All In The Head

It’s been a little over a year since we began this raw vegan/vegan lifestyle change. I have learned how to prepare meals which is a real accomplishment; I never liked to cook. I am still learning because my husband’s cardiologist wants as much gluten-free, oil-free, clean food as possible. This is no easy task. Eating out is hard and cooking requires learning how to make good food with these substitutes. The journey has begun again.

I discovered one other thing, your mind is still the main battlefield. Occasionally my mind still test me when I am tired. Catfish and fried chicken, Chinese and authentic Mexican screams at me. The struggling vegan pops up and shouts substitute. That is my present objective; substitutes and the changing of my mind, again.

“…..but Be transformed by the renewing of your mind….” Romans 12:2

This is the key to all lifestyle changes. It all begins with how you think. When you determine to make the change and settle it in your mind the rest is easy.

The Food Matrix

Where is our Food Morpheus? Where is Food Neo? The Local, State, and Federal system has “matrixized” us.

Food industrialization has caused us to ignore the food system that was very healthy for us: the family garden and the local vegetable market. When I was a child, eating out meant having dinner at a friend’s or relative’s home. Fast food meant heating up leftovers or making a sandwich. I didn’t know or understand just how good I had it. Other than childhood diseases I got the flu or had a cold only when the seasons changed. The rest of the year I was free of disease. Most remedies for the flu or a cold was natural. They were plant or herb based. Oh yeah, there was cod liver oil or castor oil. That cured or killed everything. Pills in the medicine cabinet were few. Those were my good old days.

I was taught in grade school the basic food groups and how much I should eat. I tried to change my home habits but thankfully my grandmother ignored me. We ate red meat and chicken but we ate more vegetables from the family gardens. By the way it was non-GMO and organic. Food was back then. There were some things that infiltrated our home, like white bread, white flour and white rice. I guess that was our beginning of “matrixation.”

The things we were taught:

  1. You MUST eat meat to get enough protein.
  2. You Must have milk and milk products to get enough calcium and more protein.
  3. Vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds don’t provide enough of either for healthy bodies.

We bought it because we trusted the FDA and other agencies that influenced our food supply. Those 3 axioms really only provided convenience for us and profit for the dairy and meat industry. Tell me, if dairy was so great, why wasn’t it fed to cows after they were weaned. They were fed grass and grain. The very things that weren’t enough for us.

Recently, our food pyramid changed to a food plate with the vegetable division the largest delineation. That’s good but now we have to deal with genetically modified organisms introduced into the plant crops. That’s another post, but suffice it to say, our non- organic vegetables, fruit and non-organic fed animals may be more harmful than we realize.

This matrix that we live in is suppose to maximize our health but we are sicker now than we were back in the day. There are more pills prescribed than every before. Our pills require pills to deal with their side effects. If the pills don’t work, there is always surgery.

So how is this meat-ladened lifestyle working for us?

 

 

Grocery Bill Going DOWN?

I know I haven’t been posting much lately but I have been busy. I am adding new plants to my garden. I finally had to breakdown and clean the above ground bed my husband built before he got sick. While I was away at the hospitals, a neighbor’s cat decided it would make a great litter box. I started that process but I haven’t finished.

Awaiting completion of that job is the organic potting mix and spinach. When the spinach is moved I can plant the Thai Chili pepper that I bought. I will then have three hot peppers, jalapeno, fish and Thai Chili. The yellow and green bell peppers have fruit and more blossoms. I bought an heirloom tomato plant to add to the already fruitful Ace tomato plant.

Grocery bill going ⇓.

Do you know how much non-GMO, organic, heirloom tomatoes cost? I am determined to eat as much non-GMO vegetables and fruit as possible. My budget requires me to grow as much as I can. Garlic and Tumeric are next on my list.

Green and Yellow peppers

My Garden Beginnings

I have been thinking of beginning my own organic container garden but I just kept putting it off. I am not a natural garden interest type person. I just like the fresh produce. One day I was standing in my favorite organic market looking at the cost of vine ripen organic tomatoes and thought if I had started my garden by now I would have my own. I then moved to the yellow bell peppers and the cost of those were ridiculous.

That’s it. I am starting this garden I declared inside.

I bought organic soil and fertilizer after conferring with a successful gardener friend. I proceeded to the plant section to discover that they sold organic seeds but not organic seedlings. I googled organic nurseries in my area and found one very close to my home. I thought they only sold landscape vegetation. I discovered they sold non-GMO organic vegetable plants.

Inside myself again I screamed “Yes!”

I bought yellow onions, green onions, jalapeno pepper, green bell pepper, yellow bell pepper and tomato plants. I spent approximately 15.00 for a sustainable supply of veggies.

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The other thing I did to insure some of these plants had a chance at survival was to purchase a self-watering container. It holds two gallons of water and the plants drink as they need it. The tomato and jalapeno plants are in a conventional pot. I pray I don’t kill it. My thumb is real light green.

 20160217_151024                                            It has begun.20160217_151013