In the Shower

So you want to be more environmentally friendly, but you don't want to smell like the van dwelling, herb smoking hippie? No problem! It is actually not that difficult to lower your impact on the environment without having to compromise your personal hygiene or the green in your wallet.

Simply start by reading labels. Don't just look for what says "All Natural" or "Environment Safe".  Your first red flag in the list of ingredients is any sort of Sulfate (including but not limited to sodium lauryl sulfate and many others).  There is a whole list of them, but the best product for your hair, skin, and for the streams are sulfate free.

That is just the tip of the iceberg! For some further reading and some more interesting facts about what is in your skin and hair care, check this out: http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/52/1/Shampoo-and-the-planet.html.  Staying away from these chemicals are not only good for the environment, but hey are better for your skin and overall long term health!

Your impact doesn't stop at hair care! If you're a woman, consider going a little longer without shaving. Okay, I know you are trying to avoid the hippie style (and if you are a family member of mine, you have heard me rant about this a billion times), but imagine how awesome it would be if you beat out a social stigma with amazing womanly confidence AND stopped using a product that lasts hundreds of thousands of years after you die.

So 200 years in the future (long after you are gone) when our descendants are digging up artifacts, they will be playing with your razor. Hey, they might even display it in a museum.

Creepy.....isn't it?

Status Update:

So, since starting this blog, I have learned a lot of cool information, blogged about different ideas, and experimented with some ideas. For this post, I plan on updating you guys on some stuff and let you know what I plan on blogging about in the future.

To follow up on "Local Coffee", Peace Love and Rocky Roast in the Vista (downtown Columbia) has probably the best coffee in town. They have a wonderful concoction of gelato and espresso called an affegato that is out of this world. I definitely recommend this place!

As for "A Composting Revolution", I created the bin that I designed and it is doing very well. I have tons of worms and the bin still does not smell (I have my room mate to confirm)! It is definitely useful and I am willing to help anyone create a bin if they want to try it out. In a few more months, I might be able to donate some worms as well.

I have still been experimenting with veganism (not the lifestyle). Thus far, I went 3 weeks in December being vegan and 2.5 weeks in January being vegan. It is probably one of the best things I have done for my body. I feel so good all the time! I even got back into yoga and have managed to lose 15 lbs since the beginning of December and build some muscle. A basic daily diet for me is a variation of the following: a bowl of grits with olive oil and sea salt for breakfast, rice and beans in a wrap with peppers and salsa for lunch #1, wild rice with grilled zuccini and squash for lunch #2, barley pasta with tomato basil sauce and some more grilled veggies for dinner, and sweet potato with agave nectar for dessert.  The best part about it is I eat as much as I want without feeling guilty at all. I have decided to be vegan for several weeks in a row and then go a few days to allow myself to eat meat (because we all have to be able to enjoy the good things in life).

I still only wash my hair once a week. It does not get greasy (unless I put pomade in it) and I am trying to cut my shower time to 5 minutes which can be hard when hot showers are as wonderful as they are.

I ride my bike everywhere and try to do my yoga sequence at least once a day. I made my own sequence called the Warrior Crane and if you are interested in learning it, let me know! I'll make a video.

I have not been participating with the Occupy group as much as I was. I have been exceptionally busy with school, and since it is my last semester, I figured I would devote more time to making all A's.

Now, for my next blog, I plan on telling you guys about what I like to call monopolized corporate agriculture (because I like to coin terms). This is a concept that deals with environmental sciences, environmental activism, politics, and the idea behind the occupy movement. I will be talking about something many people do not know about: where their food really comes from. The result just may shock you!

The Ick! Factor

Alright guys and gals, I am here to talk about a few things that everyone knows about, something else that very few people realize (or should I say are in denial about), and a final thing that no one EVER wants to talk about. We are all becoming more aware of our impact on the environment when it comes to the garbage we produce. And if you don’t really know, you can look at one of my earlier blogs, “You’re Trash!” to find out. We know that certain plastics take hundreds of years to degrade and even longer when sitting in a landfill. But really, other than recycling and buying “green” products, there is nothing we can really do about that, right?

Wrong! You need to stop thinking that NOW.  We, as human beings constantly surround ourselves with disposables. Paper plates, plastic cups and silver ware, plastic wrap, and many other household items. But what about those things that we throw away without thinking of any alternative? What about shaving razors, tooth brushes and medical waste? What about baby diapers and (men, you may want to shield your eyes for the next few words) feminine hygiene products? Alright, I know, but please bear with me for a moment. It is scary to think that your tampon is going to outlive you by a several hundred years. Imagine every woman in the world who uses at least 12,000 of these her entire life. All of it goes to the landfills and all will stay there for hundreds of years.

This is where the ick factor (term coined by yours truly) comes in. Every person has the ability to reduce the amount of waste they produce every year by limiting the amount of disposables they use including diapers, pads, and tampons. However, the idea of having to wash these things instead of throwing them into what I like to call the “magical vortex bin that makes the nasty go away” is really just too nasty for many of us to handle. If we can get past the Ick Factor, just think of how much landfill space we would save (not to mention saving tons of money!). Think about what was done not even 100 years ago. People used cloth diapers and rags. Think about what archeologists will dig up in 500 years (ick!).

If you are interested possibly trying out alternatives to disposable feminine hygiene products, you may be surprised about the alternative options. Check out the following links:

http://www.divacup.com/
http://www.gladrags.com/c-2-gladrags-cloth-pads.aspx
http://lunapads.com/


Or, you can make your own! Here is a design you can try out.


http://how-to.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_make_a_reusable_menstrual_pad


Is this too nasty for you? Let me know what you think! Post a comment.

Quick Vegan Dinner

For those of you who don't know, I love to experiment with food! And now that I am vegan, I have even more of a challenge to make delicious, fulfilling meals. However, with it being finals week and me not having much time to do anything except study and eat (and write a quick blog), I need to make a dinner that I can conquer just as quickly. All you need is quinoa, vegan mock chicken (Publix should have this), red and green peppers (or whatever veggie you want to use), garlic, and honey. It takes less than 30 minutes to prepare and it is super tasty!

Boil water for you quinoa. Add in [put necessary amount here] of quinoa and reduce to a simmer. Slice up your veggies and put them in a saute pan with some olive oil and chopped garlic. Saute until veggies are browned or until desired color (for added flavor here, you can add a dried habenero pepper, but do not add this to your final dish or you may be in for a big surprise during dinner).  Set the sauteed veggies aside in another pan but leave the left over oil and garlic (and habenero) in the original pan. Glaze your mock chicken with some honey, throw it in the pan with oil and garlic, and sizzle away. While this is cooking, your quinoa should be almost done. Once it is done, throw it with your veggies and start stirfrying. Once the quinoa is good and flavored up with the veggies, throw it on a plate and put the mock chicken on top. It is a wonderful combination of flavors and really fulfilling! Did I mention this is super healthy for you too?

The Green Car Initiative

We first started seeing it with Toyota and its Prius. It slowly started to trickle to other car manufacturers who wanted to show their ability to commit to a green agenda and the demand of an ever growing generation of environmentally friendly consumers.  Now, it has become somewhat of a race to the finish line – economically viable, environmentally friendly, and socially desired by the people.  It is the zero emission initiative by car manufacturers.

The initiative to sell green technology takes us to Los Angeles for the Annual L.A. Auto show where a press conference was held to commemorate Honda for one of their newest models released for 2012.  It is the Honda Civic Natural Gas and, as implied by its name, runs completely off of natural gas. According to Environmental News Services, this model is not only Honda’s greenest, but it is “powered by the cleanest running internal combustion engine offered by the U.S. EPA”.  And with natural gas becoming more economically viable and readily available to the public, Honda took the appropriate leap by introducing this to the American market. 

Not only will this car produce far less emissions, but it will also reduce our dependency on foreign countries for oil.  Although natural gas is not entirely favorable in the eyes of all environmentalists, it does reduce our impeding reliance on a resource that has caused much more harm to our environment through extraction and emission.  Over the past several decades, we have seen detrimental occasions where oil has spilled into the natural environment. We have fought wars for oil. People have died and continue to die every day overseas to supply our demanding country with petroleum. 

With gas powered vehicles being one of our main consumers of oil, automobile industries are moving in the right direction by shifting reliance from oil to alternative fuels.  Other finalists were the Ford Focus Electric, the Mitsubishi I, the Toyota Prius v, and the Volks Wagon Passat TDI. As noted at the press conference, the finalists this year present an initiative that is broad in content.  Electric vehicles, hybrids, and natural gas vehicles all will lead to the end goal of zero emissions and with low cost to the consumer.  

Vegan Time

We all grow up knowing the benefits of eating animal products. Meat has protein, milk has calcium, and butter just makes everything better. I was, without a doubt, a huge advocate for meat my entire life. That is, until this past weekend when I watched a movie called "Forks Over Knives". It gives really strong evidence that meat and products from meat do more to hurt our health than it does to help us. For the first time in my life, I doubted the benefits that meat supposedly has to offer. 

Now, me being the hard core skeptic that I am, I wasn't 100% on board with this whole plants only plan. So I decided to try it out and do some research of my own. For the next month, I will be a full time vegan and will also be excluding all oils (as recommended by Dr. Esselstyn). I will essentially be eating primarily whole plant based foods. I will also be blogging about the stuff I find out about meat and veganism (not the lifestyle). Want a challenge for the week? Eliminate meat from your diet for the rest of the week. Hey, you may find that it isn't so bad!

Let me leave you this week with the trailer for "Forks Over Knives". I recommend checking out the movie if you can! It is quite the interesting show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ijukNzlUg

This is why I Occupy

I know this might sound over the top, but I am passionate about this right now. So here it goes...

Seeing the hopeful smiles on people's faces does it. Being joyously thanked (by sober and drunk alike) for standing up for American rights does it. Seeing the profound impact we all are having on society does it. Being confident while standing up for something that I believe wholeheartedly in and seeing others with the equivalent amount or even more passion does it for me. All of this does it; it allows me to hurtle over all of the cynicism, hopelessness, and harassment I have received from many people over the past few days.

When I speak here, I speak for myself and maybe for many others in the movement. I am not against capitalism. I am not against corporations. I am not against the government nor am I against paying taxes. I am not against banks or credit unions. I am not against the media, or the police, any political party, religion, class, or democracy. As a matter of fact, I am very much for all of those things. We are against corporations stepping into the government and crushing the class system...the American dream. What are our demands? For local businesses to thrive. For the environment to not be trashed for corporate profit. We demand that every American have an equal chance to climb the socio-economic ladder that America prides itself so much on and has done so for the past several hundred years. 

I have never been into political activism. This is mostly because I had yet to find something that I passionaltely believed in before the occupy movement. I passionately believe in this. I consider myself a part of it. In the past, the citizens of this country has succeeded in stepping up to the plate when needed in activism. For the past several decades, however, the citizens of this country has gotten so used to being passive in politics. Could you ever imagine anything like this happening in the 90's? It was been a long time since we have seen anything close to this. Generations can no longer close their eyes and hold their tongues. This is a movement that is waking up the globe. It is now the citizen's chance to speak for their American rights. I have never been more proud to be a citizen this country.

Thank you for support!

Check it out:

http://www.occupycolumbiasc.org/