Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Work in progress

Not a good run again today. I was suppose to do 1 hour 20 but because my Achilles on my left leg was throbbing and the shin on my right leg was also aching I stopped at an hour. I will try to get this session in again tomorrow.

Just had a bath, soaked my ankle in a bucket of ice and put some cream on it. That usually is enough to fix it at least for next run. I'm getting frustrated with this ankle pain as it seems to be getting chronic and I just want it to go away!

Anyways, it seems by the response to my last post that, like I thought, nobody wants to be told what to eat. Tesso asked me if I had tried a vegan diet and if I eat more healthily here in Japan compared to in Australia?

I try to eat "well" like I don't eat much processed foods anymore and I haven't had any milk for the last year and a half, but I don't worry too much if I have a hamburger now and then and ice-cream and cake is hard to turn down.

When in Australia I would eat anything I could get my hands on, I had a thing for "Chiko rolls" and pies but as I was young and active with surfing it didn't effect my health to any degree that I could see.

Since moving overseas and growing older I'm aware that food is the number one thing that affects my physical and emotional health so I don't "pig out" anymore and due to eating less sugar I don't "flip out" as much as I used to either but that could be related to aging as well.

Of course some Australians eat really well, not many as indicated by Tuggeranong Don's Doctor's 3% story, and some Japanese eat very badly, lots of processed and fried foods. But overall it is a little easier to eat more healthy foods as the Japanese have a long history of vegetarianism and therefore a lot more choices.

While I won't tell others how to eat it is a goal of mine to go "Vegan", totally vegetarian, as it is, I believe, the best way to look after my health and that of my brothers the animals. It's a work in progress as they say.

10 comments:

  1. I admire anyone who can become vegan (or for that matter, maintain a balanced vegetarian diet). I was a vego for the better part of 2 years, which was fine when I was less active, but I found that as I started more exercise I wasn't committed enough to working on a rounded diet, and so slipped back into eating meat through pure necessity. I'm not sure that I could ever go back, just from the effort required. But, I do love good vego food, because it tends to use a lot of different beans etc. that most other dishes don't!

    ReplyDelete
  2. While I am not vegetarian, Japanese is my favourite cuisine. I have often wondered what it would be like to eat Japanese every day. I guess, like here, there are good choices and not so good choices.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hope that achilles and shin thing are just very temporary. Doing lots of calf stretching I hope.

    I've tried the vego thing too, I think I lasted two days. Better than my attempts where I've had at fasting, never got past morning tea time on day one. So I admire anyone who can commit to these lifestyles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Look after that achilles and shin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The bit I don't quite get though is this... If we weren't meant to eat animals, then why are they made of meat?

    Same joke would work with "then why are they so tasty?" on the end. Hehehe.

    Hope the tendon thing calms down for you!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Vegan means no animal products, which is tough. You can get 'vegan chocolate' though!

    Karen from Calwell (our pilates instructor) is a vegan. She doesn't preach though, and even laughs at our jokes about lamb chops. I don't think it's an easy lifestyle (to get all the nutrients, iron etc).

    Oh yes. To comment on your blog is good fun but and I try not to make bad grammar or such mistakes as I no your a teacher.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have never considered giving up meet. I don't eat much of it at any rate. My motto is simple...all things in moderation. My 8yo grand-daughter annonced at the dinner table recently that she wants to be a vegertarian. She seems to understand what it means and we will attempt to honour her wish.

    ReplyDelete
  8. BTW with regard to your painful ankles Scott. I had a similar problem and Ewen recommended some heel inserts for my shoes. they fixed the problem and I still use them. I can't remember what they are called though.

    ReplyDelete
  9. H Scott, have you been doing the exercises that you put me onto for the achilles?? (I admit that I have struggled to find time the last 2 weeks or so...)

    BTW I was vegetarian for about 10 years and tried being vegan for about 6 months when I lived on my own. I started eating fish about 7 years ago to make it easier with family meals. Also G loves to go fishing and loves cooking fish. I enjoyed the article and was quite surprised to hear he is a vego.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I've been experimenting with my diet recently too and having de-toxed felt great. Now I find any sort of processed affects me. I even gave up alcohol for a month!

    ReplyDelete