vegangirl.com

Call me a sentimental vegan if you like, but I can’t bear to hurt nature’s miraculous little robots – the ants. Even before I ever considered going vegetarian, I flicked one off a wooden foot bridge and into the creek below. The guilt of that moment haunted me for quite some time. Maybe it even still does a little.

About a week ago, ants discovered my cat food bowls. For several days in a row, I’d wake up in the morning to find ants swarming the uneaten food leftover from the cats’ dinner the previous evening. Maybe it’s the summer heat, but the cats have taken to slowly eating their food in a few phases, rather than wolfing it all down at once, thereby preventing me from cleaning their bowls thoroughly before I go to bed.

But no matter, I discovered a solution. The cat food moat! Simply find a tupperwear bowl or other shallow container that is slightly bigger than the food bowl, fill it with an inch or less of water, and center the food bowl in the middle. Make sure the food bowl is at least a half-inch away from all sides of the tupperware or the ants may still be able to make their way across without going near the water.

My kitchen is now completely ant-free! No harm came to any ants and I didn’t need to poison my home with chemicals.

Outside the grocery store this weekend, a man was selling pints of blueberries, picked fresh on his farm that very morning. He had a couple of blueberry bushes for sale as well for $24.95 each. Always looking to be more self-sufficient, I couldn’t resist taking my own blueberry bush home with me.

The farmer was happy to give me some advice about how best to plant it, and I got some further instruction from the guy at the local garden supply store.

Blueberry bushes can tolerate some shade, but the more sun they get the better they grow. Also, because my yard has a lot of clay, I need to take extra care to add some things to the soil so that the roots don’t get soaked with water.

The farmer suggested that after digging a hole for the bush, that I put some mulch at the bottom to lift the roots up away from the clay. The bush should then sit a few inches higher than the level of the yard around it. That way, if it rains, the water will have somewhere to go, away from the roots, until it is able to absorb fully into the ground.

The man at the garden supply store recommended adding something called “Nature’s Helper” which is a soil conditioner. It costs less than $3 for a 20 pound bag. He suggested that I mix in some of the yard dirt in with the Nature’s Helper to “get the plant used to the yard.”

They are the experts so I followed these instructions as best I could.

When I decided to start gardening (see earlier posts in this category) I really thought that by now I would have a lovely backyard garden, springing forth a bounty of fruits and vegetables. It’s taking a long time to get that going. I need to bring in some decent dirt and finish loosening up what’s there with a pickax. I’ve been dragging my feet on it quite a bit due to the expense and the effort involved.

But that’s no reason not to get some other gardening projects done. I always thought that planting herbs around my front yard would be a practical and beautiful addition to the decorative plants that are already there. There is probably a “right” way to do that. Waiting until I found the motivation to look into all of that was just holding me back from actually doing it.

I’ve had a potted mint plant in my kitchen for months, doing quite well. I recently saw a cilantro plant for sale at the grocery store and just had to bring it home. My kitchen counter was getting too crowded so I figured it was time to plant the herbs.

So, what was the complex process for starting my “herb garden”? I dug a hole, planted the herbs, and gave them a little water. After 2 days, they look quite well. I’ll post another picture after they’ve either flourished or died.

You know if Oprah is doing it, then half the soccer moms in the Western world are soon to follow. Oprah Winfrey is several days into a 21-day vegan cleanse. She will eat no meat, dairy, eggs, sugar, gluten, or caffeine. Good for Oprah!

Read the full story on People

This is the same woman who went to court with Howard Lyman, the “Mad Cowboy,” over her comments that information about cows being fed to other cows “stopped me cold from ever eating another burger.” Does anyone know if she stuck with that promise?

You go, Oprah!

This Tutsi man was nearly burned to death along with 100 of his friends and neighbors by rival Hutus. He narrowly escaped through a window but suffered severe burns that reached all the way to the bone of his right shin. He is now set to run in the London Marathon and hopes to make it to the Olympics.

In 1996, he came face-to-face with the man in charge of killing him and those many others who were not so lucky. As this mass murderer begged forgiveness at Tuhabonye’s feet, he let him go free.

“If I can let someone who tried to kill me go free, I can do anything – it inspired me.”

What are you still holding on to?

Read the full story on BBC.

It’s been almost 3 months since I covered up my new garden area with black plastic in order to kill the weeds and lawn underneath. Amazingly, some of the plants are still alive under there, so I’ve decided to move the process along by breaking up the dirt with a pickax and pulling out the weeds. In retrospect, maybe I should have hacked up the yard first to cut the plants from their roots.

Pickaxing the ground is a lot of hard work, so I will be doing a small area at a time over the next couple of weeks. Once an area of dirt is broken up, it’s very easy to pull the weeds out from the roots. You can also run your hands or a rake through the dirt and find a lot of stray roots that way. When I’m done for the day, I am going to cover the dirt back up to keep killing off any plants that may still have roots down there.

I want to reiterate that I am not an experienced gardener. I am figuring things out as I go based on what I remember from years ago, what I learn from friends, and what I find on the internet. Any advice is welcomed.

The first time I ever tried on a mood ring in junior high school, I was sure that it was broken. It stayed black – didn’t change color at all. But when my friend tried on the same ring, it immediately turned blue. I touched it again and it turned right back to black. My whole life I have had freezing hands and feet. I have always had to wear socks to bed so I don’t accidentally shock my partner with my ice cold feet at night. I knew it was a sign of poor circulation but I never knew what to do about it.

Last week, I was in a toy store, shopping for my nephew’s birthday when I spotted a shelf full of little mood rings. Reminiscing on my childhood, I tried one on. To my amazement, it turned a deep, dark blue! Thinking, again, that it must be broken, I tried on several rings, all with the same result. I purchased a little snail-shaped mood ring for $2 and have been wearing it all week.

I can’t prove it, but I believe this great improvement in circulation is the result of my daily visits to the Migun massage bed store. Improved circulation is one of the health benefits that the FDA allows them to advertise, because research has supported the claim. Well, I’m supporting the claim as well.

I’ve also stopped wearing socks to bed.

I often hear people say that food cravings are an indication that your body needs nutrients that are in the food you are craving. For the vast majority of people, this is a complete fallacy. Through years of junk food abuse, our bodies have become addicted to foods that make us feel terrible. This is no different from cravings for cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs. We can become addicted to meat, sugar, wheat, dairy, salt, etc.

I’m a “food-motivated” individual, so I sympathize with people suffering from uncontrollable food cravings. I haven’t completely eliminated mine, but I’m getting pretty close, so I thought I’d share a few strategies that I have used to combat them. I’ll admit up front that I have no way of knowing whether these strategies were actually effective or if it was just a coincidence.

• Probiotics: Our digestive tracts should be teaming with healthy bacteria that helps us digest food and produce nutrients. Due to overuse of antibiotics (in people and in food animals) many of us no longer have nearly enough healthy bacteria. Making things worse, a lack of healthy bacteria allows unhealthy bacteria to colonize. The theory goes that these unhealthy bacteria actually crave the sugar and processed carbohydrates so that they can continue to thrive. Get rid of the bad bacteria and replace it with good bacteria, and the cravings subside. I took these high quality probiotics every day for about 3 months. I can’t prove it was the probiotics, but unhealthy comfort foods stopped appealing to me during that time, and my diet became much cleaner with no real mental effort on my part.
• Colonic irrigation: Ew gross, I know. Believe me, I don’t really want to talk about it. But these do wonders. I was having near constant pasta cravings for months and ever since I got a colonic in January, that craving has not returned. They are supposed to be great for a whole host of other health issues too, and several of the health gurus swear by them.
• Endive: According to Victoria Boutenko’s book, Green for Life, a leafy green known as endive contains the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine, which help fight food cravings. I have no personal experience with this, but I thought I’d mention it.
• Time: It may be a cliche, but the passage of time really helps. When I gave up meat, I craved bacon for at least 3 years. Eventually it did pass. A couple of times I ate non-vegan foods by accident and they actually tasted quite foul because my tastes adjusted naturally along with my diet.

The easing of the food cravings hasn’t been all good though. My biggest problem these days is that I still get strong urges to indulge in “forbidden foods” but none of the old comfort foods look good to me anymore and they never taste nearly as good as I remember them. My body seems to thrive on fresh whole foods. My mind has a lot of catching up to do. This can make for some very frustrating trips to the grocery store.

There is a horrifying trend in the U.S. to put everyone on pharmaceuticals for mood disorders, rather than trying to find and correct the underlying cause. The medical industry wants us to buy into this idea that we are helpless victims of circumstance, rather than in control of our physical and mental health. They dismiss diet, exercise, and environmental factors as possible minor contributors, but even that seems to be too “inconclusive” for them.

As far as I can tell, they will slap a “disorder” label on perfectly normal people, just so they can cure them with pills. I remember a commercial from a few years ago for an anti-depressant that directed people to ask their doctor about some pill if they have felt depressed for longer than 2 weeks. Anyone who has ever been dumped, worked at a job they hated, or suffered a loss in the family has surely felt depressed for at least that long. I have, and I didn’t take any pills, but somehow I turned out just fine.

Aside from the big question of whether we really need all of these pills, there may be a bigger question of whether these pills even work at all. Leave it to the U.K. to tell us what many have suspected all along: Antidepressants don’t work. For most people, that is. This is a very interesting article that offers an alternative view to our current pharmaceutical culture.

Sadly, in their list of treatments that do work (at the bottom of the page) they make no mention of diet. I can tell you first hand, as can many others, that what we eat and drink does affect mood. Because the effect is often not immediate, many people may not see the connection.

• Alcohol: Without exception, when I drink alcohol, I will feel depressed 1-2 days later. Old, familiar, self-hating comments will repeat in my head.
• Sugar and processed carbs: After the sugar high wears off, I will barely feel like making an effort to do anything. I may also start feeling like there was no reason to get up in the morning since I’m wasting my life away anyway.
• Gluten and wheat: Similar effect to sugar and processed carbs only more severe and with the added physical symptoms of lethargy, headache, achy muscles, and sore throat to make me feel like doing anything is too much trouble.

On the flip side, many people who have adopted a raw food diet, or given up dairy or meat, have reported feeling happy and unburdened. Some have given up their medications just from changing the way they eat. I do not know why diet is so often overlooked or considered only a minor player in our mental health. As individuals, we need to take it upon ourselves to find a diet and lifestyle that works best for us. Doctors aren’t going to offer much useful guidance.

I watched this video today and realized almost immediately the cause of at least half of the anxiety and unhappiness that permeates my life. Generally speaking, I am a fairly happy and care-free person. I don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future. Well, not too much at least. But even so, I realize now that there is a constant undercurrent of anxiety as a result of the multitude of choices I am faced on a daily basis.

Just watching this video, and being made aware of the phenomenon, lifts a lot of the weight off my shoulders. This seems like an important component of simplifying your life, which I think is essential for happiness.