I made some Vegan Stuffed Shells for dinner this week from a recipe put out by ourplantbasedworld.com. We enjoyed it very much and I was pleased that my husband proclaimed the shells “comfort food.” For my part, I also appreciated that the meal was a decent protein source that supports my training.

I prepared it exactly as detailed in the recipe. The only change I made was I used a bottled pesto to save some time and effort.* Gus also has a Vegan Pesto recipe, which I plan on making the next time I make this meal, or perhaps just putting it over some pasta instead of using tomato sauce.

Two other things I appreciate about this site is that they make it easy to just print off the recipe, which I find more useful than using my tablet in the kitchen, and they provide a slider to change the number of servings and automatically update the ingredients list.

Sun, February 21st

(Athlean-X Arm Program, Day Four) Tricep Pushdowns: 45 lbs. x 4 sets x 12 reps. Calories: 2423, Protein: 149 g.

Mon, February 22nd

• Morning Walk: 3.01 miles.
• Warmed up with some dynamic stretching and then did an afternoon run for 3.1 miles (5 kilometers). The run was mostly on trails with only minor changes in elevation. Did some easy, incline push ups and more stretching after the run.
• After I got home, I warmed up my arms with the indian clubs and then did: (Athlean-X Arm Program, Day Five) DB Cheat Curls with 3 second eccentrics: 25 lbs. x 4 sets x 8 reps. (The program calls for a barbell but I don’t have one yet so I used dumbbells. Also, I’ve mostly heard of doing exercises like this as “doing negatives.”

Calories: 2033, Protein: 153 g.

Tues, February 23rd

• Morning Walk: 2.39 miles.
• Captains of Crush Gripper (Trainer, 100 lbs.):
  • (Set 1): Left = 8 mm x 5 reps, Right = Closed x 2 reps + 4mm x 3 reps
  • (Set 2): Left = 8 mm x 5 reps, Right = 2mm x 5 reps
  • (Set 3): Left = 8 mm x 5 reps, Right = 2mm x 6 reps
  • (Set 4): Left = 6 mm x 5 reps, Right = 2mm x 5 reps
  • (Set 5): Dynamic Training with the Sport (80 lbs.) gripper. I did 20 reps with each hand. I closed the gripper 18 times with my right but couldn’t close it completely with my left after 13 reps. I ended with some finger extension work and some thumb training using the gripping egg.
• (Morning into Afternoon Workout) I did some dynamic stretching and a little work with the indian clubs as a warm-up. Then I started with the MV Steel Mace Workout for two sets with my 5 lb. mace.
• Standing Cable Rows (Hog Bar): 70 lbs. x 12 reps, 80 lbs. x 3 sets x 8 reps
• Cable Lat Pull Downs (Hog Bar): 60 lbs. x 12 reps, 70 lbs. x 3 sets x 8 reps
• (Athlean-X Arm Program, Day Six) PJR Pullovers with 3 second eccentrics: 35 lbs. x 4 sets x 8 reps
• I followed along with “White Belt – Class 2” (focus on high block and half round house kick) on the Global Martial Arts University website.
• Core & Spine Mobility Tabata. Each exercise was done for 8 rounds of 20 seconds with a 10 second rest between rounds.
  • Face Pulls: 12.5 lbs.
  • Alternating Standing Side Crunches
  • Cobra Pose
  • Alternating sets of Elbow Planks and Cat-Cow Stretch

Calories: 2508, Protein: 150 g.

Wed, February 24th

Rest Day, including the Athlean-X Arm Program, for which Day Seven is a scheduled day off as well.

Calories: 2222, Protein: 151 g.

Last week we had tortoise itching stations, and I’d like to keep the turtle thing going for awhile yet so this week we have “When Sea Turtles Grew to the Size of Rhinos,” by Moth Light Media, which is a Youtube channel that our household enjoys. A very interesting video if you want to know more about giant Cretaceous sea turtles and let’s face it — who doesn’t? 🙂

Thur, February 25th

• Morning Walk: 3.32 miles.
• (Athlean-X Arm Program, Day Eight) DB Incline Waiter Curls with three pulses each rep: 30 lbs. x 3 sets x 9 reps, 30 lbs. x 8 reps + 25 lbs. x 1 rep

Calories: 2082 Protein: 151 g.

Fri, February 26th

• Morning Walk: 2.04 miles.
• I did the Wyatt, again with the incline push ups. Just like last time I did the first three sets on the 4th step and the last set on the (more difficult) 3rd step. My time was 41:50, which I was pleased to see beat my previous time by a shade over three minutes. Going forward and in line with my desire to get better at push ups, I’m going to start doing my sets from the 3rd step and then go to the 4th step when my form degrades. Eventually the plan is to be able to do all of the push ups from the floor as Wyatt intended.
• (Athlean-X Arm Program, Day Nine) Bench Dip with 3 pulses each rep: 4 sets x 6 reps
• Had a nice session at the chiropractor in the afternoon. Did a little restorative work and stretched for about 40 minutes in the evening.

Calories: 2147, Protein: 155 g.

Sat, February 27th

• Captains of Crush Gripper (Trainer, 100 lbs.):
  • (Set 1): Left = 8 mm x 5 reps, Right = 2mm x 6 reps
  • (Set 2): Left = 6 mm x 3 + 2 reps, Right = 2mm x 3 + 2 reps
  • (Set 3): Left = 8 mm x 5 + 1 reps, Right = 4mm x 6 + 1 reps
  • (Set 4): Left = 8 mm x 6 reps, Right = 4mm x 7 reps
  • (Set 5): Left + 6mm x 4 + 1 reps, Right = Closed x 2 reps + 2mm x 3 reps
  • (Set 6): Dynamic Training with the Sport (80 lbs.) gripper. I did 20 reps with each hand. I closed the gripper all 20 times with my right but couldn’t close it completely with my left after 13 reps. I ended with some finger extension work and some thumb training using the gripping egg.
• Recumbent Bike: 32 Minutes, Levels 5 – 10. I followed this video again. I did sumo squat stretches for the times I was directed to get off the bike.
• I followed along with “White Belt – Class 4” (white belt self defense techniques) on the Global Martial Arts University website. After the class I worked a little on maintaining my Side-Lunge Stretch mobility, which was a goal I achieved a little over a month ago.
• (Athlean-X Arm Program, Day Ten) Alternating Cross Body Hammer Curls (rest-pause as needed): 20 lbs. x 4 sets x 12 reps

Calories: 2114, Protein: 150 g. (I lost 0.4 pounds this week, so my total loss is 27.2 lbs.)

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* Be careful of bottled pesto if you are doing the Vegan or planted-based thing because most of the commercial preparations, I’ve found, have cheese in them. (I used one without cheese because my husband is eating planted-based.) If you aren’t into tofu and want to make this with meat, I suspect you could easily substitute the tofu for some sweet Italian ground sausage in an equal proportion of cooked meat to tofu and it would be very nice.

Beware, also, of store bought bread crumbs if you are plant-based because they often have milk products in them, such as whey. I find Panko bread crumbs pretty safe for my husband’s consumption but one has to be vigilant about reading labels. Of course one can always make one’s own bread crumbs too easily enough.