Sunday Song Day: "Skid Row", Thanksgiving Feasting, Running Through Rainy Forests and Climbing up Waterfalls
If there was time to map out what’s filling my brain-space this last flurry of a week, it’d likely be cost/pricing Your Kind Kitchen’s launch closely tied with “The Little Shop of Horrors” soundtrack ( <— due to repeated request from Q.)
I have simultaneously never done (or unexpectedly enjoyed) doing so much math, and in all my years of music-love loony repeat whims I’m not sure I ever came close to Q’s passion for the “Little Shop of Horrors” Soundtrack (with the exception of the Dentist’s song, which he skips each time with a mini vent of how vile a villain he is), but if it keeps his brain keen & inspired to draw while I work away (<—on starting up a business aimed at lessening the environmental impact & risk of cardiovascular disease within our community), than Boy Howdy I’m happy to let him ride the wave. I get the added bonus of his tiny singsong voice in the background mimicking each character differently, just like his vocally talented uncle would.
As “Skid Row” has gotten its own fair share of daily spins, its lyrics have been rattling around in this number-focused brain reminding me that my old depressive/Lyme’s-pained/perpetually-exhausted self would have listened to this and had myself a good commiserative cry:
”Where depression is status quo!
Down on Skid Row
Someone show me a way to get outta here,
'Cause I constantly pray I'll get outta here!
PLEASE, won't somebody say I'll get outta here!
Someone gimme my shot or I'll rot here.
Show me how and I will: I'll get outta here
I’ll start climbing up hill and get outta here
Someone tell me I still could get outta here!”
Now I listen to it and think, “Good Gravy am I glad I started listening to the advice of our Leading Organizations, Doctors, Olympians, and Documentarians,” and any crying comes from that sappy-sack overly-happy heart-swell of singing along with Q and the sight of his little joyous face.
I can’t remember the last time I was depressive or had an anxiety attack (<—used to be many daily <— had clinical depression since childhood), I used to take multiple ibuprofen every day just to be able to move my neck/back/knees and the only time I’ve used it this entire year was in lieu of opiates after a 5-year-delayed hernia surgery (and I stopped taking the IB within 3 days of the surgery), I used to take Benadryl every night because my allergies were so bad if I missed a few nights I’d get a roaring sinus infection (<—cut dairy out of our diet and I haven’t had Benadryl or a sinus infection since 2019 <— also no longer have the congestion/allergies I assumed were a lifelong burden), I was HANGRY every dang day and now I’m a full-happy-Hobbit, I was a willowy weakling and now I have more muscles than I’ve ever had, the list could go on. :-)
The most important part was that my failure-to-thrive kiddo turned his whole health around too and is now thriving.
It seems anecdotal until you realize the United Nations, the National Institutes of Health, and our Leading Organizations, Doctors, and our beloved Documentarians are saying the same thing: Plant-Based diets prevent/reverse the bulk of our chronic diseases. They also contribute to a thriving microbiome (which betters your mental health, because over 90% of your serotonin is created within your GI Tract).
Listening doesn’t just better your health, it betters the environment for every soul on this planet. It’s a win-win-win path forward, it just involves taking steps.
Continue for: illumination on what we’re doing in the hope that all the excuses to remain in the comfortable/harmful past get shaken up by the example of a kinder/healthier way to live. There’s a much better way to fuel our bodies and live sustainably on this planet; and as each day passes we’re running toward irreversible tipping points with inaction.We have so much to gain by waking up, and so much to lose if we don’t!
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly Grow Forward.
“Skid Row” Little Shop of Horrors Movie (1986)
What we aim for every day. Do we get there every day? Nope, but at least we have a goal. :-)
Dr Michael Greger is also a great soul to follow. He has feasts of free videos (ad free), articles, research reviews, and even a podcast over on https://nutritionfacts.org/
You even learn that he donates all proceeds of his best-selling books to charity. Why? Because he was inspired onto this nutritional path when it saved his grandmother, and he made it his life’s mission to try to heal as many folks as possible. Not take your money off of it. :-) His approach is why Crystal and I are seeing how closely we can price to cost so we can radiate HEALTH/Environmental-Sustainability not personal profit.
Another Doctor I follow is gastroenterologist and best-selling author Dr Will Bulsiewicz.
I never knew a speck of the above, yet I was taking Ibuprofen (by my doctor’s orders) every night and morning to alleviate Lyme’s pain that screamed in my neck, back, and knees.
I kicked the animal products and refined junkfood out of our diet, and both the pain and need for medications went away. Instead of being stiff, sore, and slow in the morning I am limber, energetic, and pain-free…and this is while being every day older than the last :-) and more active (ie more exertion) and stronger than I’ve ever been.
Here’s some more reading, if you’re interested:
“By decreasing antibody synthesis, NSAIDs also have the ability to weaken the immune system which can have serious consequences for children, the elderly and the immune-compromised patients.”
“Effect of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs on immune function”
“The influence of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on the gut microbiome”
“Anti-inflammatory drug and gut bacteria have a dynamic interplay”
I covered animal products and how they also link to colitis and colon cancer here.
Ok, ok, but how to apply and will it even be enjoyable?! Well here’s a glimpse of our Thanksgiving week.
Cranberry Sauce made with orange peel, maple, and pureed blueberry/mango.
Thanksgiving Plate just before it was covered in mushroom gravy. :-)
Quick-pickled cabbage, Roasted Squash, Mashed Potato, Lentil Loaf, Garlic Sesame Green Beans, and whole-grain rolls
These rolls were made out of whole oats, flax, tapioca, and 1tb oil for a 8 roll batch and Ian described them as a mix between a biscuit and a roll. They were a hit and will definitely be made again. <3
Thanksgiving Dessert” ginger cake with cashew cream and cranberry sauce.
Plant-Based Pumpkin Pie made by Tara and dropped off on the porch. Drizzled with our chocolate sauce.
There was ginger cake and chocolate sauce too. :-)
Tara also sweetly dropped off another plant-based offering of mushrooms topped with quinoa, mixed veg, and Beyond sausage. We sprinkled some hemp-parm on top, baked them up, and covered them in mushroom gravy. :-)
Fun leftover mashed potato idea: flauta style tacos (or tostadas in this case) :-)
Here seen: lentil tacos with mashed potato, cashew queso, greens, easy avocado, bell peppers, and quick-pickled cabbage.
Eat the Rainbow. :-)
Leftover Bonanza
Q: roasted squash, steamed broc, marinara, hemp-parm, and a whole-grain roll.
Ian: “Thanksgiving Tacos” made with sweet Crystal’s sweet flatbreads and topped with everything from the Thanksgiving meal.
Me: a taco bowl made out of the last of those stuffed mushrooms mixed with some leftover lentil taco meat.
What to eat beyond Thanksgiving? We live, love, and rely on peanut sauce bowls.
You’re getting protein and iron from the peanut sauce/ rice/pumfu, Vitamin C (which helps you absorb the iron) from the cabbage/peppers/kholrabi (or whatever other veg you want to put along side it), zinc from that Pumfu (Pumpkin Seeds) I keep raving about :-), and the health benefits of leafy greens are too numerous to mention. :-)
Q would eat this every day if I let him, and some days are so busy he gets his wish. :-)
Breakfast: Crystal’s sweet potato Flatbreads, apple, peanut butter, and a ginger/cinnamon sprinkle.
If you have a whole-grain bread, swap that in instead. :-)
And a go-to busy-morning option is to have a big thing of oatmeal in the fridge that can be pulled out into all sorts of vectors. Above is berry sauce and banana, right before it was given an Omega Sprinkle.
Want some inspiration? Check out Nimai Delgado’s (creator of Vegan Fitness) Google Talk about his journey from mechanical engineer to award-winning plant-based bodybuilder and advocate.
And the above may look kind of tasty, but where’s the proof that one would have energy to actually get up and thrive?
Here are (One, Two, Three) physician’s guides explaining the health benefits again, here’s an inspiring link to the only male US Olympian Weightlifter (<—spoiler: Kendrick Farris is completely plant-based and he’s def lifting more than you :-)), and here’s a group of souls who used to love cuddling up on a couch and groaning about how full/exhausted/sore they were, but were out running around in the rain after Thanksgiving dinner.
Post Thanksgiving Dinner Rand Roaming
The free beauty of Rand. If you’re local to Onondaga County, Rand Tract is an amazing free gem.
You can follow streams and mini waterfalls on and on and on: this part is above the ridge of the long valley you saw in the last pic.
Mama Bear and Cub <3
And if we can’t get out to a forest, Ian’s always working on some body movement and being one heck of a physical/healthful role model to Q. <3
Friday we got back out, however, and went to roam the other free gem: Three Falls Woods.
Yet another waterfall climbed. :-)
Mini Polar Bear (it was 40 degrees out). <3
Three Falls Woods <3
And it’s not all eating well, and keeping active, it’s also remembering to love and laugh, so here’s some documentarian-photographer zeal for snapping some of that through the week.
Q’s face when he heard one of his favorite souls was having her first ever plant-based Thanksgiving (and the rest of her family too)! <3
Q prepping a card when he found out a friend’s grandmother has COVID. (Syracuse is on such a spike, 46% of our cases have come just in the last month!)
“This bee is avoiding all these carnivorous plants, and the frogs and tadpoles live in pitcher plants, so their little speech bubbles are saying, ‘We’re ok! Hope you’re ok too!’” <3
It’s carnivorous plants all of the dang time.
A “thank you” to Opa for gifting him a Vegan Advent Calendar.
And when paints and tablets fail him, there’s always the houseplants. :-D
Heart-boon, though: he helps with those plants.
And helps his father…or talks his ear off while he works. :-)
The sight of a man who has just revived his childhood Nintendo and is bound to play it with his son. <3
Hand-kissing Cub during a rainy hike. <3
Last Fall, he made this painting and said, “This is a painting of a dream I had with Aria, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen her, that all I could see in her place was the darkest dark of the blackest sky, because that’s how much I miss her and how it dark it feels to not remember her face.”
That dramatic heart-wallop forced me out of my introverted/often-shy comfort zone to reach out to Aria’s mom about keeping connected and those two now keep in steady, sweet contact.
This week’s drawing for Aria: some Poison Ivy and Batman scene he saw while looking for animated plants.
This may be the most detail he’s ever put into a drawing, and he did it in a whirl after that get-better-soon card.
Enlisting multiple generations of Cappellos into helping him make a necklace for Aria. Grandma, Ian, and Q all worked away on beads. (Ian’s been making me necklaces since we started dating in 2005, and his father has been making jewelry for Tara since they first started dating; so this was a heart-squeezer to see replicated.)
Love & Focus
Point of View, by Shel Silverstein
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?✌️🤟🖖
