Where have I been?

BACK FROM VEGGIE LAND

Liz and I adopted a vegetarian lifestyle for over a year. According to www.veggie123.com there are three main types of vegetarians:

There are three main vegetarian diets, although variations abound in each category: Lacto Ovo vegetarian, Lacto vegetarian, and Vegan. Let’s take them one at a time and look at the differences:

A lacto ovo vegetarian eats mostly plant foods, but also eats eggs and dairy products including yogurt, milk, cheese and ice cream. This is the first step most people take when they switch to a vegetarian diet, because it’s easy to fulfill all your nutritional requirements and, well, everything tastes good when you cover it with cheese! It’s also an easy diet to maintain in the "real world," as there are always restaurant choices – including fast food options – so no matter where you are or who you’re with, you can always find something to eat.

Lacto vegetarians eat no meat or eggs, but do consume dairy products. While acceptable dairy substitutes have become much more palatable in recent years, it can still be difficult to avoid dairy entirely, and it makes cooking much more challenging. Many lacto vegetarians don’t eat eggs because, as ovum, they’re potentially animals. Or they choose not to eat eggs because they’re uncomfortable with egg farming practices (more on that later). Conversely, there are ovo vegetarians, who eat eggs but don’t consume dairy products.

Vegans eschew all animal proteins and animal by-products. This is the most extreme form of vegetarian diet, as vegans get all of their nutrition from grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds. And vegans must avoid a large number of commercially produced foods that contain animal proteins – most breads are made with eggs, for example, and many non-dairy products are thickened with casein, a protein extracted from milk. Even vegetarian "burgers" often contain eggs! Despite the challenges, the vegan diet has steadily grown in popularity in recent years as more and more vegetarians have become savvy label-readers and vegan-friendly food companies have created more products for them to enjoy.

We fell in the lacto ovo camp for the most part although we did eat seafood occasionally as well. Recently we started eating meat again (about 3 weeks ago). We still eat a similar diet to our veggie period but we will eat meat a couple of times a weeks. I have to say that my energy levels have been higher and my running performances have improved. I am not trying to draw comparisons or make a claim that one lifestyle is better than the other. I just feel more balanced eating from all of the food groups.

RUNNING REPORT

My goals for 2007:

1 mile: 5:45
2 miles: 12:00
5K: under 20 minutes

Today I ran my 2 mile training route in 13:45 according to my new Timex IronMan watch. That is less than 7min/mile. It is also an improvement of about 1 minute since I first timed myself on the 2 mile route a couple of weeks ago. I am looking forward to hitting my target in April.

This week has been tough for getting miles in. I was able to run 3 days total at distances of 3 miles, 6, and 2 today. I am hoping to get back to running 5 days a week now that my schedule has slowed down a little.

Here is the 12 week schedule that I will be using to train for the 500 Festival Mini-marathon that will take place on May 5: http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/inter.htm

That's all for now...