• He combined HIIT and cardio with weight training to build muscle while getting lean. • Meanwhile, he continued to get all of his necessary protein from food sources like legumes and protein shakes. Ben Raue wants to save the world. A former "corporate paper-pusher"-his words-from the Chicago suburbs, the 46-year-old has transformed himself into a full-time online plant-based fitness coach. Getting shredded, he figured, would be a good way to prove that a vegan lifestyle is not only better for the environment, but that it could go hand-in-hand with being physically fit. It all started a year and a half ago, when Raue started reading about how global agriculture affects rainforest destruction and species extinction. Diet choices, he reasoned, affect not just our bodies, but our world. How could he make more people recognize the connection? He settled on a public, 90-day transformation, one that would show that anyone could go vegan and still be healthy and strong. "I wanted to prove this to myself and show the world what was possible," he says.
Even as a vegan, getting ripped meant tweaking his diet. "When I started, I would say I was more of a ‘junk food vegan,’" he says-Indian food, Click here Thai food, pasta, and vegan burgers, ice cream, and cookies. "Potato chips and vodka are vegan," he says. To get muscle-building protein, he relies on legumes: black and kidney beans, Prime Boosts Pills lentils, Prime Boosts Supplement chickpeas, and edamame. Protein shakes, too. A typical day’s meals might be overnight oats, lentil pasta (about 40-50 grams of protein), and a chocolate-banana-blueberry smoothie. Raue says he averaged 120-140 grams of protein a day. As he progressed, his workout evolved. His first month, he worked with weights about an hour a day, five or six days a week, hitting each muscle group two days a week, with a day off (or just cardio) in between. He worked his abs three or four times a week. His cardio began as 20 minutes of HIIT (high intensity interval training) three to five days a week