I just found this. I’d love to try some of these fermented kraut things and the kombucha, they look pretty delicious. They got some pretty awesome shops happening in California, food is obviously a big one.. I feel like checking out the Cultured Pickle Shop now, it looks pretty cool.
I used to make kombucha with tea and lemon. Forgot what tea now.. but it wouldn’t have been black, coz I don’t drink black. I like the sweet and sour bubbliness of kombucha. Very refreshing! And apparently healthy.
Easy to make too, you just have to get the culture from somewhere. It grows with time and you can split it and give it away. That’s how I got mine from a friend.
If you haven’t watched this documentary yet, WATCH IT!! It’s pretty great, but pretty frustrating and a bit depressing maybe at times, as documentaries often can be. But it’s good anyways, so here is the trailer.
Here is the part 1 on youtube,
And here is a link to the full length movie on vimeo. It has funny subtitles though and the quality isn’t super great.
When I watched the documentary, I so wished I could have an electric car and run it on solar power with panels on the roof of our garage. That would be Sooo cool!!
Anyways, Big Oil fucked that one right up.. humans, are just too stupid for their own good.
Have a great weekend everyone!! I’m going camping, what are you up to?
With eating healthy and stuff, everyone knows that eating fruit and vegetables is good for you, maybe even eating certain herbs, but the thing I find gets often overlooked is spices.
So let’s check out two that apparently have really great antioxidant properties.
First there is cayenne pepper, which can,
apparently stop heart attacks
give pain relief
strengthen the cardiovascular systems
remove plaque from arteries
prevent or reverse varicous veins
speed up weight loss and metabolism
help fighting the flu
and can even prevent cancer and stomach ulcers
I mean, not sure if it works for every one of those and for everybody, but wow, those are quite a lot of benefits.
Check out this video, it’s pretty cool and goes into more detail.
This is a bit of an ad video, but it has some good statements in it, so I thought I’d post it.
Spices last a while, so it won’t be too expensive getting the organic version and you’ll get a product that’s free from pesticides and stuff. You might as well, if you want to use it for it’s healing properties. I think it’s also interesting to do some research into the processing of herbs and spices, as they are often heated up in the process. Get fresh ones as often as possible. Fresh turmeric roots obviously, but I haven’t seen fresh cayenne peppers yet, not sure what kind that would be?
I’ve gotten quite into the cayenne pepper. It’s hot, but the organic one doesn’t seem to burn as much as the regular one. A bit like with salt, Himalaya salt or sea salt to me tastes saltier, but doesn’t burn your mouth as regular table salt does. I bought some organic turmeric powder too, not keen on the taste, but it’s mild, so I just started adding it to some of my cooked food and even sprinkle it on sandwiches and salad.
Do you know of any healing properties of herbs and spices? What’s your favourite spice? What are your favourite home remedies?
As I said the other day I’ve got too much on my plate lately. So I thought I’d pull the plug on the one thing that I don’t really need to do and that is spending time on facebook. I decided to do a week off facebook, cold turkey. That’s gonna be fun!
Gotta get some email addresses, so I can still message people and I’ll keep myself logged into my two facebook pages, but won’t go onto my personal profile. So yeah, very curious how that’s gonna be like, I’m actually looking forward to it! Even if I’m quite an addict, but nevermind.. that’s all going to change now.
I have tried quitting being a facebook junkie before, putting restrictions on the time I spend on it, reading links and status updates, but it never works. I’s too easy to trick myself into thinking, “Just another 5 minutes../OMG, I really need to read/watch that!!”. It works for a couple of days, but not in the long run.
I read this blog post, guy killing his internet, which seems extreme, but then, you can be as minimalist as you want to be. Pretty interesting. Some people even get rid off their mobile phones.. But yeah, I don’t have internet on mine, it’s well ancient.
I’ll keep you updated on how I go. Maybe I’m gonna go all crazy tomorrow and have anxiety attacks and wont know what to do.. getting all shaky and shit? Nah, it won’t be that bad..
What is a difficult thing for you to give up? Have you got unhealthy internet habits? How do you handle them?
I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed today. Working full-time, blogging, running my own label(which I don’t spend a lot of time on lately), keeping the house organized and clean and changing my life, takes quite a toll on me.
I’m looking forward to getting away from it all and going camping again this weekend, so Awesome!! Back to nature, where it’s quiet and still. Actually, I’m just looking forward to going to bed tonight.
I like to have really productive days were I get lots done and then have lazy days were I do basically Fuck All. Sometimes, like when we went camping the last time, I feel bad when we get back, because there is even more to be done then before I left. I definitely don’t feel bad going away this weekend, as I got lots done lately. Anyways, I’m tired..
I want to simplify, obviously also the things I spend my time on, one of my major reasons for doing this. I’m always stressed and never seem to be able to catch up with things.
But the more I try to change it the more stuff comes up and needs to be done!!
It’s like I’m unearthing all these unfinished projects, getting rid off old clutter, and it feels kind of like I’m going backwards and forwards at the same time, coz I know I’m getting things done, but at the same time it is so much. It does my head in!
I hate the term time management, I don’t know what that is! And I’m not that good at it. It sounds like something you’d do in an office. I need to prioritize, drop something that’s not so important, before I drop just anything. But what?
What are the most important things? What can be dropped? Nothing of curz! Prioritizing?! Tssk.. fuck knows, what that means!
Need to focus on the most important things. I do think my focus is getting better lately, clearing my living and head space.
Ah well, I’ll get a good nights sleep and then I’ll see.. You got any tips on prioritizing? Or any on how to get things done when there doesn’t seem to be enough time for everything??
One of the biggest misconception about vegetarian or vegan diets is, that there is ONE vegan/vegetarian diet. Like one way of eating vegan.
Another misconception is that all vegetarian or vegan diets are healthy and include lots of salad and vegetables. Like vegetarians sit there, constantly chewing on their salad leaves.
I’ve managed to be a vegetarian for years and hardly ate any vegetables at all, I basically lived on processed foods, instant noodles and chocolate were my favourites. For me it was ’5 a Month’, not ’5 a Day’. And anyways chocolate is basically a fruit, right?!
It wasn’t that I gained weight either, because I didn’t eat a whole lot.
Veggies!!
I’ve heard a lot of people say, that changing their diet to vegetarian, vegan or raw food made them feel like they had so much energy and that they felt so much better. I changed from a vegetarian to a vegan, more whole foods, more organic diet and cutting sugar and table salt. I didn’t feel very different for the first three months. Actually, in the beginning I lost a pound or two and it took me a couple of weeks to adjust, with like, what to eat, which was frustrating. But I felt cleaner and better. Now, after three months, I’m starting to feel like I got more energy. But I don’t want to just attribute that to my diet, I’m pretty sure it’s about lifestyle changes too, like de-cluttering, and bringing some new, exciting things into your life, but more on that in another post.
Eating meat or vegetarian, both can be unhealthy. Obviously eating lots of meat and conventional processed food is more unhealthy.
I’ve heard some ex vegans blame their health conditions on THE vegan diet. What would be more correct they should blame it on THEIR vegan diet, if at all. Coz obviously not every person who eats vegan eats the same. Funny also, that sometimes when you find out more about these “ex vegans”, they will actually tell you, they used to eat diary and fish and chicken every now and then. Now that is just stupid, you can’t have it both ways! You can’t blame being vegan for your health problems if you’re not even vegan at all. Simple logic fail! I think some people just need a straw argument, seems easy to pick on something that is unpopular with the majority of people and goes against the mainstream ideas of nutrition and how to live your life.
In the same way, I could blame any condition a meat eater developes on them eating meat. Now for some reason, most people and mainstream medicine hardly ever do that, while at the same time telling vegans and vegetarian how they must be lacking nutrients, which will cause them to get sick.
How many times have I heard “Where do you get your iron from? Where do you get your protein from?” But never do I hear people ask meat eaters questions like, “Where do you get your vitamins from? Where do you get your minerals and antioxidants from?”
I’ve hardly ever gotten sick since I’ve been on a vegetarian diet, thirteen years now. I used to have low blood pressure and low iron when I was eating meat, which are now all balanced out. Not sure if that is just related to my diet, I think it would be to some degree.
Apart from eating meat not being great, I believe vegetarians and vegans have the better diets because they most likely eat more fruit and vegetables, are less likely to eat processed food, because they have to cook from scratch. They read product labels, which makes them also informed about what nasty food additives and preservatives and other scary stuff is in food. And while lots of meat eaters just assume they get a balanced diet, throw in a couple of veggies here and there, but not too many, most vegetarians actually research nutrition and a balanced diet.
Another great reason for being vegetarian is obviously caring about the environment and caring about animals.
Just to show you there are lots and lots of professional vegetarian/vegan athletes. If these people can win tournaments and gold medals on a plant based diet, I’m sure we will be just fine doing our day to day activities on a plant based diet.
So yeah, I want to eat more fresh, raw vegetables and fruit. I hardly ever eat leafy greens at all at the moment. I mean what are leafy greens anyways? Spinach, silver beet, dandelion.. What else?
Do people start annoying you when you make changes for the better, be it diet or lifestyle? Have you made any changes lately?
Writing a blog post is to me a lot like cooking. I go into the kitchen/on the computer and look at what I’ve got. Sometimes I’ve got an idea of what to write/to cook, normally I just collect bits and pieces and try to make something out of them. Usually that works quite well.
Thought I’d give you an update on my de-cluttering, healthy lifestyle challenge.
Markets, I never quite liked them, but now that we are going to the farmer’s market every weekend I’m a bit less apprehensive. I hate being pounced on and I feel bad sometimes going up to peoples stalls and looking at their stuff and not buying anything. And some people are trying the hard sell on you. In the beginning I was like, “Fuuuck, what am I gonna get??” coz obviously I couldn’t see the produce very well, from my safety distance. Which was only aggravated by the fact that I’m pretty short sighted.
I’ve also started meditation again. I’ve started it years and years ago, strangely enough reading and listening to more instructions on how to meditate correctly, I kind of lost the enthusiasm for it. I got really twitchy and itchy every time I sat down for it and I felt like my head is going to explode, after like a minute, while at the same time I felt like I had a whole ant colony running over my body. Well now, that may just be slightly over exaggerated.. but it wasn’t good. Now I’m back to freestyling it. Waaayy better!!
Today, I stayed in bed the whole day and just read books and napped. IT WAS AWESOME!! Good for clearing your head and getting a rest.
We also had some healthy meals and cleaned up the whole house in the evening. Which is nice, coz I like a clean, orderly house. I wanted to go camping this weekend, but the weather report said it would rain both days, so I thought I’d stay at home getting rid off stuff, relax and buy some healthy food. Well, obviously it hardly rained at all. What are these people doing in their weather stations?! I mean, I can do a better weather report by looking out of the window in the morning. I can tell you it will be raining tomorrow or the sun will shine and half of the time I would be right, which is basically just as often as the weather people get it right! This is supposed to be highly technological! I’m not impressed.
The de-cluttering is in full force. I pulled all the unfinished projects into my studio, which, it hardly needs mentioning, looks like shit now. I hate having so many unfinished projects in one room. It gives me headaches, it’s overwhelming. I don’t know where to start and I don’t even feel like setting a foot into the room. Ah well, I will deal with them tomorrow..
What have you been doing at the weekend? Did you finish any projects? Did you do anything exciting? Any de-cluttering?
Spiders, they give me panic attacks. That’s one of the reasons why I don’t like living in Australia. That’s no joke! They do have some big spiders here and I keep checking my surroundings, like my clothes before I put them on and other things, for them constantly.
I’m like the woman in the first video. If I’d see a big(ish) spider close up, I’ll have a panic attack and might start crying, but definitely hyperventilating.
When I see the spider in this clip it makes me want to throw up.
Hypnosis is really interesting, I’m still not quite sure how it works, but it does seem to work, so I would really love to try it myself. Sometimes I wonder if it would work on me, also I don’t quite like the idea of being hypnotized. It makes you quite vulnerable and out of control, like putting your life into someone elses hands. You know, maybe the doctor screws with your head and manipulates you in a bad way.
One day I’ll find a great hypnotist and do what the women in the clips are doing.
Yeah, so, hypnosis is pretty amazing! There seem to be a couple of different kinds and techniques around so there is not one right way, but several ways that work.
Do you have phobias, if yes, of what? Have you tried hypnosis? Do you wanna try it?
So, this is what I’ll be watching on the weekend! Well, one of the documentaries anyways. ‘Forks over Knives’ is about curing common diseases of Western societies like heart diseases, diabetes and even cancer by simply changing your diet. I haven’t watched the documentary yet, but as far as I can tell it’s basically about eating a plant based, whole food diet.
