Posts by demogirl06

Forum	Topic	Date	Replies

Vegetarian	Ready replies to annoying questions!	Nov 28 2006 02:06 (UTC)	11
the placenta argument is the best one i've ever heard. bravo.
Vegetarian	Shellfish - is it "meat"?	Oct 22 2006 02:56 (UTC)
frankly, i have no ethical or moral reason against eating meat.... but i'm very very very picky about my meat. that is, if i'm going to eat it, i will drive to the nearest farm at which i can visit the TRULY free-ranging chickens, cows, and other animals. but, seeing that the consumption of animal products is superflous for our nutritional needs, i prefer to abstain from them all together. I body likes only ONE thing about meat: it tastes good. But my digestive system, etc. HATES meat.
Vegetarian	hmpft. Vegan?	Oct 21 2006 16:12 (UTC)	5
quick and easy = peanut butter and jelly sandwhich on whole wheat bread. chew thoroughly. you get carbs from the bread, quick and easy sugar from the jelly, all good fat/protein from PB. doesn't get much simpler than that. after my morning training sessions, i our boiling water over a full cup of whole oats, toss in raisins and walnuts, and splash with rice milk and a little honey. warm and filling and soooooo good for you.
Vegetarian	Resist the urge	Oct 21 2006 13:27 (UTC)	10
I'm a vegan who, once upon a time, used to make fun of the non-meat-eating population. How the tables have turned... Anyway, after a lifetime of eating and LOVING meat, the ethics, politics, and health of the meat industry caught up with me. I'm a vegan now, and have never been happier. BUUUUUUT---i do get WICKED cravings for animal products all the time. I have nothing but positive associations with meat and cheese--and that's hard to kick. Also, animal protein behaves in the body similarly to drugs. Who could blame us for our cravings? What I did/do: 1) go to Google and do a search under "videos." Type in "factory farming." Enough said. That ought to deter you from eating meat. 2) every time i really really just want to know how good something meaty is... i ask my friends if i can just lean in really close and SMELL it. Well, it's more like HUFFING the dish.... but since taste and smell are so closely linked, i can just imagine the texture and come out feeling relatively satisfied.
Vegetarian	Ready replies to annoying questions!	Oct 11 2006 16:25 (UTC)	20
one more thing, MDUFFEL: read the book "Thrive" by Brendan Brazier. He's a Canadian vegan tri-athlete---and an EXTREMELY successful one, at that. Short book, great read, very informative. Find it on amazon.com
Vegetarian	Ready replies to annoying questions!	Oct 11 2006 16:21 (UTC)	21
Hahahaah.... yeah, the salad thing. Well, the problem is that most non-vegans don't know how to MAKE a kickass salad without some kind of meat. So it winds up being lettuce and, lettuce... Salad to me barely involves lettuce anymore. I try to throw in every fruit veggie i have in the fridge. I'm talking about one BIG MOUNTAIN of chopped goodness... and instead of pouring dressing all over it, or oil and vinegar, i go whatever natural juices I can get out of what is already in the salad. So like, if i'm going to throw in kidney beans, i might as well drizzle the juice that comes in the can. I'm pleased to see how this thread has grown. New annoyance: just started a new job. My co-workers don't have a problem with my veganism, but they bring in pizzas, and sandwhiches, and cheesy meaty stuff EVERY DAY and OFFER it to me every single time. Every day, I have to say no... and they know i will... but they keep on OFFERING to share. LIke I'm some starving third-world kid. Why why why? mduffell: in response to improving your performance. veganism is ideal--if you're eating quality foods (some people can really screw up their health being vegan because they just eat sugar and crap all the time). Best tip: (1) eat as immediately after your workout as you possibly can. After you train, your muscles are open and receptive to the fuel you put in, and this helps restore lost glycogen---and let the food be carbohydrates. What I find that i awesome about being a vegan is that all of my fuel is clean-burning. It's almost entirely unprocessed, and my body has a much easier time RECOGNIZING what the hell it's digesting. Furthermore, the more animal products and processed foods people cram into their stomachs, the more energy it takes to DIGEST all of that dense weird stuff. So, but lowering the digestive energetic costs by eating a vegan diet, I have much more energy for training and other things.... also, i can get away with eating closer to my training sessions without having to worry about carrying a "brick" around in my stomach. I find I am much swifter when I don't have several pounds of food in my digestive track.
Vegetarian	Shellfish - is it "meat"?	Oct 06 2006 10:09 (UTC)	2
ehh... i'm new to this site. I don't have many friends yet. as for MY comment... it's subjective. so's everything. and there is a potential for insult for EVERY subjective comment. buuut, if my comment generates NEARLY as much heat as yours did, i'll be surprised. i'd also be more than happy to argue the objective claims in that statement--mainly the energy costs of meat consumption. and i'll be more than happy to support my claims about environmental and phsiological benefits (physiological is a trickier thing to argue, yes, so I will say I made my claim with the SAD in mind, and the current obesity epidemic). You want to split hairs about "uninformed," I think. I will rescind any implication I may have made about "ALL" omnivores being uniformed. But I will not assume that the bulk of the general population has much of an idea why vegans don't eat animal by-products beyond "animal suffering,"--at least in my experience, this seems to be the only thing around which they have easily been able to wrap their minds. So what is your contention?
Vegetarian	Shellfish - is it "meat"?	Oct 06 2006 00:47 (UTC)	4
This sure got hot. Nicole, I think you're right about the "apology that was simultaneously insulting." Blackrose, I honesly don't know what your original intent was... but I hope you understand that I too found it insulting--so this really isn't a matter of nicole overreacting or misunderstanding. If you are going to make another "carrot-claim," I hope you think twice about it, despite your original reasons for having made the claim. I honestly think you KNEW that it would piss people off, and yeah, you wanted to see who would bite, but instead of coming off as an ass, you could have made the statement in a more constructive way. But, regardless, thank you for the apology. I agree that diets are a matter of taste, but on the other hand, you would be hard-pressed to find an omnivore which such strong ethical convictions about his eating habits... whereas, vegans take their shit very seriously. Do we often take the moral high ground? You bet. Food is a matter of energy. Meat-eating is a practice which uses more energy. Do we think of meat eaters as lesser beings? Absolutely not. Uninformed? Maybe. Unwilling to make choices which would have a better likelihood of ensuring greater long-term benefits both environmentally and physiologically? Yeah. Still, you're right, Blackrose. No diet is innately superior than another.
Weight Loss	The new girl	Oct 05 2006 09:53 (UTC)	6
There is a rather helpful book out there called "The Great American Detox Diet," by Alex Jamieson. She is a vegan chef, but she does not push vegansim through her book. Instead, she breaks everything down into very simple terms, from food to lifestyle. Give her a read, it's not very long, there are even a few complimentary recipes in the back.
Vegetarian	More on "Do Carrots Have Feelings?"	Oct 05 2006 03:04 (UTC)	1
well said, blackrose
Vegetarian	More on "Do Carrots Have Feelings?"	Oct 04 2006 16:03 (UTC)	8
I really don't know how credible the study is. But the idea is certainly intriguing. Think about other plant "behaviors." Does talking/playing music help them grow? Interacting magnetic fields in plants and animals? Plant "sensors" in venus fly traps, etc.? I think we are just so far removed from plants that we can't wrap our mind around their "experiences." But plants have long been on this earth before we arrived.
Vegetarian	More on "Do Carrots Have Feelings?"	Oct 04 2006 15:41 (UTC)	12
I have no idea what to think about this. If carrots do indeed have feelings, then I should refrain from eating meat for a reason OTHER than not wanting to cause pain and suffering to animals--but that's only if you want to consider quantitative pain. Buuut---the fact is, most vegetarians who do not eat meat because of animal suffering are less concerned with quantitative pain, and more concerned with QUALITATIVE pain. Can we argue that the pain felt by a carrot is qualitatively the same as the pain felt by a cow? And if we can/cannot, by what standards do we make this distinction?
Vegetarian	Shellfish - is it "meat"?	Oct 04 2006 10:32 (UTC)	14
Ok, i have to come to blackrose's defense. NOT because I agree with the carrots-have-feelings statement, but because I was recently--and unfairly--ripped apart on another forum and became very upset by the fact than some forms breed throat-cutting responses. Blackrose is abosolutely right to say that if we didn't breed animals for food, they'd be extinct. There is plenty of historical evidence to support the human tendency to over-exploit just about everything. But this argument is only relevant for people who actually value ecological variation. Do I value a cow for it's own sake, or for it's involvement in ecological flux? (I don't actually value cows for their own sake). Frankly, I think that at this point, if cows became extint, there would be little environmental impact--although I'm not willing to test this. (Oh, minus the fact that the amount of methane in the atmosphere would sidnificantly decline). The carrots have feelings argument: the only arguement for the possibility of pain that I have heard is the nervous-system argument. That is not an exhautive arguement. Suppose you take a behaviorist approach to pain. Pain is simply exhibiting certain behaviors. Well, since we are people, so different from carrots, we don't understand the "carrot pain behaviors." As far as we can tell, they don't behave. But, perhaps at the cellular level, or some other level, something goes on within the carrot that indicates pain. Wilting, maybe? Does this sound absurd? You bet. But you still have to consider it if you're going to discuss the possibility of carrots having feelings.
Weight Loss	Advice.	Oct 04 2006 10:18 (UTC)	4
I would need more information about you, but would still make the following reccommendation. You may consider adopting a vegetarian/vegan diet--or at least that kind of mental approach. Because of the food limitations--esp in a vegan diet--you have to be GREATLY more CONSCIOUS about your food choices. This encourages a significant degree of reflection about not only the food, but how it will affect your body. Also, you may find yourself investing a lot of extra time and energy into preparing your food, and if you're thinking about food all day, at least you can turn the obsession into something positive. You may find that the amount of effort you put into meal preparation will not only increase the quality of your food, but your enjoyment of it.
Vegetarian	Shellfish - is it "meat"?	Oct 04 2006 00:59 (UTC)	22
Not eating animals because it's cruel is only one reason not to eat them. For vegetarians who don't eat meat for environmental reasons, I don't see much reason to be a pesca vegetarian. You'd be hard-pressed to find seafood which is actually sustainably fished, or did not create hundreds of pounds of wasteful by-catch. Then there are the frankensteinian fish farms which are not only potential sources for disease, but also a threat to wild populations of fish. The high levels of mercury contamination are also worth mentioning. Still gonna eat seafood?
Vegetarian	Drunk Veg*ns????	Oct 04 2006 00:53 (UTC)	3
SIMPLE ANSWER> much of it has to do with HOW MANY calories you ate--are you drinking on an emptier stomach? and WHAT you ate! Alcohol is absorbed more slowly when you have eaten fatty and greasy foods--foods not found in abundance in a vegan diet.
Weight Loss	Up-down-down, Up-down-down	Oct 03 2006 16:01 (UTC)
three years ago in college I dropped from 215 to 190 in about 2.5 months. I ate very very "well" on the weekdays--meaning, was very good about sticking to my allowed calories and staying on a schedule. Then the weekend would come, and I'd eat eat eat. Then back to normal on the weekday. I think it was a good system for my body. I gained food/water weight on those days and would be heavyon monday, but by friday i was lighter than the previous friday.
Weight Loss	Tips for avoiding over-eating	Oct 02 2006 14:40 (UTC)	3
tip: before you eat--fifteen minutes or so before you eat, maybe while you are cooking, or before you leave the house/office to get food--CHUG a ton of water. As much as you can comfortably. Water will hit your stomach before you sit down to eat, and suddenly you don't feel like you can fit much more into your stomach. Only drawback: water tends to dilute the concentration of nutrients in food, which has a negtive impact on absorbtion. This is why it is suggested that you do not drink very much WHILE you are eating. Chewing your food not only slows down consumption--thereby giving your brain more time to get the "you're full" message--but the enzymes in your saliva break down the food and aid digestion. Also, the more you chew your grains and other carbohydrates, the sweeter they taste. Chewing unlocks flavor. Enjoy!
Vegetarian	Vegan Fitness	Sep 30 2006 02:49 (UTC)
i'm just posting on this forum again so it gets more views-- everyone should REALLY check out the link!!! it's a goldmine for veg forums.
Vegetarian	Ready replies to annoying questions!	Sep 30 2006 02:47 (UTC)	27
"So you're a vegan? It's it, like, really hard to go out and find something to eat? Is it really worth all the trouble?" ---you bet. Yes, it's difficult, but one of the merits of veganism is that it forces the consumer to actually THINK about his food choices and take great care to consider the needs of his body, and ultimately his health. This is something pretty special, since in this day and age people really take their health for granted and let it deteriorate beyond their control. Going veg largley returns that control. >>>>>>>>>>> "How can you just miss out on all this GOOD stuff (meat)?!" -- when a person says he doesn't like tapioca because of the texture, people don't harrass him about it. Few people go beyond to insist just how GOOOOD tapioca is... so let's just simplify things and call it a "matter of taste, not a matter of deprivation."
Foods	how many calories ARE in oats?!	Sep 29 2006 02:59 (UTC)
Phew! Okay, I was totally banking on it being around 300, and not 600! But I kept seeing numbers in the 600s and was like... seriously!? It's not like a cup of dry quinoa, where ALL of the airspace is taken up or something.
Weight Loss	What do you snack on?	Sep 29 2006 00:53 (UTC)	9
Things to eat when you are feeling hungry, but know you must not add too many additional calories: First, chug as much water as you can... water can really satiate the appetite. 1) pickles-- you'll feel full (and sick and the taste) before you even make a caloric dent. 2) grapefruit 3) leafy greens... these are NEGATIVE calories (that is, they take more calories to burn than you get from them). Boil them up, add a little salk, and cram them in. 4) chop up bell peppers, dice some celery/zucchini, cut some raw corn off the cobb, mushrooms... all the watery veggies in a big salad bowl and chrunch away. It LOOKS like a lot of food. 5) apples... the most calorie-dense food on this list. But eat three apples, 300 cals give or take, and see how hungry you are after that!
Weight Loss	Weight loss = Relationship	Sep 29 2006 00:46 (UTC)	30
My ex-girlfriend was super lean and mean athlete. Being around her, I felt pressured not to eat--and I didn't want her to see me picking at my food. My current girlfriend gives me no remorse about eating. She used to eat like... like... well, use your imagination. She too, was an athlete. We all played the same sport, so we were pretty comparable. In hindsight, I've never been leaner and better looking than I had been with my ex. When I met my current gf, BOOM! Pounds came right back on. Was the skinny figure worth the anxiety and shame? Still not sure.
Weight Loss	Hunger VS. Craving?	Sep 29 2006 00:41 (UTC)	8
that's a bummer, man. that would piss me off to no end.
Weight Loss	How Long Should I wait before I Re-Weigh Myself	Sep 29 2006 00:37 (UTC)	3
ok, don't let me scare you... but i'll let you know what i do (and it's the ONLY thing that works for me, whether or not it's unhealthy) so that you have options. I don't reccommend this, but... When I wake up in the morning, before i drink anything (you get rather dehydrated when you sleep... think about it... 8 hours without any water!), buck naked, and write it down on the calendar. Then, because I am an athlete, I sometimes weigh myself after practce in the morning (again, without REALLY quenching my thirst) too see my water loss. Sometimes, as I have already eaten breakfast, I wind up weighing a pound more than I did first thing in the morning. Finally, I weigh myself before bed. I am usually 3 pounds heavier than I am in the morning (I'm 6ft, 190lbs, so obviously smaller people don't swing this much weight--generally when I get serious about my diet, I'll drop abot 8 lbs in waste and water in about two days). Neurotic, you bet... but I keep an extrememly close track of the VOLUME of food I put into my body. I find that if I go a couple days without weighing myself, I get scared to do it because I'm bound to weigh more than when I was being diligent. If I didn't weigh myself, chances are it was becase I KNOW I ate too much that day and was to afraid to face the facts. If you're the kind of person who isn't afraid of numbers, this might be for you. Ultimately, I think most people are better off NOT doing it this way. And.... if you do, only use ONE day of the week as the day that "matters" to your gains and losses.
Weight Loss	Hunger VS. Craving?	Sep 29 2006 00:03 (UTC)	12
A LITTLE ADVICE -- may work, may not... I have read and heard numerous times that cravings are a result of inadequate nutrients. Your body is missing something and thinks, eat all this crap! something oughtta patch this hole! If your diet is balances and you are ADEQUATELY fed, you should have a much easier time avoiding cravings. Oooorrr... make sure you had a SATISFYING meal. How each person accomplishes this is beyond my knowledge. ;) And for the women... sighs I really doubt there is any cure for our monthly cravings. It's a force NOT to be reckoned with!!!
Vegetarian	Need Vegan Recipes and Protein Substitutes	Sep 28 2006 02:54 (UTC)
eeerrr, maybe i misunderstood. i got the message that weight was gained because of lots of eggs and cheese. i assumed the entire egg was being eaten.
Vegetarian	Vegan roll call?	Sep 28 2006 02:52 (UTC)	135
Went vegetarian at the turn of this year. Was vegan on and off, here and there for "cleansing" purposes... and then, well, it sort of stuck with me. I simply perform and feel better as a vegan. Clean conscious. Aaaaand! Nothing I buy spoils!!! I hated being compelled to drink the milk left in the carton because it was about to go bad. Vegetables don't really have that problem. (Ok, everything spoils EVENTUALLY, but you get my drift). I think, however, besides how good I felt being a vegan, the ethical implications of my choice are what really drive me to continue. I'm not supporting the cruelty and environmental damage of the animal-industry.
Vegetarian	Ready replies to annoying questions!	Sep 28 2006 02:38 (UTC)	31
Wow, lot's of responses! That's awesome, but I'm going to try and get the thread back on track... 1) But don't you ever miss meat? Yes, I do... like any dieting person misses cake and candy. I know it tastes good, but in the long run, I simply feel better when I don't include it in my diet. If I allow myself a little meat--like a dieter pinching a bit of a brownie--the allowances become greater and greater until I've fallen off course. Being a vegan has provided me with clearner-burning fuel (I'm an elite athlete) and I LITERALLY have more peace of mind--somehow helped with depression. 2) How can you NOT want to eat this? Because I realize that my short-term gains will not outweigh my long-term ones. 3) How can you possibly eat ENOUGH? American's have NO PROBLEM eating enough. Period. And me? I was born and bred in America. 4) Aren't you ever out of energy? I have MORE energy as a vegan. My body does not waste energy digesting difficult foods... eating animal bi-products has an opportunity cost. 5) WHY don't you eat meat? MANY MANY MANY reasons. I was a philosophy/ethics major. Talk to me about the environmental damage. Or the disregard for sentient creatures. Or simply ask me about the nutritional benefits. 6) Okay, so you don't eat meat...but why not eat eggs and dairy? Just because an animal wasn't killed in the process doesn't mean they don't lead UTTERLY MISERABLE lives producing eggs and milk. Oh, and here's my favorite comment: "Who, you eat some WEIRD stuff... Kale? Chard? Quinoa? Huh?" To which I respond: "Hey, try pronouncing half of the ingredients on the back of that food package, and you tell ME what sounds weird."
Vegetarian	Need Vegan Recipes and Protein Substitutes	Sep 26 2006 16:31 (UTC)	3
Protein is in practically everything. If you eat a sufficient number of calories (not calories from candy, obviously), you will get a sufficient amount of protein nine times out of ten. FYI: The average calorie dense plant (we're not talking CELERY, which is all water) has a fat/protein/carb breakdown in perfect ratio to your body's needs. Also: egg whites are the way to go. It's EASY protein if you're actually worried. Leave out the yolk, which is all fat and cholesterol. Yes, you miss the vitamins if you do that, but get them from a source which won't cause more harm than good.

« previous12 next »

Join Calorie Count - it's easy and free!

Recent Activity

	anglsmom722 added cellotlhicks as a friend
	New journal post New Decision by cellotlhicks 18:14
	New journal post Thanksgiving by energyofl 18:06
	New journal post Cook/Eat/Clean-up by rblanche 18:03
	New journal post Oddly Enough We're Going for a Walk Today by meganr 18:00