Walking day 1. Vegan day 20.

It's pretty much agreed that it takes about 21 days to start a habit, where all your little changes become concrete. So one more day and I'll be vegan by... habit? lol

My walk was glorious this morning! It was probably one of the best feelings I've ever felt. As far as walking to make sure I don't get depressed and groggy in the morning when I sleep in...? I think it will work! (20 more days.. until it's a habit)

On my walk, I noticed that it was garbage day, and since I was just sort of letting my mind wander and not really contemplating too much, just allowing, I started noticing what people threw away in their recycling bins. Juice boxes, yogurt containers, cereal boxes, milk cartons, pop, beer, and juice cans, laundry detergent bottles... etc. Then I started thinking about the economy and how most of us our kind of low on cash these days.





When my grandma was little, growing up in Nelson B.C, it wasn't abnormal to be incredibly frugal, actually it was common, because.. well it makes sense! When the sheets on the bed wore out, her mother would cut them in half down the middle (where they were most worn) and sew them up on the other sides.. so that the outsides which were least worn were now in the insides, and the children could get another year or so out of them. Paper was re-used, string was re-used, vegetables were grown, etc.



Nowadays, we have the convenience factor to deal with. After the depression, and the wars people started wanting to spend, because they had money, and convenience was...convenient. Fast food restaurants started to spring up EVERYWHERE, food started to get processed and frozen, and everything just became... easier! It still was understood though, that if you were light on cash, those conveniences got left, and you opted for the cheaper option.

In my generation, I think we see "conveniences" as absolutes. We can't live without them. We can't imagine living without them, because, they were there all our lives. Paper towel, paper napkins, cotton balls, cotton swabs, windex, packaged bread, frozen food, macaroni and cheese, "just add water" meals, juice boxes, individual yogurts, microwave popcorn, microwave dinners, CARS!, internet connection, cable t.v, canned food, fast food! Everything that we want, we can get, pretty cheap whenever we feel like it. But all these things add up to a lot of money... and aren't really good for our bodies... or the planet.

It would be nice, if everyone over night just, STOPPED. But that's naive. People aren't going to just stop using all these convenient things, because they're convenient, and the owners of McDonalds, CocaCola, Kellogs, Kraft, Pepsi, etc. know this. They aren't in it for us, or the planet, but more for money, which is what most people are striving for anyways.


That's disgusting.

I don't think I could ditch all those things all at once, or even all of them all together. But I do think that I could ditch one thing at a time. It takes 21 days to form a habit, I could ditch paper products that I don't need (paper towel, paper napkins, kleenex, cotton balls etc (everything but toilet paper :P)) and use alternatives like, dish rags, cloth napkins, a hanky, etc, and by the end of that, I will have successfully given myself a good habit, and used renewable resources. One hanky, dish cloth, and cloth napkin thrown in with my laundry, won't raise laundry costs, and it will lessen my family's grocery bill, maybe not by much, but at least a little.

I want to slowly get rid of not needed conveniences until I am more frugal, and happy with my effect on the planet. Right now, I throw too many things away. (It's funny how many recycle, yet, the slogan goes "reduce, re-use, recycle" meaning first we reduce our use of things, then when re-use whatever we can, and if we have to we recycle... it's almost as though those first two words don't exist...)

I have a plan that in the end of the summer I will have gotten rid of a lot of not needed things, and that I will be able to do a one week retreat where I don't use any conveniences. I think it would be good for clarity, peace, and will just take me out of the influences of marketing, etc. So I'm excited about that! But I do need to work up to that point... Starting.. today! No more not needed convenient paper products!

one more thing!

I don't want this walking things to become a vigorous exercise, or me trying to raise my heart rate, or trying to burn calories or any of that other stuff, I simply want to enjoy being outside, and see how my body and mind react, therefore, I have put these simple guidelines into place, in my cluttered head.

The morning sounds so pretty, especially in spring, birds, rain, wind etc. So, since I have the WHOLE rest of the day to listen to music, I won't be using my ipod. There's something really pure about being one person, walking, outside, without something making music in my ear. However, I love music!!! A bunch, and I think it's awesome to work out to it, and to walk to, and to listen to all the time... but for this exercise I won't be!

I love walks that are adventures, so I'm not going to plan a route. Each intersection I will decide where I want to go, and see where I end up. With a route in mind, I end up working towards something, and then it becomes just that... work! I want this to be peaceful and more meditative than working out, or walking to get somewhere.

Because I want this to be peaceful, I don't want to force myself to walk for a certain amount of time. If I walk for half an hour one day, one hour the next, and twenty minutes the day after that, I think thats okay. As long as it doesn't start to conflict with my other day plans, I think that peaceful walking should be as long or as short as it is, although I would imagine to the end of the driveway and back, is sorta a cop out lol. I also can't imagine it conflicting with any other plans, considering I usually don't roll out of bed til around nine...

So thats that. No music, no direction, no timeline. Just thoughts, peace, and being grounded.

Walk. Walk. Walk.

Since I've gone vegan (a total of twenty days) I've tried to incorporate a lot of healthy habits (for me and for the planet) but I have to be honest, even though I've cooked, composted, gave up meat, cheese, eggs, and milk, and started a vegetable garden, I haven't done that much walking. Walking often fills me with clarity and sort of grounds my thoughts and settles me out. Usually when I walk, I've got a goal, I'm going somewhere, but walks without a goal are usually much more... Exciting and peaceful!

Therefore, twenty days into being vegan (which definitely won't be stopping after thirty days... I still don't miss any animal products, and now when I see a cow I know that I won't be eating it later) I am going to do thirty days of morning walking, rain or shine, weekend or week day, tired or not. Our human health is super important and we're given everything we need to keep ourselves healthy, no gym memberships or fancy diet meals/shakes whatever!

God gave us earth and plants and good amazing yummy food! So for the next thirty days I will walk in the early morning and see if it makes me feel any more grounded, clearer, and more peaceful than sleeping in until nine and feeling muddled and befuddled about the day.

Starting tomorrow morning, after I get some sleep!
Peace.

P.S
I like blogging about these things, because, even if no one reads them, the chance that someone might read it is there, and then if I run into them they might say, "hey! How's the walking thing?" and if I haven't been walking, well it would be embarassing lol, so in a way, you're keeping me accountable to my healthy habit goals, by sitting at your computer and glancing at your facebook feed! It's also pretty cool if anyone gets inspired by any of it! Because it's so good for us!

my bedroom

My bedroom hasn't been very peaceful or inviting since I moved out last spring, and moved back in in the summer. It's still pretty ramshackled and pieced together. I have taken everything out of my room that isn't in my colour scheme... and I hope that after I paint it all comes together.

Here is my absolute dream bedroom!

Garbage.

So all this vegan talk and how healthy it is for my body is great and all, but by just not eating meat or dairy products, is that all I'm doing? I'm going to list all of the things I typically use and throw out in a day, including this I must use (ie toilet paper) and things I don't have to use! Then I'm going to go through it and see what is essential and what could be changed to either preserve, or eliminate wasted materials!

What I've come up with is pretty substantial! I use cotton balls to take off my makeup, when I could use a cloth or rag, I take long showers, I use lots of toilet paper, paper napkins, paper towel, with the exception of toilet paper I could completely eliminate those! Our great grandparents were great preservers because they understood the value that reusing can hold! Our generation basically just buy new! We can't even Wash our floors without using a swiffer and a swiffer pad and swiffer solution, and when that swiffer gets old and dusty we buy new ones!


(it's hardly "green" if in order to use it you have to buy four other products that can't be reused :P)

We eat food and throw away left overs, we unwrap food and throwaway excessive packaging! Bah!

So... The list goes on a mighty bit... And it's not good.

I'm going to promise to make an effort to stop wasting and to start thinking of creative ways to preserve and reuse, ultimately leading up to sustainability!

Vegan Lasagna!

My parents have invited my grandpa and Tal over for supper, and they're having regular lasagna, and blackberry cream flan for dessert :( Two of my favorite non-vegan things. SO! I've checked out a couple of vegan lasagna recipes and have decided on this one!

Tomato Sauce:
2tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic
6oz can of tomato paste
three peeled tomatoes chopped with juices reserved
1/2 cup fresh chopped basil
1/2 cup fresh chopped parsely
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
Salt & Pepper

Lasagna:
1tbsp sale
1 pound dry uncooked egg less lasagna noodles
2 packages of firm tofu (drained)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt & Pepper

For the sauce, eat the oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, and cook stirring frequently until onion is soft (about 5 minutes). Add the tomato paste, and cook, stirring, for one minutes, then add the tomatoes with the juice, the basil, parsley, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cover and let this simmer at low heat for about one hour. After this season with salt & pepper.

While this is simmering bring a large pot of water to boil, and add the salt and the noodles. Cook until noodles are soft but firm, then drain, rinse with water and drain again. Preheat the oven to 400*. Crumble the tofu into a mixing bowl, along with the garlic, basil, parsley, salt, and pepper, stir until this is well blended.

To assemble, spoon 1 cup of sauce over bottom of baking dish, add a layer of noodles, and top with one third of the tofu mixture. Spoon over a cup of sauce and top with another layer of noodles then use another third of the tofu mixture. Top with remaining tofu mixture and the sauce. Cover with foil and bake for thirty minutes. Once it has finished cooking, let it stand for fifteen minutes, before cutting. Serve with any of the remaining tomato sauce!

This lasagna is 219 calories per serving, whereas regular lasagna can pack in as much as 400 calories per serving, and the tofu in the vegan lasagna has just as much, or even more protein than the regular lasagna... however, will it taste as good?

The miso soup was amazing this morning by the way! I have a new favorite breakfast!

Miso for breakfast.

So, in Japan, it is actually really common to have miso soup for breakfast. I've never had miso for breakfast, I've
never made miso soup, and up until last night I didn't know you could buy miso paste, oh the interesting things I'm learning. So on this glorious morning where no one feels like it's the time that it is, and loads of people are hungover, I'm going to try making miso for
breakfast!

I found miso paste at save-on foods. It came in a tiny tub and was $5.99, but from what I'm reading from all sorts of recipes is that you don't use very much. For example 2tbsp makes soup for six!

The tofu I bought was $1.98! I love cheap things!

So essentially the recipe says to boil water with the onion and once it has boiled, put in the desired amount of miso mixing it in very slowly... I hope it works. If it's anything like the miso you get at sushi places, then it kind of sounds good right now!

I'll post later with how it turned out!

Make your own peanut butter.

Basically everything that should be in peanut butter is peanuts, a little peanut or vegetable oil, and sugar if you want it, but most commercial peanut butters contain tons of chemicals to preserve shelf life. While it may be cheaper to buy peanut butter in mass quantities and have it last a long time, is it worth putting harmful chemicals into your body?
Luckily lots of brands of peanut butter have recently put out a "natural style" peanut butter, that has less chemicals, and sometimes even only list peanuts as ingredients (always check ingredient lists, and if there are either a: things that a third grader can't pronounce or b: things that would not be seen in a well rounded kitchen, then don't buy it, it's not worth it to your body... This can be applied to everything you eat).
Homemade peanut butter is absolutely delicious, and because it's homemade, you know exactly what went into it, the only downfall is that it may not keep as long as a commercial brand peanut butter, but it seriously is so yummy, it will be gone before it has time to go bad.
Using homemade peanut butter in baking is awesome too because the fat is all natural and healthy for you!

Ingredients:
2 cups of peanuts
1 1/2 tsp of peanut or vegetable oil
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

First make sure the peanuts are roasted, if not spread out on a baking tray and heat your oven to 350*. When it is heated roast the peanuts for 8 minutes, shaking the pan around every two minutes to prevent burning. Once the peanuts are roasted dump into food processor or blender and blend away. After awhile add the oil and continue blending until your desired consistency. If you opted for the sweeter peanut butter, add the sugar when you add the oil. Next time I'm going to try brown sugar to see if there is a taste difference!

I'm experimenting with a homemade Graham cracker recipe so that I can make Graham crackers with peanut butter and raisins as a snack that is FULL of protein!

Today I am off to buy seeds for the garden! I just learned all about sprouts, sprouting, and wheat grass, and I think I'm going to start my own little crop of alfalfa, soybean, and lentil sprouts. The crops take five days! I just read a recipe for lentil and alfalfa sprout veggie burgers and I want to try it out after the sprouts have sprouted!




Anyways I'm super excited about growing things that are amazing for my body! Oh yeah I have the list of veggies and berries I'm going to try to grow:
For the herb garden I'm growing Rosemary, thyme, chives, and whatever else I find interesting while shopping for seeds.
For the side garden (partial sun) I am growing bush peas and beans, soy beans, carrots, potatoes, and all sorts of leafy greens.
For the balcony pots I am growing tomatoes and strawberries!

I've got to find out the last frost date so I can plant three weeks after that. I read that all of the plants (excluding the bush peas and beans) should be started inside, which is what I'm starting today!

Oh the yummy things we'll grow.

My great grandpa was a master gardener. He grafted a pear tree onto an apple tree, so there were pears, and three different types of apples growing off the same tree. He also trained his squashes to grow up the tree and hang from the branches. He is inspiring me to start my own little vegetable garden this year. I haven't decided on the particular vegetables I would like to grow yet, but I am doing a lot of research on which vegetables would grow the best in our climate.



I'm very excited to see what yummy things I can grow.

what I would do

Marc by Marc Jacobs Spring 2010

Here I am.
Sitting on a couch at my grandparents house.
I'm in an old painting shirt.
Emily Haines is haunting in the back ground.
I'm painting the kitchen.
Dreaming of feeling,
different.

What would I do if I had more money?
What would I do if I was thinner?
What would I do if I had more responsibility?
What would I do if I had less responsibility?

I can't answer them.
The list for each exceeds my typing capabilities.

Lately I've been inspired by clothes, music, and beauty.
Well, more like the beauty of clothes and music.

Humans dress themselves for beauty sake.
I find this interesting,
You'd think as a mammal, we'd dress for protection,
etc.

Sometimes we do.


Beauty is something.
Beauty is real.
Beauty is important.
Beauty is inspiring.

and I think the dress looks nice on you

Here's to not falling short of gorgeous.

casting a dusty light over the dining room table

I have been inspired lately by all things beautiful.
Sometimes I hit phases of clutter and distraction, and sometimes I feel
streamlined, and beautiful things are important.

Finding a subtle combination of the two,
is my life's work.

I do feel though that my living space, has some room for growth.

I need to find that perfect balance.

Currently painting.
Later will head home and make this magic happen.
Breath in.
Breath out.

CHANGE.

Rogue wave in the bathtub.

Everything is a fantasy, are you with me?
Places, places, all other faces.

La, la, la, la, la.

Cucumbers in vinegar.

I have to.
Be different.
See different.

Constant change.
It's a fantasy.

Rogue Wave and cleaning the bathroom.
Rogue Wave and vacuuming the floor.
Rogue Wave and tidying up.
Rogue Wave and cake.

Is this a phonytown?

currently being inspired by

Inspired.