there weren’t many vegan choices on the menu.

HOWEVER…that is no excuse, and it’s easy to have restaurants prepare something specific for you. All you need to do is ask. After all, they are there to serve YOU!

Friday
Time for the final bodyweight workout of the week…Workout C of the 6-Month TT Bodyweight program.
Y-Squat (10 reps)
Close-grip Pushup (8 reps)
Cross Crawl (10 reps)
Stability Ball Hip Extension (12 reps)
Stability Ball Jackknife (10 reps)
Mountain Climber (10 reps)
Wall Squat Hold (60 seconds)
[Beginner] Inverted Row (12 reps)
Elevated Pushup (8 reps)
High-Intensity Cardio

Social Support Saturday!
Teach someone about TT…you’ll learn more and understand it better. I’ve always found that teaching helps me understand the subject matter at a greater level.

Sunday – Plan, Shop & Prepare
Do 30 minutes of fun activity and then plan, shop, & prepare for the meals ahead and try to add a new fruit or vegetable to your diet.

Next week!

• Phase 2 of 6 month BW manual
• More vegan meals & ideas

Let me know your #1 diet or workout question below and I’ll answer it on this week’s call,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS

PS – Want all of the TT bodyweight workouts?

You can do these workouts without weights or a fancy gym.

Click here to get the Deluxe Bodyweight Workout package