John V

My run left me happy this morning. I increased to 7 laps, or 1 3/4 mls I believe, in about 22 minutes.

Last night I had cherry/apple juice for my late night snack. This morning I had a banana/strawberry unsweetened soymilk smoothy to get ready for the jog. After my shower I'm going to have some scrambled tofu with tumeric, black pepper, yeast, Braggs and garlic powder. I'll have chai and some ww toast w margarine, too.

My appetite seems to be growing, which is from an increasing metabolism, one of my main goals. Running seems to trip a switch that allows me the impulse control to limit my caloric intake, also. Week 2 seems off to a good start.

Sweating it here at my ghetto chateau with no a.c.!

Finished consuming with kidney beans, a beer, tortilla chips and salsa last night. Today I ate pb vegan cheese on ww, chai, avocado/lettuce/red onion/nayonaise on ww, tortilla chips and mashed avo w/lemon juice and garlic powder. Now I'm going to have a banana/blueberry/unsweetened soy milk smoothy.

peace!

Still sweating profusely from my 1.5 ml jog in the mid day sun with high humidity. I've heard every pound of fat has a mile of capillaries. I guess for now my heart's pumping an extra 50 miles!

Had tortilla chips and salsa after my late night smoothy yesterday. Had a little puffed wheat with half a banana and a sip of rice milk, followed by pb & vegan cheese on ww and chai for breakfast. Had 1 banana, some unsweetened soy milk and pb smoothy for lunch. For dinner I plan to have brown rice and a pound of fried tofu,w/braggs & yeast. Of course I'll have more chai, but first I'm going to chug some psylium in water.

BTW some pallets of cased cans can weigh over 1500#. Last month I loaded our van, then unloaded, hand trucked and stacked, 5,000# of cans in letter carrier cases from the post office food drive in about 2 hours. That's my idea of fun!

Seems like it's going well. Thanks for reading.

Why did the Bodhisatva cross the road?

(to see the chicken safely to the other side!)

What kind of jokes do vegans like?

(corny)

My only exercise today was breaking a sweat putting away a few pallets of food using a hand truck.

Breakfast was gimme lean sausage, lunch pb & vegan cheese on ww. Cherry-apple juice this afternoon, chai morning and evening, psylium, multi. Dinner was 9 corn tortilla tacos with beans & rice, salsa and vegan cheese. Now I'm going to have a banana cocoa rice milk smoothy.

Tomorrow is a run day. Yea!

Jogged further and faster today, 1 1/4 mls in just over 15 mins. I broke a sweat and breathed heavy, but didn't over do it. I'm driving a mile to a track until I'm confident I'm not going to get injured again. I enjoy concentrating on the run and not having to watch for cars, pot holes, etc. Most especially I' want to try and stay off the hard surfaces for a while.

Today I had oatmeal and banana for breakfast, a falafel sandwich for lunch and brown rice & pinto beans w/ spinach for dinner. Additionally I had my multi vitamin, psylium and a couple pints of unsweetened vegan chai.

I'm a little tired, but in a good way. I was feeling some memory of yesterdays yoga session earlier today.

May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be happy. May all beings be free.

Thanks for the welcome back folks!

I've started keeping a training log here.

Did my first full yoga session in many years today, trying about a dozen postures and teaching my 12 yo daughter, too. Who'd have thought it would be more challenging than 25 years and 50 pounds ago? I have zero ill effect from yesterday's run, except it was hard not to run again last night or today! I plan to integrate some weight training along with my yoga and running, and have the goal of doing one of the three each day, but not doing any one of them two days in a row, allowing for rest from each.

Yesterdays food finished with miso soup with brown rice and spinach and then pistacios. Today I had oatmeal with real maple syrup and cinnamon, and garden fresh salad & o/v. I'm going to have some gimme lean sausage for dinner.

I feel really good.

Had shoes professionally fit today, then jogged 1 ml. on a cinder track in aprox 14 minutes.

Haven't run since 6 weeks ago, when I hurt my shin, causing a limp, which hurt my knee. I recovered using accupuncture, a Chinese herbal formula, chiropractic and RICE (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) I'd been running for 2 weeks after many years of not running.

I'm over 5'10", over 210# and over 45" at my waist's relaxed equator! My ayurvedic constitution is Kapha-pita (123) I do a lot of heavy lifting during warehouse work for the charity I founded.

Today I ate ww bread w/margarine, strong black tea with fresh ginger, rice milk and unsweetened soy milk. Later, after running, I ate a pound of tofu fried in sesame oil with onions, garlic and hot pepper. I added Braggs and yeast. My supplements were a dose of psylium husk and a natures plus multi w/min.

My goal is to reduce salt, oil, caffeine, starch, and late night meals and to increase pepper, fruits & vegetables, both raw and cooked. I eat no white sugar or any sweets. I will again eliminate the little white flour I eat.

Last year I joined this forum, but soon dropped out. This year I tried to start back here, but unintentionally joined veganfitness, before realizing it was different! I started a training log there. I'd started running 2 months ago, but after good progress over 2 weeks, I injured my shin and aggravated it with the heavy lifting I do for my charity, to where I was walking like a chimp with a bad limp! After accupuncture, Chinese herbs, chiropractic and RICE (rest ice compression elevation) I recovered pretty well. I didn't get back to regular training for a couple of weeks more. Now after 6 weeks I had my first run today, a 14 minute mile on a cinder track, with my new, professionally fitted shoes. I've assembled some weight lifting equipment and I'm going to try and alternate yoga and lifting with my every other day of jogging. I'm under 5'11", over 210 lbs and have a 45 1/2" belly at the equator! I've been vegan a few years and was a lactovegetarian for 10 before that. I'd been a lacto-ovo-vegetarian during college in the late 70s. During my life, I've been a martial artist, then was a yoga instructor and I have ran and weight trained some. I didn't exercise much for about 10 years, but have had some better periods of good habits in the last few.

By Alan Mozes

HealthDay Reporter Wed Jan 23, 11:47 PM ET

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Even a moderate amount of exercise can dramatically prolong a man's life, new research on middle-aged and elderly American veterans reveals.

The government-sponsored analysis -- the largest such study ever -- found that a regimen of brisk walking 30 minutes a day at least four to six days a week was enough to halve the risk of premature death from all causes.

"As you increase your ability to exercise -- increase your fitness -- you are decreasing in a step-wise fashion the risk of death," said study author Peter Kokkinos, director of the exercise testing and research lab in the cardiology department of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

That conclusion applies more or less equally to white and black men, regardless of their prior history of cardiovascular disease. According to Kokkinos, that may be because the veterans in the study all received the same level of care, regardless of income.

This evened the playing field, he said, giving him "great confidence" in the results, which will be published in the Feb. 5 issue of Circulation and were released online Jan. 22.

In the study, Kokkinos and his team reviewed information gathered by the VA from 15,660 black and white male patients treated either in Palo Alto, Calif., or in Washington, D.C.

The men ranged in age from 47 to 71 and had been referred to a VA medical facility for a clinically prescribed treadmill exercise test sometime between 1983 and 2006. All participants were asked to run until fatigued, at which point the researchers recorded the total amount of energy expended and oxygen consumed.

The numbers were then crunched into "metabolic equivalents," or METS. In turn, the researchers graded the fitness of each man according to his MET score, ranging from "low-fit" (below 5 METS) to "very-high fit" (above 10 METS).

By tracking fatalities through June 2007, Kokkinos and his colleagues found that for both black and white men it was their fitness level, rather than their age, blood pressure or body-mass index, that was most strongly linked to their future risk for death.

Every extra point in MET conferred a 14 percent reduction in the risk for death among black men, and a 12 percent reduction among whites. Among all participants, those categorized as "moderately fit" (5 to 7 METS) had about a 20 percent lower risk for death than "low-fit" men. "High-fit" men (7 to 10 METS) had a 50 percent lower risk, while the "very high fit" (10 METS or higher) cut their odds of an early death by 70 percent.

"The point is, it takes relatively little exercise to achieve the benefit we found," noted Kokkinos. "Approximately two to three hours per week of brisk walking per week. That's just 120 to 200 minutes per week. And this can be split up throughout the week, and throughout the day. So it's doable in the real world."

Alice H. Lichtenstein, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Lab at Tufts University's USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in Boston, agreed.

"What this finding demonstrates is that levels of physical activity that should be achievable by anyone can have a real benefit with respect to risk reduction," she said.

"What's really important to understand is that you don't need special clothes, special memberships, special equipment," added Lichtenstein, former chairwoman of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee. "It's something everyone can engage in. And although we don't know from this research that this applies to women as well, there's no reason to suspect that it wouldn't."

How about if I send you the weight I need to lose? In Ayurveda they say a nap after lunch will add weight. I've heard sumo wrestlers diet on work out days then gorge and lay around on alternate days off. Putting the body in super efficient fasting mode is why many "dieters" gain weight, slowing their metabolism by waiting too long between eating. So much has to do with the balance of intestinal fire. (I know you're not hoping for a sumo physique and the weight I need to burn isn't the kind you want) Please don't mind my sophomoric observations and comments, Guru-ji.

If you'd like to learn a traditional meditation technique, using a mantra, I'm willing to give instruction and coaching to anyone who might be ready to cultivate a practice of sitting silently EVERY day, or better, twice a day. While the technique has been practiced by many in a "religious" context, it is not dependant on your belief system. It relieves stess and helps concentration while conditioning the nervous system.

My training started over 30 years ago, while in High School, when I learned and practiced the TM technique. While an undergraduate in religious studies I took furthur instructions in the Rinzai Zen and Theravada Budhist traditions. My meditation experiences continued during several trips to India, where I practiced in Hindu Ashrams. Back in the States I spent decades connected with a Hindu Temple and Ashram, where I served on the Board of Directors and as a manager. My current daily sitting practice has been firmly established for 15 years.

Drop me a line if you'd like to furthur discuss this. I'm not interested in any personal profit from any service I may be of in this regard. Thank you for listening to this humble offering.

Hi folks, and thanks for taking a moment to read my intro. Cleveland, Ohio is where I live now. I grew up here but lived in Santa Fe then Taos for many years, while traveling the world. My daughter is 11. After being a lactovegetarian for about ten years again, I became a vegan a few years ago. I dropped 40 pounds the first couple of months after becoming a vegan. I have another 40 to spare. I'm trying to recultivate my walking and yoga practices. I work in food banking, feeding local folks in need. I have some Hindu practices and am of Baltic ancestry. Say "hi" if you'd like.