malnutrition

i figured we should all have a good laugh about how i took 5 years off of my life today.

food diary 12/09/2011

-cereal with soy milk
-frozen trader joes indian cuisine (palek paneer)
-fried fish taco and some fried shrimp and french fries
-frozen cheese pizza on sourdough bread
-3 pieces of chocolate
-some pringles
-chocolate cupcake

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MOVE BACK INTO YOUR PARENTS HOUSE.

lol. sad. excuse me while i go chug some chlorella.

hi world.

i just wanted to say hi. and that God is a tricky lil dad! he will take us around the world to get us back on track. it's like that band of horses lyric, "if i am lost, it's only for a little while." that's one of my favorite lyrics. anyway, i'm getting back on track. and feeling more like myself again. (hence the blog writing? miracle?) i can't believe i ever thought i might need to compromise that.

and it feels good.

on second thought

i'd rather hang around.

adrienne doesn't live here anymore

head on over to my new blog!

new name, same great taste.

why i became a vegan

this post has been in the works for some time now, but it's hard to know exactly what to say and i don't particularly want to offend anyone. but nonetheless, here we go.

a month and a half ago, on feb 24, we moved into our new apartment. (still obsessed, by the way.) after a whole day of moving our stuff in, we decided to go eat at red robin for dinner. we shared a crispy chicken salad and an appetizer. that night, i got extremely sick. i'll spare you the gory details but suffice it to say i was either in the bathroom or writhing in pain in bed. i don't know why, but all night i kept thinking, "it was that nasty chicken. it's rotting inside my body." (fyi, the chicken didn't taste nasty.. we both enjoyed in, and james didn't get sick.) it was just my intuition telling me the chicken caused my sickness.

fast forward to probably 3 weeks later. i had read somewhere about jonathan safran foer's book called "eating animals." i had previously read everything is illuminated and loved it. i don't think i realized it was a nonfiction case for vegetarianism, but rather thought it was a cool indie book with a pretty cover. well, i started reading and within a chapter or two i was resigned to the fact that i'd probably go vegetarian by the end of the book -- an idea i didn't fear, as i've never been a huge meat lover. then i came across this passage in the section about food borne illness:

"Why aren't more people aware of, and angry about, the rates of avoidable food-borne illness? Perhaps it doesn't seem obvious that something is amiss simply because anything that happens all the time -- like meat, especially poultry, becoming infected by pathogens -- tends to fade into the background.

Whatever the case, if you know what to look for, the pathogen problem comes into terrifying focus. For example, the next time a friend has a sudden "flu" -- what folks sometimes misdescribe as "the stomach flu" -- ask a few questions. Was your friend's illness one of those "24-hour flus" that come and go quickly: retch or crap, then relief? The diagnosis isn't quite so simple, but if the answer to this question is yes, your friend probably didn't have the flu at all.

He or she was probably suffering from one of the 76 million cases of food-borne illness the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated happen in America each year. Your friend didn't "catch a bug" so much as eat a bug. And in all likelihood, that bug was created by factory farming."

my mind immediately took me back to the red robin incident. and i was convinced. meat is disgusting.

i don't remember where i went from here, but somehow i got the idea to order alicia silverstone's book, "the kind diet." basically, it talks about why meat, dairy and eggs are nasty (meat: contributes to heart disease, cancer, and osteoporosis, it's full of hormones, it's horrible for the environment, and obviously it's really sad for the animals in these conditions. dairy: linked to cancer, makes you fat, causes allergies and asthma, CAUSES osteoporosis, nasty to the planet and cruel to the animals.) i didn't list all of the harm meat and dairy cause, if you want to know more, check out alicia's book. she then goes on to mention all the perks of veganism. to name a few: lose weight, your skin glows, you have more light energy and are more peaceful (some people believe you take in the fear and depression of the animals you eat), save the environment, animals, and yourself from many diseases. her book is also helpful to people flirting with veganism because she debunks all the myths: how will i get my protein? iron? vitamin b12? at the end, she has recipes for all types of vegan and "superhero" foods, and they all look fantastic.

finally, i was referred to colin campbell's book, and the longest nutritional study to date, "the china study." this one basically confirms all of what alicia claims but in a more detailed, scientific way. bottom line: protein from animal-based foods CAUSES cancer. and heart disease. and obesity. etc. as you can imagine, the chinese eat a mainly plant-based diet and they have much lower numbers of these "western" diseases. they also weigh less, but consume around 30% more calories than we do! magic.

i'm not done with the book yet, but one of the coolest thing i've read so far is the study dr. caldwell esselstyn conducted. he took 18 people who, in the previous eight year before the study, had a combined total of 49 coronary events including agina (chest pain), bypass surgery, strokes, heart attacks, and angioplasty. these were broken hearts. for the next 11 years, dr. caldwell only subscribed one thing: a plant-based diet focused on avoiding "oils, meat, fish, fowl and dairy products." can you guess what happened? they cured themselves. they not only haulted the heart disease, but reversed it. 70% of his patients saw their clogged arteries open up. in other words, dr. caldwell CURED HEART DISEASE. again, MAGIC!!

aside from all of these health benefits, i really just want to save the animals. they live in the most unbelievably horrible conditions and frankly, it's not fair. they are innocent beings and they don't deserve that. it makes me sick and so sad. if you don't know anything about this, please watch "meet your meat" videos on youtube or watch the amazing documentary, "earthlings." you can watch it online for free here. we need to know this stuff. (and can you imagine treating your dogs and cats like this? not cool.)

FINALLY, for those of you who are thinking, "but, in the bible it says that God ordained animals for our use." to that i say, no. it is my personal belief that God has cursed the eating of animals. yes, it was initially a blessing and a need, but when we abuse blessings they become curses unto us. and we have COMPLETELY abused the system of animal husbandry. we are killing the earth God gave us and we are mercilessly slaughtering billions of his beautiful animals every year, needlessly. back in the hunting and gathering days they ate tons of meat, and did they get cancer or heart disease? no. as far as i know, things like e. coli and swine flu are new phenomenons. God is pissed!! this is not how it's supposed to be. and the bottom line is, we need to STOP these crazy ways or we will all die.

end scene.

and that's why i became a vegan.

the heavenly child

day off

well, every tuesday is my "day off" but something feels really day-offy about this one. here's what i plan to do:

-collard greens/baked sweed potato
-walk doggie
-lovin up on my little doggie while my man's at work
-finish "the kind diet" (more on this later)
-work on lit. review for paper (only if i get realllly bored)
-rewatch a conference talk or two that i may or may not have fallen asleep during
-clean room
-apartment therapy
-dishes
-smiths/sunflower/whole foods for more veggie fare
-start "china study"?
-bake more vegan pumpkin cookies for the stratttons (and mostly for us)
-pay christian (JAMES!)
-loving up on my man when he gets home in 5 hours

well, lunch is calling, gtg!!!

bffs

currently playing

kelley stoltz ~ i remember, you were wild

HOME. (equipped with many a nook)

the bay windows aka the best part


lovely view of the city

karlstad nook<3 //////////////////////////cubby nook

entertainment nook

never without a stack of library dvds. (apparently we're on a disney kick right now)

the dining nook

fireplace nook/////////// /////////// reading/sun bathing nook

yeah. we pretty much love it.

subday

quizzing james on his sandwiches. he's taking his new job very seriously.

slc sunset

slumber

we moved! more on that soon, but i just wanted to shout it on the mountain top that i LOVE our new house. okay, it's a tiny apartment. but i get to call it a house because it already feels like home to me. and you know what? i have been sleeping SO well for the past 4 nights (ever since we moved in.) for the last week or so in our previous house i could barely sleep. maybe it's cause i was stressed with school or the idea of moving or because i was sick but i secretly think it's because we're finally in the right place.

sigh of relief.

f & f

last night i dreamt that all my friends were dead. are you? i miss you guys.

before i got married i felt this "ambiguous longing" as james calls it, for what i assume was the void in me longing for a family. before i got married, i always had good friends around me but never a strong family situation.

now i have family and no friends. weird.

leaders

i was in the middle of finding the birth and death dates, countries of origin, occupations, and accomplishments of 40 leaders like genghis khan, king montezuma, peter the great, sha jahan, czar nicholas, hirohito, mccarthy, etc when i took a break to browse fashion blogs, and came across the name nirrimi. will she ever be on a list of great leaders? i don't know.. but probably not. just goes to show how little formal education actually coincides with reality. to me, the beauty in her photos are just as important as whatever sun yat-sen did.

(nirrimi's self portrait)