FormicaLinoleum

Are you looking for any particular types or brands? I've been using this stuff; I like the fact that it's a UK and vegan company.

http://www.natures-whey.co.uk/

But some places here sell Vega. Or myprotein does cheap soy, hemp, pea, rice (and a vegan blend) in bulk. I used to use PlantFusion but it became harder and harder to find here.

It seems like, if we are all being completely honest, you won't be able to maintain as much muscle compared with a diet that includes animal protein...and the muscle you do have takes constant work to maintain. Does that sound right?

I don't aim to increase my muscle mass (just my strength) so I might not be the right person to answer. But surely, maintaining a lot of muscle mass takes constant work regardless of whether you're vegan or eat loads of meat? Non-vegans have to be sure to eat a lot and work hard in the gym in order to gain and maintain muscle mass, and it'll be the same for a vegan.

I do think that if you want to have a lot of muscle mass, it's going to be hard to do that while eating really cleanly. It's easier to get lots of calories and protein if you are less discerning about where those calories come from and are happy to have protein shakes and veggie burgers and stuff like that. But bulking up with lots of muscle isn't really a healthy enterprise to start with.

If you want to have a really clean, whole foods diet, bulking will probably be harder, but you'll probably be healthier.

My knee is still not 100%, but I'm doing what I can. It's not terribly painful either.

Mon 24 Sept 2012

2-hour off skates training

Tues 25 Sept 2012

2-hour derby practice

Monday was my first off-skates session in about 2 months, and I am now SO SORE. I literally can barely walk. I'm working at home because I don't think I can manage going up and down the stairs at my office.

This isn't a study, though. It's just a Facebook post about something that's "popular" in Japanese culture. I didn't see any reference to an actual study--did I miss it?

I have been skating. My knee has got progressively more achey as time has gone on and I skipped practice yesterday because of it, but I'm hoping it was especially achey because bouts are especially tough, and that practices won't be too too hard on it.

Tues 4 Sept 2012

Cycled home to work to practice to home

2-hour derby practice

Thurs 6 Sept 2012

2-hour derby practice

Sat 8 Sept 2012

Played in a bout in Nottingham (we won)

Should have gone to 2 hours of practice yesterday but skipped it. I did take a little walk, but even that made my knee hurt. Iced it for a while in the afternoon.

Tonight I am going to off-skates training for the first time in nearly 2 months. I'm definitely going to have to take it easy as it's been so long and my knee is still hurting a bit, but I want to get back to doing at least some strength training.

Wow, that is absolutely amazing progress. You look like you could compete right now--can't imagine how great you'll look by next March!

Finally back to skating! Had my first practice yesterday. My knee held up. It ached a little bit, but nothing major at all. No off-skates training tonight; it's been canceled as we have a big big bout tonight--Team USA is coming over and playing our A travel team and Team England. I'm not skating, but am working the bout.

I am now 40!

Sun 2 Sept 2012

3 hour derby practice

48.8 kilos and you feel fat? How tall are you? I am a bit afraid to bring it up as I know little on the topic so don't want to say the wrong thing, but it seems a bit dysmorphic to feel fat at that weight, especially to the point where you don't want people to see you.

I’ve been reading tons of books that tell me to have soy, tempeh bacon or tofu. I don’t want to eat those things to “act” like I’m eating meat.

Why? Tofu and tempeh aren't even 'mock meats'. They are traditional soy foods. (I personally also have no problem with 'mock meats' like veggie burgers and all that. As an occasional treat/convenience, though, not as a base of my diet.)

In general, I would suggest eating loads and loads of vegetables. I don't have loads of weight to lose, but when I did want to lose a small amount I found Eat to Live very effective. Don't cut out beans--they are good for you.

If you don't want to buy the book (though I recommend reading it), the main idea of Eat to Live is to eat foods with high nutrient density and low calorie density.

- Eat loads of veg, both raw and cooked. This should be the bulk of what you eat.

- Eat beans every day.

- Avoid oils and processed carbs (and basically any other processed foods)

- Whole grains don't have to be completely avoided but should be limited

- Nuts OK in moderation but probably best avoided if you have a lot to lose (though recent videos by Dr Greger suggest nuts may not be incompatable with weight loss despite calorie density)

- Can't remember about fruit but I think it's OK in moderation

I'm doing this from memory, so I hope I haven't got it completely wrong. But bottom line is veg, veg, veg. And beans.

Derek (who's a member of this board) eats a somewhat similar diet, though I think he said it's not really based on Eat to Live. He and his wife have recipes on their site: http://www.veganmuscleandfitness.com/

Bottom line is that you can certainly lose weight on a vegan diet. You just have to adjust it so it works for you. There's actually a lot out there at the moment about plant-based diets for weight loss/disease prevention and reversal. Like Forks Over Knives. Check out their website. Again, the basic idea is to focus on whole plant foods and avoid processed stuff. I'm often amazed, when I see people's eating plans, how little veg it is possible to eat as a vegan (I know I manage to eat very low-veg when I'm being lazy). So being vegan won't necessarily be healthy or lead to weight loss. You have to plan right for that.

I know nothing about this person, so can't comment on her diet, but in my experience, most of the time when people say they tried to be vegan but weren't healthy so gave up, they were missing something in their diet that could have been remedied.

I think there are some people who can't be healthy on vegan diets, but I think it's really rare and is not true of the vast majority of people who claim it. I know of only one case personally--a woman whose body couldn't manufacture cholesterol. So she ate eggs. But that was the only non-vegan food she ate.

This woman (the one you're talking about) was a raw vegan, so her diet could have been unnecessarily restricted.

Do people who are anti-vaccine think that widespread vaccination is actually unrelated to the decline (near elimination of) dangerous diseases? Or do they acknowledge that vaccination programs have basically eliminated those diseases, but just think that there are negative side effects that mean that we're all better off not vaccinating--i.e., those diseases would probably come back if vaccination ended, but the deaths that would results aren't as bad as the negative side effects they believe exist? Do they think no one should be vaccinated? Or do they just not want their own kids to be vaccinated (relying on the majority of other parents to continue vaccinating their children at a high enough rate to prevent the return of the diseases)?

I just don't quite understand the end goal. I mean, I can kind of understand being concerned about side effects (most medical treatments have some (it's clear autism is not one of them, though)), but I don't understand thinking those are bad enough that they are worse than the return of epidemic levels of childhood diseases that can kill or cause long term disability.

I'm cycling to work regularly, but that's all I'm doing exercise-wise right now. I'll return to skating and our formal off-skates sessions at the beginning of September. I'll do some basic strength stuff at home soon, but won't be using much weight at all until I'm confident my knee can take it. It's also been about a month and a half off from doing any sort of weight training, so I'll have to build back up.

My 40th birthday is less than a week from now, so I'm in the last few days of my 30s!

Absolutely get vaccinations. Or rather, I know this is a personal choice, but I urge you strongly to get the vaccinations, even if you alter the schedule slightly.

Seconded.

Thanks for the links. My favourite thing was in the first article about toxins, where he quotes some guy who tried to make sucrose (table sugar) in vaccines sound dangerous!

Saw a physio on Tues evening and she said it seems that I've done something to my meniscus but it doesn't seem to be too bad so I should be OK to start doing exercise again, slowly building up. Yay!

Cycled to work today and will do the same tomorrow. I'll start doing some strength stuff next week, though with not much weight. I'll eventually get back on skates at the start of Sept.

Still haven't done any exercise since I got back from my cycling trip. It's really frustrating! Still, I don't want to make my knee worse.

I'm going to Dubling this weekend for a bootcamp/bout with the B team, which I'm not going to skate in, but my tickets were bought before I hurt my knee. I'm definitely taking the whole month off from derby, but I think I'll try cycling a bit starting next week and see how that goes. There's a physio who comes to our practice every fortnight so I'm going to try to see her. I might go to off-skates training next Monday and just do the bits I can, which will most likely be very little. But I'm going a bit stir crazy so need to do something.

The travel teams were re-selected last night, and I'm no longer on the A team. That means I'm not going to Playoffs this year. I'm pretty upset about it, but I guess the one plus is that I can now rest my knee for a while.

I'm already frustrated by the lack of exercise and it's been only a few days! I have no idea what I can do to keep up strength and fitness without using my knee. It hurts even when I'm walking. I can't cycle, can't skate, and can't do any squatting type motion even just with body weight.

My knee is still hurting, so I haven't been doing much lately... except for cycling 64 miles over the weekend. That probably wasn't the best idea but it was a nice weekend away in the countryside with friends.

I'm going to go to practice tomorrow anyway and hope it's not too bad.

Sun 22 Jul

Just over 3 hours of derby practice

I managed to injure my knee towards the end. I kept skating but pain made it a bit hard for me to get power and bursts of speed. It now is feeling quite tight and I get occasional sharp pains while walking. I didn't go to off-skates training last night and will probably not skate tonight, though I will go watch practice. I made the mistake of riding my bike, so still have to cycle to practice and then home from there so my knee won't get a full rest today. I won't do any exercise tomorrow. I hope I've just kind of bruised something and this will resolve pretty quickly because I really don't want to have to take much time off right now.

It's a really key time right now, as our regional Playoff are at the end of September. I don't really think I stand a very good chance of being picked for the roster for that, but I still really want to try, so my training should be at its peak over the next couple of months. We also have Team USA coming over to play us at the start of September. They are the team that was put together last year for the World Cup and is made up of amazing players from all over the US. It will be the hardest game we've ever played.

They did spend very little time on protein powders so I'm not really sure what they were saying about them. They mentioned BCAAs but didn't say much about general protein supplements.

Remember, this show was about the evidence for supplements for the average gym-goer, not serious or professional athletes. Just as they said that sugary water (i.e., sports drinks) can actually help performance during truly intense exercise but does nothing for someone just going to the gym, other products might be useful for competing bodybuilders but not for the average person lifting weights sometimes.

They did say that there is evidence for the effectiveness of creatine (and caffeine).

However, I think the show was pretty thorough and if I had to decide on whether to believe researchers who have pored through loads of actual studies on a topic, and people's stories of how they feel using products, I'll go with the research. Unless individuals are doing really controlled investigations of how different products affect them (e.g., being sure to change nothing other than the one thing they are interested in, carefully measuring objective outcomes), anecdotes really don't mean much at all. The whole point of research is to try to eliminate all those other factors that can come into play (e.g., placebo effect, lack of objectivity in assessing one's outcomes) and to gather information on a number of people together. Just because you feel that something is helping you, doesn't mean it really is. Though I guess if you get a placebo effect from using something, that can still be helpful in practical terms.

Thurs 19 Jul

2-hour derby practice

Fri 20 Jul

Led 2-hour derby rec league practice

Leading a session is not very intense exercise-wise

Sun 15 Jul

3-hour derby practice, all scrimmaging

I forget how hard a contact sport is on the body--was full of aches after this session

Mon 16 Jul

2-hour off skates session

An hour of weights, half hour vision training, half hour speed/agility/quickness

Tues 11 Jul

Cycled home to work to practice to home

2-hour derby practice

Wed 12 Jul

Weights at home (all in pounds):

Cleans: 5x69, 5x74, 5x79, 5x84, 5x89

Bench press: 2 sets of 5x69, 10x69

Bent over row: 3 sets of 5x74

Deadlift: 6x153

You could also try cycling gloves. It's fairly easy to find them with some leather-alternative, including women's.

It appears to me that this article is largely a response to Atkins-style dieting. This guy is basically saying they are nonsense and that eating high fat/protein, low carb is not some magic way of eating that does something special to cause people to lose weight. I know there are loads of other things he's not addressing that are important for actually planning a diet. But they just aren't gone into here. That doesn't mean he never thinks about them.

I agree you can't ignore all the other stuff: if nothing else, what you actually eat will affect whether or not it's a way of eating you can stick to in the long term. And of course, the health implications of what you eat are very important. But again, those aren't topics of this particular article and we don't know what this guy thinks about them from reading it.