So What's Your Beef with the Beef?

as a vegetarian of 13 years, i have had to field a lot of questions on why i don't eat meat and how i get the precious meat vitamins without it. people have even pointed to my incisors and say, "you see, we're meant to be carnivores." and now on this new wacky vegan diet, people are even more curious about how we're not wasting away as little anemic waifs.

through my years of vegetarianism i have found ample health and social reasons why it's better that i don't eat meat. below, i'll do a quick down and dirty synopsis of the health and social reasons why i don't eat beef. (i'm focusing more on beef, since poultry and fish don't have a lot of the same dramatic consequences...and i do recognize that eating in moderation does improve things, but you'll see what a small quantity "moderate" is). and i'm really not going to preach at you or anything- by all means, enjoy your burger... but here's some food for thought. :)

Health:
-Pro's of eating beef: great source of iron, B12, and protein.
-Con's of eating beef: -increased risk for colon cancer, increased risk of heart disease and early death (note that vegetarians apparently live 7 yrs longer and vegans 15 yrs longer than meat-eating counterparts)

Social:
-animal cruelty (this is unpleasant. you've been warned), 22 million animals are slaughtered daily for people to eat them
-we could feed the world if we stopped putting the majority of our grain/soy into feeding the animals we eat
-lots of ground water pollution and grossness from the waste products of said animals


so that's a very brief and in-comprehensive summary of why i choose to be a vegetarian. i kind of got bored there toward the end. the internet is rife with good info and also a lot of crazy propaganda on the subject, so as you do your own research, be careful.

if you're curious about where i get the meaty vitamins as a veg, i'll tell you... Iron= beans, green leafy vegetables (note: iron is best absorbed if combined w/ foods containing Vitamin C), B12= if not vegan- dairy and eggs, if vegan- nutritional yeast and fortified products, Protein= beans, tofu, and nuts. and unlike meat, these all contain all kinds of other nutrients as well.

but...after all that, if it's the flavor of the juicy red meat you just can't live without...i can't really help you there.

:) toodles for now.

The Skinny on the Skinny

the BHE just asked me, "are you gonna blog about our awesome new diet?"

well...i am going to discuss the diet, yes. would i call it awesome? let's decide.

pros: tons of energy, in a good mood, usually full after eating and satiety lasts a good while, down a few lbs.

cons: green poop, cooking/grocery shopping/cleaning kitchen roughly 2-3 hrs a night, all the recipes are unique from each other in many ways but all still retain a general flavor of 'health.' (if 'health' were a color, it would be brown death).

so it's kind of a wash right now. will stick it out. only 6 wks left. sigh.

not much to report from work. been taking a lot of call lately. also am heading up a 60+ person department-wide "biggest loser" contest. first weigh-in is tomorrow. lots of people are really excited about it and it's something unified we can all do together.

so on all fronts the focus is getting skinny and fit. i will start to share diet and exericse fallacies soon. let's start with this hilarious new hand-held battery operated weight. i can't watch this without rolling on the floor laughing.

You Have Some Dirt On Your Shoe, Were You Going to Eat That?

the half marathon is exactly 7 weeks from today. the BHE and a friend and i ran 10.4 mls this morning. i'm doing about 3-5 mls twice during the week and then a large mile number run on the weekends. and my fund raising for the leukemia and lymphoma society (as part of this race) is already all done. people have been insanely generous and supportive.

$286.74 spent so far on the new diet. this includes all the staples that we'll use in many dishes (hemp seeds, lemons, quinoa, etc) plus a fancy grater and a new blender. when we were looking for some of the wackier ingredients, we out hippie-fied even whole foods store, so i'm feeling pretty smarmy about that. :) they only had ground amaranth and we needed whole seeds, herumph herumph, herumph.

so...we'll see how it goes. so far all we've tried from the recipes in the book are "direct fuel bites" which we ate before and during running. blended dates, lemon juice, and coconut oil all chilled and cut into squares. actually quite good. and we didn't fatigue during the run, so they did their job. but the rest of the day we ate normal food (left over cheese pizza, hummus on pita, thai soup, salad) as sort of our 'last meals' before we officially jump on this vegan crazy wagon.

i'm excited, but i really cannot believe how granola we are being. on second thought, i don't even know if we can eat granola on this diet...

Oh, the Hippy in Me Seems to be Winning

so, i am running a half marathon in 8 weeks as part of a fund raiser for the leukemia and lymphoma society. 13.1 mls is a long way and involves a lot of training. the race is in florida, so will likely be in the 50's-60's when i run it, but here and now where i'm doing my training, it's in the balmy teens and twenties. running in the snow is like running in the sand- there's a whole lot of resistance dragging you down. plus, the slushy snow then freezes and becomes hazardous, foot-catching, ankle-rolling pot holes along the way. but over all, it's actually really enjoyable! the obstacles kind of make it more fun and as far as the cold, you bundle up so nothing freezes and falls off, but once you're moving, it's rather comfortable. and i guess if i have to survive winter in the midwest, i'd rather get through it at high(ish) speeds.

and with all the running we've been doing, you'd think the Christmas season lbs would just be melting off, right? wrong. i've been half-assing weight watchers for a few weeks with no results, and now i'm ready for change. the BHE has been reading a book on eating right while training for long distance races called "Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide" by Brendan Brazier, a vegan professional iron man athlete. he talks a lot about whole, simple foods. like fatty acids instead of complex fats, amino acids instead of complex proteins, simple sugars, etc. lots of sprouts and whole grains and greens and fruit and stuff. the idea is that you're giving your body only valuable energy that it can use and not store. i know this will be a challenge, but recall that we're already vegetarians, so the stretch is maybe less than it would be if we had to come off meat, too. and i'm not sure if it requires this, but i will be giving up caffeine and alcohol, too. i don't want to pollute my body while simultaneously giving it the good stuff. the book includes menus and recipes for 12 wks, so starting this coming weekend, we're going to follow it up until the race. i'm excited and nervous. excited to feel awesome and clean, nervous to feel hungry. excited to lose the weight, nervous to not eat cheese and coffee and booze for 2 months!! excited to be back in control of what goes in my body, nervous about how much is going to come out of my wallet at the health food store.

so i'll keep you posted on how it's going. should be an adventure!

I'm at 36 New Years Resolutions and Counting...Think They'll Take?

well, Christmas has come and gone. it was a sort of stressful season this year. and it's been crazy nuts busy at work. with extremely sick patients. i've been distracted by life for the last 6 months or so, but now i'm buckling down and focusing on work. i'm learning new things and trying to get really good at the things i already do. and i'm taking more call. i figured that there's a reason they pay me so much and that is that i'm willing to work some less-than-desirable hours. plus, i have big plans for loan repayment this year and a few little vacations, so the extra overtime cash will be groovy.

so...one of my resolutions is that i will post more often (i know. i'm sorry. i've been la-zy lately with my blogging) and that i'll include some interesting medical discussions. new studies, controversies and concepts. i haven't yet tackled the whole health care reform thing, but i'm working up my chi to do that one, so look for it eventually.

hope everyone had a healthy and happy new year! (and PS- if you have something you think might be interesting to discuss, let me know and i'll get right on it).

for now, so as to convince you that i'm not attempting to make this a boring, all educational and no fun reading experince, i'll leave you with this article posted on cnn today regarding the significant health benefits of having frequent sex. haza!

And to Think We Let Our Children Carol to These Abominations!

and so here we are again in the yule season (what's a yule? is that like a hybrid of a yak and a mule? why would we celebrate its log then?). anyway...it's a stressful time of year, as we all know. shopping pressure and cost, memories of lost loved ones and fighting with, perhaps planning the imminent death of, the loved ones you still have...almost everyone i know is grouchy and anxious and stressed and broke. fa-ra-ra-ra-ra....

so it's important to remember the whole point of Christmas. and for me, that's Jesus and the love and hope and redemption he brings. and family all piled on top of each other. and food. and giving presents is fun, too. especially if it's something totally personal and unique and surprising. that, i like.

and Christmas carols are alright. especially the pervy ones. i laid out my favorite Christmas date rape song last year.

this year, i'd like to note (with alarm!) some of the lyrics of my favorite holiday infidelity song...

Winter Wonderland (1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith)

He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town.

so all my life i've thought "WHAT JOB?" geez! what is this "parson" fella getting away with while he's in town?! and are we really expected to believe that this conspiring little vixen who likes to lie by the fire is unmarried? we KNOW she's a stone cold freak who likes to play in "the eskimo way." i don't even want to know.

but, in reviewing the available information....i have to admit that i didn't entirely know what the words were leading up to and following this phrase, and now that i see that "Parson Brown" is a snowman (and, furthermore, that "parson" means "minister"....), perhaps i jumped to conclusions.

nah. i stand by my position that this song is sketchy and must be stopped.

To Cut or Not to Cut: A Discussion on Baby Woo-woo Trimming

so i was recently talking to a coworker about her soon-to-be-on-this-planet male child (or, you know, out of amniotic fluid and into fresh air? is that better?) and whether or not she plans to circumcise him upon his arrival. people seem to be considering this more often, instead of just doing it routinely. anecdotally, i've observed a trend away from circumcision over the past few years, when it's been widely considered the norm in most cultures in the US for many years.

it is definitely a cultural thing. in the US, reports i found showed that between 55-90% of the population is circumcised. it varies by race and age and country of origin within the US population, also. but in the UK, it's more like 15%. it seems that if it's not a religious custom, than we generally do for our boys whatever the males of our community have had done to them. (or you know, theirs).

but just because dad and grandpa were or weren't (eck), does that make it right? is there any true need to have it done? is there a right answer here?

here are the reasons i find AGAINST circumcising (mostly given by hippies, so if you smell a faint aroma of patchouli while you read this- that's why):

1. he will lose all the best parts of his wang-doodle and all that sensitivity!
2. it is archaic. initiated back when Jews lived nomadic lives and wore sandals in dirt floor abodes and bathed rarely...we don't have those hygiene issues anymore and it's easier to keep the 'bits and pieces' clean.
3. it is unnecessary pain inflicted on a poor bebe
4. there is risk of things going amiss and leaving the child malformed for life or in danger with a major complication (on this note- there is a large amount of material out there and it isn't very conclusive, but known complications are rare, according to most studies i found (cdc says 0.2- 2.0%), and mostly include infection, bleeding, and not removing enough foreskin).

and now the reasons FOR circumcising (and these are usually argued by the kill-joys, so if you smell the faint odor of fluoride and low fat butter substitute, that's why):

1. don't worry about losing a little sensitivity- some would argue this is a good thing!
2. even in our much cleaner society, a lot of grime can still develop under the foreskin. this is known as smegma (SO TOTALLY NOT MAKING THIS UP!)
3. if done in the baby's first day of life, they have zero memory of the pain, and they rebound very quickly (anesthesia usually involved a sugar sucker and nothing more)
4. and most importantly in my book- there is increased risk of HIV and other STD's with the warm and moist little winkie umbrella still in place for infections to brew in. (interestingly, today in the news there was an article about Africa pushing circumcision as an AIDS prevention method). there is also a significant increase in UTI's and a small increased risk for penile cancer and, subsequently, cervical cancer (in female partners of the uncircumcised) from HPV transmission. and then, there's always phimosis and paraphimosis where the foreskin either can't retract back behind the glans or is stuck retracted and swells and can't get back around...and then penis tissue dies painfully. not good.

so that is my small analysis of the foreskin situation. take from it what you will and pipe up w/ comments or questions if you have them.

toodles!