- 1/2 small onion
- a small teaspoon of oil, sesame or sunflower (avoid olive oil, it would make the taste strange)
- one clove of garlic, thinly minced
- 1/2 teaspoon of minced fresh ginger
- 1/2 carrot, thinly diced
- a few slices of courgette, thinly diced
- 50 g of Chinese mushrooms (if they're dried, keep the rehydration water to add to the soup)
- 3 tablespoons of fresh miso, dissolved in about a glass of hot water
- 500 ml water
- a few grams of tofu, to taste, diced.

Heat your oil up in a saucepan and fry your onion and garlic for a few minutes, then, add all the veggies and tofu. Let them fry a bit, make sure you stir once in a while, to blend the tastes, so that the tofu doesn't taste too neutral. If needed, slowly add dissolved miso to the mix, in order to not let the bottom of your pan burn with your veggies.
After a few minutes, add the rest of the dissolved miso and water. Heat up, but do not let the mixture boil. Serve in Chinese looking bowls, with a dash of fresh herbs on top for decoration, and voilà ! Bon appétit :)

Bit of time with no posting, just coming back from a week off, which was quite enjoyable and resting ! I guess it does feel good once in a while... Back at work today and the sun is shining again, what a treat, Spring is in the air !

I decided I'd make a little summary of my transition to going vegetarian, on how it is going so far... This can perhaps inspire you if you are thinking about doing it yourself, here are my ideas, helps and feedback. Feel free to comment or ask your questions if your curiosity doesn't seem satisfied.

So, I officially started on the 1st of January 2010. I hadn't been a heavy meat eater in the past, and like I said somewhere else before, officializing it was a way to ensure I wouldn't eat anymore meat as I was feeling less and less comfortable in doing so, especially when I was invited by family or friends. So, my first reason was my good reason to say "no", the real motivations being ecological, and ethical, but won't go through it all again, you can find an earlier entry on this topic over here.

Though, as I'm going fully vegetarian, I have been thinking and doing it one step at a time, for now, as I don't want it to be too much of a shock for my body. Which is why I chose to keep on eating a tiny bit of fish for a little while until transition is fully complete. I know fish doesn't grow on a tree, but it is another source of nutriments and especially fatty acids for the moment being, and it is also a transition for people around me, who aren't used to having vegetarians around (I come from the country side, in the middle of nowhere, and not that many people are vegetarians over there - I'll spare you the strange reactions I have been getting as well, on the topic... I've heard about blackening teeth and other bizarre symptoms, which are probably resulting from an unbalanced diet, if those things do exist...).
To tell the truth, I haven't eaten all that much fish, not even once a week... Trying to eat little, and eat mindfully !

I am slowly adapting and changing my diet for the better, replacing nasty food habits by better ones : more veggies and more fruits obviously !
So what exactly have I changed so far ? Well, I have been taking on the habit of preparing and drinking at least one fresh green smoothie a day, with either fruits or veggies or a bit of both, and some spices, for the taste !
I have been sprinkling some of my food with cereal powders, which are rich in elements such as iron ; I've been eating sprouts to get as many protein sources as I could...
On top of that, I have been buying books on raw foods, to find other means of getting very nutritive and tasty foods. And for the sake of discovering too ! I am so curious. Digging into raw has made me look into dehydrating greens and so I have bought a desiccator (which I find interesting to conserve season veggies, as an alternative to freezing), and I am trying various recipes, for little snacks composed of seeds and other delicacies !

It is very all interesting, and I am learning so much, but some of the raw snacks are a bit too sophisticated to my taste !
I will be looking for ways to keep them simple. I wonder if dehydrating is really such an ecological thing, looking at how long the machine needs to run, and how much Watts it consumes over an hour... I doubt this is a true "green" alternative, though it probably doesn't produce as much CO2 as raising cattle does.

I have been cutting out on many comfort foods (crisps, fries, cookies etc), I have been finding those harder and harder to digest, I'd like to suit my stomach, and such foods make me feel heavy and like crap.
It feels like I am detoxing right now. I feel better and better and more energised, which is a good thing. I am hoping to regain a lot of vitality, to be able to wake up earlier and make more out of my days ! Right now I feel that I am going on the right track.

I will see how this new diet of mine evolves and I will keep you updated on the changes I notice !
Yay for a better health ! :)

Randomly browsing a forums (this place for instance), I came upon a thread that was talking about fixing one's eyesight naturally using some sight/focus exercises. I found the topic so interesting that I started doing some research of my own accross the web. I felt a nice, complete book on the topic could be of some help to begin with.
So, there I was making a search on Amazon on litterature of interest in regard to natural healing of the eyes, not really knowing exactly what I was looking for.

I stumbled upon Thomas R. Quackenbush's book "Relearning to See", which had the best feedback from users/buyers, 5-4 stars ratings mostly, and apparently considered as some form of authority on the matter of sight.
The description mentioned that Quackenbush was basing his writings on a famous 20th century "controversed-during-his-time" eye doctor named William Bates. Further research showed that Bates had done a lot of intensive research concerning eye refraction and that he was able to come up with an interesting method for naturally correcting sight without too many efforts.

A week or two after ordering the book, a thick 600-page-long brick arrived at my place. I wasn't too sure if that was a good buy, in the end, surely I was motivated to restore my eyesight, but would I have the time and patience to go through all this reading ?
I flipped rapidly through the pages to find a very well structured book and plenty of diagrams. The first few chapters go into details about the seeing mechanism and the eyes, further chapters explain the use of glasses and what they do to the eyes, how prescriptions are calculated, the methodology behind Bates' research and then the core itself : how to correct your sight.

Through reading the pages I found interesting facts that I already discovered at my own expenses : the more I wore my glasses, the worse my eyes got. I noticed also that after long periods of not wearing them, my eyes got better. (this was confirmed by weaker prescriptions after some time)
Quackenbush and Bates explain this quite well in the book, it is purely amazing to get to understand such complex mechanisms and to learn the corrective steps on how to improve the damage you might have further caused by wearing lenses.
That means if you're short-sighted, for example, glasses will make your near sight worse because of the refraction caused by the lenses, which will cause a strain and make what's left of your sight go worse. So you begin wearing glasses for one problem, and in the long term, you find other issues arising and you need to adapt and have mixed focals which will yet bring other issues such as stiff neck and so on, it never seems to stop... So in these cases, alternatives can be a ludic idea which will save not only your eyes but prescription money in the long run, for an issue that will most probably aggravate with time.
Besides the interesting facts, there is the course itself on how to "un-learn" your nasty habits to improve your overall vision.

I have read a couple hundreds of pages so far and have to say this is almost too complete, it gets very technical, but all this information comes in quite handy to understand what you do wrong better. So far, I've learned that even the way you look has influence and can induce a strain on your eyes ! Furthermore, did you know that even the stress of your daily life could play a big part in your vision being blurry !
Bates discovered that there were 3 main factors to consider to have a good, natural sight : movement, centralisation and relaxation.
So far, I have been reading in the "Movement" section. There, Bates/Quackenbush explain that a resting eye is an eye in movement, eyes are not made to stare blankly and fixedly at something, else it will give them a strain... I am now in the process of relearning to be more flexible, less rigid with my body postures, to shift my eyes properly... What an enterprise this is !!! It sounds much easier to say than do at first, but I think the game is well worth the candle as we say in French... So I'll keep up with it as much as I can. And will make sure to keep you updated as I go, as this is only the beginning and I am only starting to see slow progress.

Any questions or comments welcome and appreciated. Looking forward to hearing from you ;o)
NOTE : I'd like to put the emphasis on the fact that some people are born with "natural" deformities to their eyes, which make these methods useless as they only apply to eyes that lost vision because of daily strain and stress. Deformities can only be compensated with operations and/or lenses.

More about the book :
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Author: Thomas R Quackenbush
Language: English
ISBN: 1556433417
EAN: 9781556433412
No. of Pages: 521
Publish Date: 2000-01-31

And though there is so much in knowledge and in number, I wonder if we actually eat that healthy/mindfully ? We have to admit that with the busy world we live in, many of our food habits have evolved, not always in the best of ways.
Food today isn't as scarce as it would have been for our grandparents during the World Wars, we now live in a world of plenty and got to a point where wasting isn't uncommon. But what is the exact relationship we have today with eating and food ?
Tell me how/what you eat and I'll tell you who you are...

So what is with eating food then you may wonder, what is the point of my article, why all this blah blah ? Well, I love food and I love eating, they're both undeniable pleasures, but as much as I love those, I do recognize that eating doesn't always get done in respectful ways, as of the food, and as of the processing and buying.
Many of us eat big quantities of very unhealthy food. I know the "your life, your choice thing", I respect it. But for the conscious people out there wanting to discuss about food, here are some thoughts I'd like to share with you. Feel free to post your comments and to share your views after reading, I'd love to hear from you.

The first point I'd like to raise is about the food selection process : how/where do you choose your food and why ?
There are a few characteristics I personally look for when "food hunting" : the place where I buy my food and the quality are the first of those, most of the time, those are linked.
- Why look out for the place ? Well, depending on where you buy your groceries/veggies, you'll subscribe for a certain selection process and quality. Many big supermarket chains are actually not so ethical with the food selection process (from choosing to negotiating prices), this is particularly true for fresh fruits and vegetables, and some particular items such as chocolate. The food industry is tough, and supermarkets like to play with the fact that their central storage facilities buy huge quantities of food, in order to get the best possible prices on the market, and to rebate the original buying price as much as they can. Many producers earn very little from their crops, because if they don't like it, well, others will be ready and willing to negotiate even lower prices !
- I wonder, if in these conditions, it is possible to get great quality for such low prices... In these cases, it's almost impossible to get premium veggies or fruits ; don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is bad food, but to harvest for such a low cost price, the farmers will be going down the easy path : as little work and care as possible, which will imply the use of pesticides or fertilizers.
- The pesticides will make sure that not too much care is given to the produce, little maintenance and good resistance to fleas and insects. And on the same occasion, making a lot of damage to the local eco-system...

{ pesticides and fertilizers often kill many insects which live in symbiosis with the plants and keep other parasites from coming close. This also lowers the quality of the soil as locals such as worms, (those have an important role in aerating soil to make sure it isn't too compact) are driven off or simply killed. Also, possibility of burning the soil because of the contained chemicals, in some cases, making sure nothing else grows on there (I'm thinking here about Monsanto "Round Up Ready"™ amongst others, try googling this one, you'll fall off your chair with what you'll find...)
{ they can poison subterranean waters so their role is just as interesting as the one of pesticides. In some particular cultures, those chemicals keep the roots of the plants from going deep in the soil to look for minerals, which will make the plant more fragile...
{ much more could be said about pesticides and fertilizers but this isn't the aim of this article, some other time perhaps... }

- Other incredible facts about supermarkets are about the distance that some products will go through before getting to you. I'll take the example of shrimps here in Belgium : those are fished in the North Sea, then frozen and sent to North Africa, in countries such as Morocco (where the hand labour by the hour is much cheaper than if those super markets employed Belgian people to do this task) to be peeled off, then re-frozen and sent all the way back... So, that means lots of CO2 just for shrimps and for "saving a dime"… I'm not even talking about the freeze/unfreeze plus the chemicals used just to keep the stuff "fresh"... Interesting heh ?
- If only that were just it… To be more competitive, some products are grown in 3rd world countries such as Peru or places in Africa (check some labels at your store, asparagus from Peru, snow peas from Kenya, basil from Israel, only to name you a few)… The real cheap prices are not the only issues about these kinds of practice. Quite often, these vegetables will be grown with a total lack of respect for the local environment. In Israel (and other countries), deserts are turned into green fields, using the underground water to keep the plantations moist. At the detriment of the closeby inhabitants, drying water supplies or even entire lakes or rivers ! This is often done until no more water remains… then the fields are moved else where, where the potential for cheap facilities is higher. Here is a link to an article talking about Lake Chad, which is today almost dry due to the heavy use of the waters for agriculture…
** In conclusion, how can you avoid all this ? Make sure you select the store you shop at for their trading policies, not all stores are doing bad business, on the contrary. Try to go for local small groceries stores, buying food labelled as ethical (Max Havelaar, "Fair Trade"... etc), biodynamic foods are very respectful of the environment and eco-system, organic foods also go along that line. If you can't find organic or biodynamic, try to find something grown in respectful conditions, though we sometimes don't have much of a choice, we can still try to put a voluntary limit to the damage we create, directly or not, and this goes through supporting sustainable agriculture as much as we can.

What else can you look for when buying food ?
You can always check out the list of chemicals, additives, sodium glutamate, enzymes, stabilizers and such...
- Many of these aren't all that health friendly, but how much is the food industry going to tell you about them ? In the end, it's quite convenient and easy to just use numbers and letters instead of the proper names. I am not saying all those are bad, because some natural substances are labelled in the same way, but overall, it gives natural coloring and flavoring a bad name, because they all fall under a same system of name tagging (though some labels sometimes indicate which ones are artificial or natural).
- For many of those unnatural substances, very little is known about the long term effects they can have on the health of the human body. Though the effects for some others are much more obvious and well documented. Many of these chemicals have been prohibited in various countries for effects they can bring on your health. ( here, you'll find a small list without names, and there, you'll find a little list of "E" coloring used in food.)
- Some of these substances can have effects on the nervous system, cause aches to the eyes, nose, inner organs such as the liver, the stomach ; bring indigestion, allergic reactions and many more...
** So yes, reading small prints on packagings may take some more of your shopping time, but in the end, it's some of your life and health you'll end up saving. Implement it as a habit, and see for yourself the savory and taste differences you'll spot. It's all about training your mouth to eat more natural. And once the healthy tasting is back in your mouth, you'll see what a horrid taste chemicals have. Some people are so sensitive that they can even taste the plastic wrapping which was around the food !

How about the oils used in cooking/processing food ? There are so many of them, what can be said about them ?
While many vegetable oils, such as virgin olive oil or sesame oil, are good and bring many interesting nutrients, there is quite a debate going on about other types of oils, such as hydrogenated or palm oil, and the effects they have on our health and/or on the environment.
- Hydrogenated oils have been known to favor cancer, cardiovascular illnesses, diabetes and other diseases. But what is hydrogenated oil, and how is it made, how is it not natural ??

In the origin, it is any form of oil, that has been made to harden up using catalysts (often metals such as nickel) or through pressure processes during which hydrogen is forced into the oil. This causes the oil to harden at room temperature. It can then be used to make margarine or cooking fat used in biscuits and other preparations.
The reason why it is harmful is because healthy fats contain healthy fatty acids. During the transformation process, these become trans fats and are responsible for much of the harm done to the body by the oil.
The worse thing about those, is, that for a long time, they were sold using health arguments, saying how good those were for reducing cholesterol and bringing good health. (more info about this topic over here)

- Palm oil is a bit more controversial, for many reasons. One of those is that it substantially has no interest whatsoever in the nutritive value it brings. The other main controversy being the cultivation of palm trees for oil and the financial revenue they bring to the countries growing them versus the environmental factors.
Recently, this issue has made headlines in the press. Many countries such as Indonesia are burning down forests to plant palm trees. The burning itself is quite a major problem for all the C02 given off in the atmosphere, not mentioning the pit burning... All this is only a tiny part in what is a vaster ecological issue : the culture of palm trees is quite devastating for the local flora and fauna, not only does it push the animals away, sending them to look for other foods and shelters, but the effect of palm trees on soils is quite nasty. Palm trees make soils go acid, which means only plants able to support the new pH will grow there, or even nothing, when the cultivation is over (which usually happens when no nutrients are left in the earth for anything else to actually grow, cumulate that with the acidity and you get a clear picture of what's going on)… Many poor countries are turning to this form of culture because it is big and fast on revenues, at the detriment of the local animals. As a result, many endangered species are at high risks, I am thinking about the orang utan and their natural habitat for example... Many governments are not willing to sacrifice their growth for those animals, we still have a lot to learn in that regard.
** What can be done you may wonder ? Well, boycotting products containing palm oil is a way of protesting about the destruction its cultivation brings about. And about hydrogenated oils, avoiding products containing those will do your health the greatest good ! You can avoid them by reading food labels properly, many legislations are asking that those be clearly labelled in the ingredients.

Well, those are only a few ideas about what can be done to eat mindfully/respectfully. A lot more can be said. But there is so much more than I first expected that I will make a serie of 2-3 articles to talk about it properly, as I do not want to be too general and miss on a lot of important information I could give you.
I hope this article wasn't too frightening… and that you'll keep on eating ! As you can see, we still have a lot on our plate to make food and the environment better, is it all that surprising that those are actually linked together ? I don't think so.

The next topics I will address will be "eating out of season veggies", "bio-engeneered foods" and "meat eating". I hope you have appreciated this article and learned a few facts that will help you eat with more respect for what is in your plate. It is a form of respect for your own body too and for your own life in a way, not wanting to just put "any food" down in your body.

Until I catch you again, have a great one and do take care ! ;o)

Photography is a hobby of mine, once in a while when I have time for it... Check out the whole picture set I created recently, it's over here :) and enjoy !

Lovely day to you !

Many of us have since been trying to adopt the green way of life, or at least follow some of the ideas, in the hope of being able to do a little something for Planet Earth. But, how much can we really do ? It's not always easy trying to live 'green', especially for people living in towns, how can we implement new behaviours in our habits to change nasty polluting ways ?
There is plenty that can be done. I have been living in an apartment, in the middle of a big city for quite a few years now, and I have found that I could too, in my own ways do green deeds, and I am delighted to share some of those with you today, in hope that those can in turn inspire you to do your tiny bit to help the environment :)

So, what can be done ? Well, here are a few things I do. Some may seem meaningless but adding them on the long run DOES make a difference… I have had proof, with my electricity and gas bills, which are reducing from year to year… I also save on more stuff, you'd be amazed ! The good news about caring is that it also pays out, and those little bonuses are always welcome ! Just see how much you do in the long run !

Here are a few of my little deeds, feel free to add some more in your feedback so we can elongate this list as much as we can !

- Turn the lights off when leaving a room.

- Add switches to your appliance if some sockets are constantly connected, turning the power off allows you to save big (what remains connected to power, even off consumes around 40% of the energy it usually does while running ! stunning isn't it !)

- Unplug appliance when not in use, to avoid what is described above.

- Use economy bulbs instead of full power ones, there are economy halogens too and they don't even cost more !

- Only turn the lights on when you need them, else it's a useless waste of electricity…

- Scrap the ice off the fridge and defrost it every now and then, it will save you some unnecessary cooling

- When washing clothes, make sure your washing machine is full instead of half filled, you'd be wasting quite a few litres keeping it half empty !

- Try to dry your clothes on a line outside instead of using the dryer, the fibers of your clothes will thank you for making their life span longer in this manner. Plus, sun dried clothes feel nicer to wear :)

- Buy clothes of better quality, instead of going for quantity : some fibers are synthetic and therefore need pollution in the making. Lots of cotton fields are also using plenty of pesticides without the mention of the cheap labour to grow all the fibers. A nice recent alternative is bamboo, it's quite resistant and feels very comfortable ! Also, most synthetic fibers do not absorb perspiration properly, which means you end up stinking after a few hours only !

- Put a jumper on instead of rising the room temperature to unnecessary degrees. Better wear a jumper than run around in your t-shirt at home…

- Reduce the room temperature when going to bed. You don't need heating while you sleep.

- Open a window to aerate your house at least twice daily, 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening, to make sure your home has some fresh, nice air to breathe.

- When flushing, use the half flush, so that you don't waste a whole bucket of water each time you use the loo.

- When cleaning, try to use products which are eco-certified and contain less chemicals. Those are usually nature-friendly or bio-degradable. Nature will thank you big time on this one.

- Did you know you can even make your own cleaning solutions ? Get in touch with lots of eco-blogs showing you easy-to-use, cost efficient recipes for making your own eco-friendly detergent !

- Try not to take too many medications uselessly. Guess where all these chemical compounds end up ? Yep, you got it, down the drain and then they get to pollute subterranean waters, especially in big cities. Many compounds cannot be degraded fully by the human body, lots of chemical toxins actually get rejected. There are lots of natural solutions to head aches and so on. Healthier living will reduce all this in the first place !

- Use a jar with a filter for water. Plastic bottles are a huge source of pollution and are harder to get rid of. OK, your Brita filters may cost more when you buy them but if you do your math, you use them from 2 to 4 weeks, and they do cost less than buying water bottles all the time, not to mention that your back will be lighter from not carrying all these any longer !

- Buy food which hasn't been over-packed in plastic wraps.

- Avoid food which has lots of individual plastic wraps in one bigger bag. Use plastic boxes instead so that the food which is bagged in "freshness" wraps remains so, no more soggy cookies but no plastic wraps either !

- Go for foods wrapped in bio-degradable plastics, or wrapped in papers, or cardboard, it's reusable and is very easily recycled !

- Use paper properly before chucking it away. Is the sheet fully used when you throw it, did you use both sides, can you not cut it down into scrap paper ? And then throw it in a recycling bin when you're done.

- Read labels when you buy food at the supermarket. I only go for products which contain the least possible chemicals, not only because chemicals are sometimes producing a lot of waste in their making, but also because many of their effects are still unknown in the long run.

- Use food compliant plastic boxes for your lunches, that way, you do not waste paper bags or aluminum foil wrapping the food.

- Avoid disposable plastic cups which too often do not end up in the recycling bin…

- Buy food at your local fruit and veggies store, they have fresh quality and there aren't useless plastic wraps around the food.

- Try to buy local and fruit and veggies from the season. Buying local means you reduce CO2 waste because your food didn't need to take a plane to get to you. Plus, for out of season veggies and fruits, you'd be stunt at how these are grown and in what conditions, those almost always have NO NUTRIMENTS to offer you, whatsoever, because they're not even grown in proper soil but in aqueous solutions…

- Try to waste as little food as possible, think about all the efforts that went into producing that food. I'm not saying eat rotten stuff. But can we afford to actually waste when many people are dying out of hunger on Planet Earth ??

- You can grow food too if you have a lovely sun on one of your windows at home ! In my small flat, my windows are all exposed to lovely sunshine the whole day long, and I make use of this advantage to grow herbs ! I have basil, chives, peppers, celery and many more growing ! Some plants even display lovely flowers and with the insects in the Summer, I get seeds ! (hardest bit is to keep fleas out, but there are green alternatives to that as well :)

- Do not eat more than you need to, this is greed and it is yet another form of wasting. When you feel like a break, go for a fruit or a fresh juice, it's so much healthier and tastier than a "Mars bar" !

- If you live in a flat, nothing keeps you from making a compost if you have a small balcony ! I do it too. You can buy a large plant pot and keep it outside. You can then put in all your organic waste and they decay into fertilizer you can use on your other plants. Make sure to only put organic stuff in there, no bones or anything such which will only attract vermin.

- Try to make as much as you can yourself, not only will it be cheaper and taste better but processed food are an atrocity, not only because they're high in salts (it's quite convenient because it replaces actual ingredients) but also often tasteless or full of additives. You need to rediscover cooking and how cool it can be, I'm sure you'll also amaze yourself at how good you are, and at how much stuff you can actually do yourself !

- Keep bags in your purse or somewhere close, so that if you need to go shopping, you don't ask for a plastic bag at the shop. There are plenty of cute recyclable ones.

- Use natural deodorant, many big brands use lots of chemicals which are bad for the skin, they destroy it, clog the pores, without the mention of the aluminum which puts higher (breast) cancer risks… you can use alun stone or other natural solutions

- The same applies to perfumes, soaps, shampoos and creams. A lot of those cosmetics contain unfriendly compounds which put your skin at risk in the long run. So you should look out for : parafinum - petrolatum - paragons - polyethylenglycols (PEG) and PPG - sodium laurel sulfate - laureth sulfate - silicon tricolsan and many more…

Living in consciousness means paying attention to every little detail in the way you live. It means living in accordance and in the respect of your beliefs and of life itself. In other words, it is paying more attention to the outcome of your actions, as every step you take will have a reaction resulting out of it. Every choice matters and has a lot more repercussions in your life than you may think.

If you adopt consciousness, it will turn your life around for the better and you won't ever be the same again. So you might wonder what it might do for you today ? Well, living more in accordance with your choices means that you will pay more respect to the world around you, as you will bring more attention to the things you do, and what they will bring in turn, it means you will think about every single consequence of any decision you take.
Can you imagine having a life with way less trouble, a lot more harmony and a better mental ? This is what consciousness can do for you.

So, how can you get there then ? As I've said before, it is all about paying attention to little details. Many of us tend to act without thinking or very little of it. This is all about doing it the other way around : think before acting. What is the decision you are taking today going to bring you in the long term ? Is it going to affect others ? What could be other effects the decision will have, on what, on whom, how ? Is there any better way to go about with it ? ... and so on.

If every single one of us took a little bit more time and reflection in our decision making process, there would be more thinking given to the consequences and we could give the environment and other current important issues more thought. Earth could become a better place quicker as people would be more conscious about their choices and decision making, about the way they would treat nature, the world around them or even one another.

Can you imagine living in such a world ? What a pleasant place this could be ? Well this is still quite utopia right now but we all have the power to bring such a place into our own reality, if we are willing to make the efforts this would ask from us... Think about it, and give it at least a try for a week or so, go all the way out of your comfort zone, and see what conscious living does for you !

I have been a meat eater most of my life, though I have considered quite a few times going vegetarian. The idea first crossed my mind as a teen, but around that time, my family kept me from doing my will (the "you-gotta-eat-properly" crap...) and so the idea was put on hold somewhere in my mind. Until very recently.

With my attempts at going back to a very healthy life, I've tried to eat less and less meat but got a bit frustrated at the way people would react. I guess there came a point where I sort of grew tired of people offering me meat to eat despite the fact that I would say I was eating very little...

So out of the blue, I just took the decision of going fully vegetarian. This way, no more excuses, I DON'T EAT MEAT ANY MORE.
Many people ask why ? The reason is being in accordance with my way of thinking and my self. How can I accept non-sense and mass agriculture which is destroying the environement ?

It's a well known fact that farming animals is one of the biggest source of pollution. On its own, it accounts for over 12% of global pollution...
You might wonder how this could be ? Well, simple... when you care for animals, you need to feed them and so on so, have you thought about :

- The CO2 given off by the machinery working in fields, to plant, care, gather the crops used to feed the animals ;
- The pesticides put into the soil to make these crops grow - which will harm wild life living in the fields, feeding off the crop, or even the worms that make sure the earth is aerated and fertile ;
- The fertilizers used to make the soil richer, which in the end will end up polluting subterranean waters and other biological life on the surface ;
- The water which will be wasted to wet the fields if the crop is grown in a desert area (and the unbalance this may bring to a direct environment) ;
- The crops themselves could feed plenty of people but are rather wasted on animals, which, in their natural environments graze in meadows and therefore do not need all this waste of land and farming to go on... --> this means the animals could be "grown" in areas/places without grass and/or sunlight, confined to tiny spots, would you actually accept that as a human being ? standing one on top of another and never seeing daylight, standing almost still from your day of birth till your death ??
- Sometimes, cattle gets fed what we don't even want to eat. So yes, this means if you don't like GMO, chances are, they end up in the food you eat anyways through the meat... GMO destroy nature as they are stronger, and sometimes mix in with the local species, which destroys diversity.
- To that, needs to be added the wastes of the animals while they are growing, those wastes, in the long run and when accumulated, those begin seeping through the grounds to end up, like the pesticides do, in the underground waters, therefore polluting even more. It does damage to direct environment as well : the direct outdoor environment suffers from all the waste product given off by the animals. Where excessive cattle is grown, you'll often see that no vegetation grows any longer.
- All the actual electricity power needs to be taken into account when calculating the real cost of farming. Many animals live indoor, so there needs to be electricity, ventilation, light control etc...
- When the animals are ready, they then need to be transported into slaughter houses... So add more CO2 for transport...
- Then all the energy used into cutting the meat down and cooling it, all the water wasted for rinsing the meat off, the waste material from the meat (which is horribly recycled into animal food, now can you explain how and why vegetarian animals [cows & co] get given food containing meat ?? don't you think this is quite a huge problem in itself ????????)
- Now, after all this meat has been killed and chopped, it then needs to be shipped to the shops, refrigerated again, blah blah, so make CO2 calculations again and add them to the rest of the list...
- Then, what doesn't get eaten gets wasted in trash cans and so on and so on. CAN WE AFFORD TO WASTE SUCH VALUABLE FOOD AND ENERGY IN THE WAY WE DO ??

Now, that was just about the pollution bit. I could also address the ethical part of things :

- Growing animals in halls where they'll never see daylight
- Making growing times shorter and shorter, so the companies can grow them faster and make more profit
- Some chooks are being destroyed because they aren't interesting to grow food with... and guess what those are being "recycled" into ??
- Making those animals live on a very small space, in horrid conditions (almsot one on top of the other, they get crushed, they can also get so fat that their butts actually get dragged in their dirt, which wounds them and damages the meat you eat...)
- The animals often eat "weird" food, do you think it is normal that vegetarian animals get to eat meat derived products (you could actually say "eat one another" because their fellow animals which were killed before got some of their meat/bones "recycled" into food)
- On their way to death, the animals actually know what is going to happen to them, so you eat meat which has the smell of death

I'll spare you more blah blah but I guess you get my point... In a world of consumption where all that matters is buying, where living things no longer get the respect they should be getting, I refuse to give in.

I've now been "vegetarian" since the 1st of January, so it's been 13 days of absolutely no meat eating. And am holding on. It is turning out very nicely and being quite interesting reinventing my diet to keep it healthy. I have decided for now to still eat a tiny bit of fish once in a while but this will go too at one point.
I feel so great and energized, since I have given up meat completely... I will keep this going now for as long as I can. I might in the future try other "experiments" on the way I feed. I might give vegetalism and raw foodism a try in the future. I am so interested in better ways of living and have read great feedbacks from so many people I know. So, why not get out of my comfort zone and try other things ??