Where Do You Get Your Protein?
AFAA Certified Personal Trainer & RRCA Certified Running Coach, Ellen Jaffe Jones answers the age-old question, with an emphasis on athletics. Here, just after placing 2nd in her age group at the "Island 5K" on May 5, 2012...with Cindy Quinn, about 10 years younger. During this race, as Ellen passed others, someone yelled out, "There goes that vegan energy." No kidding! Plants fuel! Read More →
Earth Day is Every Day—Connecting Food & the Environment
Connecting the Dots Between Food & Environmentalism Read More →
My Fav Vegan Running Shoes
I got asked by another blogger today to write my thoughts about what I use for vegan running shoes. I get asked this a lot and just decided to take photos of some (operative word here, 'some.' 
) of my closet. I will also include a few from races here.
Bottom line, companies are saving their bottom line by dumping leather. With droughts all over the world, cattle, beef and leather prices are soaring. So it is much easier to find non-leather shoes these days. Why this wasn't done decades ago is beyond me. But I'm joyful to have so many more choices now.
The red shoe is the T6 by Brooks. I've been wearing them for about 3 years as just racing flats. No cushioning at all, but great light-weight flat. I'm pretty sure I go a minute or two faster in them. (There go my secrets.) They've come out with a newer version, but I haven't bought them yet. You should replace running shoes every 3 months or 300 miles...or whenever you can see significant wear.
One of the photos shows me wearing the Brooks shoe at the "Run Through Hell 5K" at Tampa's Al Lopez park last summer. I placed in that race, but not before falling into a mud filled hole. It was great fun. 
The Asics GS Trainer is one I've worn for years, though I can't pinpoint when they went vegan. I use it when I'm trying to use a softer and less reinforcing orthtotic. Hard orthotics work best for my knees, but kill my flat arches. So I rotate between hard and soft orthotics (a whole other story).
The Asics Gel Nimbus is a neutral shoe that I wear with my hard orthotics and use for long distances, and especially when running on concrete and asphalt. I've tried to quit them and go to more minimalist shoes, but for long training, it just doesn't work for me. I need the more cushioned shoe.
Here's a picture of the label inside the tongue. Like with food...read the labels. Not crazy that so many shoes are made in China, but there just aren't many non-China choices. The label here says "synthetic fiber & synthetic leather upper, rubber sole." They just can't quite come out and say "vegan," can they?
I would like to say that I trust everything I read, and generally, with labels like this I do. I still give the shoe a once-over, and if I think there is any doubt, I won't buy the shoe. But these days, it has become much easier to tell if a running shoe is covered with shiny, reflective materials, most likely it is not leather. If it doesn't look anything like a cow, it probably isn't a cow.
Synthetics are also lighter in weight, which is what many runners look for these days, even if they aren't minimalists or barefoot runners. I've tried the whole barefoot running thing, and in concept, I love the idea. But it is hard to give up years of atorphying muscles in shoes and orthotics. I admire the folks who run barefoot on soft surfaces, but I'm thinking that the folks running marathons barefoot on concrete streets may be in for some trouble down the line. Like so much of progress, concrete is a fairly recent development, anthropologically speaking. I got injured running barefoot on what I thought was an ideal surface on a flat beach. Not so fast. Another story for another time.
The other shoe is the New Balance 1080. This newer version was meant to compete with the Gel Nimbus, but after about 20 miles, I started feeling my neuroma between my second and third toe, which I don't with a more cushioned shoe. So back to the Gel Nimbus. Miles of smiles to you...just get out there! Gotta run!!
Fitness and food on a dime. Or Two.
Keeping fit doesn't have to be expensive. I once had a student in a cooking class who lost 120 pounds in 8 months never counting a calorie, ever being hungry and she loved the vegan food. She couldn't work out because she had multiple myeloma, one of the more fatal forms of cancer. It is a kind of bone cancer and her bones were very fragile from the start. (Why don't more docs recommend a vegan diet for weight loss??) Read More →
Orphaned
When relatives get diseases, even if they don't die, a big part of them does. Read More →
Can you really eat vegan on $4 a day?
In today's Ask Ellen, I provide some tips for a reader who was dubious about whether someone can really eat a vegan diet on $4 a day. Read More →
Comparing the Price of Twinkies to Beans
This video is an excellent summary of why I wrote my book. It also seeks to debunk the myth that it is impossible to eat a healthy diet on a budget.
Kickstarting Your New Year’s Resolutions
The week after New Year’s, I agreed to be a volunteer coach for a national website, VeganBodyBuilding.com. Anytime someone asks me, as they frequently do, “Where do you get your protein?” after I flex my biceps and say to their look of shock, “Do I look like I have a protein deficiency?” Read More →
There’s No Money in Broccoli
Upon the advice of many, I am launching a blog to provide information based on the concepts in my new book, Eat Vegan on $4 a Day. And to help you get there faster and easier than I did. I'm a former TV investigative reporter and financial consultant with a huge family history of breast cancer (mom, aunt, and both sisters), heart disease (sister, both parents, all grandparents), diabetes (sister, parents, all grandparents), and more. I almost died of a colon blockage at the age of 28 the same year my sister got breast cancer for the second time. ER docs told me I would need to be on medication the rest of my life unless I made some major changes to avoid our family's fate. I didn't get all the good genes and my life as the media have reported over the past 30 years has been an experiment to beat the odds. I continue to place in 5K races for my age group and ran my first marathon last year. Read More →
Resolving to Resolve in the New Year
During a recent radio interview, the host who was a doctor told me that he didn’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. I said that yes it is true, you have to have a lifestyle change to accomplish true change to lose weight or whatever it is that you want to “resolve.” Read More →
