markc7

Welcome (from another clinical psych PhD student).

I did an hour long back, biceps, and core workout this morning. I love bent over rows!

I visted Bali a long long time ago (geez, it was 18 years ago!). So I doubt that any of my experiences would be applicable to travelling there today. When I went, Bali hadn't become a major tourist destination yet. All the roads were dirt, there were no foreign restaurants at all, and just a few steps off the beaten path you would find locals who didn't have anything to do with the tourism industry and spoke no English. Since then, it has apparently become alot more similar to Hawaii. There are McDonalds restaurants, all the roads are paved, and pretty much the entire economy is based on tourism. Although I think that 18 years ago the experience of travelling there was much more authentic Balinese, I suspect that today it would be alot easier for a vegan to find decent food to eat. If the whole island caters to Australian tourists, there are bound to be many businesses that serve vegetarian and vegan meals of some kind, or at least know how to accomodate us. Enjoy your trip, it really is a neat place. Here's a picture of me in Bali at age 9 feeding a monkey: http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/markmonkey.jpg

Funny video. I'm still scared of doing overhead shoulder press with anything other than the machine. Once a couple years ago I was doing it with dumbells and dislocated my shoulder. Ouch! Actually, it wasn't the pain that bothered me so much, it was mostly the embarrassment of dropping the weight then wandering around the gym in mild shock with my humerus partly out of the socket.

Welcome! And good luck with your goals.

So the race turned out to be a proper half marathon (21.1km). I managed to get a personal best time of 1:47:xx. I'm pretty happy with that, considering that I haven't trained, I ran the 100 miler just four weeks ago, I was feeling sick most of this week, and it was pouring rain and windy during the run this morning. I also came in 19th overall (third in my age group). Now my legs are tired and a bit sore so I'm going to have a nap.

Marion Jones finally admitted that she's been doping all these years. She retired last week and will soon have all her medals stripped. It's sad to say, but these days when someone performs at such a high level, you almost have to question what they're on. Of course, when your name is on file at BALCO it's hard to deny that you're a doper. http://www.cbc.ca/sports/amateur/story/2007/10/05/ioc-jones.html

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This morning I did a chest and triceps workout. I've been sick for most of this week, so I haven't been running or working. Tomorrow I'm running a race that was advertised as a "21.5km half marathon". So I don't know exactly how far I'm actually going to be running. Although I haven't trained specifically for this race, it should be fun and hopefully I'll run a decent time.

I would guess that it's probably just due to random measurement error. Did you measure yourself at the exact same time of day each time? Had you done a workout shortly before either of the measurements? How hydrated were you each time? Even if you did gain some size like your family thinks, random stuff might have interfered with how accurate your measurements were.

Wow, that was pretty much what I had in mind too! This structure has my vote.

That's a good idea. I could update the main site, so that when you click on 'Forums', it takes you to a disclaimer type page, where it explains things like that. Then new members would be aware that there are going to be differing opinions on certain subjects, and that none of them in particular will represent 'vegan bodybuilding & fitness' as such. Maybe stickies in the individual sub-forums would be more useful? I think people would tend to forget what they read the very first time they entered the forums, but if there is a thread that's always there written by an expert on the topic, they'll be more likely to read it when they're confused by mixed messages from other posters.

Welcome aboard! Good luck with your goals.

It depends on how important the race is to you, and how often you eat indian food. If your performance in the race is very important, then don't eat anything you don't usually eat the night before the race. But if you're just doing the race for the experience since it's your first time, then go to the supper but avoid the spiciest foods.

When I'm really hungry and really lazy, I make "shake and bake" tofu. Mmm, vegan comfort food.

I've been an active forum member at coolrunning.com for over five years now. One observation that I've made in all that time is that the section of the forum that ignites the most passionate debates is the food/nurtition section. People just get worked up by discussions of what to eat and what other people eat (and we know this as vegans, right?) more than any other topic. Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion and to do what they think is best for themselves; I'm sure we all agree on that. But we still get ticked off when we see bad advice being given. We get upset when we see others using an epistomological system different from our own to determine what is best to eat. Add to that the fact that internet discussions tend to distort and exaggerate people's true beliefs and feelings, and you've got a situation where differences of opinion will escalate into personal fights and name calling. Anyways, by virtue of the fact that we're a forum about veganism and fitness we need to have a space to discuss nutrition. I tend to think that an environment where people respect other's opinions and feel safe to post their own is the best environment for this kind of discussion. The problem is that once a particular approach becomes the norm (or appears to be the norm), some people outside that norm will feel less safe posting their disagreements with it. By having raw food as a stand alone section, we are encouraging raw foodism to be the norm in that particular sub-forum. If we didn't have a raw section, I would suspect that the norm would swing right over to the other side and some raw foodists would feel less comfortable posting their opinions (for example, I think it would be fair to say that VFF tends to have a fairly anti-raw norm). My point being, anytime we change around the number and nature of sub-forums it will affect the culture of the board and some people will be unhappy about it. Havingsaid that, I feel that the fewer sub-forums on the site, the better. I would rather read through three or four high activity sub-forums, rather than seven sub-forums with one new post each. I don't have any suggestions for the best way to structure this. I believe that VBBF has a great membership that is more respectful and encouraging than any other forum I've been a member of. A high turnover of new members is normal and nothing to be worried about. Personally, the only thing that bothers me is the occasional non-vegans joining the forums. Not that we should have some kind of vegan-ness test, but if enough non-vegan members join there is the potential for this forum to become a vegan/vegetarian/pescetarian/omni bodybuilding forum. If you've ever posted on veggieboards.com, you have an idea how frustrating that can be. Now I know that the few non-vegans who join don't generally stay long, so it's probably not something to worry about too much. But I wanted to point out that having an open membership as we do means that the culture of the forum as a whole will drift around if left alone. OK, this post is getting way too long and rambling. I'm not sure if I've said anything useful here!

Welcome to the forums!

The amount of phytoestrogens in soy are very very small. Someone else might be able to give you exact numbers. Personally, I eat 1 or 2 pounds of tofu or similar products each week, as well as drinking a couple litres of soymilk, and I never worry about consuming too much.

Today I did an arms workout. Lots of pyramid sets and fun stuff like that. Also a couple sets of 21's on the preacher curls. Very tough.

Same story as potter. I was hit by a car five years ago and dislocated my shoulder. Since then it's dislocated about once or twice a year, sometimes while lifting weights. When it first got hurt, I couldn't run or do any upper body exercises. For a month, I spent a couple hours per week on the stairclimber, then did whatever leg exercises I could do without bothering my shoulder. It's a bummer, but if you focus on what you can do instead of what you can't do, you'll realize that there are quite a few option open to you.

Yesterday I did a short workout at the gym. I had a whole bunch of stuff to do at work later in the day, so I didn't want to push it too hard. The deadlifts are coming along nicely though.

I was doing these workouts fairly often this spring. They may be a bit advanced though. The idea though is to build functional stength, endurance, etc.

Thanks Robert! I'm getting back in the gym now after a fairly long break, and it feels good. Well, it feels good when I'm working out and then it hurts a bit afterwards. Here are a couple more pics from the 100 mile race: http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/HF1002007-2.jpg http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/HF1002007-3.jpg http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k123/markc7/HF1002007-4.jpg

Thanks for the intro, welcome! Great job on your weight loss to date, keep up the great work.

I went for a run of about 12km this morning. It was my first run since the 100 miler a couple weeks ago. It felt good, although I was still a bit sore from the workouts earlier in the week.