Change is Inevitable, Bruce Hornsby, Zero-Waste Cleaning, New Weekly Diversity Records, The Game Changers, & Ice Love in CNY
"That's just the way it is: some things will never change. Ah, but don't you believe them."
This Civil Rights anthem from the 80’s (and my childhood) gets in my head a lot, because Q loves it and it’s a great discussion point about how we need to grow beyond outdated/harmful ideas. (<—Also, have you ever noticed how the first few bars match one of the prevailing Lord of the Rings themes?)
It’s come to mind again this week as Texas was embroiled in a real-life climate change crisis, our weekly school journal was chugging through Vitamins Pt 2 and all the ways we can thrive without hurting the environment/another-soul, and then Lent rolled in and as I explained to Q that it meant people would be giving up something for 40 days he couldn’t fathom why they wouldn’t want to try animal products or just even ONE animal product. I found myself comforting a kindergartner who wonders/worries how folks can root themselves in standstill as his future crumbles down around him (<—again, we should all be transitioning as plant-based as possible for environmental sustainability before it is too late and we march ourselves off a climate-tipping-point cliff <—even the UN is urging is to transition ASAP for sustainability <—Plant-Based diets also better our collective health, are cheaper than the animal-product diets, and they save a soul from suffering too <—and Q knows his loved ones have seen/read these posts and wonders why they don’t move forward like we once did.)
It can be easy to think “some things will never change”, but it’s always followed by me (or him) discussing how we could lament standstill, or we could keep klaxon-howling forward movement because change is inevitable; and at some point humanity will collectively wake-up…or they won’t and my son’s future (and that of every other species/soul on this planet) will be doomed, but I refuse to give up and I refuse to let him believe there is no hope.
Continue for: the inevitability of change, dairy discussions and an easy/tasty alternative (<—our Almond Parm recipe), many examples of what we and that kiddo were eating this week (including a new record of microbiome diversity), zero-waste cleaning, the vast change of heart Ian’s had re: The Game Changers (pun intended) and how it ties into Quantum Entanglement & Shoshin (“Beginner’s Mind), where you’d see my picture in a dictionary, and some snowy CNY scenes as a balm for those blistered by the informational scorch found within.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
And all this suffering doesn’t stop with the cows: it’s hurting the environment and your body as well.
If you want a blast of dairy information, I’ve covered it in many posts, but here’s a sample:
By continuously feeding yourself an unneeded mammalian growth slurry you are setting yourself up for a feast of diseases.
Wait, why would it give us diseases?
First, you should know that all animal products (muscle, breastmilk, ovulation) contain choline. “As bacteria in your gut feast on the choline, they produce a substance called trimethylamine (TMA). Your liver takes that TMA and converts it to TMAO. “
Why’s that an issue / What’s the matter with TMAO?
“The trouble with TMAO is that data show high levels contribute to a heightened risk for clot-related events such as heart attack and stroke—even after researchers take into account the presence of conventional risk factors and markers of inflammation that might skew the results. In their most recent analysis, scientists showed that high blood levels of TMAO were associated with higher rates of premature death in a group of 2235 patients with stable coronary artery disease. Those found to have higher blood levels of TMAO had a four-fold greater risk of dying from any cause over the subsequent five years.”
You can also take a look into mTOR research so you can understand that the enzyme within that breastmilk causes cancer cells to grow (because again, breastmilk is meant to GROW OUR BABIES, adults are not supposed to be drinking it through life, and especially not some other species’ breastmilk), and when you consume animal products (whose proteins are flush with mTOR) it begins to perpetuate the growth of cancer.
In the same vein, you should look into the research surrounding IGF-1 (insulin growth factor) and how it perpetuates cancer. How? Why?
“When we consume too much animal protein, the body increases its production of a hormone called IGF-1, (insulin-like growth factor 1). IGF-1 is one of the body’s important growth promoters during fetal and childhood growth, but later in life IGF-1 promotes the aging process. Reduced IGF-1 signaling in adulthood is associated with reduced oxidative stress, decreased inflammation, enhanced insulin sensitivity and longer lifespan.4 In contrast, IGF-1 has been shown to promote the growth, proliferation and spread of cancer cells, and elevated IGF-1 levels are linked to increased risk of several cancers. Several observational studies have suggested that high circulating IGF-1 may translate into promotion of tumor growth in colon, prostate and breast tissue.5-13”
Did you know of the environmental impacts tied to cow-breastmilk consumption? It’s right up there with the affects of raising animals to consume their flesh:
“Dairy cows and their manure produce greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change. Poor handling of manure and fertilizers can degrade local water resources. And unsustainable dairy farming and feed production can lead to the loss of ecologically important areas, such as prairies, wetlands, and forests.”
If you’re like us and the above information slapped you right up side the head: here is a great pediatrician podcast describing in light-hearted/yet-earnest mechanistic detail the many ailments kids have that tie back to dairy (<—have a constipated kiddo? Constipated yourself? Speckled with acne and/or eczema? You may want to give her a listen), here are a feast of plant-based calcium sources that are as kind as they are healthy; and here are the simple directions to make a cashew cream, spicy/tasty cashew queso, “Loaded” Potato Soup, cashew cream cake, chocolate mint nice cream, fudgy brownies, a simple oatmilk recipe (great and SO CHEAP for baking), and how we make creamy tasting mashed potatoes.
As past cheese-lovers, Crystal and I sought out plant-based alternatives to hit the same salty/tangy/umami flavor we loved, and Almond “Parm” is a great assist in this realm.
If you are a lover of “shaker cheese”, think a casserole isn’t complete until it has a crusty cheesy topping, or you think a soup is better when it has a dash of cheesy sprinkle adorning it, then A) you are our people and B) we have you covered with another easy pivot to plant-based kindness.
Almond Parm (<—recipe is on our Your Kind Kitchen page <— Jasquatch is the science-dense, howlingly-passionate Key & Peele anger translator to the Your Kind Kitchen page :-) )
Almond Parm can be made in under a minute if you do it the Cappello way, and it can be done in under 5 in Crystal’s. Both are delicious, and both are saving the environment from unnecessary emissions, saving that mother cow (and her calf) from suffering (<— reconcile with yourself that mothers make milk only when they have given birth, so every bit of dairy you are eating —and we once ate— is coming at the expense of a baby getting ripped away from its mother, and the both of them suffering until they are slaughtered), and Almond Parm is also saving your body from a feast of hormones (<—all dairy has estrogen), inflammation, and increased cancer risk.
Best part? You’re still getting protein, but you’re additionally getting: fiber (<— which most Americans have a lack of, not protein), Vitamin E, Thiamin, Riboflavin, an array of B Vitamins (including essential B12).
What a kind and delicious pivot, eh?
Red Lentil Pasta, Mixed Veg (Roasted Broc and Cauliflower with steamed green beans), and homemande marinara, topped with Almond Parm.
Mushroom Alfredo Mac and “Cheese” (Plant-Based Whole-Food Cheese sauce made with cashews and seared mushrooms/onions), served with mixed veg.
“Stuffed Pepper Casserole” (Plant-Based Whole-Food “Cheese” Sauce, bell peppers, and black rice), served with mixed veg and marinara.
Pumfu tostadas, with cashew queso, mixed greens, quick-pickled cabbage, and roasted corn.
Oil-Free Refried Black Beans with bell peppers, cashew queso, mixed greens, quick-pickled cabbage, and roasted corn.
An everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Potato Soup compliments of Stone’s Throw Farm CSA: potato, carrot, celeriac, served with quinoa and topped with their pea microgreens.
Mixed Fruit Crisp (strawberries, blueberries, and black raspberries we picked over the summer, with cranberries and mango added in too) served with dairy-free yogurt. (This was a test and we def prefer Oatly’s Oatgurt)
Overnight Oats with peaches, pecans, and plant-based yogurt.
Mixed Vegetable Red Curry with Black Rice
Quinoa, kraut, mixed greens (get ye a mixed greens pack at your grocery if you don’t have a CSA supplying them. It betters your microbiome to have as much diversity as possible), bell peppers, furikake (<—good for omegas), and sesame dressing.
Similar to above, but with added avocado and peanut sauce instead of dressing.
Leftover curry with quinoa and sunflower seeds
Whole-Food Peanut Butter and Chocolate Donut (recipe soon) with Banana
Sweet Potato Flatbread (dropped off by Crystal) topped with cinnamon and date sugar and served with an apple.
Making a plant-based whole-food peanut butter cashew cream cake for his grandfather’s birthday.
And Crystal also gifted him this Valentine wonder: a plant-based whole-food (<—caramel was made with dates and plant-milk) Caramel Apple.
The best nutritionally-focused docs recommend that you get at least 30 different plants into you within the week. Why? The more plants you eat, the more your microbiome is bettered because that helpful little forest of microbe’s health is dependent on the fiber (<—only found in plants) of your food.
What do I mean by “bettered”? Decreased risk of cancer, decreased risk of cardiovascular disease (<—Number one cause of early death, and we could be preventing that) , better mental health, and a more robust immune system.
And though we can vastly reduce our environmental impact, better our health, and radiate compassion with plant-based diets, there are always other ways we can reduce our waste stream too.
I often forget to show all the ways we are living as zero-waste as possible, but this week was a cleaning-out-closets week, we made some new rags, and it’d be a good time to go over America’s (wasteful) obsession with paper towels, and how there are much better/cheaper/waste-free ways to clean your home.
Over here, we haven’t bought a pack of paper towels in so many years I’m not even sure when the last pack was. Before Quill? Here seen: I’m cutting up a pair of old maternity pants that were worn until they literally had holes all over. (<— Also key: use what you can until it is on its last breath. When these weren’t publicly presentable anymore, I wore them gardening and painting.)
Save those buttons for future use. :-)
What we use instead of paper towels: years of old clothing and towel scraps.
Simply dampen them and they can be used to clean all sorts of things.
(Also, transitioning to LED bulbs will lessen your environmental impact and bills.)
And when you need to scrub out something with more than water: baking soda is a handy assist.
And enlist the next generation, because participation in work is what makes a community thrive. :-)
He’s spraying for me while I do the hard scrubbing.
Voila
The above cleaning was made slightly more difficult by the fact that I had limited use of my arm for 2 days because I received my first Moderna shot and was surprised at how stiff/sore my arm became from shoulder to finger-tip.
Here seen: Q waiting in line with me, and then us working on his schoolwork while I waited the necessary 15 minutes to ensure I didn’t have an adverse reaction.
This week’s theme was Vitamins Pt 2 and the whole line-up is found on Instagram.
Here are some ways we got out to soak up Vitamin D in snow CNY this week.
Above: an OCS Winter Break treat of yard-time with his beloved Smorol brothers.
Red Mill, right down the road from us in South O
Was stomach-sickened to see some a-hole went out on the ice and put up a Trump/Pence sign (<—wasn’t up there before January, this is a post-Capitol-insurrection response), and Q was so saddened by it he asked if we could never come back to Red Mill.
Stuff like this makes my brain flame, and as soon as it is frozen enough for me to rip that shit down (or thawed enough for us to kayak out) it will be gone.
Tinker Falls
We were treated to the mesmerizing site of this family climbing the ice column. <3
That is one incredibly impressive 7 year old. Without crampons and with arm-strength that could make your jaw drop, that kiddo scaled half-way up the same path his father had made.
Speaking of strength, Ian asked if we could re-watch The Game Changers , and if you still haven’t watched this gloriously informational documentary about how Plant-Based diets can better your whole health, you owe yourself (and your loved ones and every species on this planet) a moment to sit down and have your mind and heart opened. Every time we watch it, we retain something new from one of the many doctors interviewed, our hearts flutter-full with all the inspiring Olympian/Athlete stories, Q hops up to cheer Patrick Baboumian (<—this time he lifted weights while watching too), and I happy-cry more than a few times.
When we first watched this movie (December 2019), Ian had wanted to to watch it because Chris Kresser (<—a man he once followed for nutritional advice, but was proven to be a hack) had said it was all fabrication and Ian spent the majority of the movie huffing and scoffing.
I, meanwhile, had no idea what we were about to watch (all I knew was that it had something to do with a MMA fighter), and I was launched into a documentary that explained with powerful scientific detail exactly why I had found myself bursting with energy and feeling healthier than ever with my (at that point) almost-entirely plant-based diet (<—was still eating eggs). What we learned was so convincing, we gave up the eggs and were propelled into even better health.
Since then, Q and I have re-watched it a few times (it’s one of his favorite movies), and when we re-watched it with Ian this time, it was with a man whose mind has been opened, his health has been vastly bettered, and he can watch it and get just as inspired as Q and me.
You owe it to yourself to give it a watch. Go down the rabbit-hole and try to refute the wisdom, and you’ll find yourself exactly where Ian did: launched forward with the knowledge that plant-based diets are essential for health and environmental sustainability.
”Our food choices play a significant role in the biggest environmental challenges of our time. Just as the food we choose to eat is part of the problem, thankfully it is also the SOLUTION. For example, in the US, where per capita meat consumption is three times the global average, shifting away from an animal-based diet would reduce agricultural emissions by up to 73%, and save one million liters of water per person, per year. Globally, this would free up 3.1 billion hectares, an area the size of all of Africa, taking pressure off the world's most endangered ecosystems and species.”
From Doctor Dean Ornish’s Book “Undo It: How Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases”
Dr Ornish is seen within Game Changers, and is one of the world’s leading cardiologists.
Dr Dean Ornish - world renowned cardiologist who proved in 1990 (THIRTY YEARS AGO, FOLKS) that diet could reverse heart disease, and he’s proved it repeatedly since. He’s also proven how to modify the expression of prostate cancer, and shown how diet affects telomere length (telomeres are tied to longevity). His Book Undo It, is a must-read; but if podcasts are more your thing, this one with Cardiologist Dr Danielle Belardo interviewing Dr Ornish and his equally illuminating/inspiring wife Anne is one heck of a great listen.
“After 16 years of review, Medicare recently agreed to provide coverage for Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. This is the first time that Medicare has covered a program of comprehensive lifestyle changes.
Medicare reimbursement is really a game-changer. When reimbursement changes, so do medical practice and medical education.”
One of the themes in this house is that we should always be growing forward, and we have a particular focus on approaching things with an open mind, but I had never heard of “Shoshin” until reading this book.
How open-minded are you to new information? As I tell you all these new facts about plant-based diets, do your hackles raise and your ears plug? I get it, because I used to be that way, and Ian’s refusal to accept the imperative planetary/nutritional information once started a great chasm between us.
But, then we started moving forward and started approaching things with a “beginner’s mind” and now we’re learning new things every day, healthier than ever, and more in love than ever. If we’d stayed in our old harmful habits, we’d be marching ourselves and Q toward disease and early death.
I challenge you to find the bit of yourself that is open to change and compassion and start stumbling forward. There’s only health, happiness, strength, and compassion on the plant-based path ahead of you.
Every day after lunch, this kid settles in for a snuggle and sings the tune of the Little Shop of Horrors song “Suppertime”, but instead goes, “Snuggle time, snuggle timmmme!”
Over here there is a perpetual swirl of love and truthful roaring because we see the preciousness of life and are desperate to protect it.
Tangentially, the word “feisty” came up this week and needed to be looked up in the dictionary for proper explanation and when I read, “a person of typically small stature who is spirited, tough, pugnacious, lively, and determined”, Q piped up, “That’s YOU, Mama!”
When we relayed the above to Ian, he laughed out loud and said, Wow! Was there a picture of you next to it? Sounds like it should be your astrological sign too… ‘Feisties’ (rhymes with Pisces).” :-D
I am indeed feisty as all hell about the future of my son and the future of this precious planet. I love him more than words, but he is a speck compared to the importance of planetary sustainability because it affects every other soul/species in our wake; and I’ll be sounding this WAKE UP klaxon until the day I die. There is too much to protect, no time left to waste, and I’ll willfully take the yoke of “feisty” to burrow under your skin enough in the hopes that it WAKES you. It’s far more important than being milquetoast & popular.
Change is inevitable. Do you want to be a force of positive change or destruction?
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
