Vegan Bodybuilding: Deni Kirkova's Speech at Vegfest [caption id="attachment_1249" align="alignnone" width="625"] Deni speaking at Vegfest (Picture: Deni Kirkova)[/caption] Speaking up about my biggest passions at Vegfest London 2016 was one of the most important moments of my life so far. I spoke about Vegan Fitness and the speech was titled How to Craft Your Dream Body and Achieve Optimum Health on a Vegan Diet. This is something I am an expert in. People were spilling out of the room to hear what I had to say, which was a true honour and meant so much. In fact, it means more to me than most things in this life to promote veganism, and plant-based health and fitness. What greatly frustrates me is the notion that we need to torture and kill animals in order for our brains, muscles, and other parts of our physiology to work their best. [caption id="attachment_1250" align="alignnone" width="619"] Deni two days after winning her MGU trophy (Picture:: Deni Kirkova / Bikini Girls Diary)[/caption] We seem to think we're 'supposed' to mess around with other creatures, use and abuse them, ignore their free will and inflict unknown pain and suffering upon them because we may benefit from ingesting parts of their bodies or excretions. Of course, no-one is going to stand up and admit they believe in animal abuse. People work hard, mentally, to create emotional dissonance around this. It is unthinkable. And so we distance ourselves from the true and blatant fact. Drink milk? I'd say you contribute to child murder, the breaking of a new mother's heart and abuse of the miracle of bearing children. Rearing cattle for dairy is the most unfeminist practice I can imagine. There are simply no two ways about it. And I'm not sitting her hating on all non-vegans pointing the finger. I just see it as a fact - and I was one of...
Macros, activating, sproutingâŠever wonder what health bloggers and Instagrammers are on about? Vicky breaks down 15 health buzzwords and shows you how to sound like you know what they mean The wellbeing revolution is taking the UK by storm with new healthy restaurants opening every other day and more of us working fitness into our busy lives. So itâs no surprise that the vocabulary to describe the components of a healthy lifestyle has expanded too. If you already know your probiotics from your prebiotics and your kombucha from your sauerkraut then skip this bit (but how about activating? That was even new to us). For everyone else, hereâs how to pronounce them, use them in a sentence and work them into your life. 1. MACROS Short for? Macro-nutrients Pronounced? âMac-row-new-tree-antsâ What are they? Macro-nutrients are nutrients required to give us energy to keep our bodies functioning. The three macro-nutrients are fats, carbohydrates and proteins and by consuming the correct amount of macro-nutrients for your desired results, whether that is muscle gain, fat loss or toning up, you are more likely to achieve your bodily goals. Macro-counting is a fairly simple method to allow you to calculate how to balance your diet. This is worked out via a ratio format, the basic ratio is 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent fat and 30 percent protein. However, when we work out our individual percentage to fit our bodily goals the ratios will change as we have to take our height, weight and desired goal into perspective. How to use it? âIâve eaten all of my macros todayâ 2. PROBIOTIC Pronounced? âPRO-BY-OT-ICKâ What are they? Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for your health, especially your digestive system. Our bodies are full of bacteria which is both good and bad. However, probiotics are often called âgoodâ or âhelpfulâ bacteria because they help keep your gut healthy. Probiotics are already...
On my journey to bikini comp I had the importance of meal prep and hitting macros drilled into me since day one of our transformation journey. Preparing your meals for the day is important as it helps you manage the amount of macro-nutrients: (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) you are eating in order to enable you to reach your fitness goals.
