Wise Wednesday - Are you ready to go vegan?

Becoming vegan

I cut out meat because I didn't really enjoy it, I always enjoyed the seasoning or the batter that coated it! I've always had an instinct that eating meat was bad for us but I'm easily persuaded by nutrition "experts". Until I discovered 801010 I thought protein only came from animals! So naive of me. I changed my diet because I saw the results that one can achieve from being vegan and now I'm living this lifestyle I know how easy it is to sustain, even a raw food diet is easy, it just takes a bit of effort to beat the cravings of other foods. 

Are you ready to go vegan? 

It depends what type of person you are as to whether you are ready to go vegan. Are you willing to go against the beliefs of others no matter what they say? Are you willing to stand up to pressure no matter what it takes? Are you willing to be the minority? Are you willing to stand up for the animals? Are you willing to put your health first? 

My experience of being vegan. 

I've had countless discussions, countless sarcasm, countless comments. It's about being willing to stand up and say "I am not eating animals because I can sustain a life on plants". For me it's about health. I look at the majority of people around me and they are fat, sick and unhealthy. I look at me and I'm losing my fat, my skin glows when I eat and I hardly get ill anymore. 

What do YOU want for YOUR life?

If you need help with transitioning to a vegan lifestyle I am here to help, but the one thing that will help you the most is to actually want it. Like really want it so bad that there's nothing else that seems important. The main reason for going vegan should be your health. The animals are important, but first you should concentrate on yourself. 

The world is awakening and veganism is only the start of it, so don't be the last to get on board. Start a lifestyle where you'll thrive and be an excellent example of health. Open your mind and your eyes. Listen to your heart. 

Believe in good. Believe in God. 

Jennifer x

Tough Tuesday - Never Ending Circles

I never used to like the merry go round as a child. It always spun too fast for my liking and I'd either end up seriously dizzy, I'd fall off or I'd be very ill. In recent years you may have seen me push myself around one on this blog. I find that when I am in control of the merry go round I have a pleasant time. 

I'm not really here to talk about merry go rounds, but actually the never ending circle or cycle I have going on right now. 

I am on a spiritual journey. I never planned for this particular journey to happen. I have always been different and unconventional at times. It's unusual for me to conform so me taking on this journey isn't exactly out of the norm for me, but still, this time last year I would never have guessed I'd be on a journey to reach enlightenment. 

The only problem with my journey funnily enough is me! I am my biggest problem. I get in my own way. I prevent and cause my biggest issues! In every relationship I have it is me who causes my own unhappiness. In my gratefulness challenge I said I want honesty, but I'm still too stubborn to face it, too attached to accept it and too resentful to appreciate it. 

My biggest problem is how I react to people. I get overshadowed by the ego that it takes over in that moment so my head is flooded with negative thoughts and without taking time to breathe and process, I explode like a volcano. I take everything to heart, I believe that what someone is saying is true and I destroy the good in me by reacting the way I do. 

I keep forgetting to stop, look and listen, or stop and breathe at the very least. I'm quick to temper, easy to offend, easy to wind up and take everything to heart. These are my problems, no one else's. That's the lesson I need to learn because I keep going in circles and it's destroying everything I'm working towards. 

I don't want to be the person who keeps fucking up, I don't want to allow myself to create my own unhappiness anymore. I'm tired of being on this merry go round. I just need to find the strength to stop it and walk away in victory. 

Today I walked away from the greatest man I'll ever meet. 

Perhaps this is the start of the slowing down I need. 

Jennifer x

Soulful Sunday - Meditation, Gratitude and a General Update

Meditation

I have been trying to implement meditation into my morning routine. I wake up naturally, no alarms (unless I go to the wholesale market very early) and I get myself a drink of half a squeezed lemon and 500mls distilled water. This is important to get my system powered up and cleaned out from the day before! I take this back to bed and put on some meditation music off my YouTube playlist, lately I have been listening to the Chakra Chants. I think I did this 3 consecutive days in a row and I find that as soon as something disturbs the routine I am thrown off easily.

"They" say the best time to meditate is in the morning, but I get so relaxed that I end up falling asleep again! I seem to be sleeping a lot these days, going to bed at 9pm and waking up at 7am, but sometimes I have slept till after 9am despite the early night. My exercise is somewhat none existent, so I am rather confused as to why I sleep a lot! 

I find that the best time for me to meditate is in the morning because I have less disturbance from my house mate, alternatively I will meditate when he goes out. Some days I will get into a really deep state and one time I felt like I was above my body (I was quickly brought back though), but other times I will find it hard to keep my mind quiet. 

If you want to start meditating and need some tips then I recommend you get acquainted with the Chakras. I find that I get more from working on my Chakras than just breathing, but a good place to start is being aware of your thoughts and your breathing (e.g. take a deep breath and follow it to your stomach, legs, feet, toes, etc. feeling the sensation as it gets to each of these body parts).

Gratitude

I am currently on Day 26 of my gratefulness challenge and I have 5 more videos to film. I started an appreciation blog a few years ago and I made 146 posts! That is quite an achievement for me, so hopefully when the videos stop I will be able to carry on being grateful and thankful throughout my day. I want to be aware of everything in my day to day life and I think being grateful should start first thing in the morning. 

General Update

My house mate and I have decided that we are going to cycle to the Wholesale Fruit and Veg market 3 times a week. We have been getting a lot of free food recently and believe that we could probably sustain ourselves on this produce and reduce our spending. We would still have to buy bananas in bulk and we seem to have to buy tomatoes too. I will be spending some money on persimmons and cherimoya too because I enjoy these fruits a lot.

I had a Tarot reading on Wednesday and it was my first time. I actually started my day in Liverpool after spending the night at my dad's house (we had a father-daughter trip the day before). My dad had turned the TV over to the psychic channel and we watched a bit of Sally Morgan, she has a TV show that follows her around during her tours and one on one readings. From what I have experienced, my dad is a logical thinker and needs to see proof before he accepts the idea. Sally can speak with spirits and she was doing just that on her show whilst my dad tried to express his opinions that she is just a performer. I too used to think like my dad, "it's made up", "it's staged", but Sally seems really genuine.

I told my dad I was going for a reading as he dropped me off at the train station. I thought it was quite funny that we even had the discussion in front of the TV because he didn't know about my reading at that point! I don't want to tell you what was said to me, but a quarter of the way through I had a spirit come to tell me that I will be OK, I broke down in tears! I wasn't expecting any message, but to have one after the morning's discussion just hit me from nowhere! 

The rest of my reading was so accurate to my current journey I was just shocked that this is so real and I have now witnessed first hand that there really is something in the Tarot and people with psychic abilities. Out of all the cards I could choose, I got the ones that suggest I will be OK and everything that I am working for will work out. 

This afternoon I am going to a spiritualist church for the first time to see what it is like. I have really been feeling a calling recently.

I am going to leave it here and wish you all a wonderful Sunday afternoon. I hope you will get in touch if you want to tell me about your experiences.

Love

Jennifer x

Think Thursday - Gratefulness

I may have already posted about gratefulness before, but I have a new understanding that you can never be too grateful.

I have been doing a gratefulness challenge on YouTube because I have been and can still be rather ungrateful. What I am hoping to get from this challenge is the ability to be aware of everything in life, from the small things like being grateful for having a bed, food, water, etc to having opportunities, supportive friends and the ability to do whatever I set my mind to.

Since starting this challenge I have opened my mind a lot more (there's still a long way to go don't get me wrong!), but it has taught me many things about myself and about the rest of the world. It is great getting feedback from my very small audience as it is reassuring that these videos do help other people realise how important it is to be grateful for everything, even the small things. I am grateful that people have taken the time to watch my videos and even read this blog! 

There's so much to be grateful for everyday, so many people to be grateful to, yet I still seem to overlook the most important aspect of life. God.

I am not a religious person. I was brought up protestant and went to Sunday school until the age of 11, but once my parents divorced that was the end of my participation in practising religion. I contemplated going back to church when I was 21, but I didn't take it any further and since then I considered myself atheist. However, this year has changed me. I've met people, watched documentaries, read (and still am reading) books and see things around me that seem coincidental, but now I know that there's no such thing as a coincidence or chance.

I believe in God, but I do not believe in any particular religion.

Without God, we would not exist. God is the creator. I am grateful for having this life and for my journey. One day I will meet God, but until then I take comfort in his presence. I hope that one day you all reach a point in your life where you accept God as being the creator and find comfort and awareness of his presence.

It really is important to be grateful and step by step I hope to improve myself so that it is something I do automatically without the need to think.

What are you grateful for? Let me know your thoughts about God.

Jennifer x

Hairy women

I  have not epilated, shaved or waxed my body hair since I arrived back in the UK on 22nd July. The only body hair I have maintained are my eyebrows (and even that's becoming less frequent!) 

If you have any experience or imagination at all I'm sure you can guess my armpits are reasonably hairy, as are my legs! 

I decided that I wasn't going to remove my armpit or leg hair because being back in the UK it doesn't usually get or stay hot enough to bare these parts of my body. After a few weeks my hair had grown quite quickly and I started to really like having armpit hair. I often find myself loosely pulling at it as if it were some sort of relaxation exercise! 

Initially it was the armpit hair that I was only interested in keeping, I was inspired to keep it by Miss Diana Fruitypants from Canberra, Australia. We met at the Thai Fruit Festival in July and she had this wonderful patch of hair on her armpits. Admittedly I was taken aback by it, not sure why I was surprised to see hair there on a woman, but it really grew on me. After some thought I remembered how natural it is. 

Proud to show my hairy pit!

I am in somewhat of a love hate relationship with my leg hair. Having grown up secretly shaving my legs (when my mum went to work) to avoid the name calling or general making fun of at school, I have always viewed having leg hair as disgusting and not very feminine so this is still a challenge to get used to. 

At first I had decided to keep the hair out of laziness. I normally epilate so it is quite painful, as is waxing. When I shave I sometimes experience irritation and I'd definitely never use hair removal cream as it has so many chemicals in it. Therefore, I decided that I would see how long I could grow my hair before a. I got disgusted by it b. it started to get too long c. it had a negative effect on my life. 

So far I have found myself only disgusted with my leg hair, but then I put on some trousers and it goes away! I think even today it isn't too long, it's just longer than it's ever been. It should never have a negative effect on my life. If anyone has a problem it is with themselves, so in that respect I would disregard them! 

I have recently googled "women with hairy armpits" and I was surprised to see a movement this year to embrace having hairy armpits! (Link, Link, Link) It gave me a sense of liberation when I saw so many pictures of young women posting their pit pics with pride and of course we have the much loved celebrities who have covered numerous magazines and newspapers with their hairy armpits. I am in full support of this hairy movement! Let's get back to being as natural as we can (without defecating in public of course)!! 

My mum's reaction to my hairy armpits was somewhat unexpected, although I should have prepared for it in all honesty. Apparently in the 21st Century women shouldn't be hairy... Also, because I have previously removed my hair it grows back differently, so I should continue removing it... Now I haven't done my research about the growing back part, but really the 21st Century comment can be turned around like this, it's the 21st Century so I have every right to do with my body as I please (without breaking any universal laws) , so if somebody has a problem with my body then the problem lies within themselves (as stated above)! 

Admittedly it is shocking at first, but once you give it time it grows on you (pun intended)! If you're female I urge you to try it out, if you're male I urge you to encourage your partner to try it out! Let's learn to embrace nature, if it wasn't meant to be there then it wouldn't grow. 

Hairy women unite! 

Jennifer x

Sunday update - technology

The days all merge into one by the time Sunday comes around. My weekly trip to New Smithfield Market always seems to feel like it was just yesterday that I had been, but clearly it was a week ago else I wouldn't need more tomatoes!

I try to get some exercise in every other day or so by means of cycling and I really pushed myself too hard the other day. I still need to purchase some pedals and shoes, but I'm delaying it a bit longer to see if they go down in the summer sale. I like being on the bike, it's a great way to cover some distance and get in a workout. Running would make me need to wee and poo so I didn't run far... :-)

I really want to get a group of ladies together to meet once a week for a group exercise class in the park. It would be a good challenge for me and will help my own fitness as well as my creativity.

I've spent some time listening to specific meditation tunes on YouTube over the last couple of days. It's been interesting and I want to focus some time experimenting to see if they work long term or just at all! I mainly want to look into astral travel, healing, positive thinking and working on the chakras. I'll make a post when I've done some experimenting.

It's been a few weeks since I deactivated my Facebook account and I have to say it's liberating. It is easy to be addicted to it and I even question using any technology... I think that's partly why I haven't blogged as much. 

The world is very much technology focused and when I met George in Thailand he got me thinking. George is from Cyprus, said he is sensitive to electromagnetic sources so he doesn't own a phone, laptop, tablet, etc. He's well read (Dad owns a bookshop) and he meditates, that's his claim for knowing about the Thai Fruit Fest, it came to him in his meditation. I'm either naive or he's genuine, but I'm going with him on this one. I doubt I'll give up my phone or tablet (because I like taking photos) but I like the idea of spending less time glued to a computer.

So on that note I am going to go!

Enjoy your Sunday. If you're in Manchester and want to do some weekly exercise send me a message!

Jennifer x

Think Thursday - Fad following

Today I want you to think about following the latest trends that are later termed fads.

Do you get easily excited? Are you the first to jump on the bang wagon? Do you go from one thing to the next as easily and as often as changing your underwear?!

If this sounds like you, then you may have already considered a raw food or even just a high carb vegan diet. When I say the term diet in this sense I mean eating a certain way for a certain amount of time. To me lifestyle means commitment for the long haul.

So if you are one of those people who have gone back and forth between diets then this is what you need to seriously consider.

What are you doing it for?

If you are eating for health then you need to consider your nervous system. What is optimal for your nervous system? Of course I will tell you a raw vegan diet is optimal, that's the whole point of my blog ;) but you need to make sure you feed your body the best sources of vitamins and minerals and where do these come from?? You guessed it, fresh fruits and vegetables. Preferably organic, but if not I at least encourage you to try to grow your own salad.

You should consider swapping your alcoholic beverages for a freshly squeezed juice or smoothie (in fact you should never poison your body with alcohol again!), take a 15 day course of probiotics 2-4 times a year and stop eating white refined carbohydrates to help your nervous system stay in good condition. Probiotics are a great supplement to take throughout the year to get your gut flora back into tip top shape, especially if you experience diarrhoea or illnesses alike.

Why is this diet going to work when the previous ones didn't?

You really need to keep this in your mind. If you do go from one diet to the next after losing weight and then putting it back on you really do need to question the diet. You are damaging your body the more you yo-yo from one to the other, so do you really want to risk causing a serious illness?

Does it really seem like a healthy diet?

We all know that fruit and vegetables are incredibly healthy for us, the government, TV, shops, etc go on about eating 5 a day (and research has suggested that the minimum amount should be increased to 10 a day!), so I think when you include lots of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet you know you're onto a winner.

My concern is that people think that they need protein, especially animal protein. NO! Leave the animal in the field. If you feel like you want to eat protein (bearing in mind we need no more than 10% from our calorie intake) then get it from sources made from plants. Plants are miraculous. They are sun foods. They are living foods (unless you cook them of course). Why would eating anything dead be good for us? (Referring to paleo here)

To me, these are the main points to consider. 

The raw vegan diet may not be easy, it may not be 100% convenient, but if you think about it in terms of what it can do for your HEALTH, your BODY and your LIFE, well maybe you will consider it.

Stuff your face with fruit all day, drink loads of different smoothies, eat so many different fruits, fill up on greens and get that raw vegan glow!

If you want help transitioning to a raw vegan lifestyle or just want some friendly advice about buying fruit or increasing your fruit intake send me a message.

Jennifer x