Climate Connections Part II

Last spring some of the environmental and health clubs on campus sponsored an event called Climate Connections.  Climate Connections has a "fairesque" with each club setting up their own booth.  Today, we had another Climate Connections, which was set up by Vanderbilt SPEAR, or Students Promoting Environmental Awareness and Responsibility.  Awesomely, they asked VIVA to set up a booth...which of course we were PUMPED to do.  We decided to try out our vegan form of beer pong, which we righteously deemed Veg Pong.  Instead of SOLO cups, Naty Light, and Ping Pong balls we decided to use recycled cups, Almond Breeze milk, and Trader Joe-Joe's candy cane oreos...the idea was awesome at first until we realized people would rather just eat the oreos (which I highly recommend going and picking up a box...NOW, they are SO addicting).  Needless to say the veg pong was not as quite of a hit as we expected it to be, but at least the oreos and milk brought people to the booth.

The other clubs represented were the Interfaith Council, Vanderbilt American Red Cross, SPEAR, and Vanderbilt Biodiesel.  I learned today about the pretty awesome stuff that Vanderbilt Biodiesel does--they take the left over vegetable oil from all of the cafeterias on campus and create a multi-use soap from the glycerin byproduct, which they call "ecosuds".  When my fellow VIVA member Julie and I stopped at the booth we picked up some of the enviro-friendly peppermint soap..I can't wait to use it.  

We also got a chance to meet some fellow veg friends on campus who didn't know VIVA existed...it's always great when I meet a new Vandy veg student whose interested in coming to meetings...hopefully they'll come to the vegetarian dinner next week.

Here's a descent picture of our VIVA booth and our President, Danielle Williams, talking to a student. 

Vegetarian Athlete Article

So, earlier this morning the president of VIVA, Danielle Williams, emailed me this interesting article about vegetarian athletes hoping to gain weight....so I figured I'd post it here in case this pertains to anyone reading.  I don't the source of the article but all of her food ideas are vegan except maybe some of the Odwalla bars...don't quote me one that though because I've never eaten them. I defiantly agree with the article, so hopefully some of you can find this a little helpful.

HOW DO I GAIN WEIGHT AS A VEGETARIAN ATHLETE?
by Julia Driggers, RD

For starters, gaining weight for a vegetarian athlete is the same as
gaining weight for any athlete. First, you want to look at what you
are eating, how much, and your training routine. To gain weight at
your current activity level, all you need to do is simply add extra
calories to your diet. In general, an extra 250 to 500 calories per
day can lead to a 1/2 to 1 pound weight gain, respectively, per week.
For example, if you eat the way you usually do, but add an extra 250
calories everyday for a week, at the end of that week you should gain
1/2 pound. Similarly, if you eat the way you usually do, plus an extra
500 calories everyday for a week, by the end of that week you should
gain 1 pound. The amount of calories you choose to add are based upon
the amount of weight you want to gain. If you desire to gain less than
10 pounds add an extra 250 calories to your daily intake. If you
desire to gain more than 10 pounds, add an extra 500 calories to your
daily intake.

Adding calories to your diet is easy. All you have to do is add more
snacks throughout the day or add extra calories to the foods you eat.
It is important that you add calories with healthy items to provide
more vitamins and other nutrients in your diet. Below is a list of 250
calorie and 500 calorie healthy snack ideas. Try adding one or more of
these ideas every day to help gain weight. Also listed are ways to add
calories to your foods. When you don't have time for snacking, this is
a good way to increase the calories in your food without having to
plan another meal.

There is no need to eat more than 500 extra calories per day for
higher weight gain. Evidence has shown that exceeding more than 500
calories per day and gaining more than 1 pound per week is not
beneficial to the athlete. A greater than 1 pound weight gain a week
can lead to an increase in fat mass and a reduction in muscle mass.
Extra body fat and less lean muscle can slow an athlete down and make
it harder to compete. Once you reach your goal weight, continue to eat
about the same amount to maintain your weight gain.

If your training routine becomes more intense, you will need to
increase the amount of calories you are eating just to maintain your
weight. If you are increasing your caloric intake, but are still
having a hard time gaining weight during training, you may need to
focus more on increasing calories during your off-season. During your
off-season you lead a more relaxed life style and it's easier to put
on pounds. To gain weight during this time, simply follow the
recommendations for adding calories.

250 Calorie Snack Ideas

*2 Slices Whole Wheat Bread WITH 1 Tbs Peanut Butter, 1 Tbs Jelly
*1 cup Orange Juice with Calcium AND 6 oz Soy Yogurt
*1 Odwalla Bar
*1 Clif Bar
*1 Whole Wheat Pita Pocket WITH 5 Tbs Hummus
*1/2 cup Guacamole WITH 1-1/2 cup Celery Sticks AND 1/2 cup Soy Milk
*1 Medium Apple WITH 1 Tbs Almond Butter
*1/4 cup Mixed Nuts WITH 1-1/2 Tbs Raisins
*1 Crunchy Granola Bar AND 1/2 cup Soy Milk
*1 oz Hard Pretzels AND 1 cup 100% Cranberry Juice

500 Calorie Snack Ideas

*1 Whole Wheat Bagel WITH 2 Tbs Almond Butter, 1/2 Medium Sliced
Banana
*Fruit Smoothie WITH 1-1/2 cup Soy Milk, 1 cup Orange Juice with
Calcium, 1 Medium Banana, 10 Large Strawberries, 1 cup Blueberries
*1/2 cup Almonds WITH 1/4 cup Dried Cranberries
*1 Whole Wheat English Muffin WITH 2 Tbs Earth Balance Margarine, 2
Tbs Jelly AND 1/2 cup Soy Milk
*3/4 cup Black Bean Dip WITH 1 cup Tortilla Chips
*1 Slice Wheat Bread WITH 1 Tbs Peanut Butter AND 1 cup Sweetened
Applesauce AND 1 cup Soy Milk
*10 Whole Wheat Crackers (Triscut) WITH 1/2 cup of Hummus
*2 cups Lentil Soup AND 1 Whole Wheat Roll AND 1/2 cup Orange Juice
with Calcium

Tips for Adding Calories to Foods

1. Add Earth's Best Margarine or other vegan margarine (100 calories
per tablespoon), Flax Seed Oil (120 calories per tablespoon) or Canola
Oil (120 calories per table spoon) to stir-frys, sandwiches,
vegetables, cooked cereal, breads, pasta, and rice.
2. Add Wheat Germ (25 calories per tablespoon) to hot cereals, pastry,
cake, and pancake batters and casseroles.
3. Add Veganaise or Oil-based Salad Dressing (90 calories per
tablespoon) to sandwiches, salads, and sauces on cooked vegetables.
4. Add Vegan "Sour Cream" (43 calories per tablespoon) and Vegan
"Cheeses" (50 calories per oz) to potatoes, casseroles, dips, sauces
and baked goods.
6. Add Silk Soy Creamer (15 calories per tablespoon, 240 calories per
cup) to smoothies, hot and cold cereals, pastry, cake, and pancake
batters, and puddings.
7. Add Nuts (82 calories per 1/2 oz) and Dried Fruit (86 calories per
1/2 cup) to hot and cold cereals, yogurts, salads, cooked vegetables,
and stir-frys.

The Health Sleuth Giveaway

Rick over at The Health Sleuth is giving away two jars of Nacho Mom's Vegan Queso this week in honor of MoFo...I highly recommend reading his blog and entering....I've heard amazing things about the Queso, and he just raves about how awesome it is. It would be great on almost anything other than chips it seems like...I'm considering picking some up and trying it with some chick peas in the good ol' food processor this weekend in my dorm room as a nice protein filled snack.  Well, until tonight...keep living meaningfully.

VIVA Vegetarian Feast

So, as I have mentioned before, I am the Liason for VIVA, or Vanderbilt Initiative for Vegetarian Awareness here on campus at Vanderbilt and we are having a Vegetarian Thanksgiving feast at our vegetarian cafe/dining center Grins.  The dinner is on November 17th at 6pm and the best part is it's FREE!!! We'll be supplying the Tofurky and some other goodies, but please bring a veg dish to pass.
In honor of thanksgiving our club is also sponsoring two turkeys. I highly recommend doing this yourself also, it's only $30 dollars so why not save a life?? My family and I have decided to save two as well as my bowling team.  Well hope some of you can make it out to the dinner....it's defiantly going to be a BLAST...why not live meaningfully with some fellow college veg?

On My Way Back.

So....it's defiantly been awhile and now that i'm post surgery 3 weeks I'm happy to say that I'm totally ready to start my OFFICIAL blog trail.  This month's Orbis article was released on campus only this week and it already has a TON of popularity..which is exciting.  My article, Veganizing Your Dorm Room, has already been tweeted quite a bit and I've had some great feedback...I'm glad I could help some of my fellow college vegans out.
I'm sad to say I decided to not participate in vegan MOFO :[ but I will be updating my blog this week with a bunch of food pics from various restaurants and my own vegan food endeavors.  I defiantly need to learn how to get my blog some popularity..i'm clearly EPICLY FAILING in this category.  Well i'll defiantly be back with some updated bloggage tonight just thought I'd add a quick blurb about Orbis. Keep living meaningfully!

The Orbis

If you've already picked up this month's issue of The Orbis, I hope you enjoyed all of our interesting and progressive pieces. If your one of those people who haven't, I highly recommend picking it up on the way to class or checking it out online: The Orbis. 

For those who don't know what The Orbis is let me do a little explanin'. The Orbis is the progressive student paper we have here on campus at Vanderbilt University. It is written by students and for students. Many of the articles address issues that may not necesarrrily be addressed by our other papers, or are on topics that we feel needed to be investigated more. My specific column, which is based on this blog, is our first "column" and is in the lifestyle/opinion section. I absolutely would love to thank Jon Christian and all the other Orbis staff for giving me the opportunity to write this and I hope that I can be some help to my fellow vegans and vegetarians on campus. 

I was sitting in my philosophy 228 class today when I recieved my first Letter to the Editor e-mail about MY article. I was ECSTATIC. I wanted to take the time to thank Max Fischlowitz-Roberts from Compassion Over Killing for the kudos on my column. It was so awesome to see what a wide variety of readers we have viewing our paper. 

Also, for those who live on campus at Vandy or just go to Vandy I'd love to invite you all to come out to the Vegan bake sale that's going on the weekend of the 8th. VIVA, or Vanderbilt Initiative for Vegetarian Awareness, is doing this bake-sale to help generate the knowledge of our presence on campus and raise some money. 

I'm working on writing a really great in-depth blog entry on protein and iron, seeing as how I'm dealing with the lack there of currently, I figured I'd be some help to those worried about the same. 

So, go check out The Orbis NOW and let me know if you have any thing you'd love to learn or read about. Until next time, keep livin' meaningful. 

S

HOME SWEET NASHVILLE

So...it's been way to long since I've updated, but now that classes have been in session awhile I might as well really start updating. For those of you reading that go to Vandy make sure you check out the Orbis, not just because the paper is awesome, but also because, yours truly will be writing a monthly column in the lifestyle section. My main goal in writing this specific column is not just to help out VIVA, Vanderbilt Initiative for Vegetarian Awareness, or to get some publicity for this blog, but to help educate students on tricks and ways to being a healthy vegan/vegetarian in college.
Originally, I was going to title this blog The College Vegan, but after much consideration I knew I wanted to hit a larger audience than that in the end...thus the.edgy.vedgy was born. :] Clearly, I'm lacking in the followers department, but I'm hoping that can change soon. Anyways...I'll be doing some vegan eating this weekend and working on my next post about some great quick vegan options for your dorm room so hopefully by sunday we'll have some great posts..

until then, continue living meaningfully.

-S