veginator

Longest cumulative exercise time of the summer. Walked the dogs for about 15 minutes in the morning, then went to the gym to lift and do the elliptical machine. Did about half an hour of weight training and an hour on the elliptical machine, and to and from the gym is about 35 minutes round trip by bike. I forget what my monitor said, but I think the average HR for the elliptical session was just under 130. Then, I did a 2-hour (around 23 miles) bike ride, with an average heart rate of a shade under 120.

Monday: Ran several errands on my bike, about 10 miles total. Practiced racquetball for half an hour, did the elliptical machine for a few minutes, then played two games of racquetball. Had to leave early to take my dog to an agility training class. So all in all I got in around 2 hours of exercise. Tuesday: Biked 25 miles. Average HR 127, max 160. Hiked by the lake with the dogs for almost 2 hours, and walked another 15 minutes or so besides that. Overall about 4 hours worth of exercise, half of it intense.

Biked for about 15 miles Monday afternoon. I hit the wrong button on my heart rate monitor so the data weren't saved, but I wasn't pushing too hard because I knew I'd be playing racquetball in the evening. While biking over to the gym for racquetball, I had a flat tire & didn't have a spare tube with me, so I had to walk home from the gym after racquetball and pick up my bike later. Between about 2 hours of racquetball and a combined 2 1/2 hours or so of biking and walking, it was a pretty good day's workout. Wednesday I ran several errands on my bike, maybe 10 miles total. Thursday I played 7 games of racquetball, over 2 hours total, and rode my bike to and from the gym (a little over 5 miles round trip). Friday I went for about an hour hike with the dogs.

Played about an hour of racquetball with my son Friday. Not very much of a workout, since he's still just a beginner at racquetball, but better than sitting on my ass. Yesterday I hiked for an hour with my dogs, then later went to the gym and practiced racquetball for about an hour, did the elliptical machine for 20 minutes, and lifted for about half an hour.

Played 4 games of racquetball tonight. Only a few more days of heavy grading, and then July will be a time for really getting in shape--and watching my budget, since I won't be working much for a change.

Went for a 1 1/2 hour hike on Sunday. Monday I played 8 games of racquetball as well as biking to and from the gym, about a 4-mile round trip. Aside from riding my bike on short errands, unfortunately I haven't had time for any other exercise the last few days. I'm hoping to get in another intense racquetball session tomorrow.

Played about 1 1/2 hours of racquetball. Most of it was with my son, so it wasn't all that intense (he's a beginner at racquetball).

Yesterday: Ran about 45 minutes at an easy pace. My HR monitor apparently needs a new battery, so no workout intensity data this time other than that it wasn't very intense.

Welcome, and congratulations on going vegan. I hope and think you'll find that this is a great community that can give you all the help and support you need to both stay vegan and learn more.

Wednesday: practiced racquetball for about 45 minutes and lifted for about 20 minutes, just one set of several things. Thursday June 11: played racquetball for almost two hours. My shoulder has been seriously sore lately, so being out of town the next few days and not being able to play is probably a good thing. Today: ran about 5 miles, approx. 10 min. miles. I wore my heart rate monitor, but I left it on for 5 minutes while I was still getting ready, so my best guess about average HR is about 135-ish, Peak was only 155 even keeping the same pace going up hills, so I must be getting in shape.

Joe Smith beats fewer women than the average batterer. I don't really know whether the sum total of the beatings he dishes out to his partners is less than that of the average batterer or not, but I don't really care because since he's beating fewer women, at least he's doing better than the majority of abusers.

Thursday: played an hour and a half of soccer tennis (same rules as tennis except we allow 2 bounces) with my son. Lost 6-4 6-4, I think. Later I went and played 5 games of racquetball. Saturday: Biked 15.5 miles in 61:25. Average HR 137, max. 165. Today (Monday) was the longest workout day I've had in months. Biked 23.7 miles in 1 hr. 52 min. Average HR 137, max. 165. Played racquetball for a little under an hour and a half later in the day. This time, I wore my heart rate monitor. Average HR 134, max. 163.

There's no such thing as "more vegan." Either someone is vegan or they're not. I guess what you're suggesting is that there are some holier-than-thou assholes there. Sure. There are people I don't like on VBBF, too, and I'm sure there are on any other vegan board I could be on. But the overwhelming majority of people on VFF are great, cool people in my experience. In any case, I hope people on this forum will make up their own minds about the Vegan Freak podcasts and forum and not base their judgments on what a few people here say.

Yeah, it's maddening that non-vegan people are so ignorant of and/or in denial about what they're doing to animals, and even if they largely know many of them still make all kinds of excuses to keep hurting animals, and I'm all for vegan venting. At the same time, we need to also remember that most of us have not been vegans our whole lives or even close to it, so we were a lot like them once upon a time.

Yeah, exactly. And he calls himself "vegan until 6 pm" or "vegan-plus" or whatever and encourages his followers/groupies to do the same. What a total bunch of bullshit! News flash: If you eat meat on a daily basis, you're NOT VEGAN, or even vegetarian.

Thanks. I'm managing to get in enough tough workouts to maintain the shape I've been in the last few months, but haven't had enough free time to work out as regularly as I was last summer. But my schedule will be freer in a couple of weeks, and I'm really looking forward to it! Thursday: Just 1/2 hour of racquetball, 2 games. Things were a little busy. Friday: Rode my bike 23 miles. Took it easy most of the time: average HR 115, max about 155. Saturday: Ran 4 miles in just over 40 minutes. Average HR 138, max about 155. Today: 5 games of racquetball, about an hour and a half of total workout time.

I thought Earthlings was a very good documentary, and the graphic images of animal cruelty prompted me to firm up my commitment to veganism after roughly 10 years of being an on-again, off-again (mostly on, fortunately) vegan. But one thing that troubles me about this video and others that I've heard about (such as Peaceable Kingdom) is that it never really says much about what should be the main point: Animals simply should not be the property of humans to exploit as they wish, any more than humans should be other humans' property (slaves), period. Someone named Chelsea over on the Vegan Freaks forums states this criticism more eloquently than I have: Earthlings has had a big impact on a lot of people, including me, to be sure. But watching a film that shows how much animals suffer should not be thought of as a substitute for a solid understanding of what's wrong with treating animals as property to be used however their owners wish. Directly witnessing animals' suffering can be a powerful motivator, but ultimately an intellectual understanding of animal rights (and I don't mean Peter Singer's version of animal "rights" where it's still okay to eat animals) is what's most important. I think books by activists with an abolitionist perspective such as Gary Francione or Bob Torres are probably the most effective educational tools. But of course we should get people to educate themselves in whatever ways they're willing, including watching videos if they're willing to do that.

One of the first things he said was: "I'm not a vegetarian, but..." And then later, "If you're 'progressive,' you should probably be a semi-vegetarian." Informative as it may be, his lecture REALLY turned me off, because of the "It's okay to kill and eat animals as long as we're 'nice' to them (whatever the hell that means) while they're alive" attitude. Animals are not ours to use however the hell we want (or they shouldn't be, anyway--unfortunately at the moment the law and our culture say they are). Animals have the right to not be exploited by humans, and that's a point that Bittman totally doesn't get.

There will be nationwide protests tonight! Find your local city, and stand up against this injustice: http://www.dayofdecision.com/ Here's an article detailing the California Supreme Court's unfortunate decision: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/26/prop-8-decision-upheld-by_n_207697.html Prop 8 Decision Upheld By California Supreme Court SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed. The decision Tuesday rejected an argument by gay rights activists that the ban revised the California constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic degree that it first needed the Legislature's approval. The announcement of the decision caused outcry among a sea of demonstrators who had gathered in front of the San Francisco courthouse awaiting the ruling. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ The nation's most populous state stood poised to recapture the spotlight in the debate over gay marriage as California's highest court prepared to rule on the legality of a voter-approved ban on same-sex unions. The California Supreme Court planned to hand down its decision Tuesday in a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn November's Proposition 8. Gay rights advocates maintain the ballot measure so dramatically revised the state constitution's equal protection clause that it needed the Legislature's approval before it could be put to voters. If the seven-member court upholds the initiative as a constitutional expression of the electorate's will, it also will be deciding whether to sustain the marriages of an estimated 18,000 gay couples who wed before the measure passed with 52 percent of the vote. Proposition 8 superseded the Supreme Court's May 2008 ruling that legalized same-sex unions by changing the state constitution to outlaw them. In that 4-3 decision, the court majority invalidated California's marriage statutes, holding that denying same-sex couples the right to wed amounted to state-sanctioned discrimination.

Thursday: Rode my bike 10.6 miles; since I didn't have time for a long ride, I really pushed it, with an average heart rate of 141 and max of about 165. Played three games of racquetball later in the day. Saturday: Ran for about half an hour. I didn't have my heart rate monitor with me, and I'm not sure how far I ran; I'd guess about 3 miles. Today (Monday): Played about six games of racquetball. All were against pretty tough players, so it was a really good workout.

Holy crap! Was that a great finish (Orlando-Cleveland), or what?

Thanks girl I appreciate it, so the diet is good??? I have been trying different things, and now have cut out the eggs for the past 4 days, now the only thing left to cut out is the cottage cheese, and my whey protein!!! Don't forget the honey. A great substitute for that (better for you since it's low glycemic index, as well as not being an animal product) is agave nectar. Congratulations on the progress you've made so far!

If you're not on it, you're not in a good position to judge whether it's worth the trouble or not. I've been on their forum for about 2 1/2 months now, and I think it's a great, supportive community. I value being part of this board, too, but they serve different purposes. VBBF is aimed, obviously, at vegans who are into bodybuilding and/or fitness. But you don't even have to be vegan or committed to animal rights to be on VBBF, although fortunately most people are. Vegan Freak is for people who are committed vegans or well on their way to being committed vegans, and who are vegan for primarily animal rights reasons. The reason they require a somewhat lengthy introduction is that the moderators need to be able to assess whether someone who wishes to join actually meets these requirements. Being picky about who they let on has nothing whatsoever to do with being "uptight," it's about creating and maintaining a community where animal rights/abolitionist vegans can vent, support, discuss, etc., with other vegans who have a similar perspective. I'm not familiar with any specific cases where people have been banned so I can't comment one way or another about whether there have been any bannings that were arbitrary in nature, but I haven't heard of any. I do know of a case where someone who, although vegan, has a viewpoint pretty much at odds with the perspective of most of the forum members and has had some run-ins with Bob Torres (who started the site) has not been banned. I had no trouble joining the site back in March. It is not true that their registration is totally closed, and there are new members joining on an almost daily basis. It is by invitation only much of the time, but they have open registration for the first week of each month. The rationale for limiting the registration is that if they have too many people registering at once, the moderators will be overwhelmed with evaluating whether people will fit in. If the forum grows too fast, it will be difficult to maintain the type of community that its members (me included) value having. Nonetheless, it's growing pretty fast.

Played six games of racquetball today. I beat someone I have never beaten before, and lost by only one point to someone else I've never beaten before, so it was a good day. Just out of curiosity, I wore my heart rate monitor while I played. It varied a lot depending on how tough a game I was having, but against the best player who was there (the one I didn't quite beat), my heart rate stayed consistently above 160 during our two games. So, all in all, a good workout. Elbow hurts some, but it should be okay by Thursday when I play next.

Good luck with that.