Today at lunch, Addie asked Jason what he made in Sunday school. He replied, "Conversation." Addie said, "Oh, that's good, conversation. You made some friends."
I told her that he also ate some cake. She wanted to know what kind.
Jason replied, "Chocolate ice cream cake with chocolate chips."
Addie said, "Ooooh, that sounds delicious. I'm gonna write that down."
She is hilarious. So, I'm gonna write some stuff down too. First off, today is September 1 and I ate a CHEESE quesadilla for lunch. I had a whole wheat tortilla with white queso quesadilla cheese sprinkled with a little cumin and some homemade fresh salsa made from my garden tomatoes to dip it in. Now I feel queasy. I'm also nursing a sore throat and overall yuck feelings today, but I will try and blame the dairy for as much as possible.
August happened. Vegan eating for a month happened. Lots of new foods, recipes, ideas, etc. happened. Four pounds lost and reaching my 60lb mark happened. Now it's time for something new or something old. A friend asked me for an informative post on why vegan. I mentioned watching Forks over Knives and a slew of other documentaries, but if we just need an abbreviated version I'll deliver. So, the stuff that causes exponential cancer growth us omnivores is animal protein. Animal protein isn't only found in meat, it's found in milk, cheese, and yogurt too. I wish we could take butter out of the equation. It's not protein, just fat, surely that's ok! Also, I can't turn away from the incredible environmental toll of the livestock industry. It is destroying our earth. The human population continues to place crazy demands on high yield from the meat industry, causing soil erosion, water polution, severe animal cruelty, greenhouse gas emissions, genetic manipulation, and the eradication of viable farm land. So, organic is good, right? Free range chickens and eggs, grass fed organic beef, and all that jazz. Well, maybe. Maybe is as good as I can get because, first, I can't actually afford to feed a family of five all free range organic grass fed animals and their by products. Second, it's not all it's cracked up to be either. Free range chickens only require a few feet of space to meet the standard while they still get placed on an assembly line and male chicks are shredded up while they're still alive to make our dog food and hot dog fillers vs. a traditional chicken "manufacturer" who hoards hundreds of chickens into a few square feet and they grow into their cages and are pumped full of so many hormones to make their breasts grow that they can't even walk. Hormone and antibiotic free organic dairy cows are euthanized if they have a basic udder infection because farmers can't use antibiotics to heal them or they won't get a stamp on their milk cartons. Things like this upset me.
I'm not asking or expecting it to upset everyone. We all get through daily life with selective ignorance and denial on one thing or another. I have no idea what small indonesian child probably suffered to make my cheap target sandals. There is no way I could go through all the possible scenarios of how a cow is treated before it becomes a rawhide chew for my dog. I've only started looking at how all the chemicals in my house are probably killing us. Food has just been something that I take such an active roll in on a daily basis, that it seemed a good place to start being socially, economically, and environmentally conscious. We all have our issues we are passionate about. I'm not certain this will become "MY THING" since my thing is already all wrapped up in natural birth! It's all strung together for me though. Making small steps toward a more conscious way of living is how we'll survive another thousand years on this earth without it becoming a real live zombiepocalypse nuclear holocaust hunger games situation.
K, there's my soap box. I ate cheese today. Just plain old cheese with no fancy labels and it tasted good. I won't be eating it at every meal and I don't know when I'll feel like eating a piece of meat again. I'm only going to do the best I can to reduce my consumption and educate my family so that they can do the same. Maybe a year from now I will have more resolve and higher standards and expectations for myself. I honestly hope so, but I've made dozens of small changes and an entire eating, lifestyle, shopping, environmental consideration, fitness, and outlook change because of these. That's good enough for me for right now. Individual choice is key and I'm proud of any small step I make or you all make in the right direction.
2 comments:
I totally see where you are coming from with wanting to avoid animal products due to the conditions in order to get them to our tables. I try too make myself feel better with buying organic meat and dairy but who am i fooling? Myself. Anyway so in a perfect world where everyone had their own chickens and cows would vegans still be vegan or did this way of eating come about from the mass food production?
No, most "vegans" are all about animal rights and the health hazards of consuming animal products. I'm thinking like PETA vegans wouldn't eat animals no matter what the conditions are. Plant-based eating (Forks over Knives again!) is more about health and they encourage no processed foods, refined sugars, bleached enriched white flour, processed oils and fats, etc. I think I'm somewhere in the middle of these thinking camps. I'm still probably going to wear leather shoes on occasion but that doesn't mean I want to put it in my body on a daily basis. So, I'm just a big fat hypocrite! ;) It's comfortable here.
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