veginator

Well, the thread heading is pretty much what I wanted to know. If you haven't, you should definitely check it out! And their forums, too.

Thanks for asking, Robert. Work has been so crazy busy lately that working out has really taken a back seat, as has posting on this blog. I've been eating very healthy--low-fat and relatively low-sugar--so I don't think I've gained any weight, but I doubt I've lost any. Still probably holding steady at about 170, judging from the mirror and the way my pants fit. I haven't stepped on the scale lately and don't plan to until I have a chance to start working out 2+ hours a day again, which should become possible at the end of this month. Haven't played racquetball in 2 weeks now, mainly because of a heavy work schedule but also because my elbow was starting to hurt. So, I'm looking forward to returning to action this afternoon, if anyone shows up to the challenge courts (summers are kind of slow for that). Rode my bike 25 miles on Thursday, with average heart rate of 125 and max of 165, I think, if my 47-year-old memory is correct. Friday I did the elliptical machine for a little over 30 minutes (average HR 125, max 140) and lifted for another 20 or so. To pass the time I listened to the Vegan Freak podcast, which I highly, highly recommend!

Weather kind of sucks today, so I'm not sure if I'm going to get in a bike ride as I'd planned or not. If not, I'll go to the gym and do elliptical and weights. Yesterday I ran 4 miles. Average HR 137, max 165. My Achilles has been bothering me some on runs, so I'm going to start mainly biking for aerobic exercise for a while. Running is a more intense workout, but oh well!

Well, not much time to post--or work out--lately, too busy with end of the semester grading. I've managed to get in an hour and a half of racquetball twice last week and once this week, and jogged 3 miles this morning. I've been pretty happy with my racquetball game lately considering I only get to play twice a week. Although I lose more than I win, I manage to make it close against some of the better players in town--who are mostly about half my age. Another week or so and although I'll still be busy, I'll have a little more time for working out--woohoo!

Saturday: 20-mile bike ride in slightly over an hour and a half. Average HR 125, max 168 (woo hoo, love those hills!). I haven't even bothered stepping on the scales lately, it's too frustrating. Damn middle age! I'm assuming I'm still about 170, and unless I drop my calorie consumption to an unpleasantly low level (which I'm not going to do), that's where I'm going to stay until I can at least double my exercise volume. I'll have time to do that starting in a little over a month. Can't wait!

Saturday: Ran for half an hour at a pretty fast pace (but no idea what the distance was--somewhat over 3 miles I guess). Average HR: 147, Max HR 165. Monday: 1 1/2 hours of racquetball. Thursday: 1 hour of racquetball. Friday: 1/2 hour slow jog. My Achilles is bothering me tonight, enough so that I'm going to need to work a little harder on resting and rehabilitating it. So, biking instead of runs for a while I guess. I've been eating very low-fat and almost entirely avoiding refined sugar (just some alcohol here and there), but I'm still stuck on about 170 pounds. I guess I'll have to wait until the end of May when my schedule eases up and I can exercise more before I can take a few pounds off. Still lifting, maybe twice a week. I need to hit the weights a little harder.

Played racquetball Monday and Thursday. I don't recall exactly for how long, but I think it was for about an hour and a half both days. Now that I'm playing or practicing at least twice a week regularly, I'm starting to experience more times where I get "in the zone" and play really well for a while, which feels great, but my game is still very up and down.

Today I did a variety of things. Practiced racquetball for an hour, which burns a lot fewer calories than actually playing, but, hey, it was fun anyway & hopefully I'll play better tomorrow. Then I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. Forgot to write down the heart rate monitor figures, but I think it was something like average 135 with max in the 150s. Then I did incline presses, back machine, and upright rowing maching. After coming home to get a snack, I went for a 25-mile bike ride. Average heart rate 127, max 164.

Did 33-mile bike ride today. Pushed myself a little bit on the way out, getting my heart rate up to 165 at one point where there were three big hills in a row, but took it easy a lot of the time coming back. Average heart rate 120.

I'm among those who find cute dogs pretty irresistible, but I think it's perfectly fine to not feel that way. The important thing isn't whether someone gets googly-eyed around animals; it's whether they treat animals with respect and compassion--regardless of what type of animal it is. But unfortunately our culture brainwashes the majority of Americans (including the families of most of us on this board) into being speciesist hypocrites who "love animals" as long as they're dogs or cats, but are fine with killing and eating or otherwise exploiting and inflicting suffering on just about anything else with two, four, or no legs. Give me a non-animal-loving vegan over an "animal-loving" ( ) omnivore (or vegetarian, for that matter) any day!

Monday: 1 hr. racquetball--kicked off of the racquetball courts by a stupid dodgeball tournament! Couldn't they wait 'til 7 when we usually have the courts reserved until? Wednesday: ran 4 miles; avg. hr 147, max 167, around 10 min/mile pace Thursday: about 1 hr. 15 minutes of racquetball Friday: I was looking forward to my first long bike ride in a while, but damn if it didn't rain nonstop the whole day! I decided to work much of the day instead and am looking forward to biking in the expected sunshine tomorrow. I've been lifting (all upper body so far--time constraints!) fairly regularly for about a month now, and I'm starting to see and feel a difference. Strength and bulk-wise, I'm about back to where I was when I first started this blog last summer (at which point I'd been lifting a couple times a week for about 3 months except for a week vacation)--only I'm about 13 pounds lighter, which is good. If by the end of the summer I can drop another 20 pounds (i.e., get back down around 150 where I was early last fall) while gaining strength and improving my time in the 5k by a minute or two from what it was in the fall, I'll be happy with my summer fitness work. And if I can convert some new folks into vegans as well as having fun and getting fitter, that would be even better!

Thursday: played racquetball for an hour. Did incline press machine, upright row machine, and back machine. Friday: 20 minutes on elliptical trainer (I was desperate and the weather sucked!), average HR 142 Saturday: 20 minutes on elliptical trainer, average HR 147, max 167. I don't plan to make a habit of this, but one reason I haven't run much lately is that my achilles tendon has been bugging me again, as it did last spring and summer. Hopefully that will clear up if I do other stuff for aerobics for a while and do some eccentric stretches. Worked last time.

Well, with the weather being so completely awful, I wasn't up to running this weekend. Played racquetball for an hour and a half Monday, as well as running about 10 minutes back to the car. Weight training is still sporadic, but I'm managing to get some in--roughly the equivalent of a couple of full upper-body workouts per week, but spread out at various times throughout the week.

Didn't get in my run until Friday afternoon due to crazy busy-ness getting work done and packing for my weekend trip. I was over in Champaign visiting a friend so I didn't have time to plan out a route and measure how far I went, but I ran at a good pace so I'm guessing I did maybe 5 miles in about 45 minutes. Average heart rate 146, max of 175. This weekend was a vivid reminder of one of the things I hate about the Midwest. After being perfectly nice spring weather most of the past couple of weeks, it's gone back to winter in a big way--cold, torrential rains and 25 mph winds yesterday, and today I woke up (in Springfield, IL, where my son was attempting to play a soccer tournament) to about 4 inches of snow on the ground! After standing in the pouring rain watching soccer for 2 hours yesterday, I just couldn't bring myself to spend another couple of hours being cold and wet going for a run, so no exercise (so far) this weekend other than some pushups in my hotel room.

Thanks. I've loved playing (some) sports since I was a wee tyke, and I enjoy running and biking enough that I can usually get motivated to do them. But there's no fricking way I'm ever going to spend much time on an elliptical machine or stationary bike the way some fitness buffs do. To me, nothing could possibly be more boring!

Well, it's been a few days since I've posted, so I'm a little hazy on details. Sunday I ran (or, rather, slowly jogged) the same approximately 7 1/2 mile route I've been doing lately. Monday I played about 5 games of racquetball. Having not played in about 10 days prior to that, I totally sucked at it compared to the way I usually play, but it felt good to get out and move around anyway. It's been a busy week so I haven't done any aerobic activity since then. I've been doing some free weights--barbell curls, shoulder shrugs, and shoulder presses--and push-ups, but I haven't been really pushing myself much so far. I'm hoping to get in a good, long run tomorrow before leaving for a weekend in Illinois, watching my son's soccer team and visiting a friend in Champaign.

Because it's not harming animals (in this hypothetical, perfect world example). If your reason for being vegan is ethical and that ethical dilemma is removed, why not? If your reason is for health, that's totally different. I wouldn't eat it anyway because it would be gross and unhealthy, but I find the whole idea of promoting vat-grown meat as PETA is doing ethically problematic (as I find much of what PETA does!). We don't yet live, obviously, in a "perfect" (insofar as animal exploitation is concerned) world where animals are not exploited any longer, and as long as that's the case, promoting vat-grown meat is a diversion from educating people about animal exploitation. I'm reminded of another ethical gray area by this: Wearing used leather. The issue is somewhat similar and somewhat different. I wouldn't wear used leather in public even though I wouldn't be contributing to animal exploitation by doing so, because I don't want to give anyone the impression that wearing leather is okay. Other people aren't going to be able to tell that the cow being killed to make the leather was something that happened a long time ago & that I'm not in favor of creating new leather, so even though no new exploitation occurs when one wears "old" leather, doing so promotes the general idea that leather is okay. The same would be true if someone saw you eating lab meat while there was still "real" meat being produced--they wouldn't be able to tell whether it was lab meat or meat from a formerly living animal.

Thursday: played 2 hours of basketball with my son. Friday: no exercise Due to a combination of muscle tightness in my shoulders and back and sheer laziness, I haven't lifted any the last few days. I'm planning on doing that some today.

Congratulations on the changes so far in your diet and lifestyle. Your body will thank you for that, and animals and the environment would as well if they could. I'm curious why you have doubts as to whether you'll ever go vegan. You said you're enjoying your meat-free meals, and it sounds like you're still headed in that direction. It was my experience and I think a lot of other VBBF members' experience that it was a lot easier than it seemed like it would be, so hopefully it will be for you as well. Welcome to the forums!

Not sure I'm remembering correctly, but I think my workouts the last few days have been something like: Friday: a little over an hour of basketball with my son. Saturday: same. Sunday: same. Monday: no exercise Tuesday: went indoor climbing with my son. He did a lot more climbing than I did, so I didn't get a great deal of exercise. Today: Played an hour and a half of basketball with my son. I've been lifting some (all upper body) lately, just trying to gradually ease back into doing that. Except for biceps curls where I'm doing about 10 reps and two or three sets at 50 lb., I'm anywhere from 10-20 pounds below the weights I was lifting last summer when I had been lifting at least once or twice a week for 6 months and more than that for two.

Like several people have said, although it's certainly worthwhile to look for used bikes to save some money, definitely get it checked out by somebody who knows what they're doing before you buy it. Personally I didn't have much like finding a good used bike when I was shopping for a bike last summer. I wound up getting a new Giant road bike. It was the least expensive decent road bike I found, and it was about $650. Despite being their bottom-of-the-line road bike, I think it's a very good bike, with decent hardware and a fairly lightweight aluminum frame. It's far from the lightest bike around, but it's plenty light enough that it doesn't feel sluggish on the road.

Yeah buddy! Duke Blue Devils back on top By Associated Press | Monday, March 16, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | College Basketball Photo Photo by AP ATLANTA - A year ago, as they walked off the court after another early exit from the NCAA tournament, Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson made sure to soak it all in. They didn’t want to forget how much it hurt. They didn’t want to forget how it felt to be denied a championship. Yesterday, they finally got their title. Led by its two junior stars, No. 9 Duke swamped upstart Florida State with a barrage of 3-pointers on the way to a 79-69 victory in the title game yesterday, giving the Blue Devils their ninth ACC crown in 12 years. Scheyer scored 29 points and was named tournament MVP, Henderson had 27 and Duke (28-6) turned in one of its most complete performances of the season to keep their Tobacco Road heirloom from heading down to the Sunshine State with No. 22 Florida State (25-9). It couldn’t have come at a better time, with NCAA bids going out later in the day. How complete? Duke had more steals (five) than turnovers (four), outrebounded the taller, bulkier Seminoles, 35-34, and buried Florida State with a 12-of-25 showing from beyond the arc. The genesis of this championship can be traced to the final game last season. After losing in the ACC tournament and surviving a first-round scare from Belmont, the Blue Devils were eliminated in the second round of the NCAAs by West Virginia. “We wanted to remember that moment. We wanted to remember how it felt,” Scheyer said. “That was something we never wanted to experience again. We wanted to do whatever we could to never let it happen again.”

Tuesday: played basketball and soccer with my son, for about an hour Wednesday: no exercise Thursday: did upper body in the gym for about half an hour, then played five games of racquetball

Monday: 6 games of racquetball. I wanted to also lift some, but the place was ridiculously crowded, so I just did some curls and a back machine and left.

Sunday: Ran 7 1/2 miles, according to walkjogrun.net (based on Google Maps), at around a 10 min/mile pace with a 5-minute water break. Average HR: 142.