People get emotionally attached to food.  Whale pods are found to have a varied diet based upon what the young were raised to think of as fuel. They hunt and dine according to their teaching.  Like them, we’re taught at a young age what food is.  If you were brought up on slow food, where a garden was grown with care, your parents brought home fresh produce and meals centered around wholesome home cooking that included fresh salads, fruits, and raw or lightly steamed veggies or lucky enough to be raised by hippies that went vegetarian and all organic, man, you have a lucky leg up on the rest of us.  I was lucky enough to discover Seventh Day Adventism as a teen where most eat Old Testament or vegetarian. This is why the SDAs are their own blue zone with folks living triple-digit life spans. If you were raised in an environment where your parents weren’t knowledgeable about what food really is, didn’t cook, relied upon take-out and Wendys, then you’ve probably absorbed those habits as an adult. If you have kids, they have learned from you what food is.  While challenging, these habits can be broken once we begin to realize what we are doing to ourselves and gain some self-respect and self-love and acceptance.

When we think about illnesses, we think in terms of family history and diseases that run in families.  We tend to say ‘Cancer runs in our family’, or Diabetes, or heart disease rather than to acknowledge the truth, and self-empowerment in that truth, that it’s the fuel we feed our bodies that causes the disease. It’s our lifestyle that invites or shuns disease.  In 90-95% of the cases, it isn’t your DNA. DNA, over time, is absolutely affected by generations of poor diet and lifestyle as we propagate our species and when I hear about this stuff I always go back to the bible where, as a kid and later as a teen, I remained flummoxed as to why God would be so mean as to decree the sins of the father should be played out on his children and his children’s children.  Now I believe it was not meanness, but a warning because these things are just simply so, how it all works.  This is where we get terms like ‘She comes from strong stock’.  Our DNA, over time, can weaken as we load up on toxic substances rather than proper care.  You can do yourself and any offspring a big favor by mending ways.

What is fast food?  Fast food is junk food.  It isn’t just what you get at McDonald’s or Jack-In-The-Box, it’s anything junk, overprocessed, rushed into being without the proper care.  Fast food is also obtained at the supermarket which is why as a Plant-Based Lifestyle Coach, I help folks learn to read labels and learn how to best navigate the grocery store. There is no love in this kind of food, just opiates, sugar, grease, and greed.  I will address the various junk/fast foods and why they are considered junk.

GMO’s – Going wild-crafted and organic or raising your own, is the only way to assure you are not digesting pesticides with every bite.  Also, when you buy certified organic foods, this tells you that the product is not genetically modified or GMO.  Nobody should eat Frankenfood. Whatever your personal religious beliefs and this blog is spiritual in many respects but is absolutely not about religion but I have to just say this….There is a grand and great design in how our world and everything in it has fit together.  We are just beginning to unravel just a few of the threads of how one species helps another.  The rainforests we are pummeling daily to make more beef contains a myriad of species we will never know as we cause their direct extinction.  And when we genetically modify what nature has provided us in an attempt to make it better, we create Frankenfood.  We create hens that cannot walk without breaking a leg or having a heart attack or a cow who drags her utters on the ground with milk nature designed for her baby who gets taken away so we can drink her milk. Her body was never designed to contain that much milk at once.  She has to feel bloated and miserable.  I believe it has to be a grave sin to do these things, to nature, to go against mother nature if you will.  When we eat these foods we eat these sins.

PLANTS – When you just buy the typical produce, these fruits, veggies, processed bread, grains and pasta, all have pesticides in them and likely GMOs. When you eat out, unless you are very careful, this is what is served up.

MEAT – If the meats you buy aren’t organic and from a local better-intentioned farmer who truly raises his animals in sunlight on fields of grass etc, you are eating pain, misery, and cannibalism.  Animals in these corporate or factory farms rarely if ever see the light of day.  They are confined and treated horrifically and raised in dark sad environs.  Their feed consists of things they’d dare not touch in natural life.  They call it ‘enriched feed’ and they grind up euthanized dogs, cats, not bothering to remove tags and collars and not caring that euthanasia drugs are in the meat product.  They grind up the tumors, the cancers, the pharmaceutical drugs these pets were one before death.  Also included in ‘Enriched feed are other dead farm animals.  This is how mad cow became a thing.  Cows that would not normally eat their dead, were and were infected.  And this affected people who ate the cows.  We bastardize nature.  A cow would not typically eat another cow or dog or kitty but on these farms they do.

DAIRY – Goat is better, but all cow-derived milk (and cheese) has casein in it.  This is a protein that is carcinogenic and the more stressed the mother cow is, the more casein in the milk.  While taking my Hippocrates training we were told someone bought their own organic dairy cow so they could enjoy the purest milk. Growing up I was told we drank the surplus.  We don’t have a surplus anymore.  What happens is that these mammals are subjugated, their joys and natural proclivities are ignored.  They are regularly impregnated just so humans can take the milk meant for their babies.  The babies are shot in the head or worse if male and if female, they get to grow up to be milk producers too.  It’s hideous.  Oh, and it is true that there’s puss in the milk you’re drinking.  At the rates and volumes of pregnancies and milk pumping, this is very hard work on the mother, on her body, and her udders.  Cows typically live at least 20 years but on these farms, they are lucky to live 5. When you drink their milk, you drink their grief over losing the baby the milk was created for. Got milk? Got grief!

Factory and corporate farmed animals eat genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and pesticide-laden grains and corn.  We subject them to the very same awful (SAD) Standard American Diet that the greed machine encourages all of us to eat too.  Very Soylent Green.  Very unhealthy.  When we eat them, we are ingesting all their suffering, their ill-health, their cancerous tissues, and chronic sadness and disease.

Farm animals are not carnivores by nature and neither were we in the beginning.  All the great religions dovetail with humans being vegetarian. Biologically, we have the intestines of an herbivore. Even very educated people in the world of health and healing will tell me we are omnivores but really, in truth, we are not.  Look at our guts.  Our intestines are not short like a Cheeta’s but nice and long, like a plant-eater.  Yes, like the plant eaters that we really are.  I was raised on the bible.  Biblically, we were to eat manna and when we fell and demanded meat, this was allowed with definitive rules in place.  These rules were there to guide us into cleaner eating.  In other words, if we were fallen and sullen about just eating veggies, then God allowed us to eat not only all the fruits of the fields but certain particular fish and animals that were not water bottom dwellers or pigs whose meat is absolutely as unclean as it is delicious. We were steered away from any land animals that did not chew their own cud and have cloven hooves.  The reasons for the rules were entirely health-based but in today’s polluted world, you can just throw all of that out.

FISH – Whether wild-caught or farm-raised, it’s all bad for you. Greed again, but the reason farmed fish is horrible is due to the massive overcrowding, the putrid waters they swim in, and the doses of pharma drugs pumped into these sad fish to keep them swimming. Wild-caught is bad because, greed and negligence, we have pumped pharmaceuticals and plastic, mercury, and other toxic substances into our waters.  There have been dead and sick pets coming to the forefront lately after well-meaning pet parents have served up Omega fish oils.  My vet just a few months ago tried to get me on fish oils for our Doberman. I said absolutely not and suggested to them plant-based omegas as a far safer option.  I get these looks when I begin talking this way with most veterinarians but when the article came out in my latest Dogs Naturally magazine, I said THERE!!! I AM correct in my thought process here…and motivated by the article kept preaching.  Lastly, good people, we have over-fished our oceans to an alarming point where we are causing the starvation of species that fish IS their food source.  They don’t have another option, polluted and filled with Mercury or not. This is what they eat.  We can do better.

PLANTS – When you go out to eat and order a salad or are asleep when you grab a head of lettuce, you’re most likely getting pesticides, fewer vitamins and minerals and also GMOs.  Go organic here and gain peace of mind and better nutrition.

To help you get and stay on track, as well as learn home remedies and recipes, I adore this Raw Vegan Series by Permachart, set designed with Brian Clement of Hippocrates Health Institute where I took my training. This makes for quick and easy reference for food combining, useful equipment, juicing vs blending, etc.

PROCESSED FOODS – Our bodies were designed for raw foods.  Look at the entire rest of the animal kingdom and own that we are animals too, we are specifically mammals.  The more we heat, blend and otherwise process our foods the less nutrition we end up with.  Soil erosion (thanks Factory Farms) has caused a magnificent loss in minerals.  Most Americans are mineral deficient.  We also tend to be shallow breathers lacking proper oxygen levels and most of us (85%) are chronically dehydrated.  When we cook our foods, we dry them out, kill off natural enzymes and vitamins and deplete oxygen. When you enjoy an organic fresh salad, you are eating oxygen as well as a better bio-available protein source rich in minerals and vitamins.  You will be less thirsty, your body will have more oxygen at a cellular level and you will be better hydrated eating a plant-based raw diet.

When we stray far from our biologically designed diet, we invite trouble.  Everything above applies also to our pets.  If you feel you must eat meat because this is a thing you won’t give up, then it should be done minimally and only organically raised animals. If you must eat junk, such as french-fries, again, make it a minimal part of your life rather than something you’re taking in on a weekly or monthly basis.  If you are willing to go 100% vegan, then yes, do that!  There is a karmic debt when we kill other souls and while I believe plants are alive too, I also realize that nothing here on this plane is ever going to be perfect.  We are trial and error here as we learn to grow in compassion, lose the judgment and rigidity and just be kinder. Eating plants is a kinder choice and healthier for us.  I have actually had death threats over cashew cheese so when I tell you how very political veganism is today, believe me, I have the first-hand experience!  A fellow vegan wished me cancer, my family to die of it, all my pets too and for my business to fail. This was over a cashew cheese that she misunderstood to be a dairy cheese.  I believe when it comes to food, the majority of us have lost our way.  I also believe that one step in the right direction is a step forward indeed.  So if you are reading and sitting on the fence, try one kindness meal then another.  Baby steps.  Rather than an all-or-nothing approach, think of it in terms of this: The more you adhere to a plant-based raw and organic lifestyle, the healthier you will become. You will naturally share this lifestyle with family and friends by example.  Toxins that are stored in your fat cells will finally have a chance to dissipate leaving your immune system refreshed while your arteries unclog themselves.  Don’t you want to be your most resilient?

You need to get off plastic, reuse items better, work from home wherever possible to reduce fossil fuel waste, be kinder, more present and attain enlightenment too.   And when I say you I mean me.  Seriously this is a global problem.  Our lives have been about incorporating as much convenience and single serve things as possible.  Folks even look at homes and cars as disposable now and they really aren’t!  Save the landfill by buying what you really need with an intention of using gently, passing on later to others in great condition and each of us makes a dent that way.

Sit for a few seconds and breath as you absorb the fact that most of what we do every day, how we live, from how we pad to the kitchen to pour a morning beverage to how we order lunch or shop at the store is all habit.  To make things easier our brains do this fantastic auto pilot thingy where we don’t have to think so hard about all the nit noidy things, those daily choices that we make.  Remember this is just habits and habits change.  Did you always drive, smoke, dance, sing, paint, write or drink tea, coffee or alcohol?  Really? Since you were a child?  No, you grew into various habits, some good, some bad, that just became a part of you over time.  These same things, if you want them to change, are changeable.  Just give it 30 days to make new habits, hard at first, then easier.  When I first went vegan I was deer in headlights at what to do next, what to prepare for my chef husband and now it is very easy for me to think in vegan terms.  My shock and fright is what began this blog, actually, because I wondered how many other folks were scared too, who really wanted change, wanted to help the planet, save animals, save themselves, but didn’t know yet how.  I took this amazing course at Hippocrates (links below) and started off on this journey.  I’m trying to look at how I live and where I see a problem that is the low hanging fruit if you will, that I can fix.  Then share that knowledge with others.  Then there are all the small ways we can effect big changes too.

Laundry – Cleaning up the Laundry is HUGE! Here is something we do every week and mostly give it little thought.  The bulk of laundry suds out there is chock full of chemicals, from optic whiteners to bleaches, slowly giving us cancer as it kills what’s left of our fish. The BEST laundry soap I know of is one I am a marketer for; Happi.   First, we use 99% less plastic, while getting a very concentrated product that is 61% more effective and saves you 60% a year on the cost of doing the wash . 1 liter does 400 loads of laundry! Non scented, and concentrated which saves in shipping costs. Certified organic, non-toxic, non-GMO using cardboard in the bottle not plastic, the kit provides a stainless pump you refill your soap with to measure the exact amount you need at each wash.

As an Implementation Project Manager at Sprint, I had worked from home a couple of decades.  I barely got into the car each week and mostly ate at home.  We had layoffs and I began working for ATT and had to be in the office for a while starting out. Already concerned about my carbon footprint driving in daily, I watched in horror as my trash bin filled up with plastic and styrofoam.  They served vegan fare in the cafeteria downstairs but things were far from carbon neutral getting the items to my desk.  When I brought food in, they were in plastic baggies.  And those also piled up.

Nothing is ever going to be perfect here and I don’t think, with the fall of man, that this is ever the point of the exercise.  I do believe we are all accountable for our intentions and actions and that our path here involves lessons in being less self-directed and gain understanding and compassion.  Being imperfect, my tips may not exemplify the very best you can do for the environment or animals but perhaps are baby steps in the right direction so I encourage feedback! I am always learning and incorporating new ideas into my blog.  But be kind in your feedback because here is the thing;  you can preach about the environment and whom should be doing what till you’re blue.  If it isn’t easy enough or doable enough, convenient enough, folks won’t attempt it or stay on point with it.  That said, these are ways that I have, so far today, incorporated for better recycling and re-use and reduced plastic in my life.  I am trying to be a better vegan too.  But primarily, I am trying hard to live kinder and that means knowing my sources.  I live in a meat-eating, honey indulging family (dog, cats and husband).  This helps keep me compassionate as I look for ways to remove what animal-based products I can off the table and get better sources where I cannot.  I do wish to add here that my personal take on veganism is to avoid animal abuses and contributing to that, but allow, such as honey, where I am supporting local businesses, such as the honey beekeeper down the road, where he loves and supports his bees because bees need our help.

With daily trips to work, what I saw in my life as a problem were baggies.  Loads of baggies.  I had gallon sized baggies for my salads where I would make up a batch to last me a couple of meals.  The thing to understand about baggies is even if they were to say they are BPA free, for example, there is no disclosure on the hundreds of chemicals that make up a baggie.  All of this leaches into your food.  Here are some earth-friendlier ways to detox your lunch bag,  refrigerator and life.

Stasher makes reusable baggies which are completely free of toxic chemicals.  The bags are made of natural components such as sand and oxygen and can be used for Sous Vida safely.  They may be washed by hand or in the dishwasher too!

Another great item I’ve discovered is the beeswax and organic cloth food wrappers.  I know, it’s not vegan.    But it is environmentally friendly all biodegradable and I am told bees are not harmed.  The problem with honey, other than the fact it is a sugar, is that commercially, bees are killed when their honey is culled.  But a beekeeper loves his bees and strives to keep the colony healthy and happy.  So if you indulge in honey products then you need to be responsible for knowing your source.  We have a neighbor who sells zip code honey.  They do no harm to bees.  Another wrap to consider is this 5 piece beeswax, jojoba and tree resin set for $19.99.  I wrap my avocados, vegan pizza slices etc with them.  If you choose these wraps, know that they last about a year with proper use and that is a ton of plastic wrap not in our oceans.

Say no to single-use cuttlery.  This bamboo cutlery set is something that will work well from camping to working at the office or on the road and even includes a straw. After seeing that video of the poor turtle with a huge staw stuck in his nostril that had to be surgically removed, I stopped using straws at restaurants.

This Tea Spot Urban Tumbler is a hit with our whole family! We are tea drinkers, but you can put any beverage in there.  The founder of the company cured her cancer with tea and has written a book,  Cancer Hates Tea.  What I love about this tumbler is that as it is constructed of borosilicate glass and stainless steel infuser,  it is free of toxins such as BPA. Her teas are lovely.  I loaded up on tea after learning they sold Lapsang Souchong and this is a lovely green tea sampler.   The cork around the bottle helps protect the glass while keeping your hands away from the too hot or cold beverage you’re about to enjoy.  The product doesn’t leak, forming a nice seal and I have now given this out as gifts, it’s just that good!  Reusing something you love is one of the best ways to minimize your environmental impact. ♥

You’ll control the quality of your food and save money by making and taking your lunch with you to work.  Check out this stylish option with the Tabkoe Bento Box, free of BPA materials,  while I shun microwaves, this is microwaveable.

Another great glass storage option that goes from fridge to lunch bag are these nice glass meal prep containers which airtight and space saving.

Bulk Food Bags, what about grocery shopping and all those produce bags?  These bags go from your fridge to the grocery store for re-loading!

Bamboo Toilet Paper – I have switched, it’s nice and another great easy switch to green up your lifestyle.

And just check out kinder ways to brush your teeth!

As an affiliate marketer, there are links here to look at and purchase products.  These are products I love, use etc.  The commission I earn from purchases helps to offset the monthly costs of keeping this blog running and I appreciate the support.

Read and be inspired by this girl. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16168/i-havent-made-any-trash-in-2-years-heres-what-my-life-is-like.html

Our eyes, open most of the day, encounter all sorts of pollutants in our air that the body was never designed to handle.  In our air, water and soil, there are 2000 newly created chemicals annually with an estimated total of 80,000 new chemicals. Man mined debris fools the body. Mercury looks like selenium to the body. Lead looks like calcium. Cadmium looks like zinc. Aluminum, nickel and uranium look like magnesium to the body and all these affect the system at a cellular level.  Many of these pollutants are in the air that affects the eyes.

We’ve been renovating a bathroom and enjoying a magnitude of dust that only folks who have gone through a remodel can comprehend.  Between air purifiers, (see my review on air purifiers) neti pot (see my article on this) to deep clean the sinuses, vacuuming & dusting daily after the contractor and crew leave, there is still an amazing amount of dust and the eyes suffer.

I believe one of the reasons eyes age is due to pollutants and irritants.  So minimizing them will help save your eyesight as well as how they look.  Many folks don’t really think about their eyes other than to wash the face, moisturize and perhaps apply makeup.  Maintaining your eyes should be a daily routine and especially in dusty polluted environments.

First there are eye exercises that help stretch and strengthen as well as rest the eyes which is particularly great for those of us that sit at a laptop all day.  Yoga For The Eyes with Meir Schneider steps you through great break time exercises.

Next, everyone should possess a nice eye wash bath cup.  Not just for emergency use as I once thought, but for daily/weekly rinsing of the eyes to clean and clear them of debris and tonify.   Because I believe that every day things should be artfully done as well as be great at what they do, I adore this eyecup by Rosso,  which is all glass and therefore safer than plastic.  The glass is gorgeous, it looks like a piece of art sitting on your vanity, and has a lovely feel and polish to it.  It comes in two styles, I like the raised rib, very comfy and it holds the liquid well with gentle pressure so you’re not getting it all over your face.

So one of my favourite rinses began as a purchase for my pets.  But now the entire family uses it too.  Ark Naturals, Eye So Bright, with Echinacea and Goldenseal, it slightly stings at first, then your eyes suddenly feel so refreshed!  We used a prescription eye drop on our Doberman who bolted after we came back into the room later to give him another treatment.  My husband popped a drop in his eye to understand what all the fuss was about and screamed.  Why on earth would they make anything that hurt that bad?!?  Thus began our self-testing before we did anything to the pets.  And because of this, I LOVE using this product on myself as well as the fur kids.

Another formula I like is Christopher’s Herbal EYE formula which you can both take orally in water or add to an eye bath solution.  Warning, this stuff has pepper in it.  I am using just one drop with my Ark Naturals and sea salt water I get at Whole Foods.  With the construction, I have been doing this routine twice a day and wow this has helped so much!

And on the Whole Foods note, don’t forget to eat right.  Your eyes need leafy greens.  The aim is for at least 50% raw diet, through juicing and yom yomming tasty salads and sprouts.

Supplements – Only 9% of the vitamins on the market are good.  Synthetic vs plant based:  It is important to read labels and avoid synthetic vitamins that the body recognizes at a cellular level as food.  There is much discussion about synthetic vitamins, which are vastly cheaper, being just as good but my Hippocrates advocates going all natural.   I get arguments from folks who eat so well and many even better than I do, 100% raw, juice twice daily etc.  So why do I need supplements they say.  Getting a spectra cell analysis will tell you what your body is deficient in at a cellular level and then you will know.  But here is why everyone needs some supplements:  Our world is totally polluted and our bodies, while able and willing to detox to a point, need the help.  With soil erosion, we no longer get enough minerals and vitamins in even the very best of foods.  So here is something,  Ultimate Eye Formula, you can take to aid the eyes because chances are you are not eating enough blueberries and bilberries daily to counteract the onslaught.

Another thing I love is Triphala, which is an Indian ayurvedic  medicinal combining 3 tree fruits into a slightly tangy bitter powder.  Terrasoul Triphala powder is organic, a fair price and they lab test for impurities and heavy metals.   I enjoy a 1/2 tsp in hot water as a tea.  I don’t mind the taste at all.  You can also use it as an eyewash.  Used as an overall body tonic and detox, it is also said to improve vision.  I use a bit of this in an eye cup when I am done making my ‘tea’ and also drink it.

And for beautiful (or handsome) eyes,  I rep for organic and plant-based, eco and animal-friendly potent and pure skin and supplement lines and highly recommend, especially for evening,  the eye and neck firming serum which I am NEVER without!  The link is below.  My sister in law says this serum knocked out her crows feet and my puffiness is gone. It’s yummy and I have not found its equal on the market anyplace.

And for daywear, in the morning, especially when it is bloody hot outside, where treatments are just melting right off your face because of the heat…dear Lord why do I live in Texas….I love to apply their firming eye serum cold from the fridge.

Finally, let’s look at eyedrops.  Many can actually handicap the eyes, training them to require drops.  My husband and I use Similisan eye drops (everything the brand offers is really good!) Once, a pharmacist chased my husband down to tell him Homeopathy doesn’t work!  Well, we think it does and we’ve been on these drops for 20 years in various flavours, dry eye, irritated eye and computer eyes because, ahem…I am on this thing a lot!

As a plant-based marketer, I seek out natural ways to detox and amp up health and have done a lot of research and testing to come up with what I provide you.  I hope it helps you live your best and healthiest life and I would love to hear from you!