Demeter's Garden

Yeah, I’m going to get a lot of grief for posting this, but I think it is important:

From the Atlantic: The Case Against Breastfeeding. The title is really a misnomer, it’s the really the case against making bottle feeding mothers feel like criminals. WHY do I think this is an important message. Because I’m pro-choice. Choice when it comes to whether to have a child in the first place and choice when it comes to what to feed them. Flame away in the comments!

As many of you know, one of the reasons I wanted to try the Adventure Cleanse Tune Up was to see if I felt better without gluten in my diet. Sure enough, giving up all gluten for a few weeks made me feel a lot better! Now that I have discovered that lactose and gluten are NOT my friends, I feel much healthier than I did a year ago. I have noticed, though, since going completely gluten free I have been in a bad mood. Is this just coincidental stress, or have you experienced this while giving up gluten? Do you think it goes away once your body gets used to being wheat free? At first I was eating a little bit of gluten here and there, but now I have cut it out completely. I would love to hear how you felt giving up gluten, lactose, or anything else that made you ill.

I don’t usually like detox diets, cleanses, or fasts. My philosophy is that the best way to keep your body running smoothly is to eat healthy all the time. That means lots of whole grains, fruits, and veggies,  limited processed foods/sugar, and paying attention to your body to see what makes you feel good and what doesn’t. It’s going to take longer than a week to get out toxins you regularly put in your body, and it’s pointless if you’re just going to put them back.

So then why on Earth do I like the Adventure Cleanse Tune-up from Crazy Sexy Life so much? Maybe it’s the idea of a tune up instead of a detox. A tune up for your body, at least to me, is stepping and looking at your overall health. What do I put in my body on a regular basis, and is it doing me any good? For me, it is about detoxing your mind of bad habits and negative thought patterns. Here are the things I am trying to change by following this plan:

• I can tell myself I need caffeine, but what if I am following a plan that doesn’t allow coffee and soda? It allows for all the tea you want, but I HATE tea. So I can learn to live without caffeine or learn to make some healthy tea beverages that taste good and are way better for me than pop. As it is, I’ve discovered that I can make a decent chai with soy milk and oolong tea. My brain gets its caffeine (but still much less than usual), my body gets some nutrition instead of corn syrup, and everyone is happy!
• Got digestive problems? It’s cool, we can talk about it here, don’t be shy. I’ve been diagnosed with IBS. I’ve already discovered that lactose was a huge problem, which helped me decide to go completely vegan. There is one other major bad guy out there: gluten. I’m not sure if all gluten is a problem for me, or if it’s just too much gluten, but I’m giving it up for a month. I’ll see how I feel!
• How about budget issues? Ever notice that you can get any combination of eggs, flour, corn syrup, mystery meat, and dairy pretty damn cheap almost anywhere? Try avoiding all of those in your diet, and tell me your grocery bill doesn’t spike. It takes effort and planning, but you can eat healthy on a budget. What I have realized this week is that if I spend a little more on groceries and plan my meals for the week, I will actually save money. When I don’t have a plan and I just buy whatever is on sale, I end up ordering lunch out at work, or my hubby ends up getting fast food because there is nothing to eat in the house. We spent more than usual on our groceries today, but we’ve got meals for the week and I think our only dinner out will be our weekly trivia night.
• Exercise. I hate exercise. I really do. I’d rather take a nap than exercise any day. Maybe it’s my short attention span, but exercise has got to be the most MIND NUMBINGLY BORING activity in the world. But for the next month, hubby and I are going to try to get moving a bit. I did buy a WiiFit, I’ll let y’all know how that goes!

I will update you guys on how the Adventure Cleanse Tune-up is going. I don’t think we’re going to get quite to the top level of raw food/cooked food ratio since we are new to raw food, but I’m just going to try to include as much raw as I can this month. My hubby (a confirmed omnivore and cheese lover) is going to try it with me, I will be sure to report how the dairy-free aspect is going with him!

Are you doing the ACT too? Let me know your plan!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

• These cool vintage tatoo pictures! It’s nice to remember that every culture in history has had some sort of counter culture.
• The Global Rich list. It puts life in perspective when you discover you are in the top 5% of wealth in the world.
• Sea Otters! Especially one with her own Facebook following!
• Hugs! I love this video of police in Denmark handing out hugs and bicycle helmets!
• Gorillas! So YAY to the authorities who rescued a baby gorilla from an animal trafficker. You DO NOT shove a baby gorilla (or any other creature) into a bag and leave it there for six hours. Jerk.
• Food! The worst thing about the Standard American Diet is that we tend to get stuck in a rut, eating the same things all the time. VARIETY is the key to a healthy diet, especially for us vegetarians. Check out this list of Great Foods You Aren’t Eating (and notice, most of the list is vegan).

• MJ! Happy Birthday MJ! I love you!
• Vegans! One of the cool things about veganism is that people go vegan for lots of different reasons. Here is an article about baby boomers going vegan for health reasons. Did you know that only animal products contain cholesterol? That means a vegan diet has zero cholesterol!
• Partys! Want to meet cool green people? In addition to Demeter’s Garden Party,  I’ve got a guest post up at Green in Gwinnett Area that will tell you about all sorts of other green events going on this spring!
• Earth Hour! Are you turning out the lights for Earth Hour, this Saturday at 8:30 PM? Have anything cool planned?
• Communes! I’ve always rather liked the idea of living in a hippie commune. TreeHugger has some suggestions for turning suburban neighborhoods into communes where people can pool resources and work together.