Sunday Song Day: The Path of Imperative Tone, "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space", "Afternoon Delight", How Plant-Based Diets Improve Your Sex Life
“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after the innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”
-James Baldwin
Too many of you misunderstand this howl as hate, when the fact is that this klaxon is crowing out big-bleeding-hearted WAKE UP love. Silently sitting back would have been the selfish way to stay comfortable while watching the earth, folks health, and my son’s future crumble.
Again (and again): I can have all the love/compassion/respect in the world for you, but still be deeply disappointed enough in willful ignorance/destruction to howl.
When I started stumbling down this plant-based path, I kept mum because my focus was originally based in compassion. I fully understood that you can’t make people care about animals if they are presently eating them, and I didn’t yet know all the nutritional/environmental impacts of animal products (ie I figured “To each their own,” and didn’t know I should be warning y’all.) I sat with folks feasting on flesh and endured them filling entire dinners talking about the various ways to roast up a soul, and/or all the new carcass they were delighting in. They didn’t have the consideration for how that washed over me (or my son), but I bit my lip because I’d previously been one of those inconsiderate souls.
When I started leading by mild-mannered/evidence-based example and used my usual Pollyanna positivity beam of “Boy Howdy! This food is fantastic! Hey, guys, did you know all these delicious healthy foods could help heal yourself and the planet? We feel Amazing! You should check this out!”, what I (and my son) received was immediate and unexpected hostility, mockery, and disconnection; and expected things like “It’s hard for me to shift because these are the foods I’ve always known!”, “I’m comfort-eating away a horrible childhood, and you have no idea the pain I’ve endured!”, “That’s easy for you to say!”
When I explained that I actually grew over a childhood of abuse AND meat/dairy-Hobbit-zealotry, and that it took a LOT of research and soul-growth to wake up to the nutritional and environmental imperatives of a plant-based diet and move away from those harmful foods (and how vastly important it was for all of us to do the same <— Even the United Nations is saying this!!!), I lost family members over that illumination (yet gained deeper friendships) and also got: “I don’t care!”, “This is all just your opinion!”, “I like the taste!”, “I’m not changing!”
When loved ones started having heart attacks, preventable/reversible Type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, stents, cardiovascular calamity, autoimmune disorders perpetuated by their diets, digestive terrors, and increasingly worse mental health; I started broadcasting all the data that was explaining how a plant-based diet could help all of the above, how much healthier/stronger this family had become after we had switched to plant-based whole-foods (<—we are the healthiest of all our kin), how my own clinically-diagnosed mental health issues had evaporated (as well as my and my son’s physical ailments) once we transitioned to plant-based whole-foods, and how it REALLY wasn’t “opinion” it was surprisingly clear medical fact (if the environmental imperatives weren’t enough of an incentive). What did I receive? More hostility, plus“Yeah, well that’s just anecdotal and some unknown-doctor-I-can’t-name said that my foods are fine!” (<—despite all the many organizations and world health organizations that are blasting the deleterious effects of animal-products), “You should really take an unbiased approach.” (<—despite the fact that I have been quite vocal about how much I once LOVED the foods I now know are incredibly harmful.)
And so I took a deep breath, inhaled all the overwhelming you-can-do-something-about-climate-change-and-your-terrible-health information I have absorbed through the years and let out the current klaxon roar of, “THESE ARE NOT ‘OPINIONS’! THESE ARE GLARING FACTS THAT WE NEED TO START LISTENING TO FOR OUR OWN HEALTH (OUR CHILDREN’S) AND FOR PLANETARY SUSTAINABILITY! TO IGNORE THIS INFORMATION IS SELFISH AND WILLFULLY DESTRUCTIVE!” I also explained that I was going to start disconnecting from souls who were doubling down on their standstill path because my heart/brain can no longer take it: Quillan’s future is on the line, as well as every species on this planet! And these aren’t opinions, this is every major health organization in the world harking the same dang thing!
Well THAT really woke some folks up. I’ve gotten “HOW DARE YOU?!”, “This is just your opinion!” (<—CATEGORICALLY FALSE!) ,“You need to change your tone because your voice is bothering me!”, “So I guess we’re not family anymore?!”….but what I have gotten MORE of is: “Dang…I finally read the studies/books/doctor-voices you’ve been posting and I understand why you’re howling!”, “I NEEDED your voice in my head. Please keep it up!”, “Our family has started moving forward, and I can’t believe how much better we’re feeling!”, and “THANK YOU!”
Aside from Crystal, folks didn’t start waking up until I got to that last level of voice. It wasn’t until I was completely out of my comfort zone and howling with every fiber-packed bit of my being that souls stepped forward with, “WHOA! Wow! OK! I hear you!”
Thursday, I was reveling in a day swollen with spending time with two ladies that always seem to light-and-lighten me up, had just updated my Google Sheet to realize that there are now **51**souls who have taken this move-forward torch (AGAIN: in January it had been only Ian and Q , and these are just the folks I know of!), when Ian emerged to relay that he’d just gotten into the weeds of debate with an acquaintance who started the conversation with some stubborn-standstill standards (<—”Get your woman under control”, “Her tone won’t work on anyone”, “I haven’t actually read any of the studies she’s posted.”) This local Ithaca/Regional Market coffee roaster called all of you woke-souls “weak, low hanging fruit” (<—despite the fact that the 51+ lineup is full of multiple PHDs, polymaths, nurses, and many moms who have found significant improvements in themselves and their children), called me “nasty” and “ignorant”, and mocked Ian by asking if he was an abused and “battered” husband who needed help.
Ian responded patiently and thoughtfully to perpetual, willful ignorance; and in the end stated, “My only regret was failing to respond with: ‘The only thing ‘battered’ is my overworked penis.’” :-D
I guess there’s no time like the present to go over all those studies that point to the sexual benefits of plant-based diets too, eh? I’ve been sitting on them for awhile and was too shy to post them, but what on earth do I have to be ashamed of? Ian and I have been together for 15 years, married for 9, we’re more active this year than we’ve been in our whole span, and there isn’t a day that passes where he doesn’t make me belly laugh with one-liners like the one above. Given that I’m urged to give y’all “positive” illumination, here’s some that is positively spicy. :-)
Also seems a good time to call out y’all stubborn souls with a: I see you, and I was you! I have mentioned SO MANY TIMES BEFORE how much I fumed when vegan souls tried to wake me up, so imagine how much I needed to learn to JOIN THEM!
When you come at us with myopic pick-points of “But look over here at this ONE thing that runs counter to all of the thousands of studies” not only do you look silly for searching for one speck (while ignoring the forest), you look foolish for completely ignoring the VAST medical and environmental literature that is glaringly clear on the dangers of consuming animal products.
PLEASE, do yourself a kindness and go research how consuming animal-products is tied to: the creation of TMAO (directly tied to cardiovascular disease), increases the production of IGF-1 (“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.”), impairment of your endothelium (increasing your cardiovascular disease even more), degrades your all-important microbiome, increases your cancer risk, increases diabetes risk, perpetuates autoimmune disease, increases your risk of stroke, and perpetuates the environmental ruin of this planet!
If you’re wondering why this klaxon continues at its current amplification (when I’ve already woken more souls than I ever dreamed): it’s because the sustainability of our planet depends on the bulk of us being as “Plant Forward” as possible), the lives of millions of species depends on the same, and so does our health (and our kin’s). I’m simultaneously elated that so many friends and acquaintances are waking up and moving forward, while looking back at kin (and those I love like kin) with a broken howling heart. I have neither the capacity to give up on them, or the desire to stifle the amount of shock and pain I feel at their complete lack of respect for ignoring every level of this voice, while recklessly refusing to wake themselves up to the scientific/environmental/nutritional imperatives of forward movement.
I’ve had to accept, that the only voice that is working is this world-waking wail. The mounds of science that moved me forward were the same that motivated all the souls in my swell (<--who were STRONG enough to wake the heck up), and to ignore that data is willfully harmful to us all. As such, I have an ever-burning purpose to keep howling: my son’s environmental future, this planet’s sustainability, and all the souls/species without voices you doom by inaction while telling me to shush.
What I’ve learned, is that this isn’t at all about tone: it’s about wanting to ignore facts and silence this truthful roar so you can be comfortable in your destruction; but given that we can prevent/reverse disease in ourselves and our kin WHILE healing our planetary harm (<—Win-Win POSITIVE PATH FORWARD) I’m incapable of biting my tongue.
Continue for: Sunday Song Day (“Mean Green Mother From Outer Space”, “Afternoon Delight”); why verbal shaking is imperative despite the fact that it is not my preferred path + a discussion of the hypocrisy of asking me to be “nicer” when you’re actively ruining the planet, needlessly consuming suffering souls, and filling yourself/your children with preventable disease + links back to all the previous inspiring/strong/healthy athletes, Olympians, doctors, celebrities, leaders who are thriving on Plant-Based Whole-Foods; how plant-based diets can improve your sex life; plus 4 whole days of this family living by example and eating the healthiest/kindest/cheapest diet there is.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward!
The soul whose future makes me howl the loudest. The soul who was healed by plant-based foods. The soul who worries about whether his future babies will have enough water to drink and a habitable planet to live on. The soul whose entire life is focused on loving the oceans that will be acidified beyond repair if you do not WAKE UP and start moving forward!
Humans are also driving ONE MILLION species to extinction by our actions. How can you be okay with that and then call me “nasty” for pointing out the facts?
Instead, you could be growing with forward movement, compassion, and vibrant health.
Plant-Based diets are delicious and easy to transition to.
This was Wednesday’s breakfast: black bean brownie sandwich (with cashew cream and peanut butter), cherries, half an orange, and a kiwi.
Summer Schooling a Sci-Fi Enthusiast with a spooktacular bent.
Health, Compassion, and Deliciousness.
Lunch: Cappello Chili, Cashew Queso, Yellow Squash, Easy Avocado, Quick-Pickled Cabbage, green onions, roasted corn, and cornbread (recipe for that soon).
Dinner: Salads and Sweet Potatoes
(Romaine, Swiss Chard, Yellow Squash, Quick-Pickled Cabbage, Balsamic Tomatoes, Cucumber, Green Beans, Green Onions, and Q has a side of Gazpacho from Grandma Tara, and Ian’s is covered in a feast of nuts because he missed lunch.
Dessert: chocolate mint nice cream.
I realized I post about Nice Cream all the dang time and have never posted a recipe, so Wednesday will have a recipe for this household favorite, as well as a send up of my ice cream loving father.
Love and Dedication
Ian was gone late Wed to go get us groceries (he does this every 3 weeks and he only does so in the evenings to prevent crowds), I needed to take a shower, and Q wanted to make a drawing for his beloved Aria but didn’t want to be downstairs alone, so he set up a drawing station in the bathroom. :-)
He didn’t like how the first one was turning out, so he started a second.
“It’s me and Aria riding a shai-hulud and there’s a cabin in case she doesn’t want to be in the sun, and I’ve planted a whole bunch of flowers to wind around our cabin because she likes pretty things, but she’s out in the front riding on its head and having a great day. And over here is our house and you can see our cat inside. Under the sand is a lot of hearts inside each other, because sometimes I love her so much it’s like hearts reflecting hearts reflecting hearts to infinity.”
Nightly Reading
Q’s not-so plant-based breakfast: sprouted bread, peanut butter, an apple, and a drizzle of South Onondaga Honey.
We received some honey from our neighbors, and this house volleys on thoughts about honey. We sure as heck aren’t buying any, and you should look into industrial honey (and why you should never buy it), but this came from souls who treat their bees like children, skim only a fraction from the hive, and these bees are frequent visitors to our flowery yard (<—the only reason I keep up our inherited gardens is for pollinators). Q hadn’t had honey since the holidays, so we made the concession for a rare treat.
Move forward knowing there will be stumbles, second-guessing, and occasional concessions: just aim for those “cheats” to be as kind, considerate, and/or healthy as possible.
Second treat of the day: blueberry picking with Aria and Paige.
Q met Aria in Montessori when they were both 3 and they were fast friends. He hasn’t seen her since January and we wanted to make sure they could see eachother at a safe distance.
Abbott’s Farm
While I plowed through filling that bucket and chatting with Paige (Aria’s amazing Mama), Q and Aria hid under the bushes to avoid the heat. It was agreed by all that we are not fans of hot-sun and the next meeting will be some place shady. :-)
Third Treat of the Day: lunch with Kelly (<— one of Q’s and my favorite souls on this earth). I liked to treat people with food that is as delicious and healthy as possible, and we feasted on chili bowls.
Cappello Chili, Cashew Queso, Yellow Squash, Easy Avocado, Quick-Pickled Cabbage, green onions, roasted corn, and cornbread (recipe for that soon).
We ate lunch on the porch, talked for hours and hours, got all filled up on friendship with a long-missed loved-one, and Q could barely contain himself as he told her the stories of all his recent drawings. <3
(Kelly watched Q from 6weeks-2.5years and he loves her like a second mother. Kelly was once my supervisor, was then the caretaker of my favorite human, and has grown into one of my dearest souls on this earth.)
Q’s afternoon drawing bonanza. Sandworms, Shai-Huluds, and Bobbitts for days!
“These guys were so scared of this sandworm that they were shocked right out of their shoes!”
"Ok, so up above there is a giant grabboid with me riding it, and the grabboid is saying 'vote?', and down below there is a lake with a giant worm with crazy eyes, and back on land there is a giant bobbitt, and a crashed space craft. And there is a guy hanging from the space craft investigating the giant worm.”
Dinner: polenta, balsamic tomatoes, greens (romaine and Swiss Chard), green onions, quick-pickled beets, and who knows what else Ian threw on his. :-D
Nightly Reading
Another day, another plant-strong breakfast.
Whole-Grain/Sprouted bread, peanut butter, homemade blueberry reduction (from the berries we’d picked the previous day), cherries, and a dollop of cashew cream.
Q didn’t do any summer schooling on his super busy Thursday, so instead dud double work Friday.
Lunch: Cappello Chili, Cashew Queso, Easy Avocado, Quick-Pickled Cabbage, green onions, and cornbread (recipe for that soon).
“It’s some men drilling in the arctic and then a grabboid rose up out of nowhere!”
Breakfast for Dinner: sweet cinnamon oats, cherries, blueberries, banana, cashew cream, almond butter, golden flax seeds, flax meal, chia seeds, and hemp hearts.
Filling, delicious, packed with protein and fiber, and kind to the earth as well as your body.
Green Smoothies: spirulina, swiss chard, mango, raspberry, strawberry, and oatmilk.
Friday Night Movie with Grandma: Jaws (<—Q has been asking for 2 years to watch this, and we finally relented with much editing. Shock and awe: he LOVED it.)
Nightly reading
Saturday Morning CSA pick-up with Crystal.
Forgot to take a picture of Q’s breakfast before we left: it was oats, blueberry sauce, and peanut butter, with a shake of golden flax.
My kind of bouquet: parsley and dill for making Ian some cashew tzatziki.
CSA Array (the more colors in your diet the better your health will be)
Kitchen companion: sitting on a stool, flipping through a Lego manual, and singing along to the “Little Shop of Horrors” Soundtrack.
At this point, when we receive pushback it is clear and easy to see the passionate point we’ve poked; they all boil down to the same thing: “pushing won’t move a soul”, “just lead by example”, “you need to try a different tone”; but as of Sept 2021 the radius of change surpassed 200 and I stopped counting.
Silence wasn’t what motivated them. The howling was. Just like I needed to be guilted awake to what I was doing to my son’s body and his future planet, most other standstill souls needed the same. We are cozy-comfortable and our culture is slathered in foods that are harmful for us and our kin. It seems that it isn’t until another soul is “shaming” you, that you feel slapped enough to go prove her wrong…and then learn she’s sadly right. (And Boy Howdy do I wish I were wrong! I use this approach because it is EXACTLY what I needed to push myself forward. My days would be a lot less stressful if I didn’t know what I know now, but it is all factual and imperative. The plus side is that we've never been healthier or more aware of our impacts, and this drives us to do better and wake more souls.)
As Q and I were listening to the “Little Shop of Horrors” soundtrack for the millionth time (because this is all he wants to listen to these days), “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” came on and the conversation went as follows:
j - Man, maybe “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space” should be the song for Sunday Song Day.
Q- Because we love dancing to it?
j- Hah! No, although I do love dancing to it with you. (<—Q and I have cardio dance breaks all day, every day) It’d be because people think I’m a “Mean Green Mother”.
Q - What?! (laughs) That’s silly. You’re not mean!
j- Well, people think my website tone is mean. (<—remember I read these out loud to him each time, so he’s heard them all)
Q - WHAT?! You’re not mean! You’re trying to tell people that they need to care about the earth, and they keep eating animals even though it is mean to the animals and ruining the environment and making themselves all sick and inflamed…aren’t they the mean ones?!
j - UGH. Yeah, well that’s what I wish they understood, but folks refuse to wake up to that reality.
Q - Is it like when bullies try to tell people that they are bad, but really it’s because the bully is the bad one?
j - Oh man, Bear…Yeah, it’s a little like that.
Q - Well, you shouldn’t listen to them right? That’s what you tell me.
Want some inspiration to move forward? Meet the following plant-based souls who inspire me to tears:
Dotsie Bausch (PERSONAL HERO) - “an American cyclist, advocate, speaker, and the executive director of the nonprofit, Switch4Good. She is a seven-time USA Cycling National Champion, a two-time Pan American Champion, and an Olympic silver medalist (women's track cycling, London 2012).” (<—And she’s the oldest soul in her sport to ever medal!!!)
Patrick Baboumian (<—Q’s personal hero) - Won "Germany's Strongest Man" in 2011 by winning the open division at the German strongman nationals, broke the world record for most weight ever carried by a human being, traveling 10 meters with a 1216 lb (550 kg) yoke on 9.8.13 in Toronto; and on September 20, 2015, Baboumian beat his own record by completing the yoke walk with 560 kg (1,230 pounds) in Germany.
Kendrick Farris - “the only male weightlifter from Team USA to qualify for the Rio Olympics, has moved up a weight class (he now competes in the 94kg class, aka 207 pounds) and claimed an American record after lifting a total 377kg (831 pounds) at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in May since adopting the plant-based diet.”
Rich Roll - “In May 2010, Rich and his ultra-colleague Jason Lester accomplished an unprecedented feat of staggering endurance many said was not possible. Something they call the EPIC5 CHALLENGE– an odyssey that entailed completing 5 ironman-distance triathlons on 5 islands of Hawaii in under a week.”…and he’s FIFTY. He’s also one of the most mindful souls I’ve ever listened to, and his podcast is a balm: you soak up heady medical info with a down-to-earth ease.
Novak Djokovic - “Serbian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in men's singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Djokovic has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, the third-most in history for a male player, five ATP Finals titles, 34 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 14 ATP Tour 500 titles, and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for over 280 weeks. In majors, he has won a record eight Australian Open titles, five Wimbledon titles, three US Open titles, and one French Open title. By winning the 2016 French Open, he became the eighth player in history to achieve the Career Grand Slam and the third man to hold all four major titles at once, and the first ever to do so on three different surfaces. He is the only male player to have won all nine of the Masters 1000 tournaments.“
Scott Jurek - He is the only runner ever to win the Western States seven years in a row, from 1999 to 2005. (His course record, set in 2004, was 15 hours, 36 minutes, 27 seconds, an average of 9:21 per mile.) He is the only American ever to win Greece’s Spartathlon, a 153-mile race from Sparta to Athens (he won that in 2006, 2007, and 2008). He is the only person to win, in the same year (2005), Western States and the fiendish 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon that begins in Death Valley.
In May 2015, Jurek began an attempt to break the supported Appalachian Trail thru-hike speed record: which was 46 days, 11 hours, and 20 minutes to complete the 2,168-mile route. On July 13, 2015, he completed the trail, breaking the old record by three hours….It meant he was running two marathons a day over tough terrain and he did it with a quadriceps injury. Could you do that?! Could you even handle one day of it?! (This Runner’s World article about him is a great read and made my heart burst and flutter.)
Go read my “Leading Doctors” post. They are all overwhelmingly inspiring.
Want a podcast that will open your mind to racial disparities and also fill your heart with hope of forward movement? Listen to this amazing 2 part interview from the Physician’s Committee For Responsible Medicine.
Chuck (an inspiring story in his own right) “revisits conversations with two leaders who explore the disparities facing the black community, including a widening gap of health. Author Tracye McQuirter details the nutritional challenges facing the community that correlate to a socio-economic divide. Tracye also highlights the rich history of African Americans and plant-based diets and the 10,000 Black Vegan Women initiative.”
Or: “At a time when black Americans are being diagnosed with chronic health conditions at alarming rates, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is defying the odds to chart his own course for a healthier life. Borough President Adams was beginning to lose his vision and experiencing nerve damage when he was diagnosed with diabetes. Despite the grim circumstances, he would not accept failing health and an early grave as his fate. Instead, he overhauled his diet and lifestyle to reverse his diabetes. Today, he is inspiring thousands of others who feel trapped to follow in his footsteps and live the healthier lives they’ve always imagined.”
Also: “What’s going to lower your blood pressure because you’re going to be smiling so much and lit up by her positivity? This interview with Tabitha Brown on the Plant Prescription Podcast titled, “Being a vegan woman of colour*, black lives matter, and healing with plant-based diets.” Tabitha had an arc that sounds like soooo many other plant-based souls: she was sick, she went round after round with her doctors and no one could figure out what was ailing her, she was at her absolute wits end, she tried going plant-based as a last-ditch “Well, what do I have to lose?!” after her daughter urged her to try it out (the daughter had seen What the Health at school, and y’all SHOULD REALLY WATCH THAT as I have urged too!), and Tabitha found every single damn thing that was wrong with her vanished away and she was filled with overwhelming energy. She’s gone on to be a viral sensation of illumination and joy. Want to be pepped up and have your mind-opened with an inspiring tale of growth? Set aside an hour and give that podcast a listen.”
Or go read this post where I wax poetic about my love for Dr. Brooke Goldner. It has two different podcasts with her, both of which make me happy-cry. (Have Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, MS, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease? GIVE HER YOUR TIME! It could save and better your whole life!!!)
You even have 10 members of the Avengers! ( including: Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chadwick Boseman, Scarlett Johansson, Peter Dinklage, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Danai Gurira)
Want some more heart-lifting inspiration? Go watch Game Changers on Netflix (or however you stream) and have your heart-bursting with pride for all the athletes who crushed personal goals after switching to plant-based whole-foods, and have your mind rattled opened by all the doctors interviewed therein that explain the mechanisms in play that illuminate why PBWF are best for you and precisely why animal products are feeding you disease.
If you need celebrities, you have Beyonce (who is even on the back of that Undo It book by Dr Dean Ornish I keep reading/harping about), but I don’t have time to keep listing out folks. A simple Google search awaits you.
You have examples of souls doing far more in their days than you are doing in your Standard American Day, and they are doing all with Plant-Based Whole-Foods; so again: why do you need those animal products?
Also, please stop reaching out to us like it’s some scary, terrible, shocking thing that I shook Ian awake for the betterment of his health, his planetary impact, and our relationship. AGAIN: both sides of our families are overfilled with so much cardiovascular disease that Q was recently assigned a pediatric cardiologist because his doctor was so horrified about the family’s health history; and at the time of that passionate impasse Ian was on a high-protein, low-carb diet like option C seen below. He was marching himself toward cardiovascular disease just like our kin.
My plant-based ultimatum was out of love and a broken heart, and that turning point became the best thing that ever happened to this family. Ian and I are in unison on that. We were not in a good place when we were on separate paths: both of us were cranky/fuming, we had stopped communicating (<—this is usually our super power, we have been open-communicators from the start) which put us at an impasse, and the atmosphere had become toxic. This was not at all good for Quill, which was part of the reason why I had brought up separating.
As soon as we got back on the same forward-growing/health-healing/planetary-kind path, we grew collectively stronger, healthier, happier, more energetic, and we became downright frisky. We’re closer now that we’ve been in all our 15 years and each day is better.
Also, Plant-Based Whole-Foods are categorically tied to cardiovascular health, which leads to more blood flow and more energy, and BOY HOWDY has that been beneficial in ways we didn’t expect.
So, while y’all are trolling behind your keyboards, looking back to our rock-bottom, missing the point of retelling that tale, and failing to notice our climactic (<— pun intended) present; we’re over here whistling “Afternoon Delight” all the dang time because that is the theme of our never-been-better current days.
Here’s some more fun reading:
“Plant-based Diets Can be Effective in Reducing Heart Failure Risk”
“There is a very close relationship between love, sex, and food. The human need for food and sex are basic, part of the foundation of our nature, which makes it sensible that they are so closely knit together. Libido naturally lags when the body isn’t getting all the nutrition it needs, and it must focus on self-preservation over reproduction. Deficiencies in nutrients can create depression, fatigue, and low energy levels that get in the way of passion and love.”
American Heart Association: “Whether you’re considering eating less meat or giving it up entirely, the benefits are clear: less risk of disease and improved health and well-being. Specifically, less meat decreases the risk of:
Obesity
Many cancers”
Plant-Based Primer: The Beginner’s Guide to a Plant-Based Diet
From the National Institutes of Health “Plant-Based Diets: A Physician’s Guide”
What do you have to lose? Disease, bad habits, and planetary harm.
What do you have to gain? Health, vitality, frisky afternoons, and planetary healing.
Some interesting reading from “Your Body In Balance” by Dr Neal Barnard
Ian has never dealt with ED, but he had terrible back issues and this section blew our minds. Guess who no longer has back issues?
Had you ever heard that before?!
We’re following all of the above for best health. How are we feeling? Never been friskier. :-)
From “Undo It” by Dr Dean Ornish and Anne Ornish.
Quantum Entanglement was a new concept to me and was a beautiful brain opener. 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.”
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 was what started a chasm between us.
We started approaching things with a “beginner’s mind” and now I’m learning new things every day. 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.
Lunch: polenta, balsamic tomatoes, greens (romaine and Swiss Chard), green onions, grated brazil nut, and nutritional yeast.
Q’s afternoon drawing. “So up above is a lake house, and me riding a graboid; and below the lake there is Papa riding a shark, and there’s an angler fish checking out the walls.”
Breakfast for dinner again: this time with roasted potatoes and steam-seared shiitake mushrooms (Ian’s also has ruby kraut and a mount of mustard. :-D)
Oatmeal bowls with kiwi, mango, cherries, cashew cream, peanut butter, flax (golden and meal), chia, hemp hearts, and blueberry sauce.
Looks beautiful and is good for you and kind to the earth!
Nightly Reading
How y’all doing on that goal to get at least 30 plants in you within a week? The best nutritionally-focused docs recommend that you get at least 30 different plants into you within the week. Why? Your microbiome is bettered by plant diversity.
Is your diet a rotation of meat and grains? That’s what mine used to be, and then I grew forward.
You only make what you measure, and America is sadly known to be severely deficient in fiber. Gut health = whole health so it is worth focusing on and growing forward.
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?✌️🤟🖖
