Balance & Growth

In 2017 (when the above photo was taken) our days were a stressful swirl of working busy careers coupled with Ian doing night school, I had the sort of social worker job that swelled well beyond 40hrs and infiltrated my whole emotional jangle, and we had a 2 year old who was perpetually sick and we had no idea why. We were exhausted all the dang time, and it was so very easy to just order pizza and crash into the evening with a bloated wail.

We are no less busy these days (<—starting a business from scratch, dawn-lighting business classes, learning how to create/write/run two different websites, and homeschooling an above-year/challenging curriculum, are quite the present plate-spins while Ian is still working long hours), and there’s always going to be the siren-song of convenience food; but there are healthier/kinder/just-as-delicious options available than the wings-and-pizza combo, and the upside is that you feel *better* at the end of the day.

Today’s post is short because last night was also a Board of Education night, and there’s so much to do on the business-end that every free moment is getting siphoned off in a shuffle to Q, Your Kind Kitchen, and Ian; so writing/photography/illumination are getting the short straw.

Brevity can still be impactful though. :-)

Continue for: Onondaga County’s best plant-based convenience food; how your food choices can make big environmental/health impacts yet still be easy/delicious; and Skä•noñh - Great Law of Peace Center date/field-trip with Grandma.

Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.

In a lurch and need to buy yourself some plant-based deliciousness? Erroneously believe there’s nowhere to do so in Syracuse? Think that plant-based foods are gross and un-flavorful? Worried no one will want to eat with you once you shift plant-based?

This week has been a swirl of quick home meals (working through a plant-based whole-food scalloped potato casserole and serving it with an array of CSA offerings, and the last scraps of the camp weekend’s Cappello Chili with cornbread), but today my sweet mother-in-law treated Q and I to Strong Hearts (<—there are so many tasty options! Try them out!).

We got to break bread with one of our favorite souls (with another old-friend, missed-soul joining us from an adjacent table); and Q and I were able to gobble up black beans, homemade plant-based taco meat, cashew queso, pickled onions, corn, tomatoes, guacamole, sprouts, and fresh-cut/skin-on garlic fries. Way better for our bodies and the earth than the ol’ (carcinogenic) pepperoni pizza and wings, yet still a convenience “treat”.

And we did a date to the Skä•noñh - Great Law of Peace Center to learn more about the Haudenosaunee (a topic Q and I have been reviewing through homeschool).

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?✌️🤟🖖