8-Aug-2011 Monday Blurggh
Today, Monday, I still feel tired from the weekend. Although I ran the Half Marathon on Saturday, my legs still feel sore. So I was up a bit late and rushed to work and got home again approx 8pm. I was going to go running etc but hung around till Dawn went to work, then washed up and cooked my own dinner for tonight and tomorrow at work. I was then going to go running but ate it with Chelsea.
I turned off the TV when the kids went to bed, and decided I had heaps more worthwhile things to do. I then spent some time reading and watching crossfit videos like this one.
By the time it got to 11pm I thought “I know I will skip tonight’s workout in the cold and dark and go tomorrow in the daylight and add in a swim”. I have been meaning for quite sometime to go to bed before midnight and exercise in the morning. I will try that. I have also been inspired by a couple of recent blog posts:
If I get up at 6:20AM, I can be out the door by 6:30, and home by 7:15, after a romp through some amazing natural landscapes. The sun streams through the overgrown trees along the trail. I often startle deer who are also enjoying the quiet, and step over earthworms who are enjoying a muddy breakfast. This morning, the mix of sun and clouds led to a fantastic rainbow. Early in the morning, the air is cooler, and fewer cars and people out means no one stares at my comical appearance.
Yep, we’ll see.
A good example of the stuff I have been reading is this : How the world got fat. Also this: An Omnivore’s Decision-My journey toward an ethical food lifestyle.
I have been very interested in food for a long time (30years since I was a spotty teenager growing up in London). A potted history is that my family was a regular family (roast on Sundays, meat/2veg most meals). I started investigating “health foods” and “natural foods” and then became a vegetarian, then a vegan which in general is where I have been for approx 20 years. Not freakily so, and have had a bit of cheese tucked in restaurant meals when I wasn’t paying attention or when I just could be arsed to make a scene. But I have been recently feeling that vegan is not enough. I think what took the biscuit (pardon the pun) is all the vegans wondering whether Oreos are Vegan or not (you can even like the facebook page). Its just a load of crap. All that processed and packaged food is just crap. So I have been trying to just eat fruit and vegetables and stopped eating pasta, bread etc a few months back as it just left me feeling bloated. Trust me that is very hard for a committed runner to say, but even after a few days I felt heaps better. THEN I started reading about the Paleo diet and of course the Latest in Paleo podcast is just great to listen to also.
I found that even though many people on the paleo diet are meat-eaters, it actually speaks to me more than the vegan folk. As a good example from the Omnivore’s Decision (link here):
The Paleo community advocates an evolutionary approach to diet and health in which animal products play a significant role. Vegetarians, on the other hand, do not eat meat and often exclude seafood as well; vegans avoid all animal products including eggs, dairy, and even honey. The question of whether or not eating meat is ethical, sustainable, or even healthy has apparently caused quite a bit of friction between the two groups.
I think this argument is a big waste of time and a major missed opportunity for positive change. A real food vegetarian – one who focuses on fresh fruits and vegetables, adds nuts and nut butters, eats pastured eggs, and avoids processed crap – is eating a diet much closer to Paleo than the majority of Americans. More importantly, the policy changes that would help make a produce-dominated diet cheaper and more accessible than a grain-based diet (including grain-fed animal products) would benefit a real food vegetarian as much as someone on a Paleo diet. We should be allies in this fight against unhealthy processed food and polluting CAFOs that cause a great deal of animal suffering.
I agree! The enemy is crappy packaged & processed food. You can still be vegan and healthy. A bit of tolerance goes a long way.
Kevin Tiller 