What on earth could these two things have to do with one another? You’ll see!

“Singing a cappella is doing so without any instruments as musical accompaniment” (per wikipedia.com). I’d never been exposed to a cappella music groups until I went to IU. There was an a cappella music group at IU Bloomington, with some seriously hot guys (sorry Pete) called Straight No Chaser. The original group wound up with a singing engagement on PBS a few years ago because someone posted a video on youtube.com of them singing their version of the 12 Days of Christmas (posted below) and their fame progressed from there. There are so many songs that are redone in an a cappella style. Some songs really complement the a cappella style and some really don’t. That, however, is an individual opinion. Each singer in an a cappella group has their own function: they either are creating an instrumental sound (like a beat or melody) or they are singing the vocals. A cappella songs that are remade from their original music version sound similar to the original version and yet maintain their own distinct, unique sound.

Here’s a youtube video of them performing 12 Days of Christmas with their own special twist on it. I’ve seen this performed live and it’s hilarious and really awesome. They have such a unique sound.

So now that I’ve basically done an infomercial for Straight No Chaser, I’ll go on to what this has to do with veganism and even further into raw food veganism.

As you know, and if you don’t know you can read all about it on my blog, I tried vegan eating for 2 weeks for a project for my blog. I called it a Very Vegan Valentine’s Day. I didn’t last the entire two weeks. I lasted one week and decided to convert because I liked it so much. With veganism, you remove all animals (beef, fish, poultry, etc.) and also animal by-products (eggs, milk, butter, etc.) and you’re left with a plant-based diet. In veganism the food can be cooked or uncooked…your choice. There are a lot of similar dishes that you make as a vegan by replacing or substituting certain ingredients in place of the meat, butter, etc.

There’s a sect of veganism called raw food veganism where you still eat vegan foods (all plant based) but you don’t cook anything over 108 degrees or so (the degrees vary in the different articles I’ve read). I’ve only been eating raw for a week and one-half so I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do have a little experience with it now to blog about it.

The first week I went raw, I ordered a week’s worth of food from Karyn’s Raw restaurant in Chicago. I figured if I was going to go raw for a while, and had no idea how to prepare the food, I’d pay a little extra and see what was out there. So on 4/1/2012 I walked out of Karyn’s Raw restaurant with a huge box of raw food. I discovered a whole new world of food. It was food that tasted similar to the vegan dishes I was used to eating but it was a little different. I was still able to have my vegan pizzas, pastas, and desserts but they were done in a whole new way: raw. Taking the animals, animal by-products and even the cooking process out of food you really are just left with food in its organic, uncooked state. However there are ways of preparing the food that make it taste similar to what you were used to eating before. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds really pull together to create fabulous tasting food. Raw food that is prepared (like the “breads” and desserts) taste a lot denser and are a lot more filling than cooked foods. Not everything that I tried from Karyn’s restaurant tasted similar to the dish she was trying to recreate but I’ll admit she hit pretty much dead on for most things. Again, like the a cappella music, it’s meant to be similar to what you’re used to but not exactly the same.

While eating raw vegan foods or cooked vegan foods, the plants do all the work and pull double duty in place of the meat and animal by-products to make the plants shine through and the same is true for a cappella music.  The singers pull double duty, each with their own unique part: some of the singers replace the musical instrumentation and some sing. By removing one element out of the equation other factors must be relied upon to produce a similar enough end result that people will still listen to the music or try eating the food.

If music didn’t sound good people wouldn’t listen to it. If food didn’t taste good people wouldn’t eat it. When we pull out instruments or an element like meat or even a process like cooking, it forces the music or food to stand on its own, pull together in a different way and really shine through without the extra additives. You are left with a product that is similar to what you’re used to listening to or eating, something that you can relate to what was replaced and still left with a new experience at the end of the day. And you know the best part of all of it? You can decide if it’s for you or not!

If you relate veganism or raw food veganism to eating a bunch of cold vegetables, would that appeal to you? Probably not. But if I took those foods and incorporated them into a dish and called it Hawaiian pizza, would you give it a try? You might. And even better is that you might like it. With the a cappella music, if you associate it to your sixth grade squeaky Catholic school choir concert then you may never want to listen to it, but if I post a popular song like the 12 Days of Christmas and ask you to listen to it, you might come out with a new perspective on it!

Raw food veganism isn’t for everyone and there’s always cooked veganism to try. If veganism doesn’t appeal to you, then there’s always vegetarianism or back to the diet you were most likely raised on with meat and animal by-products. The same is true with music. If a cappella music just isn’t for you, then you can always chose to add instrumental-style music back into your listening repertoire.

We all have choices. These are unique options I’m offering up to you to explore. Veganism, raw food veganism and a cappella music are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of each other and also in terms of what people are used to eating and listening to for music. But they are similar to each other in that they remove one element and the final result is still similar to what you’re used to but different and unique in its own way. You just gotta give it a try!

Enjoy!

Sara

When I was a child my mother would always tell me “You know, we’re short [both of us are 5 feet tall] so we really have to watch what we eat or we’ll pack the weight on. And it only gets worse the older you get.” I remember the first time my mother ever telling me this. I was 10. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was planting the seeds for a lifetime battle with food. She planted the seeds when I was a child and it came to fruition that I shouldn’t eat them as I got a little older…about 8 years older than I was at the time.

When I was 18, I left for college. I went to Indiana University at Bloomington in 1999 and graduated from there in 2003. My freshman year was the hardest year I had down there. I wasn’t accustomed to living on my own and definitely not without my mother who, at the time, was my life-force and best friend. I found myself alone in a whole new world with kids my own age whom, I’ll admit, I thought were socially pretty stupid. These kids were foreign to me: they drank, they partied, they had sex in the dorm room next door to me and they acted nothing like I was brought up to act. I didn’t get drunk, go to a party or have sex until after I graduated college. I finally found a niche when I was down there. I joined the ballroom dance club down there and started competing, had a dance partner and finally made a few friends with some like-minded people. However, that first year all I really had at school was me to look out for. I would come home to my unair-conditioned dorm on the third floor of my cinder block single-room cell. My freshman year felt out of control. So I looked for something that I could control. Looking back, I know now that I was looking for something to control when everything was out of control so I turned to diet and exercise: things I could control.

I got tired of being lonely so I started dancing a lot. I had done some balllroom dance in high school during my senior year so I when I got to college I immediately joined the club. All my mom had ever let me try during grammar and part of high school was ballet and a little bit of ballroom dance. I never got to do hip hop or jazz or other styles of dance, so I immediately signed myself up for those as well. I also started walking 5 miles a day around the track at the gym and started lifting weights for the first time. I never gained the freshman 15! I lost close to 20 pounds in less than two months. I did this in part through exercise but also through diet. I pretty much stopped eating and believe me I was starving. I’d eat a doughnut and orange juice for breakfast, a small cup of soup and a light salad for lunch and would often skip dinner. I would go back to my dorm room and do my homework and then just lay on my bed and sob on the phone to my mother or grandmother about how much I missed them and how I wanted to come back home.

From the time my mom dropped me off at school in August and  came to visit me in October, I had dropped from a size 10 to a size 2. None of my clothes fit. I remember having to strap my pants on with a belt and couldn’t understand why I had lost so much weight. I remember how proud my mother was of how I looked. In her eyes, I looked great.

The worst day I had at school was on a Sunday: I stayed in my room and cried all day. Not eating was a way to internalize the pain I felt from being so lonely and so homesick. I didn’t realize it at the time because I didn’t know what it was, but I know now that I was depressed. My world felt out of control and the only thing I could control was my body: what I did to it and the foods I put in it. The weird thing was it felt good to have control over something. Deliberately not eating made me feel good. It was my way of showing people how unhappy I was. By getting so skinny, I hoped someone would reach out and say, “Hey, is everything ok?” I wanted someone to notice the pain I was feeling on the inside.

My grandmother knew something was wrong and that I was depressed, but my parents didn’t. Either that or maybe they did know I was suffering with depression and just chose not to acknowledge it. They don’t believe depression exists which is why they are miserable in my eyes today. My mother is just like I used to be: she doesn’t hardly eat anything and she takes pride in that. She’s tiny and believe me she loves it when people point that out to her.

So when I returned home for the summer I had a decision to make: I could go back for another year at Bloomington or just stay home and attend school locally. Truthfully I never wanted to be in school. I wanted to dance and teach. But not getting a college degree and dancing full time the rest of my life wasn’t an option with my parents. So after a miserable summer of being with them, I decided I wanted to go back to Bloomington. The next three years of my life down there were really awesome! I’ve made some great friendships and had some amazing experiences while I was there. When I graduated, I moved back home and from there down-spiraled back to my old ways. I graduated at age 21 and finally ended the battle with my weight at Christmas-time of 2011.

I didn’t realize it back then but my mother has been picking at my weight since I was 10 years old. By telling me that I would need to watch my weight as an adult, what she was really telling her normal-weight daughter was that she was too fat. Those thoughts and that conversation have resonated with me over the years. My mother made me paranoid about my weight. Until Christmas 2011, she would pick at me. She would make comments about how thick I was looking when I ran Chicago marathon. Or when I was lifting weights in college and my arms bulked up she told me she thought I was taking steroids, which I wasn’t…I just tend to bulk up when I lift weights. When I was trail running, she thought it made the muscles in my legs look to big and told me I shouldn’t wear skinny jeans and that there was no way I’d ever fit in them anyways. There was a breaking point with my mother when she insulted me for the last time and I thought I needed to change my ways. So I pulled myself away from her. I haven’t seen her since Christmas for this reason and a few others too. It’s been one of the healthiest things I could’ve done for myself.

I pulled myself out of a toxic environment and now have a healthier perspective on diet and exercise to boot. I look at it now as fuel and entertainment. Food is fuel. Exercise is now training which is my entertainment. It’s what I like to do for fun. Eating vegan and now eating raw vegan only has taken how I view food to a whole new level. Training for things like marathons and triathlons gives me something to do while I get over the heartbreak I had when I gave up dancing. I’ll return to dance when I’m ready. I have to return to it. It’s what I’m naturally good at and it’s a shame to waste something you’re really good at and deep-down love the most. When I’m ready, I’ll go back. In the meantime, marathons and triathlons are filling the void.

I’m done repeating the exercise-bulimic and anorexic eating patterns. It took me a long time to get here but I realize now that those patterns are how I deal with grief. I know what triggers the patterns to start and know what I can do to prevent them from happening.

Be careful what you tell a child. You can plant a seed in someone’s mind at any age. It just seems to resonate more with a child because they are less judgmental than an adult and more open to trusting and hearing what you have to say. What my mother said to her 10 year old daughter that day led to lots of years of paranoia about weight and food. It’s a battle that will never be truly conquered but can at least be recognized and dealt with. I can easily say that day my mother planted seeds in my mind and they grew over time and her message was in the end: don’t eat the seeds I’ve given you. She meant it literally and in the end she was figuratively right: I never should’ve eaten the seeds she planted because she was wrong.

Sara

I love rescuing dogs. I think Pete would turn me over to a shelter if I tried to rescue anymore. I wish I could rescue more but sometimes practicality gets in the way of wishes. I have rescued three dogs and I have one dog that I bought a the dreaded pet store. There are a lot of rescues out there, some are breed specific and some not. Here’s my story that goes along with the title of this blog. It all plays out. You’ll see.

The first dog I rescued was from a rescue called Petite Paws Rescue Angels and his name is Mr. Biggs and Pete and I got him when he was three years old. He’s now eight years old. Mr. Biggs is a small, Maltese mix.

The second dog I purchased was when Pete and I broke up. All I can say is this: don’t go into a pet store when you’re drunk and lonely because $1,000.00 later you’ll walk out with a really cute companion and not a clue what to do with a brand new puppy. When you take your pet store puppy to the vet for their first check up you quickly realize the mistake you’ve made because they look at you like, “Really? Are you a puppy mill supporter?” No I’m not, but I needed companionship and that was how I got Kasey, a cocker spaniel/poodle mix, who is almost 2 years old. I made a mistake in supporting puppy mills and paid way too much for the dog, but she’s mine and I still love her the same as I do all of my other dogs.

The third dog I rescued was a beautiful black Australian shepherd mix named Tattle. I rescued her from an organization called Lakeshore Paws. I saw her picture posted on Facebook, showed up the next day at an adoption event and brought her home. Tattle was with us for three weeks. She was such a good girl. She was a puppy when we got her and a puppy when she passed away. She was bitten in the hips and shaken to death by a pit bull that got loose. We found out later that the pit bull had been rescued and “rehabilitated”. It had some cage aggression issues and clearly was a violent dog with the intent to attack. When I took Tattle outside to go to the bathroom, the dog came running over to the yard, grabbed her and started shaking viciously. I can’t even express what it’s like to stand there and watch your dog get shaken nearly to death by another animal that wouldn’t let go. Thankfully, a neighbor came out and told me to go get something to hit the pit bull with to get it to release the grip it had. I went inside and got an umbrella and ran back and bopped the pit bull in the head twice. A few seconds later, I was holding my shrieking dog trying to figure out what to do; meanwhile my neighbor pointed out that I had been bitten by the pit bull in the process and asked if I wanted an ambulance called. Panicked and not knowing what to do, I held my puppy in my arms and drove from Portage to Purdue North Central where they have a good 24 hour emergency vet clinic. I wound up dropping the puppy off to see what they could do for her and meanwhile went to the ER so I could receive some medical attention.  The pit bull survived, even though it had attacked another dog earlier that week. Animal control wasn’t able to put the pit bull down because they didn’t have enough evidence to prove that this was a vicious dog. The pit bull is no longer allowed in our neighborhood but resides somewhere else and may very likely do the same thing to another dog or person. We wound up deciding to have Tattle put to sleep. She lived three short weeks with us and we’ll never forget her. She had a severed spine, broken rib, no use of her back legs and her hips were severed at the spine. As a growing puppy, the doctors told us, even if she survived the surgery, she would have a very poor quality of life. This was such a hard decision to make, but we did what we felt was best for Tattle. I wouldn’t want to see any animal have to suffer. It was hard enough having to watch her suffer that night.

Lakeshore Paws generously offered Pete and I another dog because they felt so bad about what happened. I was immediately went on Facebook to watch for a new group of puppies to come into their rescue. My running buddy and Pete knew what I didn’t realize at the time but do know now: I was looking to replace what I had lost. Instead of waiting and mourning her loss, I wanted to adopt another puppy.  Within 6 weeks of the attack, we had a new puppy named Bonnie who is thankfully still with us today. She will be one year old in June!

I have a scar on my left inner forearm from the pit bull bite. It’s concealed to most people because it’s on the inner arm. I look at that scar every day and am reminded of what happened. The funny thing about scars is that when they are wounds they are the fragile and when they heal they are the toughest part of the skin. I still mourn the loss of Tattle and wish I could bring her back. In an odd way, I justify what happened in my mind by telling myself that Bonnie got a chance at life because of Tattle’s passing. She got rescued and got a chance to live with a good family.

I believe in dog rescues. I’ve rescued three dogs from two dog rescues. I raised money for Paws Chicago when I ran the Chicago marathon in 2011. I even believe in pit bull rescues despite what happened to me and Tattle. Do I think the dog that attacked my puppy should’ve been put down? Yes I do. I think that is an aggressive dog that will most likely do the same thing to another animal.

I see a lot of people that are very defensive of the pit bull breed and will make postings on Facebook about how they are subjected to scrutiny because they are segregated as being this vicious breed. Pit bull rescue groups and pit bull owners give off this notion that this specific breed of dog is very gentle and domicile.  While I’m fully aware that not all pit bulls are dangerous, and do believe non-aggressive dogs should be saved, that doesn’t mean you’ll catch me posting “Save The Pit Bulls”  on my Facebook page, with the exception of this blog post title. Once an animal is vicious, it’s very hard to rehabilitate it so it can go back into a “normal” environment.

People have very strong feelings on whether the pit bull breed should be rescued or not. I hope that people reading this that do support pit bulls will read it from a perspective of someone who has been attacked and suffered the loss of a dog because of an aggressive dog. I have a scar on my arm to remind me of what happened and, yes, it does make me a little less sensitive to saving a really aggressive animal. It’s not specifically pit bulls that I’m against rehabilitating.  I do believe that, when brought up from puppyhood correctly, any dog can be gentle and sweet. Owners have to do their part otherwise what happened to me will happen to someone else.

The owners of the pit bull that attacked Tattle had a rehabilitated pit bull. Clearly, a good job was not done on the rehabilitation process. It’s a tough question to answer: once you have rehabilitated an aggressive animal, will they still be aggressive? In my case the answer was yes.

Tattle, I love you and miss you. And she got the name Tattle because she had barely any tail….like Tattle Tail!

Sara

My friend and I took the train into Chicago on Sunday to see Giselle on Sunday performed by the American Ballet Theater at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.

My mother got me interested in seeing ballets when I was 6 years old. The Nutcracker performed by the Joffrey Ballet at Arie Crown in McCormick Place was the first ballet I ever saw. I was immediately entranced. I still see at least one ballet every year nearly 25 years later. Almost all of the ballets I’ve seen have been with my mom with the exception of the time I was away at college. This Sunday was different: my mom and I saw the same ballet but we sat 5 rows apart and the only time we spoke was in a public restroom at Macy’s Department Store.

I’ve written in other blog posts that, as a child, teenager and young adult, my mom used to be my best friend and in recent years I’ve become estranged from both her and my dad. I love my parents but I feel much better when I’m not around them for multiple reasons. Something happened right before Christmas and I decided it was time to detox and take some time away from my parents. I haven’t seen them since before Christmas at which time my mother was yelling at me over trying to give their dog a bone. It is as ridiculous as it sounds. The detox from them was the best thing I could’ve done for myself.

Part of me was shocked to see my mom this Sunday because I hadn’t seen her in several months. However I knew it was a possibility that I might see her given that she and I always saw the last ballet of the two week run on Sunday at 2pm, always took the same train into the city and always used the public bathroom at Macy’s after we got off the train. The run-in in the bathroom was short and awkward. It was like getting a shot in the arm: quick with a little bit of a pinch and then it’s over quicker than it began. She said hi to my friend and told us to have a nice day and then walked out. After she left, I started crying and my friend hugged me because she understood my pain.

My mom was with me all day: she took the same train into Chicago, saw the same ballet I saw and sat 5 rows down from us, she walked back the same way we did to the train station and took the same train ride home yet the only time she actually talked to me was in the bathroom.

After being taunted by my mother’s coldness all day I realized that the detox had done me some good. Even though she was pretty much everywhere we went, she had a nice day alone and I had a nice day with my friend. The detox has put me in a better frame of mind. I pulled myself out of the negative environment that my parents create and surrounded myself with a more positive crowd of people. I have a very hard time handling rejection from my mother and I get paranoid when she picks at me about anything from the clothes I’m wearing to my weight to my life choices. She and my dad are both very critical people. By only speaking to her less than a minute that day, I realized she wasn’t going to have the chance to pick at me and I never had the chance to get upset about it.

I’m grateful to my parents because they gave me life and there are times, like Sunday, when I miss the relationship I used to have with my mother. I also realized though that getting away from them or a bit let me grow and flourish on my own. It gave me a chance to develop some new friendships with people that don’t judge me all the time and pursue interests that I’d like to pursue just because I want to. That’s one of the perks about being an adult!

The only time I cried was in the bathroom when my running buddy hugged me. That’s a big step for me. My mother not wanting to spend the day with me, before the detox, is something that normally would’ve crushed me and ruined my entire day. The coldness that she showed me in the bathroom would’ve been something that would’ve had me in tears on and off all day and was something that I would’ve normally let ruin my day. But not this time. I wasn’t going to let her have that satisfaction of doing that to me. And I wasn’t going to do that to myself.

Being in a different frame of mind and looking at the picture from a different perspective was the best thing I could’ve done for myself.

Sara

What are you afraid of? There’s got to be something. For some people it’s public speaking. Isn’t there a statistic out there that states the only thing people fear more than death is public speaking? I will admit getting up and talking in front of people can be a little bit scary at first. As a dance teacher, I would always have butterflies in my stomach before going out to teach a big group class. Eventually I would relax once I got my rhythm. I like speaking in front of people when I know what I’m talking about! It makes it a lot easier.

Here was one of my fears that I realized the other day that I have mostly conquered: driving in Chicago.

I sent a friend a text message the other day wishing her a happy birthday. This friend isn’t one I see very often but we were friends in high school and kept in touch through college and now into our adult years. Before she got married last year, she and I would meet up if she was in Indiana or I would take the train into Chicago to meet her.

Taking the train into Chicago was the only way I could get downtown for a long time—like since childhood. I learned this behavior from my mother. My mother never drove us into Chicago when I was younger. We always took the train downtown to see the sites: musicals, ballets, art museum visits, the opera, the symphony, etc. It didn’t matter what time of year it was: we always took the train.

I didn’t realize until adulthood that my mother was scared to drive into Chicago. It was a big fear of hers and therefore a big fear of mine. She limited us to activities that were within walking distance of the train station or a short cab ride away. I didn’t realize until I wished my friend, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, a happy birthday how limited I was and how my mother’s fear transferred to me as a learned behavior. My mother was scared and, since I’d clung to her side for so long as a child and teenager and even as an adult, how I had let her fears become my fears. It was fear by association.

When my friend and I would meet up, she would have to walk to the intersection of Randolph and Michigan Avenue in Chicago since that’s where the train dropped me off. From there my friend would take me to places of the city that I’d never seen before, all on foot. I love Chicago and was grateful, in a way, to not have my mother there so that I could explore other parts of it besides Michigan Avenue and State Street. But there was still more of Chicago that I wanted to see and I knew that I had to get myself there if I wanted to see these sites.

So what helped me conquer my fear? A Magellan Roadmate definitely helped and also my running buddy. Last year, I ran two races in Chicago with my running buddy: Chicago Marathon and Hot Chocolate 15K. We also both raised money for charities which had functions in Chicago. I told my running buddy about my fear of driving in Chicago. So, after I got my new Corolla last year, my running buddy would say “you drive and I’ll help you navigate.” What really happened was I drove, her Magellan navigated, and she kept me calm. I soon realized that without her Magellan, my running buddy was just as lost as I was! That’s why it took us an hour to get out of Indiana one time—and that was, sadly, with the Magellan. Not our finest moment, I’ll admit. But my running buddy was great at keeping me calm especially when it came to facing my fear of fast-moving traffic on expressways I didn’t know. She’d just tell me everything was going to be okay and if we got turned around it was no big deal.

For Christmas, Pete got me my own Magellan. Now I could go places in Chicago and not need to have my running buddy with me. Right after I got my Magellan, I decided I wanted to go to Whole Foods. So in January 2012, I took my new Magellan and my shopping list and took my first trip to Whole Foods, all by myself. I didn’t have Pete or my running buddy. And my mom would freak if she knew I was driving in Chicago by myself, so thankfully, she doesn’t even know! I was nervous at first, but I kept going up to Whole Foods week after week after week. It’s where I do all my grocery shopping at now. Pete was with me last week when we went to Whole Foods together and he said to me, “Wow you’re so much calmer driving than you used to be. Look at you! You look like you do this every day.” Pete was right. I was one calm, cool, organic cucumber from Whole Foods!

Facing my fear of driving to Chicago head on was the way to go for me. I did it slowly and with the help of friends. And letting go of my mother’s fear helped me let go of my fear. Sometimes relationships that are close-knit can be damaging if you take on one another’s fears. Eventually I realized how much I was missing by assuming my mother’s fear was my fear. I was wrong. My mother’s fear has always been just that—my mother’s fear. I’m not scared to drive into Chicago anymore. I do still need my Magellan for directions on how to get places I’ve never been in Chicago, but I’m not scared to go there alone anymore.

Pick one thing you’re afraid of, slowly introduce yourself to it with the help of friends and family and anything else you feel you need to make you more comfortable. Face your fear head on a little bit at a time, in small doses. Eventually, you’ll become less fearful and more comfortable and you’ll realize how limited you were by the thing you feared the most!

Sara

Ok so if you haven’t caught on yet, Meat Pete (my omni man) is a huge nerd. I love him but it’s the truth. There are stacks of comics all over our house, Dungeons and Dragons rule books, multiple sets of dice, super-hero movies, collectible figures and oh did I mention the comics!

Last August I was trying to figure out what to get Pete for his birthday. I’m not a big gift giver. I like giving the gift of experience vs an actual physical gift that will get lost in my hoarder’s collection of junk. I overheard one of the attorneys at the law firm I work at talking about something called Comicon and how he was going to be going to Rosemont on the weekend of Pete’s birthday for this convention. The first thought that went through my mind was, “Holy crap, I can send Pete to a Comicon for a day! That’s perfect!” In my mind, I had my lady night all planned out with movies, popcorn and cuddling up with my dogs. When I came home and told Pete about his gift he dropped the bomb: He refused to go to this unless I went too. He wanted to go and was really excited about it, but he didn’t want to go alone. What woman would disappoint her man on his birthday? That would just be down-right mean. So I purchased two tickets and tried to mentally prepare myself for challenge before me: not being bored at a comic book convention with other nerdlings like Pete around.

I’m a nerd too. I’m a huge nerd! My nerdiness may not consist of Star Trek watching, comic-book reading, role-play gaming but I’m still a nerd. I’m a fitness and diet nerd. What Comicon is to Pete is what a health and fitness expo before a big race is to me! Either way you roll the dice, we’re both nerds in our own way at the end of the day. The difference is, Pete will go to my events and expos and never really complain. Me, on the other hand, well, let’s just say our 11 age difference shows up sometimes. I’ll admit I’m not always the most supportive person at an event I don’t want to be at.

At Comicon, I was 100% supportive. I drove us up there, paid for our lunch and attempted to wander the crowds with Pete. This was the first year that Pete and I went to a large comic book convention like this so we didn’t really know what to expect and hadn’t planned out our day very well. Pete got to sit in on an interview with Patrick Stewart which I believe to be his most memorable experience. I will admit I did enjoy one part of the day: the interview I sat in on with Pete with Christopher Lloyd. That was pretty cool.

This past Saturday, I dragged Mr. Supportive Omnivore Pete to a vegan/vegetarian group meetup at a restaurant called Asparagus. Pete sat across from someone he’d never met before named Jim Heely (all identities are kept secret). Pete and Jim seemed to bond instantly–they both had a witty and dry sarcastic sense of humor about them and both discovered that they’d been to Comicon and enjoyed themselves. Oddly enough both were omnivores too just along for a ride. There were also both sitting next to two female vegan runners with the same names (just different spelling)! Jim and Pete hit it off and decided to make a trip to Comicon together in August 2012 at Rosemont. I was so excited that Pete had someone to go with so I wouldn’t have to go this year! For a brief moment, I saw my lady night of movies and popcorn and dog cuddling flash before my eyes until Jim Heely said, “Well, you’re going too.”

I looked at Jim, eyes sullen, and said, “Huh?” He basically told me that I wasn’t looking at it the right way. The message I got from Jim was to drop my attitude about the nerds at Comicon and to look at it for all of the cool things it offered instead of all the things I deem uncool about it: like the thousands of comics everywhere and the people dressed up in super-hero costumes.

I took Jim Heely’s challenge and decided to open my eyes to Comicon a little wider this year. While you probably won’t catch me in storm trooper costume or standing in line to buy the latest action figures, you will catch me at more of the interviews with the plethora of actors they have there and I was told there is some pretty cool art at this event as well. You will catch me better planning my trip this year so that I can have just as enjoyable experience as Pete and Jim will have. And since it’s a Vegan Comicon Field Trip, we are eating someplace vegan for dinner!

Sara

Event Series About The Series.

It is a triathlon just for women. How cool is that?

Have you ever had a moment where something really just rang a bell in your mind? Where something inside you went “ding” and you thought, “It’s time I tried that.” It’s often something you’ve been thinking about for a while and you’ve been thinking to yourself, “You know, I should really try that sometime.” When you have the thought of “should” in your mind, eventually should turns into “must”, the bell dings within you and you do what you say you should try. Should’ve, could’ve, must’ve and eventually turns into I’m going to try that right now.

I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries like this ever since I came back from my Colorado vacation in October 2011. When I was in Colorado, I was introduced to Whole Foods and organic eating. I was still an omnivore at the time. When I came back from vacation and went grocery shopping, I switched to almost all organic eating, meat, fruits, vegetables, dairy, the works. Not everything was organic, but I would say 90% of what I was eating was organic. At the same time I started watching a lot of documentaries like “Kitchen Rescue”, “Food Matters”, “Forks Over Knives”, “Food, Inc.” and “Raw For Life.” I’m waiting for another one to come out called “Hungry For Change” which will premiere on March 21, 2012.

I enjoy watching these shows because it’s changed the way I look at food. Most of these documentaries are available on Netflix and instantly available on the instant queue if you have a streaming-enabled TV or a gaming system like a Playstation, Nintendo Wii or an Xbox 360 like Pete and I  have. The information is at your fingertips. The question is, will you watch these documentaries, will they change how you feel about food, or will you walk out of the room when it’s on? Anytime I turn on one of these shows, Pete leaves the room. He can’t stand watching them. He’s watched one or two with me, and it’s like listening to them makes his skin crawl and he just wants to leave the room. These documentaries opened my eyes to what is in food such as genetically modified soybeans and corn. If you’re not eating organic versions of these, then chances are good you’re eating a genetically modified version—in other words, not in its organic state. These soybeans and corn are then fed to the cows, pigs and chickens to fatten them up quickly for slaughter. Cows are meant to eat grass and not these genetically modified foods. Genetically modified is also another way of saying cheaper production. If we can genetically modify a product we can produce it more rapidly and in a cheaper way because we can control its production. We are not only consuming the genetically modified soybeans in process foods that we buy, but they’re in the meat you’re eating as well.

Did you know that cows and chickens don’t stand around all day grazing on grass and basking in the sun? Nope, they stand around in their own fecal products in mega-crowded, dirty barns and coupes and are given antibiotics so that they don’t keep getting sick. Along with the genetically modified foods, these antibiotics and fecal products also wind up in the meat you’re eating.

These poorly treated animals are slaughtered and right before slaughter they experience fear which produces the hormone cortisol which effectively also winds up in the meat that you’re eating. If someone was going to kill you, you’d probably experience high levels of hormonal changes as well. So the genetically modified foods, feces, antibiotics and hormones are all in that package of steaks that you picked up at the grocery store. Having a side of non-organic corn with that as a vegetable or some steak sauce that contains soybean oil that’s not organic? Congratulations, you’re also eating the same diet that your main dead dinner course ate! Doesn’t that make you feel great? Go ahead, give me your reasoning that I hear all the time: “But Sara, it tastes good. And I’m not giving it up.” It’s your choice if you want to walk out of the room.

If you think that being vegetarian is much better then I disagree with you. Yes, you’re not eating the meat which is really good. However you’re still eating the animal by-products which have been altered by the animal’s diet. By continuously buying products from dairy and egg farms, you’re going to continue to support the farmer who is going to send that animal to slaughter when it is unable to produce the byproducts anymore that you are eating and drinking.

Vegetarians out there, did you know that cow you’re drinking milk from was injected with hormones to induce the animal to artificially produce milk when the cow hasn’t produced a calf to provide milk to? Cows, just like humans, are meant to produce milk after a baby or, in this case, a baby calf, is born in order to feed the calf. That milk is meant to grow the baby calf to become about nine times it’s initial size. If you’re a human, why are you drinking milk meant for a baby calf? And what’s worse is why are you drinking milk from a cow that was injected with hormones to produce milk in its udders so farmers can sell it to you to drink? The cow’s udders are sensitive and they aren’t meant to be milked for money.  I know, I know, you drink milk because it tastes good. It tastes good because it’s all you know. After birth you may drink your mothers breast milk and then are switched to cow’s milk. You know why it’s hard to give up cow’s milk? Because it’s all you’ve known for years. Are you open to giving plant milks a try? Oh Sara, I could never drink those. They taste nasty. They taste gross at first just like anything new because you’re not used to the flavor. If you’ve never eaten something before doesn’t it taste funky a first? Sure it does because you aren’t used to it. If you’ve been drinking cow’s milk for 20 or 30 years, it may take a few days to get used to drinking plant milk at first. But just like anything, are you willing to give it chance? Cow’s milk is meant to make a calf grow to nine times its original size. Are you a baby calf to grow to become nine times your original size? Are you now a full-sized cow? If you are a cow and reading this, then props to you because last time I checked cows couldn’t read and humans weren’t meat to drink calf milk…they were meant to drink human breast milk until they were ready to be weaned off and from there food can do the rest.

Let’s turn the tables for one minute and say that you’re a man and woman, married, with two kids. Let’s says cows go on strike and are standing outside factory farms with signs saying, “We’re not giving you our milk anymore.” The man looks at his wife and says, “Well we can’t get dairy milk anymore, so you’re our only option.” So the man takes his wife to a scientist and demands the following: “Please develop a hormone that will artificially produce milk in my wife’s breasts even though she’s not pregnant, then we can hook her breasts up to a milking machine, milk her and produce milk for our family, the rest of our world and maybe we’ll have enough for the cows to drink. This could be the latest craze if other men catch on!” Sound crazy? If you wouldn’t demand that of your wife, then why buy milk from a farmer’s cow? Because it tastes good? Really? Give something else a shot and be open to change. It tastes good because it’s acceptable by society because it’s all we know. If we all gave plant milk a chance it might also catch on and taste good and maybe someday that will be promoted instead of unnecessarily milking a non-impregnated cow or even better, your non-pregnant wife!

Animals have no rights because they can’t speak up for themselves. They are still beings who experience feelings like love and fear and they also have brains. Since they can’t communicate with us through language we take away their rights and invade them. All animals, including your pet cat or dog have brains, beating hearts and experience feelings. Would you eat your cat or dog for dinner? I’m guessing if you knew that your cat or dog was going to experience fear right before slaughter, you’d try and defend it. But would you defend a cow or chicken before slaughter? No you probably wouldn’t. Would you pump your cat, dog or even your wife up with hormones and drink their milk when they weren’t pregnant? As a grown adult, would you drink it right from the nipple? My guess would be no. My guess also would be that even if your wife had a baby, you’d leave the milk for the baby. You wouldn’t take your wife out to a cow farm and let a cow suck on her breasts to drink her milk for no reason, would you? No you wouldn’t. You’d tell me, “Well my wife’s milk is meant for our child.” And you’d be 100% right. So if a mother’s milk is meant specifically for their offspring, then why are you drinking cow milk that was meant for a baby calf? Because it tastes good? Please. Again, you do it because it’s what you’ve done for years and it’s all  you know.

What keeps the vicious cycle going? Marketing and advertising and the government all keep this vicious cycle going. If the government turned around one day and made an announcement that eating organic plants, vegetables, fruits and drinking organic plant-based milks and and even better more water was the best thing we could do for ourselves do you know how many people would jump on the bandwagon? Yep, lots of people would. We need a leader in our lives and why not follow the leader that we pay our tax dollars to? After all, they know what’s in our best interest right? We couldn’t possibly know.  We keep eating animals and dairy because the US government says we need to. Milk campaigns tell us we need to drink cow milk for calcium and eat animals for protein.

If the US government said jumping off of a 20 story high rise skyscraper with no parachute or net to catch you would do wonders for your health, would you do it? Or would you think to yourself, “Hey, maybe the US government doesn’t know what the best thing is for me.” The US government wants you to keep eating cows and drinking cow milk so that it can get tax dollars from large food corporations that care nothing about your health or  the animal’s health. The US government will gladly encourage you to keep eating genetically modified foods like soy beans so that it can benefit from large corporations like Monsanto. For the record the US government is never going to tell you to jump off of a high rise because it would be good for your health. They’d never recommend it because then they wouldn’t get your tax dollars to keep this vicious cycle going.

We’re hurting our animals and in turn we wind up affecting our health and well being because it’s all we know how to do. My goal in this post is to open your eyes to what’s actually in your food and to encourage you to watch one of these documentaries if don’t have time to read this extremely long post. I got all of my information from watching these videos. I have more information to give you, but I feel this is way more than enough for right now. If you watch just one of these documentaries then I’ve done my job. It’s obviously your decision what you do with the information. You can get up and leave the room even though you know what’s in your food which can affect chronic diseases and how you feel every day. I can’t imagine not wanting to protect yourself from heart disease, high cholesterol, heart attacks, cancer, strokes, migraines, etc. by changing how you eat simply because you’re not open to change. For the sake of your family and friends and your own health, please don’t walk out of the room if someone you know is watching a documentary like this. Please don’t turn a blind eye. You can keep promoting the vicious cycle of giving animals an inhumane life by eating their byproducts or eating the actual animal. I hope this post or these documentaries also opens up your heart. If we stopped eating meat and drinking dairy milk and eating chicken eggs  (which I didn’t talk much about in this post) and even better stopped eating the animals themselves, we would promote wellness for animals and stop supporting food corporations. Animals like cows, pigs and chickens are the same as your dog or cat or parakeet or your wife or kids at home. At the end of the day, we all have brains, hearts that beat and and experience feelings like love and fear.

I hope a bell rings in your heart and mind and that you’ll think about how you can help stop the vicious cycle of killing animals. It’s better for their health and also better for your health too. If you wouldn’t eat or drink from your own wife or dog, then why would you drink from a cow? Really, why not go visit a dairy farm, get down on the ground and drink directly from the cow’s udder? After your thirst has been quenched, take a taser and stun the animal and then stick the knife deep inside it. Following the slaughtering of the cow, grill it up in a pan and eat it for dinner. Would you do that to your pet or your wife? No I’m guessing not. And you’d never do that to the cow directly because that would be too difficult or painful or worse even, inhumane. Instead you’ll drive to the grocery store and pick up a gallon of pasteurized cow milk and a package of sirloin steaks because it’s easier to let someone else do the dirty work. It’s too difficult to watch the slaughter happen right in front of your eyes. And surely it’s disgusting to drink right from the cow’s udder. You’d probably rather drink it from a glass. Right?

I was no different than you. I ate steak and drank cow milk and ate eggs and never thought about what was really in my food or the animals I was hurting. Watching documentaries like “Food Matters” opened my eyes to what was in my food which made me switch to mostly organic foods. I went to a party at Christmas time that served nothing but vegan food and was meant to open some awareness to veganism and show that you won’t miss anything by going vegan. It showed me that I could still enjoy the food I was eating before, in a different way of cooking. In February I officially tried going vegan for two weeks. Then I had planned on switching back to my old ways if I didn’t enjoy it. It didn’t take me that long to get used to the change. I liked it so much that I switched to being a full organic eating vegan. My vegan journey took me a while to get to. I didn’t just switch over night. It took a lot of research and took me coming to a lot of realizations that the meat I was consuming and the dairy I was drinking wasn’t good for me.

Going vegan has not only opened my eyes to eating a plant strong diet eventually it opened an awareness to the animals I had formerly eaten. I felt more compassion for animals, the ones I have as pets and the ones I will never eat or drink from again. Veganism is about eating plant based foods but it’s also about respecting the lives of others. It’s been a process and journey and didn’t happen overnight which is why I say you have to be open to change and giving a lifestyle like this one a fair chance. My change started in October of 2011 and it’s taken me 5 months to get to where I’m able to write this blog post for you today. Once a bell dinged inside me, a light came on and I started to become more aware of food in general.

I hope this information makes a bell ding inside of you, opens your eyes and heart to animals and also your own health.

If you respect the life of your pets and your wife or husband, then why not respect farm animals? How are they any different from us? I encourage you to just give this a little thought.

With love for you, your family, your health and well being, your animals and all other animals out there, this blog post is dedicated to you!

Sara

They taste as good as they look!

I met up with a vegan friend yesterday and commented that I had a taste for pancakes and hadn’t had any since I went vegan. My vegan friend said, “I’ll send you a recipe for vegan pancakes.” I thought I’d be waiting a while for these pancakes, but she sent me the recipe links on Facebook this morning. When I woke up and checked Facebook, there were two vegan pancake recipes waiting for me. Since she was so nice to send them to me so I’d have them when I woke up ready to eat breakfast the next morning, I figured I owed her the courtesy of trying one of the recipes right away.

I selected the Spiced Banana Pancake recipe. They are very dense, rich,and moist. Even if you’re not vegan, you will enjoy these. I did all the prep work and dish washing and Pete got the privilege of making them. Meat Pete did put some butter on his stack but these are so moist you really don’t even need it (vegan butter or dairy butter).

I had to share this recipe on the blog in honor of my really nice (never mean) vegan friend who opened my eyes to veganism and continues to be a wonderful resource for information and advice:

Warm up your morning with these sweet, flavorful pancakes.

By Robin Robertson | March 22, 2011

These sweet and sumptuously spiced pancakes aren’t afraid to take center stage at your next big breakfast—they’re the kind worth savoring over a second cup of coffee or tea.

Serves 4

What You Need:

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar or natural sweetener
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1-l/4 cups soymilk or other dairy-free milk
• 3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
• Pure maple syrup or blueberry syrup
• Fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, for garnish

What You Do:

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice and set aside. In a food processor or blender combine the soymilk and half of the banana slices and process until smooth. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing with a few swift strokes until just combined. Fold in the remaining banana slices.
2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or non-stick skillet over medium heat. Ladle about 3 tablespoons of the batter onto the hot griddle. Cook on one side until small bubbles appear on top, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip the pancakes with a metal spatula and cook until the other side is lightly browned, about 1 minute more. Keep the cooked pancakes warm in the oven while you prepare the remaining pancakes. Top with maple or blueberry syrup and fresh fruit as desired.

Click here for a link to the recipe source!

Sara

I like smoothies a lot and will drink them constantly once the weather gets warm. There are days where my breakfast and dinner are simply a smoothie.

I had a smoothie for dinner this evening after a nice hike at Coffee Creek Watershed and Nature Preserve in Chesterton this evening. It took me about 5 minutes to put together and about two minutes to clean up. The best part is I got to spend time savoring my refreshing, tasty, nutrient-packed, low calorie and low fat smoothie. It was simple and easy.

My omnivore fiance, Pete, went for a hike with me. He came home and made a homemade hamburger, homemade paprika fries (which are vegan and really good when he gets them right) and some bacon to go on the burger. He uses a grill pan to make the hamburger, a small skillet coated in oil to make the fries and a baking rack covered with aluminum foil and a drip pan on top to bake the bacon in the oven with a coating of 100% maple syrup. So obviously, there’s a pretty unhealthy meal with lots of prep time, lots of clean up time and not really much eating time. I feel bad for him because he spends most of his time preparing the food and doing the dishes than he does enjoying the food or his evening.

I can’t claim to be totally innocent. I did have a few of his fries. So I did wind up benefiting from his time spent in the kitchen because I wouldn’t take the time to cook fries for myself. I’m lazy.

I recently watched a DvD on raw foods. One of the contributors on the show stated that he was glad that he ate nothing but raw foods because he had absolutely no kitchen knowledge whatsoever. I took as, if it couldn’t be blended up or put in a bowl immediately with minimal prep, then he wouldn’t eat it!

Here’s my smoothie recipe. If you’re not vegan then you can make it your own by adding the non-vegan version of the products I’ll mention below:

Tools needed: spoon (for protein powder), knife, blender, and a cup to drink out of! That’s it!

Ingredients:

1. 6 ice cubes (use crushed ice or use your blender to crush the ice cubes)

2. Blueberries

3. 1 Banana

4. Strawberries

5. Spoonful of cold milled flax seed

6. A little bit of oatmeal

7. If you want to add greens you can always add a little kale or spinach (or other green leafy vegetable)

8. Almond milk (I use unsweetened and soy or rice milk work fine too)

9. Dark Chocolate Hemp Seed Protein Powder (it’s vegan and available from Whole Foods)

Final Step: Blend ingredients and enjoy!

Dish doing: WASH YOUR BLENDER RIGHT AWAY ONCE YOU’VE ENJOYED THE CONTENTS. The ingredients will stick to the blender if you leave it out and don’t wash it right away and that’s nasty to clean up.

Note from the chef (me): The chocolate protein powder really gives it a nice chocolate shake-like taste to it. This smoothie has a rich, creamy texture. If I make this in the morning, I’ll add some cold coffee to it to make it more like a chocolate berry mocha!

The only substitutions a non-vegan might make is using cow’s milk in place of plant milk. And the plant protein powder could easily be replaced by a an easier to find product in your grocery store like Muscle Milk which uses animal derived proteins. And honestly you could skip the milk (cow or plant) and just add water as your liquid base. You also could skip the protein powder too. I just really like the extra chocolate flavor!

Nice, easy, savory, healthy, vegan and non-vegan and super yummy! It doesn’t get better than that. On a hot summer night (in the middle of March) let your body digest foods that are easy on the system. Don’t burden or weigh your body down with a heavy homemade cheddar cheese maple bacon hamburger. Just eat a few fries after you’ve had your smoothie like I did and you’ll be all set to go! Delicious and nutritious and easy on the body!

Sara