Here comes Santy Clause!!

I know the last few weeks have been a bit Vegan heavy.
Sometimes it just gets like that you know, so many things happen at the same time.

Sooooo...

For those that have grown weary of the multiple vegan posts its time to talk XMASCHRISTYULE!!!!

Yup.... Just 3 days before December 1st and then its a slippery downhill run to the big day itself! 
Scary stuff.

Who going to admit they have all their gifts sorted and are smugly sitting there laughing at all the wild eyed people panicking around December 20th?

Well not me.

I have a dilemma though... How can I share my green, ethical, money saving Xmas pressie ideas when some of the recipients read the blog!!! Gaaa!

Curse my family for being interested!
I wouldn't have this problem if I wrote an anonymous sex blog or something ;)

Anyway.... While I ponder what to do about this (ban them till December 26th??) Here's a video of Badger getting stuck in the snow!
For the full video go to YOUTUBE
If you like the video PLEASE come to youtube and RATE and COMMENT on the video.

I get kicks out of stuff like that.

Enjoy x

    

Ex-Vegan venting ahoy!

I though very hard about whether to write a post about this blogger The (formally) Voracious (Vegan). Once one of Twitters most outspoken Vegans she shocked the blogsheper by doing a 360 back to eating meat.
She maintains that many vegans are lying about being vegan and are still eating meat (on the quiet) and selling us a lie.
She said that her 3 years of eating vegan caused her health problems and depleted her vitamin and minerals stores. She talks about depression, exhaustion and how we are "meant" to eat meat.

You can read her post HERE.

Now I wasn't sure how to take this at first.
For a moment I did the whole panic thing, after all, its not just ME or even me and Kim , its our children as well.
What if she was right?
What if we were wrong?
Could I make such a turn around?

First of all I have to say I am blessed with a level headed husband.
Kim is Mostly vegan (with slips into the occasional chocolate bar and once a year (so far in 2010!) shellfish meal) and came to it on his own and well informed. He NEVER just followed me and was keen to do his own research.
He read her post and concluded that she was (his words) "A nutter".

She was upset that some vegans had attacked her for doing something to save her health, but I'm not sure they did. Some offered advice (unwanted) others dared to ask if she had seen a specialized nutritionist rather than her regular GP (unanswered by blogger). Yet others pointed out that her gym routine was a little excessive.

Now while I have nothing against someone deciding to quit veganism, for health or other reasons, and on Twitter I initially supported her and commiserated with her dilemma, I quickly grew upset with how her message to the world changed. All of a sudden her life was full of Bacon, cheese, steak and how good it was and how she needed it and it became a little much, especially when only weeks before she had been vocally deriding anyone who ate meat.
Also, although she claims to have eaten an amazing diet, following her tweets (and pictures and posts from her blog) her "meals" looked like nice snacks or entres, but not enough to sustain. She talked of HUGE salads and I saw 3 lettuce leaves.
Her gym habbit also rang alarm bells. Every third tweet was "off to the gym for killer cardio work out!" This girl has a serious gym addiction.

Down to earth hubby pointed out that living where she does (Saudi Arabia) there would likely be very few fortified foods she could purchase. So although we can have fortified soya milk and cereals and "mock" meats she was likely to be only eating basic whole foods.
A lot of her food was Raw, she seemed to mostly follow a raw vegan diet, and while raw enthusiast claim that the diet is healthy, many health professionals are not convinced. Coking helps the food digest easier, so although raw food is super packed with vitamins and minerals, they are not as easily absorbed.

Now it could be that she is right.
Who am I to say that everyone can handle a vegan diet. everyone is different and individual lifestyles or health problems can be problematic with some diets.
Most people who objected to the post seemed to object to her attitude.
Once she has ran a hard line telling everyone to go vegan for their health, the environment, the animals. Now her stance is "Stupid vegans! Learn from my mistake! everyone should go Omnivore! For your health! For the enviroment!"

What would I do?
Say my Dr told me my health was in danger I had to eat meat.

Don't think I haven't thought about this before.
Could I go back to being a full on meat eater?
Probaly not, I could see myself compromising, adding a little wild caught fish or wild shot game once in a while but chowing down on pork, beef or chicken? Unlikely.

No scratch that.
Not at all.
Anything likely to have been factory farmed will not pass my lips.

So this bloggers first meal as a newly "awakened" meat eater?
Steak..... really.

So she said veganism left her with no energy... Kim works upto 14 hours a DAY at a highly physical job. He couldn't do that if his energy levels where not being met.
She said every meal left her bloated but hungry... If your body is only getting large amounts of raw food it will have to work super hard to digest it. A head of greens is not a meal.
She said her hair was thinning and she was always getting ill.... Anyone who knows me knows how thick my hair is, how Kim at 54 has more hair than men half his age, that my sons have hair longer and thicker than most girls (note to self, buy scissors!).
Sure we get the ocassional cold, but when you have kids at school its part of life, and it seems to me that some of my meat eating facebook friends have at least one "Ugh , have a cold :(" status a month so you can't say meat cures all.

She said that having to take vitamins is wrong, but have you ever tried to buy vegan vitamins? Out of the thousands and thousands I looked I found THREE suitable for vegans... which tells you something about the sort of people who take the most vitamins. Many health professionals think EVERYONE should take multi vitamins, especially B vitamins. So few of us eat really fresh organic foods that by the time something has been picked, shipped, sat in a shop and then sat in our house before we eat it.... well, can the vitamin content really be as high as all that? If science can help me be healthy I'm all for it.     

NO diet cures all.

I will NOT stand with the meat eaters/veggies/vegans/raw foodists and say "Come to our side for everlasting health an vitality!" Life doesn't work that way.

"Ah!" Some of you more militant vegans/meat eaters might say. "But you eat eggs!"   

Seriously, our hens give us maybe on average an egg a day out of the four of them... add them up over a week and divided by 5, is it REALLY going to make THAT much difference?  

OK, So I vented.

Eat what you want, but don't make me feel bad for not eating as you do.

Rest assured that the moment I suspect any of us are not in good health I would go to the GP.

I care about animals, but I care about my kids more. 

Want to read more? Ginny Messina, MPH, RD is a dietitian specializing in vegan nutrition writes an interesting follow up to the post HERE. 

  

Why I'm giving up forums- I AM VEGAN

I used to be a forum addict.
I LOVED finding a forum full of interesting people and ideas and shared goals.
I loved filling in my profile and choosing an avatar and introducing myself.

However I am now officially giving them up.

What have a learned about forums?

Mostly that in this sort of online situation you have a handful of extremists and the rest playing along to keep in with the cool kids.
I've lost count of the amount of times I have found myself playing devils advocate because people are talking bollocks basically.
I even once found myself DEFENDING fox hunting because the loud mouth who was banging on about it was horse rider (ie rich bastard toff) bashing and missing all the good points he could of been making! Instead of focusing on the fact that hunting was cruel he used it as a platform to stage a class war.

It seems that the world of forums are full of "Polly Pures", people who are the very heroes we mere mortals aspire to be.
If you use a green soap powder you can bet someone uses soap nuts, and that someone else hand washed and yet another person only uses  rain water and all the way up to "PP" who never washes her clothes because its a waste of resources.

You get the picture?

In real life you would have congratulated the person who brought green soap powder, you would have patted them on the back for making a good choice.
On the forum however she is now left feeling like she can never EVER possibly reach an acceptable level and she may as well go and chop some pandas heads off.

The catalyst for me was joining a vegan forum a few days ago.
I was super excited about it!

The creator is a vegan I admire greatly and the food is amazing, so I was really looking forwards to joining. (No I'm not naming it, some of the people there were very nice).

So I joined and went through the posts and said hi and thought "This is sooooo coooool! I love this place!" 

Then I made a mistake.

I admitted that I had rescue hens and maybe ate an egg a week.

Immediately I was bombarded with "You're not a vegan then"

Well.... Yeah I am...

A vegan is one who seeks to eliminate animal suffering and exploitation as much as possible, a vegan consume no animal product, but as I live how I live and wanted to offer these hens some freedom and compassion after their bad start in life I wasn't exploiting or hurting anyone was I?

Grey area.

Nope I was told in no uncertain terms that I absolutely was not a vegan and shouldn't call myself one. I was offered "Ethical vegetarian".

WTF????

You want to throw me a bone and say I can stay as a slightly yukky pet so long as I know my place?

Correct me if I'm wrong but if they can be vegan and still feed meat to their pets (directly contributing to the meat industry), take medication tested on animals and containing animal products like milk and opt to have the flu jab (suspended in egg) why the hell can't I call myself a vegan???

I rescued those hens, they have no cockerel so the eggs are not fertilized, they will lay no matter what I do but I MUST NOT EAT THEM!!

Apparently I can give the eggs away or feed them to the dogs but I MUST NOT EAT THEM!!

But wait... If I gave the eggs to someone else isn;t that passing the buck? Isn't that like the Christian who won't kill but is happy to let someone else do it while he watches?

Forgive me... I don't GET this?

You can buy factory farmed meat for your cat but I can't eat an egg from my rescue hens?

Now You know apart from this egg (and it really is 1 or 2 a week TOPS) I am 100% vegan. When the hens don't lay I don't BUY eggs, I never eat eggs elsewhere, and all my friends know that vegans don't eat eggs and so they don't serve them to me.

This narrow minded black and white view is what has made me throw in the towel.

After this thread I was in bed worrying about the fact that all of a sudden people didn't like me.

I had allowed myself to be cyberbullied.

I am a person who understands the grey in all areas.

I don't need to follow the rules to do the right thing.

I don't need the acceptance of groups to make me feel good.

vegan is not a diet it is a lifestyle.

I AM vegan.    

Ladies!! Save the planet!! Every month!

OK.
First things first.... the more squeamish men among you may wish to go do something manly about now. Dig a hole, light a fire, club some tofu... Because this post is about WOMANLY things ;)

That's right folks.... The painters are in. The Cardinal is in town. Great Aunt is here for the week.

Between staring to menstruate and going through the menopause, a woman could use @ 12000 disposable sanitary products, and if you go for a belt and braces approach (ie tampon AND towel) you're looking at a whole lot more!
However, while many women are happy to consider the use of reusable nappies (diapers) for 2 or 3 years, many are still amazingly squeamish about the thought of dealing with their own MONTHLY disposables. That's @ 35 years or so of throwing away tampons and towels and not just the product itself, but the applicators (sometimes plastic) and the packaging (often non-recyclable). Not to mention the fact that most if these products are cotton based, sprayed with pesticides, bleached and then you..... well you know where it goes.

Can that be good for us?

Rise in ovarian cancer anyone?

Anyway I've been playing with some products and thought I'd be frank about them, demystify them, make them sound appealing?

Ready??

I'll start you easy!

Reusable sanitary pads have come a long way.

I brought the Eco-Femme washable sanitary pads last year but the company I brought them from no longer stocks them.
However they are similar to many other brands I've looked at, in as much as they have "wings" which close around the crotch of your pants (panties) with a snap fastener.
I found them to be as easy to use as disposables and suitable for over night use.

Washing is easy.
A quick rinse under the tap and then wash as normal.
They dry super quick and so you only need @ 3 pads or so if you are at home and can wash them daily. You may want more if you are out and about.
If you need to change them during the day just take a small "nappy bag" with you to leave them in until you get home.

Mama Pads
Earthwise Girls
Draper's organic
WeMoon Menstral pads
Lollipop Washable Sanitary Pads
Moon rabbits cotton comforts

Some sites to get you started!
Of course I'm sure some handy ladies could run up their own at a fraction of the cost!

Now for the scary one!!

The MOONCUP!!!

OK, I will admit the Mooncup freaked me out at first. Not the idea of it (basically a silicon "cup" that sits inside the vagina and collects the menstrual flow) but the SIZE of the damn thing!
Which is silly when I've had sex and have three kids and its no where NEAR as big as .... OK, moving on....

The mental barrier you have to get through is the fact that while you're thinking "tampon" the mooncup looks like a giant plumbers mate.
Also unlike a tampon you have to get personal.
The most popular tampons are still the ones that come with applicators which mean you can keep your delicate repressed hands away from any "naughty" bits.

Oh come on!

Suck it up ladies and get acquainted with your womanly bits!
Yes, using a mooncup is definitely hands on but hugely rewarding for your bank balance, your health and the environment.

So here is a diagram so I don't have to say too much!

 

It also comes with a cute little baggie to keep it in!

Anyway.

Like a tampon you change the mooncup every 4-6 hrs or so, emptying the contents down the loo and washing or wiping the cup out before re-inserting it.

Does it feel huge?

Sure the first couple of times, much like when I was a teenager and using tampons, it feels like you have to waddle at first! 

By the end of day one though I'd got the hang of it and by day two I forgot I was wearing it at all.

No leaking (unlike tampons) and no mess.

Win win folks.

Anyway, that's my red letter day post. Any thoughts?