Update On Personal Challenge

I was able to put in a good 12.8km run tonight between work and the Halloween festivities. My map got a lot of extra red put on it. I decided mid-run that I'm going to change the rules slightly for this challenge. It's my challenge and I can do that! I've excluded any roads that are cul-de-sacs or dead ends. I've never lived on a cul-de-sac so I feel I have no need to respect their existence. Besides, they're an un-sociable road. They only want to be friends with one other road - two roads is way too many.

However, if I can, I will run on as many dead ends as I can before the November 16 deadline. The best thing is, my achilles did not bother me over my almost 13km today and there was a significant amount of hills on the run. That bodes well in the completion of this challenge before jetting off to Panama.

Here's the latest map udpate:

Here are links to my other posts for this challenge:

October 29

October 27

October 26

10 Things You Can Do On World Veg Day 2009

Tomorrow is World Veg Day and is the kickoff to World Veg Month. Since, most likely, if you don't live in one of the world's major cities, your town is probably not having an event to celebrate this day, what can you day to make your mark? There are many things that little old you can do to promote Veganism and get the info out. Here are 10 ways I came up with:

• Make a delicious vegan dish for family and friends to share and wait for them to say, "Holy shit! This is what you eat? I thought you just ate bean sprouts and lettuce..."
• Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper about the benefits of eliminating animal products from our lives - and dare them to publish it. It would actually be doing them a favour because they would have reaction letters for weeks to come.
• Since the day falls on a Sunday this year, chances are you might be sitting around watching a sporting event with friends and/or family. Make sure to mention the professional athletes that adhere to a vegan lifestyle.
• Visit a vegan restaurant and give them the business they deserve and need in order to survive. If your town doesn't have a vegan restaurant but you find yourself in a local eatery, make sure to point out their lack of vegan friendly meals (or compliment them if they do have these items).
• Bring to light the fact that this is the 65th anniversary of Donald Watson coining the term 'Vegan'.
• Since the Gorilla is the mascot of this year's vegan day, bring to light the fact the one of the largest, strongest mammals on earth (and a direct relative of ours) is vegan.
• Since Veganism and the environment are so closely tied, make an effort to leave the car in the driveway today.
• Try a fruit or vegetable that you've never tried before.
• Visit an animal shelter and walk one of the dogs (if allowed...).
• Write a letter to your local school board, asking why they don't offer vegan options in the school cafeterias (compliment them if they do...).

Of course, these are things we should be doing EVERY day!

Coconut In Your Diet

I love coconut. One of my favourite parts about taking vacations down in the Caribbean is getting groundskeepers to lop the top off a fresh fallen coconut to get at the milk. Of course, it doesn't stop there. The meat of a fresh fallen coconut is simply something that can never be experienced from a grocery store bought version in frosty Canada.

While at home, I have several cans of coconut water every week. A company called Grace imports to Canada and their stock is found in most grocery stores. I also use coconut milk as a cooking ingredient in many of my dishes.

Like all good things, coconut has some supposed faults. I'm sure you've heard the coconut is high in fat. You may have also been told that coconut is a natural laxative. As for the laxative part, coconut has never really had an effect on me. As for the fat part, it turns out that the fat contained in coconut is nothing but good for the body.

Click on the following link to read a great story about the health benefits of coconut.

coconut in your diet

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Challenge Update and My Opinion On H1N1 Hype

I took yesterday off to rest my achilles. It feels pretty good after putting in 8.7km tonight and making my map a little redder. I played hockey last night and it really seems to be the miracle cure for the achilles problems. The day after playing hockey, I can feel no pain at all in the heel.

Here's my pretty map:

About the H1N1 hysteria...

Anything that the government and the media are hyping as urgent, can only mean there's a hidden motive. I, nor anyone in my family, will not be taking any vaccine that has been created and mass produced in such a short time with supposedly already known side effects. Especially, since it is for a virus that, in reality, affects very few people in proportion to the population and kills an even lesser amount. I've heard it said by reputed doctors, even on mainstream media, that the odds of dying from H1N1 are about 1 in 8,000,000. I like them odds.

For all those germiphobes out there, that do nothing else to ensure a healthy body, but believe constantly washing your hands is going to be your saviour: think about all the hands that have touched every food product you buy at the grocery store. Are you scrubbing down those cans and jars? Are you really cleaning your raw fruits and vegetables? What do you do with the receipt that the cashier with the germ covered hands has just ripped off the cash register and handed to you? She/he also had her/his fingers all over your credit card, debit card or cash change.

The cure for this and any other manufactured virus, is to eat properly, exercises daily and sleep when needed. What we don't need is more crap injected into our systems. It seems in the last 10 years, governments of the world have done nothing to calm and ensure their citizens. Instead, they seem to thrive on creating hysteria and paranoia. What is their motive? It certainly makes the citizens of the developed world live in fear. Are they trying to keep us from travelling to less developed countries and realizing that we don't really have it as good as we've been told? Are they trying to suppress us so that we buy and use less products and commodities and therefore bring down the economies of emerging markets such as China, India and the Middle East?

I'm certainly not one to throw a complete blind eye to threats to my health. I just believe that H1N1 (or heiny - 'high knee' - as my 85 year old Mom calls it), SARS, Avian Flu or any other virus of the day can be overcome and even prevented by living a healthy, vegan lifestyle. One must also go against the western world's idea that sleep is bad and lazy and missing work is such a mortal sin. Sleep cures all. Work just isn't that friggin' important.

My message is: Don't succumb to the paranoia. Continue to live a healthy, active vegan lifestyle and we'll all disappoint the politicians when their game doesn't go as planned. Yes, I still support non-violence but I'm also feeling rebellious lately. Don't even get me started on the Catholic School Board in my area banning Halloween costumes from school!

To follow my latest challenge, check out these posts:

Update 1

Update 2

Challenge Update

Here's the latest update on my latest personal challenge. Okay, it's a little crappy quality but I've scanned up a map of Orangeville and I'm using the old-reliable Microsoft Paint to fill in the roads I've run on. I put in between 7 and 8 km tonight and filled the map in a little more. I may have screwed up my Achilles tendon again, though. I had a sharp pain early on going up a particularly steep hill for Orangeville. I was able to finish up the rest of the run in relative comfort and actually did the run at a decent pace even though I was trying to shuffle along as slow as possible.

Here's the blank map of Orangeville:

Here's what I've run so far. The roads in red are obviously the ones I've knocked off:

Just an update on some important dates coming up very soon:

November 1 - Of course, it's World Vegan Day! I'll be celebrating on Sunday, I hope you will be too.

November 4 - Celebrating my first full year of being Vegan! I'll be cooking up a storm on that day.

November 16 - I depart with 28 of my closest friends and family members for two weeks at the Decameron Beach Resort in Panama! Actually, the last two days will be at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort on the Canal. Of course, the highlight of the trip will be my wedding!

There will certainly be more to come on the challenge at the other three items happening in November.