For sake of argument, let’s say my average daily haul of picked up trash is … 2 pounds. The volume by weight can vary wildly (the variables are hard plastic and glass). But a couple of pounds is pretty close.

A good week’s haul of trash removed from my path. It feels good to see the recycling man pick this up every Wednesday.

I walk, on average, five days per week. Now, as years of disappointed math teachers could sorrowfully attest, my computation skills are slim at best but even these figures are easy for me: 2 x 5 = 10 pounds of junk per week.

By extension, 10 x 52 weeks = 520 lbs. 520 lbs. x 3 years of picking garbage up = 1,560 lbs. of trash forcibly removed from the sidewalk / street / downstream ecosystems.

There are two ways to look at the raw totals. One, that’s a lot of litter. But, two, it’s only one 2.5 mile loop in a huge metropolitan area with thousands of miles of unkempt streets.

That’s not math I’m terribly comfortable computing. The totals would be mind boggling. At some point I’ll reach one ton of stuff picked up one ounce at a time; it’s the remaining tonnage out there that bothers me. Given that, my one ton will earn only a muted celebration.

If I had a penny for the amount of times I’ve heard people say this in my life, I would have enough money to be living on a paradise island sunbathing on a beautiful beach somewhere. I’m not even exaggerating. But seriously, throughout my childhood everyone I would come across would have the same knowledge about meat; and that ‘it’s the main and vital source of protein to have in our diet’. This knowledge have been passed down from many generations, and when I was growing up meat and everything that had a face and a mother would be laying on our dinner table. Not to mention the glass of milk I was told to gulp down every night before I go to bed because it would help me ‘grow strong bones’. There are a lot of information out there that presents evidence that dairy is a cause for many health problems.

It has been known that the countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis are the ones where people drink the most milk!

I find it funny how something as weird as drinking cows’ milk has become a norm in our society and nobody seems to question it. What a system we live in. I feel bad for protein and calcium, it shouldn’t have any relation with human selfishness or greed.

Come on, think about it, do we really need to eat meat for protein? Look at this in a different way, the strongest animals on this planet are herbivores. Take an elephant for example,the strongest land mammal on Earth, what do they eat? Plants. And you’re telling me I need to ingest meat, why? Protein? Don’t make me choke on my salad.

First of all, our teeth are designed to chew. Like most herbivores, we have molars to help grind food, whereas carnivores have long, sharp teeth to attack their prey and rip the meat apart. So, first clue that we were not adapted to ingest meat. Secondly, we have a longer processing digestive system (they say the human intestine measures ten times longer than the length of the body!) and has a more complex process compared to a lion’s digestive system for example. The human body has a digestive system that breaks down food from the moment it enters our mouth, stomach, small intestine and large intestine. A lion’s digestive system is much simpler. The intestine organs are shorter and therefore has a faster digestion adapted to having stronger stomach juices to digest raw meat, which eliminates the need for digestive enzymes humans have. The way our digestive system is allows us to get the most nutrients out of our food, whereas with a lion’s digestive system it allows meat to be digested faster and so it would not rot inside the intestine.

If these clues doesn’t put it in perspective then you have been badly brainwashed.

After I learnt a little bit about the human body, being a vegetarian became more than looking after myself but also the surrounding environment. When I first became a vegetarian, like the myth of eating meat daily for protein, I ingested a lot of eggs cause ‘it’s the next best source of protein’. I would have eggs often, at least once a day! But little did I know eating greens did a better job, and better still you wouldn’t need to obtain food that was produced from a chicken that most likely was trapped in a small cage, it’s beak being snapped off and roammed in their own excretion. (View my post to watch a link about this)

There are no excuses for people to live on meat, egg or dairy anymore. We are not in caveman times. We have so many options for our wellbeing, and our wellbeing right now should be our mind, body and soul. Everything is connected, and why should we be killing animals for something selfish such as taste when consuming produce that are better for our mind, body and soul are readily available. Having wholesome food actually taste better and is SO good for us, but why are people letting themselves be lied to and turning a blind eye to it? Why eat meat that clogs up your arteries? Why drink milk to damage your bones? Why eat eggs when chickens are being treated like s***!

We are the only ones that are stopping ourselves from the truth. It wasn’t easy for me to transition to a vegetarian, and it is a journey right now for me to become vegan, but I won’t let no-one ruin this for me.  I’m in control of my life, my body.

For more information on what plant-based foods are high in protein check out my post here.

If you like this post please like and share, it may help someone also check out my other links!

The effect of a vegetarian diet in this study was “pretty modest,” Eckel said. The more extreme diet—the vegan diet—did not appear to add additional benefits.Most nutritional experts “agree that diets should limit added sugars and sugary drinks, refined grains, and large amounts of saturated and trans fats, [and healthy diets should include] substantial amounts of fruits and vegetables [and] whole grains, legumes, and nuts,” Baron writes. “Achieving these goals trumps the more narrow goals of whether to include moderate amounts of dairy, eggs, fish, or even meat.”Eckel agrees. “We need to get away from this good food/bad food ” concept, he said. The overall diet is what is important. “Is some red meat or saturated fat in a diet appropriate? I think so. Its just a matter of how much.”

via Vegetarian diet linked to longer life in American Adventists | theheart.org.

Let’s restate a bit.  Going vegan may increase your lifespan slightly, but going to a more healthy diet can lead to fewer issues as you age,  thereby increasing your lifespan and your overall quality of life tremendously.

What’s good?  You already know.  Eat real food, mostly plants, just enough quantity to be satisfied.  Adding in some meat and even some treats is going to make that lifestyle much more pleasant for many people, and that will increase your compliance, so it’s good.

Related articles

• Want to Live Longer? Eat a Plant-Based Diet (livescience.com)
• How to Stick to a Vegetarian or Vegan Diet When It’s Not on the Menu (notbiganymore.com)
• Could That Steak Be Killing You? Vegetarian Diets Proven To Increase Life Expectancy (medicaldaily.com)
• Eat to Live (socyberty.com)

1. The “Oh, I’ll just eat this salad”. So perhaps it is time for a family dinner out. Perhaps you’re grabbing a quick bite with your friends before going bowling. Whatever the situation, your vegetarianism poses to possible outcomes. Either your dinner partners kindly take into consideration your dietary requirements and choose a restaurant where you too can enjoy a lovely dinner. Far more likely is the scenario where you end up eating bread and lettuce leaves while your loved ones dig into some delicious flame-grilled beef at the local steakhouse. Because really, who gives a crap about what the herbivore’s gonna eat?
2. The: “oh my God I think my ribs are piercing my skin!” This scenario may ver well be a result of the previous. One month after going vegetarian I was the thinnest and lightest I had ever been. This is NOT as great as it sounds. Being the only herbivore in a house full of enthusiastic meat eaters means lots of fitting in with their meals. After a month of way to many “oh, I’ll just eat breads”, you could play the xylophone on my ribs and hang your keys on my prominent little collarbone. It had gotten so bad that my mom was threatening to force feed me liquified steak through a tube while I slept.
3. The “Hang on, let me check the ingredients!” Every. Single. Time. We go grocery shopping, little old me has to spend a total of at least WayTooLong squinting at ingredients lists printed in what has to be the tiniest, most cramped font known to humankind. Seriously, instant noodles, why is your ingredients list situated RIGHT ON THE FOLD OF THE PACKET?! These situations give me an intense desire to eat a lot of bacon. Not good.
4. The “Why don’t you eat some meat, stupid treehugger!” There are a few things that happen as soon as someone finds out I’m a vegetarian. It usually goes a little like ” Oh. MyGod. You are sooooo strong! I can’t, like, live without meat! Its like, soooo yummy!” This is shortly followed by the question session. “So, where do you get your protein? Do you eat fish? ‘Cause they’re, like, not really animals, right? Why are you a vegetarian anyway?” After this, the individual I am talking to usually resorts to: quiet sympathy, telling me why I should eat some bacon, or loudly and grossly chewing on some or another hunk of meat while rubbing it under my nose.

Being a vegetarian is mostly awesome. I mean, there’s that warm, fuzzy feeling you get inside of you. Vegetarianism is also probably on of the only situations in my entire life where I have managed to maintain strong willpower. Three. Years. Of willpower. No way am I giving that up. Lastly, and this is something few vegetarians will admit, it occasionally does give me a kind of holier-than-thou feeling. And it feels good.

In all seriousness, if you are or do decide to become a vegetarian, please do a bit of research and figure out how you are going to maintain a relatively healthy diet (ha, look at me saying ‘relatively healthy diet. I’m writing this while eating a chip sandwich for lunch). Malnutrition is no joke, even if  key hook collar bones are kinda funny and useful.

Come on, bottomless internet void, it’s the right thing to do!

Vegitt discovers delicious vegetarian food in India and all over the world. It also aims to be a survival guide for vegetarians travelling to fierce meat-eating cities and countries. The blog includes home-cooking ideas and posts about what’s good (or not good) to eat at different restaurants.

Vegitt believes clever and well-made vegetarian food is just as lip-smacking! It need not involve the carving of meat, filleting of fish or boiling of lobsters alive.

ABOUT THE WRITER

I turned vegetarian 15 years ago and it’s the most guilt-free decision I have ever made. I am not perfect, though. I still eat eggs which makes me an eggetarian, like many people I know. This blog will feature eggetarian, vegan and ‘no onion, no garlic’ food whenever possible.

            Everytime I ate meat, I felt sick and my digestive system rebelled against it in a myriad of ways. I began the study of Hatha Yoga (Yoga exercise forms) in my mid-teens and was grateful when my instructor said we all needed to be vegetarian. My mother didn’t give me a hard time and seemed to know all about vegetarian cooking though she had never discussed the idea with me before. She did, however, offer that we ate meat because of my father.

            My system immediately responded joyfully and all the digestive troubles I had had for fifteen years disappeared. It was such a relief to be able to eat and not suffer after effects. My skin started to clear up as well. The physical Yoga exercises, or asanas, greatly improved my posture, flexibility, and overall bodily health.,

            The idea of vegetarianism has been around forever. Most cultures did not eat a lot of meat, especially if they were a settled, non-nomadic people. It is more logical for a nomadic culture to eat a more meat-based diet if they aren’t in one place long enough to grow their food and set up a sustainable agriculture. Today, however, nomadic peoples are on the decline and a rarity at best.

            Years ago, I read a wonderful book called One Man’s Food is Someone Else’s Poison by Dr. James D’Adamo. http://www.amazon.com/Mans-Food-Someone-Elses-Poison/dp/0399900926 In it, he addresses the issue of blood types and their relation to a vegetarian diet. His experiments were performed over a thirty year period and his conclusions were pretty clear. The only blood type which seemed to need some animal protein to be in optimum health—and those proteins can be found in dairy products—was the O blood type. All the rest achieved optimum health and were at their best, especially digestively, when on a vegetarian diet.

            My ex-husband, who is an A+, suffered greatly all his life from hemorrhoids and fissures and even had surgery to repair them. He was a huge meat eater when we got together.  Over the course of three months, I eliminated meat from his diet. Once he was fully vegetarian, all his problems cleared up.

            What is interesting,  the year we split up, sadly he went back to eating meat—almost like an action of rebellion since we were together eleven years—and immediately the old troubles returned. I have no idea what he did after that as I moved away.

            As an O blood type, I love cheese but can barely digest any other kind of dairy, certainly not milk. I love ice cream but it doesn’t always love me. LOL. When  I have tried to eat eggs, they’ve gone right through me. And it’s been so long since I have eaten any of the other things, I wouldn’t know.

            I also feel better knowing I’m not living off the suffering of other innocent creatures. As a great animal lover, I just can’t handle the idea of being responsible for any animal’s death. I have owned three cows and they lived full lives without the fear of the slaughterhouse, the Auschwitz of animals, though Auschwitz was mostly death by gassing, whereas the slaughterhouse involves horrific violence and torture. I can’t even go there right now to discuss that. Perhaps another day.

            If you want to reach God, you absolutely must give up eating animals. You may think you will go to heaven when you die, and you may very possibly go to ‘a’ heaven of the material world, but you will not go to a heaven in the spiritual world, no matter what your religious teacher tells you, or those who have passed over temporarily think they have seen. You will not be allowed into the vibrational energy of purely spiritual beings if you are not a purely spiritual being yourself and that has to start here, in the schoolroom of earth. Then when your material body leaves, your soul will already have reached the level of purity to be able to pass into the spiritual realms. If you don’t become a vegetarian before you die, when that occurs, you may go to a material heaven but eventually you will have to reincarnate again and then you can run the risk of coming back as one of the animals you found so tasty. All of that will depend on your attitude and state of mind.

            Vegetarianism is also the only way our planet is going to survive. The slaughterhouse industry is in fact responsible for more greenhouse gasses than the oil industry, from the methane produced from manure, water pollution cause by animal feces contaminating our waterways and in some areas, even getting into the water table itself, to cutting down forest after forest to increase grasslands for cattle to graze upon. Then there is the trucking of the poor creatures to the slaughterhouses themselves, often over very long distances and water and food are never never ever included in those trips.

            The Nazi’s had nothing on the modern slaughterhouse industry in that regard.  When the Nazi’s sent those rounded up to be killed in Auschwitz, they would put them on cattle cars and the survivors would refer to that very thing when they talked about those events. They were treated like ‘cattle going to the slaughter’ and it was so horrific. But apparently not horrific enough to stop that practise altogether, for today, all over the world, literally millions of animals are taken everyday to slaughterhouses in those intolerable conditions. It is so sad that those being transported can not speak up for or protect themselves.

             It’s amazing how people value human life over animal life and yet most pet owners are devastated when one of their pets die. However, when a so-called domestic animal, reared as a food substance, a no-less sentient being than your pet dog or cat, is callously treated, and it cries in pain and fear, those events go un-noticed. A hundred years ago people in the United States were kept as slaves. They were traded, branded, murdered and bought and sold as items not as people. It took a long time for the powers that be to realize that people are people no matter what their skin tone or facial structure. We are all the same. How long is it going to take for Man to realize that all life forms are the same? When will that be?

            Over the past few weeks, we have discussed the tool of the Maha Mantra as a way to connect with the Godhead. It is important that vegetarianism also be viewed as a tool. It is a tool which will free your consciousness to rise to a more spiritual level. Vegetarianism is part of the introduction to the spiritual world of ‘ahimsa’ or non-violence. To have an ‘ahimsa’ lifestyle one must practise non-violence in all aspects of their life, from words and thoughts of peace and harmony, to eating only peace and harmony. There is no humane or peaceful way to take another’s life. That is illogical.

            We will discuss this topic more over the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you wish to advance in your spiritual life as a spirit soul, it is time you gave up eating meat. I would suggest eliminating beef from your diet immediately, then pork, lamb, game, chicken and other fowl, and then finally fish and seafood. If you do it gradually you may hardly notice the difference, but your body and soul will certainly thank you for the change.

            Gardein www.gardein.com makes wonderful meat substitutes which are vegan. Read the labels carefully on meat substitutes. Gardein uses ancient grains and minimal soy.

            Remember it is only our own arrogance which makes us think we are superior to other beings. Their lives are just as valid as ours. They eat, sleep, love and mate, and will fight to the death to defend themselves and their families. Is that any different from you?

            If this world is to survive, it is time we realized we are part of a great and wonderful eco-system, all of which must co-exist.

            It’s time we were kind and compassionate and took effort to care. It’s easy to pretend not to care and chow down unthinkingly on a burger, but I bet if you visited a slaughterhouse you’d never eat meat again. If that’s what it takes to change your ways, then go for it. You’ll forgive me if I don’t join you. My heart couldn’t handle it.

            Hare Krishna,

            Abhidheya Devi Dasi

I didn’t listen to it at first. I thought it was just a little hiccup, and my body was just having a hissy fit. But little did I know it was having more than that, it was getting ready for a transition, whether I knew it or not.

I’ve been a vegetarian for over 8 years now, but I was a bad one. When I say bad I don’t mean ‘have meat on some occasions’ bad (cause that’s what some people think when I mention this), but rather I ate quite a lot of junk food. Most vegetarians will know that being labelled as a ‘vegetarian’ people think you don’t have much options on what to eat.. BUT THEY ARE SO WRONG, in my case I ate quite, no, very badly and a lot of it.

From all the bad eating, it all slowly crept up on me. You would think eating vegetarian was healthy, but for me and all the unhealthy food I was having wrecked my body as well as my lifestyle. I was gaining more weight and feeling sluggish (although this was during my high school days and other things were also happening in my life that affected the way I felt). I kept on with being vegetarian though, as hard as it was, especially hanging out with a group of friends that loved their meat. Even going out to eat at first was socially depressing, but something in me kept pushing me to carry on with it. And through the determination, mostly from what I learnt, researched and educated myself with on society and the environment relating to eating meat, I decided to motivate myself to push even harder to never going back to eating meat ever again.

I must say the first couple of months was the hardest but slowly I came into my comfort zone with being a vegetarian. I didn’t care that I was the ‘odd one out’, or the ‘fussy eater’, I was proud of the fact that meat was not a part of my life anymore.

But even with keeping with a vegetarian lifestyle, I felt there was something I was doing that wasn’t quite right. And it was mainly through eating things that were ‘vegetarian’ but what I thought I shouldn’t really be eating. In the back of my mind, I felt that eating egg or drinking milk shouldn’t be classed as vegetarian. Vegetarian, to me, was a lifestyle to stop the process of using animals in my daily life, and every time I would make an omelette I didn’t know whether I should feel guilty or when I ate a piece of cake if that gut feeling was telling me I shouldn’t (even though it tasted so damn good).

Vegan, at the time, wasn’t even considered an option for me. I didn’t really know about veganism to be honest, and from a young age (I was still in high school when I first turned vegetarian) I was told that I had to have protein and calcium in my diet, and if it wasn’t from meat it had to be from egg and milk. In a few years to come I would find out this is absolutely B***S*** but that’s just another post you can read more about by clicking here.

Vegetarian was a less ‘severe’ option for people to deal with at the time. And to be fair, I think it was a transition I had to deal with myself to slowly recover my body from all the meat I had ate in my life before then. But if only I realised the other food I tried to replace meat with was actually not helping but may have been just as worst for my body and digestive system!

Fast forward a few more years, and here I am, jumping backwards and forwards with being a vegetarian and a vegan. My body knows that being vegan is best for me, but my social life didn’t let it happen. Becoming vegan meant that I had to stop eating all the ‘good tasting’ food, and that I couldn’t go out to eat anymore, or that I couldn’t really have a social life.. well I learnt that this is not necessarily true at all! The ‘good tasting’ food to me at the time was the unhealthy food; crisps, ice cream, cake, pizzas, burgers, etc. But did I really need to have these food in my life?

I’m not just saying this, but once I committed myself to being vegan I felt a weight lifted off my shoulders! I saw food in a different light, not only was there vegan food that tasted SO GOOD, but it was also healthy for you too! And there was so many different options! Not like what your parents or friends may think, which most of mine think I now have rabbit food, that may be true in some cases though I’m not going to lie, but it’s good ‘rabbit food’

From eating clean, you respect your body more and this links with your mind aswell as your inner being; your soul. And I knew that this day would come, I just didn’t know when until it hit me hard in the face. There was many times my body was telling me to transition and it would let me take my time to slowly go into it but I would disrespect my body at these critical times and I had to make up for it. There were times where I would tell myself “Ok, in three days time you’re going to go fully vegan. So, let’s binge out on all the junk food you can get your hands on until then.” This was the relationship I had with food most of the time, and especially when I was transitioning. And this was the main reason I would jump in and out of becoming vegan.

So, when I took a step back and told myself; it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. My body adapted to the situation better. And I can tell that my body is now taking it in slowly, detoxing the harm I have been putting it through, and bit by bit replacing it with the good whole foods I am now ingesting into my temple.

The amount of things I can talk about with how I treated my body would be absolutely disgraceful to say the least. And not a lot of people know this about me ’cause I hid it well, actually nobody does. It’s an unhealthy relationship I’ve dealt with in my life, the relationship with food in general. And it’s through this that I have come to terms with listening to my body, helping myself, as well as helping other people who may be in the same situation as me. Therefore, I decided to start blogging about my experience in, what I think is the best lifestyle there would be with food, becoming fully vegan.

So, feel free to follow me on this journey, hopefully my footsteps may lead you to a better road a head.

If you like this post please like and share, it may help someone also check out my other links!

When I was about ten years old I told my parents that I wanted to be a vegetarian. In hindsight it was probably because the family friend’s daughter we were on holiday with was a staunch vegetarian, and I was easily influenced as a child. Anyway I’m pretty sure my meat free diet lasted less than a few days, and since that time the idea of turning veggie has never seriously crossed my mind.

The truth is I love meat. I don’t necessarily eat it every day, and I am certainly not someone who thinks a meal isn’t a meal without some, but I would say 80% of my meals contain some kind of animal product. Steak would always be my first choice in a restaurant, and my idea of treating myself is a string of posh sausages, or a pork pie, from the local butchers.

However, I have recently had a change of heart, or perhaps a pang of conscience, and this was mainly due to the following:

• Firstly I watched this documentary. As well a passion for eating good food, I am interested in how food is produced and generally in trying to live in a more sustainable way. Food, Inc. by Robert Kenner made it very clear that an insatiable appetite for flesh is environmentally unsustainable and brings about a cruel and dangerous meat trade. Granted, it was based on the American food industry, and I live in the UK, but the documentary’s conclusions can be applied universally.
• I also read two articles in The Guardian, available here and here.
• And finally I watched this TED talk by Graham Hill, after which everything seemed to fall into place.

Like Graham, I was never going to become a full time vegetarian, but I could definitely see myself as a weekday vegetarian. And as he said in his TED talk, [If you eat meat every day] ‘Cutting 5 days a week is cutting 70% of your meat intake’ so ‘If we eat half as much meat if would be like half of us are vegetarians’.

It chilled me to my bones. Turned my stomach. Then I decided to read the post that went with the photo. It was an extract from this book about the horrific treatment of animals in some US slaughter houses. I felt the blood drain from my face as I read it and I started feeling sick.

As a vegetarian I believe it is completely not necessary to kill animals for food. It’s selfish – who are we to decide we can kill these innocent animals just to satisfy our taste. We no longer need to eat meat as you can have a completely balanced diet without consuming meat.

What we do to animals is sick – electrocute them, knock them out, shoot them, drain their blood, cut them into pieces, mince them, discarding the bits we don’t “need”. We then place pieces of their bodies into various packets to display in meat isles – what an attractive display it makes too. Cows, pigs, chickens, lambs.. all on display in the isle of death in almost every supermarket. People casually picking up these bits of flesh to cook and eat.

What the book tells us about –  is even more disturbing and horrific. Some sadistic, sick people torture the animals in the slaughter house. “I cut of a hog’s nose, just sliced it off, then grabbed a handful of salt and rubbed it in to it’s nose. It was squealing. Then I grabbed more salt and shoved it up it’s backside. It didn’t know whether to shit it’s self or go blind” … The words of one of the workers in these torture houses. They also talk of animals not being stunned correctly – shoving the rods up animals backsides, through their eyes, down their throats. Some animals are still alive when they are hung up with meat hooks. Still alive when their skin is peeled off. Still alive when they start to cut them up.

It’s disgusting they way some humans treat animals.They are living creatures like you and me and do not deserve such abhorrent treatment.

I’m vegetarian, others are vegan. You can help stop this awful treatment of innocent animals. Go veggie, go vegan. Together we can make a difference.

I’m the type of person that has to have things planned out. I make lists for everything and ‘attempt’ to find the best way to accomplish something. It doesn’t always end up being the best way but I sure do try.

One thing that I am defiantly not able to do on a whim is start a healthy diet. I’ve tried before to just go to the store and get food I believe to be healthy and I always end up with something that is either too fatty, sugary, carb loaded… etc. Because of this I never manage to fully change my diet to a healthy one. I try so hard to eat healthy but because I’m not on a set plan – the bad stuff creeps into my daily diet.

On the other hand… there are so many “diets” out there that I have no clue what actually works for me. Is it just counting calories, cutting out sweets, etc?, is it low carb…. low fat… macrobiotic.. I have no clue. Partially because I have no clue what more than half of the legitimate diets entail. Also, it is easy to feed into the media and hype about a diet and believe that it is a good thing when it’s actually not. So I partially want to figure out which diets are actually worthy of being listed as a “healthy lifestyle”. Secondly, I don’t know my body well enough to know what kind of diet I should have. Everyone’s nutrition needs are different and I want to know what mine are. I don’t want to question if I am going to be able to digest a piece of food or give me some sort of other adverse health effect.

So with that being said…. I’m going to become a “sampler of diets”.

When I say sampler of diets, however, I don’t mean the completely absurd,trendy diets like the baby food diet, the hot dog diet, or the twinkie diet (yes, apparently you can lose weight only eating high fat, high sugar, and processed snacks like twinkies). From what I can tell from these ‘crackpot’ diets is that you basically lose weight via starvation. No one can get the nutrients they need from eating just twinkies or hot dogs. So, no.. no diets like that.

I am going to sample actual diets that regulate the amounts of certain foods you eat but still allow you to eat enough to get satisfied and get the nutrients that your body needs (Weight watchers, Atkins, Macrobiotic, etc). While doing this I plan on doing research about each diet that I try – in order to fully understand what it is I am doing. By doing this, I can figure out what lifestyle works best for my body… which helps me lose the most weight and helps me feel my best.

I haven’t fully worked out the details yet but I will most likely stay on each one for a couple of weeks or months – long enough to see results and be able to document the results along with how I feel and the upside/downside of each diet.

Another perk of me doing this is that there are a few diets that genuinely peak my interest. For example, the whole foods diet. I’m not sure completely what it is but I have looked at a little literature over it and it seems interesting. Another way of eating that holds my attention is anything dealing with vegetarianism or partial vegetarianism (like the pescetarian diet *vegetarian based but includes seafood*). I am interested in those diets partially because most meat in general makes me feel physically bad but I am also very passionate about animals so eating them makes me feel mentally sick.

I do plan on maintaining other healthy habits that are pretty much required to be healthy – exercise, plenty of water, etc.

After all is said and done and I have tried out all the diets that I want to try – I will make whichever one I liked best and had the best results from my lifestyle. That’s the point of this entire experiment after all – to find which food lifestyle is best for me personally.

Be Healthy Be Whole!Carrying on from part 1 there was one incident which happened whilst out shopping one day there had been the usual staring and I did as I usually did and ignored the ignorance of full-grown adults, besides that day was a good day because Amber had not been very itchy so being out was remarkably enjoyable. It was just Amber and I on this trip and I had stacked all the shopping onto the conveyor belt and I stood in line waiting my turn when the women in front turned looked at Amber then me (you can imagine how close she was in the check out line) and proceeded to tell me she was a paediatrician  and in her opinion whatever I was doing was not working. To be honest 

Be Healthy Be Whole

www.whole4life.co.uk

Whole4life

Staying eczema free and healthy for us is a life choice!

I could just be running on newly-vegan-adrenaline, but I swear I can feel a change in my body. I feel lean and energized, and I love it.

The hardest part is, as I had suspected, being conscious of everything I’m putting into my body again. After a year or so of being vegetarian, you’re able to zip through label reading so quickly that most people probably wouldn’t even notice you had done it. Now, I’m having to step back and actually read every line and it’s tasking. I’m no complaining, it’s just something I’ll adapt to eventually.

I’ve also taken care to be more conscious of the products I’m using. For some reason (and I’m HIGHLY ashamed to admit), I didn’t put too much thought into the beauty/cleaning products I was using. I’ve made some small changes already (makeup and shampoo), and I’m slowing phasing out the rest of the products I own that aren’t as forthcoming with their cruelty practices. As much as I’d love to toss it all in the trash right now, wasting the products I’ve already spent my money one would be just as harmful to the environment and my wallet. So once a bottle runs empty, it’s replaced with something organic and eco-friendly. 

Ideally, I’d like to update once a week on this subject, but I’m just feeling too good today to not mention it!

In the mean time, you can also keep up to date with us on facebook and twitter via;

https://www.facebook.com/WMSwiftButchers

https://twitter.com/WMSwiftButchers

Other ideas- aubergine & ricotta bake, spring vegetable stew, frittata, mushroom risotto, stuffed peppers…mmmm

In situations like this one, or when I am visiting a friend’s house for dinner, I often call myself a vegetarian – the one rule I will not break.  If somebody’s mom orders cheese pizza for dinner, I will eat it.  I am fortunate enough that occasionally adding dairy or eggs into my diet does not make me ill – for my sister, who needs to eat strictly vegan for digestive reasons, it’s not that simple.  Also, I have found that in my area, there are some people who are confused about what a vegan can and cannot eat. Once, a girl tried to give me chicken noodle soup, which would make no sense even if I said I was only a vegetarian.  At this restaurant, I was hoping that he might know of something I could eat that was at the least, meat-free.  Luckily, he had some rice and beans behind the counter, and was kind enough to cook me a sweet plantain.  I had never tried plantain before, and apart from being fried in oil, they were sweet and delicious! In the end, I was able to eat vegan, only temporarily sacrificing my raw tastes for one meal of the deal.

I think that this post helps to explain exactly what I mean by vegarawatarian.  Maybe some people would disagree with me that allowing this degree of flexibility in my food choices makes me a vegan, and rather classifies me as a ‘mostly vegan’, or not even one at all. In my mind, as long as the food I am eating on a regular basis makes me feel good, does not make me feel restricted in my social life, and shows others that I am willing to be flexible (so they don’t avoid asking me to do things with them – it’s happened before!), then I feel completely satisfied with my lifestyle.  Over and over again, we see things like ‘Diets are not one size fit all’ and I agree with that completely.  For some people, a vegetarian lifestyle is all that is doable – and that is great!  Others choose vegan for their own reasons, and some choose raw because they are willing to commit to that lifestyle.  It all depends on what works for you, and I find that being a vegarawatarian is the healthiest, and easiest way for me to live. I will say that on a day to day basis, when I am not with friends or eating out, I eat almost 100% raw.  Because I am new to this lifestyle, I want to commit to it as completely as I can so that I can learn the benefits and options before I decide to commit as completely as I did vegetarian.  If a few months from now, I’m cooking my quinoa rather than sprouting it, or baking a batch of vegan cookies, I won’t say I’m no longer raw – I’ll just continue to consider myself vegarawatarian.

Vegetarianism Study Proves Vital in Disease Prevention

-By David Novak

If you’re heart conscious, meat may not be your friend. A recent research project, conducted by Oxford University, found that a vegetarian diet can significantly reduce the risk of heart disease…to the tune of up to 32%. The study accounted for several variables including, activity level, age, sex, and whether the participant smoked or not.

Watching any National Heart Association commercial has probably schooled the entire population that heart disease is the single largest cause of death in the world. The new findings from Oxford revealed that a vegetarian diet could significantly reduce people’s risk of heart disease. Even when adjusting for body mass index, vegetarianism was found to reduce heart disease risk by 28-percent.

“Most of the difference in risk is probably caused by effects on cholesterol and blood pressure, and shows the important role of diet in the prevention of heart disease,” explains Dr. Francesca Crowe, lead author of the study at the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford.

This is the largest study ever conducted on a vegetarian lifestyle’s relationship to heart disease, comparing rates of heart disease between vegetarians and non-vegetarians. In fact, the study included over 45,000 people with 34% of them vegetarian eaters. Such a large group of vegetarians in one study allowed researchers to make more accurate estimates of the heart disease risks between vegetarian and non-vegetarian eaters.

So what can we ascertain from choosing leafy greens over meaty animal fat? As noted by Dr. Crowe, it has everything to do with lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels found in those who eat primarily vegetarian foods. Additionally, vegetarians in the study also generally had lower Body Mass Index, and fewer cases of diabetes and other organ diseases occurred. This is an important point to make. While vegetarianism is considered best for the prevention of heart disease, a healthy vegetarian lifestyle can also help prevent many other diseases, such as certain types of cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and a host of other life maladies.

“The results clearly show that the risk of heart disease in vegetarians is about a third lower than in comparable non-vegetarians,” said Professor Tim Key, co-author of the study and deputy director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford.

So if you’re in denial about the importance of diet, take heed to this study. A balanced vegetarian diet is now being endorsed by major studies in the field, suggesting that vegetarian diets can increase your life span, help you lose weight, reduce cancer risks and improve your mood.

If you’re not up to giving up meat completely, you could always a try a flexitarian diet. Essentially flexitarianism is a part-time vegetarian, where the majority of the diet is veggies and fruits, but allows for the occasional meat bender. Either way you slice it, though, the findings reinforce the idea that diet is central to prevention of heart disease and many other diseases, and builds on previous work looking at the influence of vegetarian diets.

David Novak is a international syndicated newspaper columnist, appearing in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV around the world. His byline has appeared in GQ, National Geographic, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Reader’s Digest, USA Today, among others, and he has appeared on The Today Show, the CBS Morning Show and Paul Harvey Radio. David is a specialist at consumer technology, health and fitness, and he also owns a PR firm and a consulting company where he and his staff focus on these industries. He is a regular contributing editor for Healthline.com. For more information, visit here.  

Until recently I’ve always thought that I had to give myself a label or be good at one particular thing in order to have any self-worth, that I had to be the funny one or the pretty one or the clever one. I dabbled in various things whether it be a new hobby or a type of diet that looked interesting or a new idea and each time I felt a little let down that I didn’t feel more like I’d found my place…

And then one day it dawned on me. I am not just one thing – I am several. And the label that I had been trying to give myself for so long was staring me straight in the face. It was called “Emma”.

I am Emma. I love animals, dancing like an idiot, laughing so hard at absolutely nothing, being a geek, wearing no makeup and trackies, dressing up to go out, high shoes, wearing no shoes, eating food with my hands, having a night in alone, watching funny videos on You Tube, singing in the car, the sunshine, the rain, the snow, early mornings and lay ins. I am made up of a million things that allow me to be one thing – me.

And the same goes for what I now eat and how I life my daily life. If I want to eat raw foods one day, I will. If I want to go easy on the meat another day, helloooo “Meat Free Monday”. If I’ve cut out all dairy but one day a Nutella jar is looking up at me screaming “EAT ME!” then chances are I’m going to nose dive in head first and you won’t see me for several hours.

I now make decisions on what I want and how I want to feel and I take away all of the pressure that’s involved in conforming to be one particular thing. Because let’s face it, life is forever changing and on some levels you have to just kind of go with it.

And to be quite honest, having this kind of balanced approach seems to be working for me. Nothing is off limits. If I want to eat ice cream for a whole day and nothing else, I will. If I want to go out and drink tequila and throw some t rex shapes on the dance floor, I’m doing it!

Making healthy and clever decisions seems to come more naturally now I don’t restrict or ban or class myself as one thing or another. Life is about having fun with friends and family and living in the moment! I want to eat well and workout most of the time because this is what keeps my body healthy and carries me to that next fun moment so it makes sense for me to do this. But drinking cocktails and sharing a bag of malteesers occasionally with my girls is what’s good for my soul and isn’t that just as important…?

As a child, we would travel to Louisville once a year to see the extended  family. All of my grandparents (bless them) lived up there, and for me the trip was about seeing the Smokey Mountains, drinking Big Red with my Aunt Helen, and running around barefoot in Bluegrass chasing lightning bugs! The trip would take about a day, and not being able to read in the car, I would always be looking around. I remember forming my hands into the shape of a photo frame and believing I was taking photos for National Geographic. Waterfalls, other kids in cars, horses in trailers and picnic scenes at rest stops were key subjects in my portfolio. I also remember playing the alphabet game with my Dad, who always won because he was driving and had the best point of view, but what did I know?

And I also remember the first time I saw a livestock trailer. I had to be about 9. I remember laying in the backseat of the van looking out and noticing pigs in a metal container. I asked my mom what that was and her response was “pigs”. Because my Dad worked at a dairy farm I was  familiar with the concept of livestock and the cruelty we place on animals. I swore off milk at a very early age, because of the practice of separating a calf from their mother after only a couple of days of life hurt my heart. And maybe it was my understanding of the pain we place on dairy cows that helped me understand what we  also do to other “food products”. As we pulled away from the trailer, I laid there thinking about how unfair it was for the pigs. The suffering, the pain, the cruelty – it overwhelmed me. And that’s when I started to cry. I cried in silence for a good 30 minutes. I laid back there alone, crying over the pain we place on others so we can “benefit.” And to this day, I get emotional when I see a livestock trailer.

Given my memories and knowledge, I have to ask myself “How can I eat meat?” I have made it a goal this year to reduce my demand for meat monthly, as an attempt to rediscover my inner vegetarian. However the real question I should be asking myself is “why can’t I just quit?” And the answer is … last Sunday I did!

Dear Lonely Planet,

I am writing to you about the Timor-Leste Lonely Planet, which I feel is in need of an update.

I have lived in Timor-Leste since July 2012, and I absolutely love travelling in this small country. Before I came to Timor, I bought the 3^rd edition of this country’s Lonely Planet, published in July 2011. While this book has been useful at times I believe that the current version is no longer appropriate for Timor-Leste post-UNMIT with the country now focussing more on tourism and less on post-conflict reconstruction.

The Government of Timor-Leste is trying hard to promote tourism to this new country, and I don’t think that this goal is far-fetched at all. Travelling in Timor-Leste is incredibly enjoyable. I have travelled extensively – throughout all of the countries in South-East Asia, and through India, Nepal, most of South America and parts of Central America, as well as many countries in the developed world (north America and Europe). Given my travel experience, I can confidently say that travelling in Timor-Leste is a very unique experience. Travel in Timor is an adventure – you never know just what you’re going to get, but chances are your surprises will be pleasant. Unlike most other countries in this region, there is no ‘beaten path’ in Timor-Leste, and I think this would attract a certain type of traveller looking for something more adventurous than your standard Thailand-Laos-Cambodia-Vietnam route… if only they knew about the opportunities for fantastic travel that Timor offers.

This, of course, is where Lonely Planet comes in. I don’t feel that the current edition of the Timor-Leste Lonely Planet does enough to ‘sell’ the country. I know that Lonely Planet prides itself on presenting countries as objectively as possible, but I feel that the Lonely Planet for Timor-Leste really underplays the joys to be had while travelling here.  For example, the ‘Top 10 Experiences’ section of the book – likely the first pages that anyone picking it up will read – are, in my opinion, pretty uninspiring. No. #2 is the Dili marathon and no. #3 is the Tour de Timor. The reality is that these are niche experiences most tourists are just not looking for from their travel. No. #6 is  ‘Seafood in Dili’. Seriously? How many people will be inspired to travel to another country just on the promise of good seafood? Not me or any of the other vegetarians in the world, that’s for sure. My suggested replacements for these three in the top 10 would be Ossu with its beautiful river, Mt Mundo Perdido and verdant jungle; relaxing beach-side at Artauro Island or Caimeo Beach in Liquica (this place is not even in the book as the great accommodation and restaurant were only built last year); and feeling like an archaeologist while exploring the numerous overgrown Portuguese ruins scattered across the country.

The information provided in the book is also very minimal. I recently travelled to Same for a long weekend. Nowhere in the Lonely Planet were mentioned the interesting Portuguese and Indonesian buildings I found at the top of a hill after a beautiful walk through the jungle, or the ruins of a grand Portuguese church set in amongst  idyllic fields. Similar omissions can be found throughout the book. For example, the town that I climbed Mt Mate Bien from doesn’t even get a mention.

Finally, a lot of the information in the 2011 Lonely Planet is now out-dated or incorrect. The Foreword by Jose Ramos-Horta is terribly dated – he is no longer the President and the Presidential Palace is no longer open to the public as described. In terms of contact details, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but all of the phone-numbers are now incorrect as Timor Telecom added an additional 7 in front of all phone numbers last year. Two new telecommunication companies have recently opened up which will also change the communications options available here. Much other ‘need to know’ information is also incomplete. For example, new medical clinics have recently opened and internet access is much better than the book would lead one to believe. Airline details need to be updated as carriers have recently changed and references to the UN presence should be scaled back given that UNMIT withdrew in December 2012. Many new businesses now exist that also deserve a mention

I’m not writing to you just to have a whinge – I’m writing with a proposition! I will be living in Timor-Leste for at least another year and would be very happy to offer my services to help update the Lonely Planet for this little country. I believe the standard of my writing is up to scratch and I’ve been using the Lonely Planet in my travels for over 10 years so I’m familiar with the style of the book (even though I note recent changes in format).

Please feel free to visit my blog, Adventures in Life and Living (www.adventuresinlifeandliving.wordpress.com) for examples of my writing. My post entitled ‘Not your average family holiday’ gives an indication of my capacity for travel writing. I’ve also written sample text for the town of Same to demonstrate additions I’d make to the existing text which I’d be happy to submit.

Best wishes,

XXX