Eat
Your Veggies
With
Mad Cow Disease, meat plants using sick or dead cattle, higher
chances of getting cancer and heart disease, it’s no wonder
more people are “going vegetarian”. I myself have
“gone vegetarian” and it isn’t the easiest thing
to do. If you’re strict, you find yourself looking at every
ingredient on the food label and seven out of ten times, it has
meat products in it.
Then people start to get worried about your health. Over the past
few months, at least once a week I’ve heard: “You
are looking paler”, “Your hair is limp-looking”,
or “At your age, your body needs the proteins you get from
eating meat”. I’ve heard them all. I know these facts
are the truth, but I really want to stick with my meat-free diet.
This article is dedicated to vegetarians who are looking for meat
substitutes or for people who want to become vegetarians and need
help looking for the proper nutrients.
Your body needs iron to build red blood cells, help cells work,
carry oxygen to parts of your body and to help your brain function.
To get a good amount of iron without eating meat you should eat
dried beans, spinach, chard, beet greens, bulgar, dried fruit,
lentils, nuts and seeds, eggs and whole grain products.
You need protein to help your bones develop, help repair broken
tissues, and to get energy when other energy sources aren’t
at hand. Good vegetarian sources of protein come from lentils,
tofu, low-fat dairy products, nuts and seeds, tempeh, peas, whole
grain bread, greens, potatoes, pasta, and corn.
Here are a couple of delicious vegetarian recipes that you can
make at home:
Easy
Four Cheese Lasagna
You will need:
-1 (16 ounce) package of lasagna noodles
-1 (26 ounce) can of spaghetti sauce
-1 pound cottage cheese
-8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
-8 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
-1 cup grated parmesan cheese
What you will have to do:
-Preheat oven to 375ºF (190 ºC)
-Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta
and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until firm; drain
-In a blender or with an electric mixer, blend tomato sauce and
cottage cheese together until smooth. Spoon a little of the sauce
mixture in the bottom of a 9 inch x 13 inch baking dish. Place
a layer of the cooked noodles over the sauce, and sprinkle a portion
of the mozzarella, the cheddar, and the parmesan cheese over the
noodles. Repeat layering of sauce, noodles and cheese. Finish
with a cheese layer.
-Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and golden.
Baked
Tofu Spinach Wrap
You will need:
-2 (10 inch) whole wheat tortillas
-1 (7.5 ounce) package of hickory-flavoured
-1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
-1 cup fresh baby spinach
-1 tablespoon Ranch dressing (optional)
-1 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese (optional)
What you have to do:
Place tortillas side by side on a plate. Slice tofu and place
slices down the center of each tortilla . Sprinkle cheddar cheese
over the tofu. Cover with a damp paper towel and microwave for
about 45 seconds or until cheese is melted.
Pile some spinach onto each tortilla and pour Ranch dressing.
Sprinkle on parmesan cheese and roll tortillas. Eat and enjoy.
Avoiding butcher shop windows, trying not to lecture friends at
BBQ’s, and getting through Thanksgiving dinners; it ain’t
easy. Maintaining your weight, avoiding heart disease, knowing
you aren’t one of those people who eats brutally slaughtered
animals…it’s worth it! -Ellis Berman
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A
Lazy Girl’s Experience: Training For a 5K Run
(Name Withheld to Protect the Innocent) (me)
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m pretty lazy. I
avoid extra work like the plague. However, I’ve come to
understand that avoiding extra work usually creates more work
or extra problems, and can be very time-consuming. (Taking off
my pants before my shoes usually results in a weird, hopping dance
in my underwear. More often than not I end up falling on the floor,
but that’s okay, because my fall is cushioned by a pile
of dirty laundry I was too lazy to bring downstairs.)
I have to admit I’m not a couch potato; I don’t really
watch T.V. I do well in school if I want to, and won’t complain
too much if I have to get up early for something, even though
sleeping in is my best friend. But there’s something about
strenuous physical exercise that I just don’t get. Especially
running. If it’s not for your life, why do it? It just doesn’t
make sense to me to run around in circles, losing breath and getting
sweaty and tired.
All of my values, morals, thoughts and motivation can be divided
into two parts of my self; my Lazy Self, and my Self-Improvement
self. There is a constant battle between the two; especially when
it comes to exercise. I know it’s good for you, and I wish
I was more active, but my Lazy-Self is always there to tell my
Self-Improvement self that it’s a waste of time and that
I should work more on my slouching. My lazy self usually gets
me out of most jams, like when I want to start exercising, and
always comes up with good excuses to hit the snooze button on
Friday mornings. My Lazy Self can usually make me feel pretty
proud of my past accomplishments, which it hindered, and makes
me feel good about slouching. “You’re
such a master sloucher.” It coos. “Master slouchers
don’t run, it’s blasphemy to their code.”
I hate running. I don’t mind if other people do it, but
I can’t. The only reason I would run would be if I were
being chased by a crazy woman around a subway station, and even
then it would take some persuasion. I avoid running as much as
possible. I will miss buses to avoid running. I have - it’s
time to face it - a fear of running.
Which is why I surprised myself and lots of other people when
I let myself be persuaded into running the CIBC Run for The Cure.
And then I got the idea into my head that I wouldn’t just
walk the 5k, I would run it. I don’t know what possessed
me, I think ol’ Lazy Self was having a nap. I guess I decided
to do it partly because I wanted to get in shape, partly because
I wanted to do the best I could, and partly because I didn’t
want my younger sister, who has a high stamina for running long-distance,
to out-run me. At least, I told myself, I would match her pace.
(At this point my lazy-self had decided to abandon me, and refused
to persuade me back to my old, slouchy, self. I think it was mad).
I found a plan on the Internet that outlined how to train for
a 5k run in five weeks. For example, the first week, I was to
alternate every minute between running and walking for twenty
minutes, the next week between running every two minutes, and
so on, until I got up to a 12 minute run, 12 minute walk. That
didn’t seem too bad to me;s after all, one minute was nothing,
right?
I must have been really out of shape, because one minute amounted
to a lot more than nothing. But I decided to keep a log to track
my progress-or, which side of my brain was winning.
Week One: I started on Labour Day. Self-Improvement Self persuaded
me to go for a run with my younger sister. It was supposed to
last for twenty minutes; we came back after forty. This was not
good. I didn’t feel it that day. In fact, I felt great!
But the next morning…
Even
though my muscles were sore, Self-Improvement thought I should
attempt the muscle exercises. Big mistake! By the next day, I
was so sore I had to take the rest of the week off of training.
Week
2: Lazy Self thought that I shouldn’t make the same mistake
twice, so I took it slow. Really slow. Actually, I only ran once.
But my muscles felt better.
Week
3: I could feel the battle getting harder. I ran twice, and I
did the muscle exercises, too. Lazy Self allowed me to think I
was back on track until it dropped its bomb.
Week
4: I got sick. Even though I tried to get out and run, Lazy Self
thought I should take it easy. The weather was cold, and my head
hurt. It seemed like a good idea to stop until I was better, thinking
it was just a head cold and that I’d feel better in a few
days.
So
far I didn’t really have much progress to report. Actually,
keeping a log was rather discouraging, and made me realize how
much control the lazy side of my brain had over me. So I scrapped
that idea. In the end, I just decided to do the best I could at
the race when it came along, and to focus on raising more money
for the cause. That way, at least I wouldn’t hurt myself.
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