Trendero.com
One place to keep up with good food trends is Trendero.com, where you can search the globe and find cool things. We should keep up with new vegetarian trends around the world there.
Exercise Issues
Heart Rate Monitor: FABULOUS!
I bought a Polar HR monitor (Click here to find out where you can get one), and it has entirely changed my perspective on workouts. It turns out that, in an effort to really make myself feel fast and fit, I would work out at around 95% of my maximum HR. And guess what: it exhausted me every time. This has several effects:
1) You're more tired afterwards.
2) You dread working out more.
3) Your overall energy level, due to the above two factors, is actually decreased.
When I first ran with the HR monitor, I kept wanting to push the speed higher. I was thinking, "I know I can run faster than this!" Well, who cares?! If you keep yourself in the target range for the entirety of the workout, you find that:
1) You recover from the run so much faster! A five minute cool down, and I'm totally fine.
2) After your workout, you are incredibly jazzed! I listen to my iPod on the way out of the gym, and I'm practically dancing down the stairs.
3) You begin to look forward to your runs, because you know they will only give you more energy.
4) Your overall energy level is boosted, I would say by at least 10% all day, every day.
It's not the HR monitor that does this, it's just the HR monitor that tells you how, for the first time, to really work out at a level that gives you energy instead of taking it all away. Well worth any amount you spend on it.
Some notes:
1) If you just want to work out in a target range, just get a simple monitor. The more expensive ones are more expensive because they have onboard computers for things like pace, lap splits, average workout, etc. I bought a middle-range monitor, but the most benefits come from the features that were on the bottom-range monitor.
2) If you run on a treadmill, buy a monitor that's compatible with that treadmill. Then you can keep your eye on your HR as you adjust your speed during the run.
3) The watch-computer component, therefore, is mostly helpful for workouts or jogs where you are not on a treadmill, so if you often workout or run outside, then you may be more interested in the additional information that a middle-range monitor gives you (calories based on age, weight, HR, etc; averages; splits; etc).
4) Cost: $60 for the bottom range monitor, $100 for the middle range one I bought, and up to $350 for more advanced computers.
Recipes
From VMomma
1 lb greens
1/4 c oil
2 tbs pine nuts
1 1/2 c olives (black,piminto,Kalamta)
2 tbs garlic
1 roma tomatoe
1 c veg broth
1/4 c sundried tomatoes in oil
Put oil, garlic,olives and sundried tomatoes in large skillet and bring
to boil 6-8 min
Add roma tomatoe cook another 2 min
Add greens and broth, cook 25 min
Add pine nuts just before serving
Great Meals and Stories
Snacks
What I do to curb the hunger after a fruit breakfast is eat sunflower seeds or trail mix packages. I get up at 7 and eat by 8:30, so around 10:30 or 11, I'm hungry again, no matter how much fresh fruit I ate. To keep me going until lunch, a V8 and some nuts are perfect, and I'm generally held over until around 1 PM.
Don't go for the Planters nuts, though, because those are way too greasy. Try to find one of those salt-free packages of trail mix or health nuts. The V8 is a perfect complement, because it's like a meal by itself, so it both washes the nuts down and fills you up.
Since my lunch is usually both late and quite large, this combo will hold me over on most days until around 9, when I eat a small salad.
Veggie Burger
Man, I just had the most amazing veggie burger at this vegetarian restaurant close to school. It's a local place, called Quantum Leap. The link brings you to a page where they have their menu, which is good to look at when you're feeling like being vegetarian gets boring. It doesn't; it just requires a new kind of creativity and lots of soy.
The burger I had was a tex-mex burger: veggie patty (homemade, delicious), guacamole, and soy sour cream. It came with a fresh salad with ginger-carrot dressing: fabulous. Totally filling and satisfying, and all never touched by animal flesh hands or dairy.
Incidentally, in the July 2005 Cook's Illustrated, there is a recipe for the best veggie burgers. I'll try to figure out a way to distribute that to you guys as soon as I get back down to DC, where my subscription runs.
Interesting Sites
Found some more great sites, including the one that got me first interested in this diet, the first link to PCRM:
PCRM
The Vegetarian Resource Group
GoVeg.com
Check out some of the links on those pages. Also, those bibliographies seem like a great place to start.
Looking into this "alkaline-acid" balance idea, I found an interesting website:
About.com
Also, I'm going to try to test the pH balance of my body through urine testing. You can get strips online here, though I will look for them locally:
pH Strips Info
Finally, we may need to do some research on vitamin B12 supplements: are they necessary, Beaner? Also, where are some good ones?
Alternative Medicine
The Bean and I both have been to a chiropractor, and I think we both agree that it was well worth it. What a feeling! Here is an interesting link on chiropractic medicine in general:
Chiropractic Medicine
Also, here's a link to a page describing Ayurvedic Medicine. Take the quiz to find out which personality type you are. I'm mostly Pitta with some Vata influences and very little Kapha.
Ayurvedic Medicine
Folks to Read About
Dr. Jennings, natural hygeine
Dr. Stanley Robbins, Pathologic Basis of Disease
Dr. Deepak Chopra
Inspirational Quotes
" The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment."
- William W. Ward
"The only way to define your limits is by going beyong them."
- Anonymous
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
- Steve Prefontaine
"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence (hehe or outstandingness -that's my addition)"
-Vince Lombardi (and Cindy)
"Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it."
Michael Johnson's trainer