Getting Enough Protein on a Plant-Based Diet

Most people know that consuming enough protein is important. It builds and supports muscle tissue, helps you feel satisfied after your meals, and has an important role in many functions throughout the body. But what often comes to mind when people think of protein is meat, eggs, and milk. There's a common misconception that vegetarians and vegans don't or can't get enough protein. Since going vegan at age 16, I can't count how many times I've been asked how I get my protein in. 

When I got into weightlifting, I started paying closer attention to how much protein was in my diet and dug deep into plant-based protein sources- both the quantity or grams of protein, as well as the quality or how absorbable and useable each particular form of protein is in the body. Through resistance training and consuming high-quality plant-based protein sources, I was able to gain a significant amount of muscle and strength. I even entered a powerlifting competition and won "best female lifter" 

All of this to say, building strength and muscle as a vegetarian or vegan is by no means a walk in the park, but it is a lot easier than most think when you know where to look and what to get. While plant-based protein sources are becoming more popular, many of the vegan "proteins" in stores are often highly processed, have long ingredient lists, and aren't actually a good source of protein. For something to really be a good source of protein, it should contain at least 10g of protein per 100 calories. As there are 4 calories per gram of protein, this equates to 40% of the calories coming from protein.

Whether you're vegan or vegetarian, want to minimize saturated fat/ cholesterol, or just want more variety with your protein sources, this guide is for you. It includes each of my favorite options (alphabetized), with a breakdown of protein quantity (✓ for having 10g protein per 100 cal), notes and meal ideas, ingredients, and grocery stores you can find them at (in the Portland, OR area). 

Additional Sources of Plant-based protein:

(Not as many grams of protein per calorie but a nice complement to the higher-protein sources)

Lentils, quinoa, peas, beans, hemp seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds

My Fitness Journey Through Pregnancy and Postpartum (Twice)

As a trainer who used to feel invincible, pregnancy and postpartum humbled me. 

So much of what I expected it to be like turned out to be the exact opposite. My favorite exercises became the least enjoyable. A one-minute daily practice prepared me more for delivery than any class, video, or doula. And I felt stronger at 36 weeks pregnant than I did a year after giving birth.

I had my son in 2021 and my daughter in 2025. While the pregnancies themselves weren't all that different, the way I went about them was. Here, I'll share what I did, what I learned, and what I'd do differently if I ever have another.

First Trimester: The Hardest Part No One Prepares You For

I was ecstatic finding out I was pregnant both times. The first few weeks, I felt I had sort of a glow- probably just from having an exciting secret. But those feelings were quickly pushed to the side when sick-to-my-stomach took center stage. I was nauseous every day for about three months, discovering that "morning sickness" can actually last all day. The thought of certain foods- many of which I used to love- disgusted me. To this day I still can't bring myself to eat some of the foods I turned on during pregnancy. Pretty much anything with spice or strong flavor was a no-go. I'll never forget asking my husband to get me Thai food- my favorite- but all I wanted was: "Plain white rice...  and don't you dare let anything else touch it." The plainer the food, the better. I lived off rice cakes, crackers, oatmeal, and granola bars.

While pregnant with my son, I was a salaried manager. It was hard, but I had flexibility. I could retreat to my office when I needed a break, and no one batted an eye when I came in later or left earlier. With my daughter, I was a trainer getting paid by the session. Showing up for clients with energy, focus, and enthusiasm while feeling that sick was a completely different challenge.  I wanted nothing more than to go nap in my car. 

I also gained weight quickly during both pregnancies. While certain foods repelled me (veggies, protein, spices), simple carbs and sweets seemed to temporarily relieve the nausea- or at least distract from it. I felt like a hypocrite, encouraging clients to work out while being too tired to do my own. My stomach already looked bigger, and it wasn't the blueberry-sized baby. 

People talk about pregnancy cravings, nausea, and exhaustion. But they don't talk about the silent heaviness of the first trimester. You haven't announced your pregnancy yet, so you try to hide it- but it gets harder as you suddenly feel nothing like yourself.

Second Trimester: Relief at Last / Pregnancy Scare

After the longest three months of my life, the queasiness and exhaustion went away. I felt like a new woman. Work became easier, and I started looking forward to my workouts again. With my son, I was a little hesitant to continue my normal heavy lifting, thinking I needed to switch to more low-key "pregnancy workouts". The second time around, I trusted my body more. I continued doing what I had been doing pre-pregnancy, adjusting where needed.

Still, certain exercises became uncomfortable fast. One of the very first was hip thrusts, a long-time personal favorite. The pressure from the bar touching my lower abs didn't feel right, so I worked my glutes in other ways- step-ups, lunges, seated hip abductors, etc.

 Pull-ups were another surprise. I'd been doing them for years, but never realized how much core involvement they required until pregnancy. I had even set a goal to continue doing one pull-up per week through pregnancy and turn the videos into a compilation. 

But one day, something felt off. I felt a sudden pressure in my abdomen I hadn't noticed before... then a "pop." The next day, I had a pregnancy scare and went in for an emergency visit. The baby was okay, but the ultrasound revealed an abnormality. I was now labeled "high risk" and told to stop all exercise- including setting up weights for clients. Just as I was starting to feel good working out again, I had to stop. Even though I understood why, it was hard losing that outlet.

Third Trimester: The Strongest I've Ever Felt

With my son, I walked a lot outside as it was Spring/Summertime, and continued lifting without pushing myself. With my daughter, after months of follow-ups, I was cleared from high-risk status and slowly returned to my workouts. With both pregnancies, I now couldn't see my toes anymore and many exercises were out. Getting in and out of a lying position was an exercise in itself, and my belly dictated a lot of modifications:

• Bench press   →   machine chest press

• Cable rows on the bench   →   cable flexion rows on the floor with my legs wide 

• Squats   →   wide stance / sumo 

• Deadlifts   →   sumo   →   back to conventional with a wider grip

• Lying core work   →   Bird dogs

• Hip thrusts   →   high-rep banded glute bridges

Out completely: Overhead presses, dips, pull ups, pulldowns 

My new best friends: Rack pulls, lunges, split squats, seated arm work 

After the hiatus from lifting with my daughter, I was surprised to find that the third trimester was the strongest I've felt in my life. Even now, over a year postpartum, I don't feel as strong as I did then. I'm not sure if it had to do with the added weight, increased blood flow, pregnancy hormones, or something else. But I felt unstoppable. Still, I proceeded with caution and only did what felt good. After the pull-up incident, I  didn't push through anything that felt even slightly off. I continued lifting up until the week of her birth.

Labor & Delivery: The Mental Marathon

As my son's due date came and passed, I became determined to avoid induction. So determined that I walked five miles through Forest Park the day before he was born. Labor started in the wee hours of the next morning, and I went to the hospital a few hours later. I thought I'd done everything to prepare - watched countless videos on what to expect, did hip rotations on the "birthing ball" religiously, and even hired a Doula. Still, those 18 hours of labor were harder than I could have imagined. But afterward, I remember thinking "If I can get through that, I can get through anything."

With my daughter, things moved much faster. Contractions started before 38 weeks. I attended a birthing class while they persisted, half pretending they weren't real. I knew it was a marathon that would only get harder, and I had to pace myself. I went about my day, getting lunch and then groceries, pausing mid-aisle as each contraction passed. Around 2am the next morning, I could no longer sleep through it. She was born four hours later. 

Both deliveries were unmedicated. I don't know if I would have been able to do that had it not been for the warm tub at the hospital. With my son, it instantly took the edge off of the most difficult contractions. So with my daughter, it was a non-negotiable part of the plan. I didn't deliver in the water, but it sure was a saving grace as my body prepared for it.

It's said that the second delivery is faster than the first. I think there's some truth to that, but there were two key differences that also made a big difference for me:

 First, I stayed in my own environment for longer, getting through more of the hard work on my own before rushing to the hospital. Mentally, this made the whole process not feel as long, and kept me calmer. 

Second, I followed a simple daily practice in the weeks leading up to her birth. I'd set a timer for a minute, clench a big handful of ice in both hands over the kitchen sink, and take deep, 10-second belly breaths until the timer went off. This might sound small, but with repetition it taught me how to breathe through discomfort. Since contractions also last about a minute, it provided a simulation of what getting through one would feel like. Each time I did it, the minute felt shorter. 

It wasn't all smooth sailing. After my daughter was born I looked at my husband and said "I'm never doing that again." But the mental preparation made it feel more manageable.

Postpartum: The Most Vulnerable Period

It took a lot longer to feel like myself again than I thought I would. In a lot of ways, I actually felt more connected to myself and "like myself" during pregnancy than in the year following. Maybe part of it has to do with being more intentional during pregnancy- eating well, staying hydrated, taking care of myself for the baby. Then suddenly, it becomes about survival.

After having my son, I had lower expectations. I held onto the idea of listening to my body for longer into postpartum, letting myself rest and gradually return to exercise. There wasn't a timeline and I didn't really know what to expect, so I just let it happen day by day. It did take quite a while to feel comfortable in my skin again, but for some reason I felt less pressure to look or perform a certain way. I wish I'd given myself the same grace after having my daughter.

I was back in the gym a week after her birth. I still remember a stranger complimenting how much weight I was lifting. It gave me a sense of reassurance that I was still strong even though I didn't feel it. But it also fueled my expectation that I could just get right back to lifting what I was before- like my body wasn't going through massive physical and hormonal changes. By the end of the first week back, I hit a wall. I was deadlifting, and all of a sudden it was like all my strength had left my body. I was frustrated that a weight that used to feel easy now felt impossible.

 I took some time off again. When I did finally go back I felt like a beginner starting from scratch. I even avoided the gym I worked at because I didn't want to be seen. I've never felt more vulnerable in my life.

 Looking back, I know I pushed myself too hard off the bat and my body experienced a backlash. I would never hold a client to those same unrealistic expectations, so why was I being so hard on myself? I should have focused on recovering and given myself more time to ease back in. Instead, I was in a race with myself to get back to lifting how I was before.

The transition back to work added another layer. The first month, I was head down and all about staying above water. Rebuilding my business, pumping between clients, adjusting to life with two kids. But pretty soon, the overwhelm caught up to me. Pumping became a logistical nightmare, my supply plummeted and I had to start driving to my daughter's daycare in the middle of the day to feed her. The sleep deprivation grew and I fell back into an old pattern of comfort eating. Food was the numbing agent that got me through it all. Over a short time, I gained back much of the weight I had lost. I felt frustrated and defeated. Finally, I started taking steps to address the root cause of these feelings instead of burying them with cookies and ice cream. 

Final Thoughts

While it may take time to feel as strong or fit as I once did, I can now look back and feel proud of everything my body carried me through. I've learned to listen- to my body and my instincts.

Pregnancy and postpartum might look effortless for some, but everyone struggles in their own way. It's the biggest transformation our bodies go through in such a short time. If I could do it again, I'd release all expectations, put less pressure on myself, stop chasing approval or admiration from others, and trust my body sooner. This season of life is one of the hardest and also one of the most beautiful. It shows us what we're capable of, uncovering the strength that's always been there and always will be there. If you're in this season right now, you're not behind. You're in the middle of becoming.

Why You're Not Building Muscle (Even Though You're Working Out)

You've been going to the gym for months. You work hard. You really want to see a change in your body, but your efforts aren't leading to any noticeable muscle growth. What's going on?

Having trained hundreds of people over the last decade - as well as making these same mistakes myself - I'm going to pinpoint the most common mistakes I see and how to fix them so you can finally start seeing results.

1. Not training close enough to failure

Many people start an exercise with a number of reps they intend to do. You sit down on the leg press machine and do your 3 sets of 10. Rinse and repeat with another few exercises, and you're done. Sure, you're sweating by the end, feel your muscles working, and probably feel a lot better than when you walked into the gym. This is all great. It's certainly a good place to start, and by all means better than no workout.

But if you've been at this for a while and really want to see changes in your muscles, you need to push your sets closer to failure.

"Failure" in the fitness world refers to the point when you're doing an exercise and try your absolute hardest to get another rep without sacrificing form and can't get it. You get 7 reps on leg press, let's say, and on the 8th rep you're pressing as hard as you can and the machine doesn't budge. You're doing bicep curls and your arm gives out when you're almost to the top. You physically can't do another rep.

The more a muscle is stimulated, the more it will grow, and by pushing yourself on a set until you can't get any more out of it, you're maximizing the growth stimulus to that muscle.

Not all of your sets need to look like this. (In fact, I highly advise against that. Taking every set to failure is not only mentally taxing, but the excessive fatigue will negatively impact your ability to recover and get back to training that muscle again later in the week. At the extreme level, it can actually hinder your progress.) But it's a good idea to make it a regular part of your training.

Maybe you pick 1-2 exercises per workout that you'll take to failure, or maybe you take just the last set of each exercise to failure. All in all, if you finish an exercise and deep down know you could have easily done another 5 reps, you're probably not challenging your muscles enough - and muscles grow when they're challenged regularly.

2. Not using progressive overload

That brings us to the next point. When muscles are challenged regularly, they grow and get stronger. Which means they'll be able to lift more weight and/or do more reps. As you progress with your workouts and continue challenging your muscles by taking them close to or to failure on a regular basis, you need to gradually make the workouts harder.

I still remember when I started weightlifting in college at the campus gym. I don't know how many months on end I did the exact same squat routine: 3 sets of 8 at 135 lbs. Every. Single. Time. I didn't know any better at the time. I thought I just had to keep it up and I would see progress. I saw a change in my body when I first started, but because I never made it any harder, my body didn't have any reason to keep changing.

Typically when I train clients now, progressive overload involves increasing the weight from week to week. An example would be having a client do 3 sets of 10 Romanian deadlifts for 3 weeks in a row. The first week, they do 65 lbs, the second week they do 70 lbs, and the third they do 75 lbs. Other ways to progress are adding reps, slowing down the eccentric part of the movement, and reducing rest time.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule that you have to make your workouts harder every single week. Some weeks you probably won't be able to. But to really see muscle growth, there should be consistent progression over time.

3. Not eating enough protein and/or total food

Your muscles need food to grow, especially protein and carbs. If you're trying to build significant muscle while in an extreme calorie deficit, it just isn't going to happen.

Bodybuilders typically do "bulking" phases (a calorie surplus to build muscle) and "cutting" phases (a calorie deficit to lose fat) because it's much harder to do both at the same time. You don't need to do official nutrition phases like this, but you do need to make sure you're prioritizing enough food overall - ideally 3-4 meals a day with a mix of carbs, protein, and fats to best support the hard work you're doing in the gym.

I like to use this analogy with my clients: Think of it like constructing a building. Your workouts are the construction workers, and your food is the material you give them. It doesn't matter how hard your construction workers work if you don't give them enough to build with.

4. Focusing too much on fatiguing compound lifts

Heavy compound lifts (like squats, bench press, deadlifts, overhead press, and even dips and pull-ups) are popular exercises for a reason. But they're also very fatiguing because they involve so many muscle groups, including your core, to maintain control and alignment.

Building muscle involves balancing what's called the stimulus-to-fatigue ratio. Essentially, this means looking at an exercise and asking:

1. How much stimulus is the muscle getting? (How much is the exercise contributing to growth?)

2. How much fatigue does it cause to the entire body?

If an exercise is very fatiguing, it will negatively impact not only your performance on subsequent lifts in that workout, but also how long it takes to recover between workouts so you're ready to hit that muscle group again.

Heavy, fatiguing lifts like squats and deadlifts absolutely have their place in muscle growth, but they should be balanced with less-fatiguing exercises that work the same muscles (think lunges, leg presses, seated hamstring curls, etc.).

For muscle growth, we want to maximize muscle stimulus while minimizing unnecessary fatigue so we can get the most possible growth each week.

5. Not prioritizing the muscles you want to grow

It may seem obvious, but if you want to grow a certain muscle group more than others, you should probably be doing more total sets per week for that muscle.

It's hard to grow everything all at once unless you're a beginner, so typically if you want to really focus on a certain area, you'll have to put other areas more on a "maintenance" regimen. Meaning, you'll maintain those muscles but not grow them as much as the main muscle you're focusing on.

In addition, you should probably be working that target muscle first in the workout.

As a personal example, I've always struggled to build muscle in my arms, but for so long I was stuck on the notion that you have to work the bigger muscles like back and chest first because those exercises are the most fatiguing and require the most energy. While that is true, that mostly matters if I'm training for strength - not so much hypertrophy/aesthetics.

When I finally stopped doing a chest press, overhead press, pull-up, or row variation first and started doing biceps and triceps first, I started noticing a difference in my arms. They were no longer just something I tacked onto the end of my workouts - they became a major focus.

Not only are you able to perform better on exercises when you're fresh, but some research suggests that by working one muscle first, that muscle then works harder during every subsequent exercise that involves it.

6. Switching workouts too often instead of following a structured plan with multi-week phases

Random, unstructured workouts may lead to some positive changes as a beginner, but the best way to build muscle and change your body is to follow a structured program.

This means if you work out 3 days a week, for example, you're doing the same 3 workouts for 3-4 weeks before switching to a different set of workouts. This allows you to focus on progressing those specific exercises (progressive overload) over the course of a few weeks instead of changing things up so often that your muscles can't progress.

In addition, it allows you to have specific intentions with each phase, like targeting a certain muscle group more heavily or adjusting training volume.

This is not to say there shouldn't be any repeat exercises from phase to phase. I pretty much always have a squat variation in my program, but the sets, reps, and exact type of squat may vary.

While switching things up too often isn't ideal, doing the same handful of exercises over and over for too long also isn't great. Your muscles start to adapt and can hit what's known as a plateau if you never change anything.

3-4 weeks seems to be the sweet spot that allows for focused progression while avoiding plateaus. In short, this type of phase-by-phase programming is intentional and focused, which is necessary for maximizing progress.

7. Having an all-or-nothing mindset

The reality of life is that some days, weeks, and months will be better than others, and you're not always going to progress with your workouts in a perfectly linear fashion. Sometimes it will just feel harder, and that's okay.

Oftentimes when we're so focused on being perfect, we think:
"Well, if I'm not as strong today, I'm not even going to try," or "I don't have a full hour today so I'm not going to work out."

It's cliché, but more often than not, something is better than nothing.

Over the course of a year, let's say that 20% of your workout days are "meh" or shorter than you'd like.  If you work out 3 days a week and skip every workout that isn't under ideal circumstances, that's 156 workouts you missed. 

If instead you modify where necessary (lighter weights, cutting out some exercises or sets, etc.) and still do something, the compound effect of that over the course of a year is huge.

Lifting weights can be such a mental game. The less hard we are on ourselves and the more we can focus on simply showing up and doing the best we can, the better. When it comes down to it, consistency over the long haul matters more than short bursts of intensity.

8. Sleep and/or stress is out of whack

This is a big one, and often ignored. Sleep is critical for brain function, recovery, and performance in everything we do. If you're in a period of sleep deprivation or aren't regularly getting quality sleep, your workouts will likely suffer.

Your muscles require sufficient sleep to repair and rebuild after being broken down during training. Similarly, if you're going through a high-stress season of life, your workouts and muscle gain will likely take a hit. Sometimes it's hard to push yourself or add more stress to your body when you're already carrying so much stress mentally and emotionally.

When your sleep improves and/or your stress becomes more manageable, you'll probably find it much easier to make progress again.