veginator

Human slavery was once huge. Does that mean that it would have made more sense to have a "Don't Buy Products Made By Slaves On Monday" campaign than to just say slavery was wrong and we needed to stop enslaving people? That is just one of many examples where history has borne out that taking a principled ethical stand was in the long run effective.

Took 2 days off due to amount of work I've had this week, but unfortunately I didn't actually get a great deal done, aside from taxes. Now the government has more $ to kill people in Afghanistan and Iraq with. Great. Ran 4.4 miles in 44:50 this morning, average HR 145. Hopefully I'll soon be in good enough shape to average under 10 minutes a mile at this HR.

Weight this morning: 172.0. I think the last time I weighed my stomach wasn't all that empty despite it being morning, because I'm sure I haven't lost 2 pounds in 2 days. Yesterday I ran 6 miles. I think my time was around 69 minutes and average HR was around 135, but not sure because I was stopping and starting my monitor. I wanted to see exactly what heart rate I would be at for a 10-minute mile pace (low 140s) to use as a benchmark for what kind of shape I'm in in the future. Ran several laps at different paces, the fastest about a 9-minute mile pace (the track is actually 8/10 of a mile). Feet are a little sore. I will try to go for a bike ride today, although the necessity of doing my taxes soon may prevent that. Update: Went for a ride anyway despite the looming taxes & other work. 22.13 miles in 1:48, average HR of 121.

Saturday: played about an hour of basketball with my son.

I will disagree with this because that's what happened with me. I went vegan because of a medical condition. I didn't give a shit about animals. I was the asshole that told vegans that "I like veal...the suffering makes it juicy." I went vegan in October and fully planned on going hunting that Christmas with some friends. Didn't give a shit about the bees, beeswax, leather, fur, wool, animal testing, you name it. About a month later, I started to think about it. "If an animal doesn't have to die for me to eat, then why should an animal have to die for me to wear clothes?" "If an animal doesn't have to be there for me to eat or wear, then why should it be tested on? That's not fair." "The bees are hard workers. I hate lazy people, so I should support the hard-working bees by not stealing their shit." That's how it happened for me. I went from a vegan diet to a vegan lifestyle because making the conscious choice to not consume an animal forces you to rethink animals and their "value" to you. Animals have inherent value, like humans. A pig isn't valuable because he supplies bacon, he's valuable because he's part of the environment. A cat isn't valuable because she is owned by a person who loves her, but a cat is valuable because she's part of the environment. Just like us. Someone liking me or not liking me doesn't change my inherent value and link to the environment. I even came to the point where I didn't want to own a dog or cat because I didn't want to feed it a diet that it wouldn't normally get in the wild (all meat), but I didn't want to support the meat industry. I decided that, when I get a home (I'm in an apartment now), I will rescue a pig or two from life in a factory farm and feed it all the delicious slop it loves. The fact that you eventually went vegan has nothing to do with whether "Give up meat for one day" conveys an animal rights message. It just doesn't, period. I was vegetarian on and off for 10 years before I became vegan, and even after I went vegan it was based on the philosophy of wanting to reduce animal suffering, not on the philosophy that it was just wrong to exploit animals for no good reason, and so not surprisingly given this, I had lapses. The ten years of being vegetarian and another ten or so of being a wishy-washy most-of-the-time vegan would have been avoided had I heard a consistent abolitionist vegan message from the beginning. It's because of the sort of mixed messages that PETA and other welfarist groups like "Vegan" Outreach send out that I've only been a committed, for-life vegan for about 2 years instead of more than 20. I'm not sure what you're saying when you say that you didn't want to own a dog or cat because you "didn't want to feed it a diet that it wouldn't normally get in the wild (all meat)." I assume you mean that you didn't want to feed him or her a diet that WASN'T all meat? Although cats are carnivorous in the wild, wild dogs are omnivores. Dogs' digestive systems are just as well-suited for a vegan diet as humans'. Most but not all cats can also eat a vegan diet and be healthy as long as they receive the appropriate supplements. (Some males can't.)

I respectfully disagree. I think doing things like encouraging someone to give up meat for a day can, for example, show them that it's possible, or even easy, to incorporate into their own lifestyle. As for giving up "other uses of animals" - how could someone (for example) give up leather or wool for a day, when they already own those things? Throwing away a pair of leather shoes is a far greater waste of an animal than wearing those shoes until the end of their lifetime. I don't see anything wrong with encouraging people to spend a day exploring a meatless lifestyle...it might convince someone they could make the change. Keep in mind there are vegans out there who do not take a philosophical approach to the lifestyle. My brother won't eat animal products, but doesn't have an issue with buying leather shoes because, in his experience, the non-leather alternatives wear down much faster, require more frequent replacement, and are often made of petroleum byproducts (he has a more environmentalist than animal rights approach to his veganism). Your post equates eating a vegan diet with being vegan. There's more to being vegan than what someone eats. Donald Watson coined the term in 1944 to distinguish between people who avoided animal products altogether (who until that point had been called vegetarians) and those who consumed milk and eggs, who had begun to call themselves vegetarians. The Vegan Society, which he helped found, defined veganism this way: "[T]he word "veganism" denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose..." In short, your brother is not a vegan. My post referred to vegans. That said, yes, of course people can't be expected to instantly throw away their leather shoes the day they decide to go vegan. I don't think my post implied that. But if they take animals' rights seriously, they won't keep buying them. There are plenty of ways to show people that it's possible (and in fact relatively easy in most parts of the world) to not only incorporate vegan items into one's lifestyle, but actually go vegan--just being vegan, cooking vegan food for people, etc. My point is that promoting things like "Meat Free Monday," softpedaling the ethical issues associated with consuming animal products, giving people the impression that they're doing some great deed by giving up meat (but not even dairy products or eggs) for one fricking day, etc., as the organizations and individuals listed as supporters of "Meat Free Monday" do, communicates that animal rights are not an issue to be taken seriously, in the same way that promoting giving slaves Sunday off would have failed to communicate the idea that slavery was immoral and needed to be abolished. If someone is genuinely opposed to animal exploitation, then the message needs to be "exploiting animals is wrong," not "let's eat fewer animals but let's not talk about how they're treated" (the "Meatless Monday" approach) or "let's treat them nicer so that they suffer less, but let's not worry about the fact that they're exploited (and therefore still suffer lots and get killed at a young age) for no good reason."

Friday: 6.8 mile run, 79 minutes, avg. HR 139. 16 mile bike ride, 80 minutes, avg. HR 119. Weight this morning was at 174.0.

Nothing good to post about lately--due to injuries and my regular racquetball partner moving away, I've been pretty inactive the last couple of months. So, despite eating as healthy as always, my weight was up to about 176 (from 165 or so a few months ago). With the warm weather and all, I've managed to get out on the bike as well as put up with relatively minor pain in my foot and run. This week: Sunday: 6 mile run, "granny" pace of 72 minutes, average HR 133. Monday: 22 mile bike ride, 2 hours, avg. HR 119. Tuesday: 6 mile run, even slower due to just having eaten dinner. I won't do this again! Average HR was 158 despite <5mph pace. Wednesday: 3.7 mile run, 42 min., avg. HR 134; 12 mile ride, 65 min., avg. HR 110. Thursday: 6 mile run, 74 min., average HR 129. Lifting a couple of times per week the last 3 weeks, mostly upper body. I'm hoping for 174 on the scales in the morning. My conclusion about my metabolism: It sucks. I need to average at least an hour a day of exercise or I'm doomed to be a few pounds overweight. (The upper end of "normal" for my height is about 160.) My goal for the summer is to get back down to 150 where I was a year and a half ago.

It's certainly true that large-scale animal consumption of any kind is not ecologically sustainable, the obvious example being what's happening to fish stocks. As for a "no meat day" being a good idea or something that vegans (or supposed "animal rights" organizations like PETA or Vegan Outreach that are listed as co-sponsors of Meatout) should in any way support, I disagree. Nothing says "I don't take my ethics seriously" like promoting people giving up meat (but not other animal products if they don't feel like it) for one day. Can you imagine slavery abolitionists supporting a promotional campaign in favor of slaveowners giving their slaves Sunday off? Or anti-racist activists promoting "Lynching-Free Wednesdays"? Most vegans are vegan because in one way or another we think it's unethical for people to hurt or kill animals (or pay someone else to do so) for absolutely no good reason. Urging people to give up meat, but not any other use of animals, for one day does not convey this message at all.

Gary Francione is right on! Great article.

My foot injury turned out to be something that rest alone wouldn't help. Tarsal tunnel syndrome, apparently caused by having high arches in addition to it being partially an overuse injury. I took about 3 weeks off from racquetball as well as basically anything involving running, as much because of my sprained finger as because of my foot, and it didn't help the foot that much. What is helping is that I've now got custom orthotics for my shoes. I'm also taking a prescription anti-inflammatory as well as a gabapentin/amitriptilene ointment, both of which also seem to be helping some. Unfortunately just as my foot and my sprained finger were both getting a lot better, I pulled a calf muscle a little bit, so I'm taking yet another week off, but I should finally be in good shape for racquetball and running by some time next week. This is the first post to this blog in a couple of months, again because there hasn't been much new except continued frustration with injuries and undesired layoffs from exercise. But my finger is finally healed enough to resume weightlifting as well as racquetball, and I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel for my below-the-waist injuries, so hopefully I'll have progress to report soon.

So, how much training of a given muscle group per week (taking into account your excellent point that, for example, chest exercises are really also arm exercises) is enough? How much is too much? If I'm still sore after, say, two days, should I wait another day or two before training those muscles? If I'm not sore after a workout, does that mean I didn't train hard enough?

Well, haven't posted in a while, basically because nothing has really changed. My foot still hurts, damn it, despite several trips to a sports medicine doc who does Active Release Therapy. It's not that painful; it just doesn't go away even when I rest the foot for several days. I'm starting to think maybe it's a stress fracture, which would put weight-bearing activity off the table for probably a month, which would really suck. As I said, not much has changed; I'm still playing racquetball about 3 times a week and doing other stuff like riding my bike trainer or doing some lifting when I have time, my weight is still in the mid-160s, and my foot still gives me trouble. And my finger, too--jammed that playing racquetball about 3 weeks ago when my opponent and I ran into each other, and it still bothers me. I served a lot of forehands in my racquetball games tonight even though it hurts a bit to hit forehands, but now my bottom knuckle on that finger is swollen. Hopefully I haven't broken that, too!

Nothing new to report, really. My heel/foot injury is still there, so I'm still not running since that's what caused it and what aggravates it the most. I've been to a sports medicine doc who does active release therapy a couple of times now. It's too early to tell if it will help, but it seems to be helping a little bit. Since I really need to be able to run for maximal weight loss effectiveness and I've also been really busy with work, I've been basically stuck in the mid-160s weight-wise for a couple of months now. I'm playing racquetball about three times a week and biking maybe a couple of hours a week. Today's workout was pretty intense: Six tough games of racquetball plus about 15 minutes of practice, so almost 2 1/2 hours of racquetball in all.

Haven't gone running other than in a 5k race in about a month now, and decided to skip the last couple of 5k races. At this point I'm pretty sure running aggravates my foot far more than, say, playing racquetball, so I'm laying off until I have a chance to go to the sports medicine person. Fortunately, they'll be able to see me next Wednesday instead of the end of the month. Played basketball twice with my son last week, about an hour each time, and I've also played racquetball twice recently, last Monday and yesterday. Did 15.7 miles on the bike Sunday in 1:07, with average HR of 138 and max of 165, and about a dozen miles yesterday at a fairly leisurely pace (around 115-120 average HR) as well as playing racquetball. I'm not even going to step on the scales any time soon -- too scary! Unfortunately, my wrist is still not healed enough to start lifting weights in any serious way yet. I can do curls with about 15-20 pounds without it hurting much, but the doctor advised me to stay away from weightlifting for at least another month.

Aside from an hour of basketball with my son yesterday, very little exercise this week, and it shows on the scales, unfortunately. I'm up a couple of pounds despite still eating a diet that would not put weight on for most people! My foot is somewhat better than it was last week, but I'm sure if I ran another 5k race I'd be right back where I was. I may wind up getting a trainer for my bike so I can ride indoors when the weather is bad, especially if I continue to be unable to jog regularly. Four more weeks, barring cancellations, until my appointment with the sports medicine guy about my foot.

My foot started hurting more as the day wore on yesterday, although not any worse than it did after my last race a few weeks ago. Frustrating that it's not getting any closer to being healed up enough that I can resume running regularly again. Did a 20.5-mile bike ride in 1:26 today, average HR 129, max of 155.

Ran a 5k race this morning in a rather slow time, a little over 27 minutes. I knew it would be significantly slower than the great time I had 3 weeks ago (22:50) because my sore foot along with lousy weather that's kept me from biking much has really limited what I've been able to do training-wise. I've only run once in the last 3 weeks, just 2 miles on a treadmill; done about half an hour on the elliptical machine three times; played racquetball twice (about an hour and a half each time, so my most intense workouts); and done about a 10-mile bike ride. So that's a total of about 6 hours of cardio in 3 weeks not counting the race today, not a whole lot for me. So, even though I wasn't slacking (average HR 160), I'm just not in as good a condition as I was a few weeks ago. Hoping to turn that around here if I can get some tolerable bike riding weather the next couple of weeks. I'm going to see a sports medicine guy who sounds like he'll be able to help my plantar fasciitis a lot, but unfortunately that's not for a few weeks. The good news is that my foot doesn't hurt much post-race, so maybe it will keep slowly healing if I stick to cross-training instead of running for a while.

Still suffering with a sore heel/foot, so I haven't been able to run much at all the last couple of weeks. A couple of miles here, three miles there, maybe a total of 10 miles running in 2 weeks, and it still hurts. Racquetball doesn't seem to bother it as much. I've played twice, and it hasn't hurt as much as from that as from running. Today I played 6 games. Did the elliptical machine for half an hour a couple of times as well. I'm hoping to run a 5k race this weekend, but whether I actually do it depends on whether my foot is at least feeling as well as it did 2 1/2 weeks ago when I ran the last one. I'm not weighing myself at the moment because I'm quite sure I haven't lost any additional weight and probably have put a couple of pounds back on, so it would just be frustrating. The weather has been absolutely terrible here lately. 20-plus degrees below normal and often rainy, so I haven't been able to ride my bike at all. That's what I really need to do to stay in shape with minimal running mileage, but the weather has been rather uncooperative.

Yeah, really. At first I thought it was something out of The Onion, but then I remembered that those jokers once gave the Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger. WAR IS PEACE! Oh, there'll be more troops. Wall Street has a lot more power than the Nobel Committee.

Achieved my 2nd-best time ever in my 5k race yesterday morning, 22:50.8. With just a few more pounds' weight loss, I should be able to beat my PR of 22:39 pretty handily. I'm going to rest my sore foot a day or two and see if I can get it healed up, then resume running again. I'd like to get out on the bike, but I don't know whether my still-healing wrist is strong enough to support some of my body weight on the handlebars yet, so we'll see about that. I'm planning on another 5k race in 3 weeks, where hopefully I'll be able to get my time down close to 22 minutes, assuming continued weight loss between now and then. Presently I'm at about 162. Goal weight for now is 150, which I'm hoping to get to within a couple of months.

Thursday: played 7 games of racquetball. I didn't play that great after a 7-week layoff due to my broken (left) wrist, but actually a little better than expected, and it just felt great to get out there and hit the ball around again. Weight this morning was 161.8. Still have about 10 pounds to drop to match last year's weight loss effort, but I'm very slowly getting there. Heel area is still sore. I think I may get a night splint. I've been hearing that that works pretty well for plantar fascitis. There's a 5k race tomorrow and I'm definitely planning on running in it, but I'm in kind of a dilemma about whether to run any today or not. On one hand, I'd really like to do something to train some more, but on the other hand I don't want to make my foot any sore than it already is, and the weather's too yucky today to bike even if I didn't have a gimpy wrist. Maybe I'll ride the exercise bike at home, and try not to fall asleep while I'm doing it.

Wednesday: 5.4 miles in 49 minutes. Average HR was 142, if I'm remembering correctly. Got my cast off Monday. It's pretty stiff and sore still and I'll have to wear a splint most of the time for several weeks, so no weightlifting for a while yet, but at least I can go back to playing some racquetball now.

Monday: 7.8 miles in 85 minutes. Must have hit a wrong button, because HR data weren't saved. Right heel/back of foot has been pretty sore lately. Plantar fascitis, I guess. I'll probably rest it today and see how it is tomorrow, but it would really be nice to improve some more on my 5k time in the race I'm doing this coming weekend. Cast is finally off my arm, so hopefully I'll be able to get back on the bike soon, but it's too soon to put weight on it yet.

Friday: 3.8 miles, 38 minutes. Saturday: 5k race, finished in 23:58, 14 seconds faster than last week's race.