FormicaLinoleum

Technically, as long as a person does not believe in any kind of god, that person is an atheist. So I guess an atheist can believe in ghosts, ESP, UFOs, and so on. I don't think that many do, though. However, I think that the concepts of great forces or higher powers are close enough to the idea of gods that belief in them would make one not an atheist. On a practical level, I don't think that many people who do believe in such concepts would label themselves as atheists. Not many people label themselves as atheists, period. In the US, less than 1% of people call themselves atheists, less than 1% call themselves agnostic, but a relatively sizeable 13% call themselves "non-religious". I think that the force or power believers would probably be in the non-religious group. These non-religious people would be those who don't align themselves with any existing religon but who believe in "something" which seems pretty much to be what Kollison is talking about. Atheists don't believe in "something" or at least not when that something is kinda like a god. I am both an atheist and agnostic, btw, because I don't believe in any god and I also believe that whether or not there are gods cannot be known or proven. I'm also a humanist and quite interested in Buddhism. And to tie this all in to the original topic somewhat, my gf is also an athiest and agnostic. And interested in Buddhism. And we're both from Catholic families, though mine is practicing (church every Sunday and holy day, Catholic schools, CYO, all that) and hers is not.

I'm 150... unfortunately it's not primarily muscle.

Who is she? Mariam Power. Shes only 150 lbs and she is all muscle (but isnt like those roid users). http://images.google.com/images?q=mariam+power&svnum=100&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&safe=off&filter=0 Ah yes, I do remember seeing her pictures before. Cool.

Who is she?

Right now I am doing 75 pounds on the barbell flat bench press.

My girlfriend and I have been together for a bit over 4 years. We've lived together for 3 years. We'd most likely be married if we could be. We'll get "partnered" (or whatever they are gonna call it) once we move over to the UK. When we met, she was an omni (and I was vegetarian). But she cares about animals a lot, and she didn't eat very much meat and never at home, so I didn't need to worry about having meat around the house or anything like that. One year ago she went vegetarian. She totally wants to be vegan and understands all the reasons for being one. Right now she's in a place where her conscience and her willpower are not in the same place. But I do think she'll go vegan one day. And she has said that if we were to have kids she would want to raise them vegan. All in all, then, she's very supportive and respectful of my veganism. I have no problem being with her although she is not a vegan herself. Like I said, I do think she will be one eventually, but I am not going to pressure her and if she never is one that will also be okay with me.

This is going to be my first Thanksgiving as a vegan, though I have done many as a vegetarian. It's just me and my parents, though, so nothing big. Most of our traditional side dishes already are vegan--we have stuff like a salad, sweet potatoes, mashed turnips, a green veggie, and homemade cranberry-orange relish. I won't be able to have my dad's delish stuffing, though, as it uses cornbread (eggs, milk) and butter. But that's okay--I'll just give that a miss rather than asking him to veganize it. He probably would not know how to do that anyway, and he makes it at home and then brings it so I wouldn't be there to guide him. My parents bring their own precooked turkey (not a whole one as it's for only 2 people) and I usually have Tofurkey. Then we both have those other side dishes, which I make. And I make a vegan pumpkin pie, which my parents both really like.

I haven't had much today, but yesterday I had: Wholegrain cereal with soy milk, green tea Soy yogurt with wheat germ "Tuna" salad sandwich Apple crisp Tofu vindaloo with brown jasmine rice A few french fries at the bar while I was playing

How is she doing now? Is she recovering well from the surgery?

Here's the birthday thread! My birthday is August 28, and I was born in 1972. This thread had most of its posts right around my last birthday! I missed out. Oh hey! I finally reached 100 posts! Yay!

'scool. I have a bad habit of not typing out everything I am thinking and therefore not being clear about where I'm going in a discussion. I certainly get what you are saying, and I do think there are actually a fair number of people who do believe that. I know that is a huge part of the resistance to the Plan-B type of contraception, so I'm sure there are people who feel similarly about the pill.

Well, if one is against all birth control as concept, then I can't see any other reason than believing that sex not open to procreation is wrong. I see what you are saying above, but that would lead a person to be opposed only to those specific forms of birth control and not all forms together (e.g., including condoms).

Mmm, I love baked beans on toast. And on baked/jacket potatoes.

So you are against because of some personal experience and not because of some particular belief or ideology?

My food for today--I haven't had dinner yet, but I am cooking it now. B: wholegrain cereal with light soy milk, cup of green tea L: v. small amount of a seitan/broccoli stew, tofurkey italian sausage w/ one slice of wheat bread D: tofu vindaloo with brown jasmine rice This is a light day for me. I got a rather upset stomach this afternoon, so I didn't have a snack then as I usually would.

I have seen communal food logs on a number of message boards, vegan and otherwise. I think they are a good idea because they can give other people ideas for meals (e.g., if something someone ate sounds really tasty we can ask for a recipe or try it ourselves) and it can give people, especially those who are not yet vegan, an idea of the variety of vegan foods that are out there. You can post your food whenever you want; no need to feel you have to do it daily.

Yeah, that's the only reason I can see to oppose birth control... holding the belief that one should never engage in a sex act if it can't result in procreation. But I'm curious about what his reason actually is.

Why not?

I see that my original post wasn't very clear because I referred only to the one case in which muscle breakdown occurs (when glycogen stores are depleted). But yeah, we basically agree.

It depends on what you mean by "above your upper limit." My understanding is that your body will tend to use fat and glycogen for energy during exercise, in varying ratios depending on the intensity and other factors, and that it will break down muscle for energy if those two sources are insufficient because either (a) you have run out of glycogen or (b) you are exercising at such a high intensity that your body cannot metabolise fat and glycogen fast enough. So I do understand that your body will use muscle if you are exercising at a high enough intensity even if your glycogen stores are just fine. It's just that I didn't think that the level of intensity I was referring to (70-80% MHR) was high enough to cause muscle breakdown for energy in the presence of adequate glycogen stores. I thought that happened at higher levels of effort.

Oh good, i'm not the only one. Yeah, I'm horrible about stuff like that! I really need to take care of that, though, because I should be monitoring my HR all the time. Well, not like 24 hours a day; I mean during my bike riding each day.

I didn't mean to refer to going at really high intensities. I'm used to thinking of the numeric heart rate zones, with 60-70% (zone 2) being a kinda easy, comfortable effort and 70-80% (zone 3) being more intense but sustainable. Zone 4 (80-90%) would be hard and zone 5 (90-100%) would be all out and sustainable for only a minute or two. So I was thinking about zone 2 as the "fat burning zone" and meant that I thought that one could go into zone 3 without worrying about muscle breakdown. Is that correct? But I see now that what you referred to as your fat burning zone is 65-75% of MHR, which kinda overlaps into the area I was thinking of as more intense. I will have to exercise for 2-3 hours a couple of times a week, but yeah, that's specifically for training and not for general fitness or weight loss.

Yeah, I didn't mean to suggest that and hour or two is necessary or recommended. What I meant is that you could go for a couple hours and be okay as far as glycogen stores... so more reasonable periods of time like half an hour to an hour should not be a major challange to glycogen stores at all.

I have a heart rate monitor, but the battery ran out about a year ago and I haven't changed it yet. I really need it though, because my cycling training relies a lot on specific heart rate zones. But a question... if you exercise at a higher intensity than the 'fat burning zone' won't your body use glucose/glycogen as its main fuel? I thought your body would break down muscles only if your glycogen stores were too low. So if you were doing cardio for an hour or two, your muscles should pretty safe even at high intensity, as long as you have been eating enough for your glycogen stores to be sufficient.

All I had done before them were squats and calf presses, so they were my first upper body exercise.