Life & Style. Have a fitness tip or recipe to share? Contact the editor at lifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca Aroo! Spartan Why train more than your brain? By Monica Rolinski, Contributor scraped the caked Cheese Pleesers’ flavour off my fingers with my teeth and looked down at my white sweater covered with orange crumbs. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I would be in trouble if I kept this up. I had gotten in the habit of grabbing quick, easy-to-make food and just ripping the bag open. It was a fun way to eat, but the Spartan Race was coming up in about three months and it seemed like my goal was to get as out-of- shape as possible—or rather, that was the opposite of my original goal: to get physically prepared for the Spartan Race, a gruelling obstacle course which, according to their website, could contain “fire, mud, water, barbed wire, and occasionally Hell on Earth.” But tell that to the snack companies and the producers and writers of all those great shows and movies! Once the remote’s in my hand, I’m history. I had to find a way back to my original goal. I needed help. So I started talking to people on campus. I met some truly inspiring fellow students, asked what folks were up to, and ended up joining the Douglas College Outdoors Club. The Spartan enthusiasts within the club are a small group, but we're growing. Now it’s not just about me, which can be very motivating. What's worse than letting yourself down? Letting someone else down! I quit smoking eight months ago. The Spartan Race was my incentive. The race is the kind of reward you have to do some serious training for; where you have to sign a waiver before you can even start, and you need to be in the best health possible. I may be strange, but I’m not alone: the first Spartan Race event was in 2010 where 500 people participated. In 2012 the number of people grew to A tough choice to swallow Are vegans allowed to ingest semen? By Jacey Gibb, Assistant Editor ometime during the last few years, the number of friends I have who are vegetarian/ vegan eclipsed the number of friends who aren't. I’ve encountered a whole encyclopedia of reasons why people make the change: dietary restrictions, concerns about the sustainability of the current food pyramid, worries over ethical treatment of animals, or even as simple as their love interest of the week happens to not eat meat. Whatever the reason, a conversion to veganism involves the introduction of limitations to a person’s eating habits. And while some of these changes make very little impact ona person’s life (tofu not chicken, almond milk not cow milk, etc.), an often overlooked argument exists over whether or not the time-honoured tradition of ingesting semen comes into conflict with the animal-free lifestyle. And so it was that one of life’s great questions emerged: can vegans swallow? Now, let’s take a moment to ask our good friend, the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, to help us out here. By definition, a vegan is “a person who does not eat or use animal products.” If we’re counting 10 on the dictionary to help settle the debate—though it’s not necessarily a case-closing piece of evidence—we’re looking at an even stickier situation. I can already hear the rumblings of a “are humans animals” debate brewing, which isn’t a topic I'd like to get into right now (Side note: they totally are. Get off your hierarchal highchair, folks). In order to avoid the risk of diluting the debate with another issue, I chose to disregard the dictionary and go to the next best source: actual vegans. Asking the question of whether vegans can swallow or not, to be brief, elicited a variety of responses. They ranged in seriousness, from thoughtful and attentive answers to simple quips like “But vegans don’t get laid.” Unfortunately, the more humorous the retort, the less useful it was in helping me to answer my question. Journalistic difficulties aside, what was the general response that I received? Worth noting is that every non-vegan I surveyed declared that vegans are not allowed to swallow, if only on a technicality. All of the vegans I spoke to said the opposite, and that veganism isn’t a lifestyle based on technicalities, but one based on ethics. “1 don’t know how anyone could think that,” one vegan responded, frustrated when I told him that most people think vegans can’t swallow. “I’ve heard people bring it up before as a ‘fuck you’ in a conversation. Veganism isn’t about following a strict definition; it’s about following the mold behind it. If you boil anything down to the definition, you're not doing it for the right reason.” One vegetarian I spoke to was strongly in favour of vegans being allowed to swallow, based on the absence of any harm being done to animals. “My issue’s with animals being abused. The animal's not being abused; it’s actually pretty happy.” Even Makayla Cox, a vegetarian adult-film star from Vancouver who’s flirting with the idea of switching to veganism, supported a vegan’s right to swallow—though she’d never thought about how the transition might affect someone in her field of work. As far as Cox knew, it had never been an issue. “T know some girls don’t, but that might be a comfort thing. In porn, they can’t tell you what you're comfortable with and what you're not. I guess it might cost you a job or two though.” After interviewing everyone from porn stars to my own mother, I’ve come to the conclusion that the topic is both more complicated than I initially thought, but also a lot simpler. The ethos behind veganism isn’t that you’re avoiding animal products at all costs; it’s about pursuing a more ethical lifestyle, which includes ethical treatment of animals. 250,000 in 34 race events. This year the expected participation is 500,000 with 60 events. Don’t you want to be part of that? I do! Aroo! The races are held in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Think about it: every day, someone in one of these countries is doing burpees in their living room or carrying a big rock up a hill behind their house. One of the most popular aspects of a Spartan Race is that groups train together and race together. Camaraderie is the new cool. And with 2.5 million Facebook likes, being cool is easy. Signing up for an obstacle race is motivating. If it were up to me, I'd never get off the Photo courtesy of belloshitty (Flickr) If you’re a vegan looking for a definitive answer to this question, ask yourself: is the guy being subjected to unethical treatment or some kind of abuse couch again. Well, maybe I'd make it to school but I’d be stumbling down the hallina sugar-induced stupor with food stuck to my sweater and candy bar wrappers falling out of my pockets—which isn’t the worst thing in the world, unless you’re like me and you want to run, jump, climb, and train. And if that’s what you love, there’s still time to get ready for the race! There’s one in North Vancouver on June 1. Check it out online at http:/ / www.spartanrace.com/ and get inspired. You can check out the Douglas Outdoors Club if you want to train and race as part of a group or you can sign up asa single. Either way, we hope to see you there. prior to the situation? If not, then you should feel free to consume as much protein shake as you please.