#FoodForThoughtFriday New Years Resolutions

Happy Friday!

Today for my #FoodForThoughtFriday post, I'm going to look at this whole New Years' Resolutions situation.

It's a thing that people have been doing for decades, selecting something they can work at to improve their lives in the New Year; and most people, year after year, don't succeed in their New Years' Resolutions. So I want to talk about that.

So, let's start with the concept.

People select a New Years' Resolution that they think would be a great way to make their life better. Sounds great, right? Yeah, I'm gonna do this thing to have a better life next year! Rock on!

But if you want to improve your life, why wait for the new year? Why not just do it now? If you're sure that making this change will improve your life in one way or another, wouldn't it make sense to implement it as soon as possible?

Also, a lot of people pick very vague resolutions, things like "I'm going to eat better," "I'm going to exercise more," or "I'm going to get healthier," which sound great, until you realize it's really hard to gauge those things. And when we can't gauge our goals, it's a lot easier to give up on them.

So, I'm all about new years resolutions, but I recommend deciding on a specific goal ahead of time and working to implement it earlier than just January 1 [note: I have seen people succeed at New Years' Resolutions that they started on 1 January, such as my friend who decided that in 2016 she wouldn't dye her hair or have any major haircuts because it was a thing she frequently did on a whim and she wanted to adult more and she's been very successful with that goal; I also gave up soda and chewing gum as New Years' Resolutions in high school, and those were successful because they were very specific and both improved my life in ways].

So now let's look at some good, specific goals we can set for ourselves as resolutions for 2017. I'll start with my own goals:

My first goal is to take and post a photo to instagram every day. Which sounds like a really silly resolution, but I've found that I don't do a very good job of documenting my life as it happens, and I really want to, so I'm setting a realistic goal to help me do that. By taking and posting a photo every day, I will be able to keep track of my life through the pictures and the captions that I'll write with them. Sure, not every picture and caption is going to be super substantial, but it's a start, and it leaves the door open for future goals to improve my life documentation.

My second goal is to walk or run or bike at least a mile every day. This is another thing that I can easily track. I already track my walks and runs with two separate apps (Charity Miles and Runkeeper) and I was operating on a goal of exercising 3x a week this year, but it just didn't feel like enough. By selecting the goal of doing a mile a day, I am giving myself flexibility in the activity I do, as well as flexibility in the distance I move. This also allows me to have my "rest days" without having any days where I am fully sedentary (which is super unhealthy for you). 

My third goal is going to be to read a book every week. Which adds up to 52 books. This year, my reading goal was 16 very specific, very long books, and I'm close to reading those, I just need to finish Alexander Hamilton, which I took a break from by accident and read both The Angel's Game and The Prisoner of Heaven by Carlos Ruiz Zafon to get all of my goal books read. That being said, I've read like a dozen or so books that were not part of my list, so I'm going to operate on a less strict list next year. And I've done this year's goal by dividing up the total number of pages in the 16 books I selected last December (10 thousand and something pages) by the number of days in the year (366 days since it's a leap year) to get about 30 pages a day. Now, I stuck to this 30 pages a day rule for about 1/2 of the year, often reading more than I was supposed to, but also often not getting enough reading on a given day. My hope is that by having a less specific goal, I'll do better at sticking to it--I've got a few shelves full of actual books and a kindle with tons of books on it, and access to my local public library, so I've got literally hundreds, maybe thousands of options, and it's always possible to get more. This goal will just be about buckling down and picking up a new book every week (and I'm going to try to stick with books that are in the 100-300 page range for the most part, because I have to be reasonable with myself and much more than 300 pages is going to be a bit too much for me, 300 pages in a week is like 43 pages a day which is more than my goal for this year was).

My fourth and final goal is going to be to run a race every month. I've already gotten started on this one by signing up for the 1st Day 5K in Midlothian (a town near where I live) which is just a 5K on 1 January. Committing to a race each month is easy to keep track of because at races you generally get a bib and you also get like confirmation emails and probably pictures and times get posted. It's also a good way to make sure I keep up with moving every day because I'm hoping to do races of increasing length throughout the year for the most part--my true goal is to run the Marine Corps Marathon in October, so I'll work toward that by doing increasing lengths of races (and hopefully training with others who are interested in the same races as me) and see where it goes. 

So, those are my "New Years Resolutions," which I've already started working toward because why wait to improve my life until next year when I can do it now, right?

Other things I'm incorporating into my life include the intent to be more eco-friendly and to waste less by using reusable containers wherever possible (including asking places where I get takeout [read: Chipotle] to put the food items in a bowl brought from home, rather than their own disposable ones) and trying to be more financially responsible (so far, not so good, but I'm working on saving more of my paychecks and not buying everything that I see and think "yeah that looks awesome!") and giving more (which I've started by automatically donating $10 from each Target paycheck to United Way and $10 from each Mathnasium paycheck to the Elephant Sanctuary, and plan to continue more by donating a few items each month to charity and things like that).

So anyway, those are the goals I'm working toward, and I encourage everyone to work toward improving their lives in whatever ways they think will be best for them. Don't worry about what your friends or family are doing, just worry about you. Only you can make goals that you will keep and that will actually help you improve your life.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist

Late #FoodForThoughtFriday and Happy #SelfCareSaturday !!

Happy Saturday!!

Since I missed yesterday's post because I had a weird shift at work, I'm going to start with yesterday's #FoodForThoughtFriday post:

Food for Thought Friday: Black Friday and Thanksgiving day shopping 

For anyone who does not live in the United States, every fourth Thursday of November, we have this holiday called Thanksgiving which is based in some pretty sketchy historical details. [TL;DR: The very first Thanksgiving dinner may have been a group of Pilgrims and Indians sitting down to a happy feast, but after that, Puritans attempting to escape religious persecution in England came to Massachusetts and took the land that belonged to the Wampanoag nation and also killed them with smallpox]

I don't know why it's the fourth Thursday of November, but I thought it was the last Thursday until one year, November had 5 Thursdays and it wasn't the last one.

Anyway. Over the years, people have largely grown disillusioned with the "Pilgrim and Indian" notion of Thanksgiving, because, you know, it's awful. [Like Columbus Day. Also awful.] And Thanksgiving has kind of grown into something less about History and more about spending time with friends and/or family and being thankful for what we have. Which is great. It's a great way to be more mindful in your life, and something that we should definitely do more of [thus the birth of the #ThankfulThursday hashtag in recent years]. 

But also in recent years, this whole concept of "Black Friday" has started to overshadow Thanksgiving. Which is not so good.

In a nutshell: Black Friday, or the Friday after Thanksgiving (so the fourth Friday in November) is the "official" start of the holiday shopping season [not sure how that works because I definitely do not wait until a month before Christmas, the winter holiday I happen to celebrate, to start shopping]. It is a day when humans venture out into the world of retail shops to buy everything they want to give their loved ones for the winter holidays. There's even a website about Black Friday because it's so big now. The "black" in black Friday refers to the fact that the stores supposedly record losses in red, and gains in black ink or something silly like that.

And on Black Friday, stores offer super deals for things that people want to buy for the holidays, like, toys and electronics and stuff. And usually stores that participate also open early to let crazy shoppers who want to get out of bed at 3:00 in gosh-darn morning in for these deals and extra-super-special deals called "doorbusters" [because these people are busting down the doors--oh, you're closed, Target? NOT FOR ME, SON]

Anyway, over the past few years (lookin' at you, 2013, you started this) large retailers have been stepping it up a notch (or fifteen) by opening EVEN EARLIER than Friday, like, Thursday night, or sometimes Wednesday. And, of course, this is a problem when Thursday is supposed to be a holiday about spending time with friends and family and eating large quantities of turkey or not-turkey and stuffing and other such holiday fare.

So, long story short, super-stores like Walmart and Target and all those big-name retailers we love (or love to hate) have been opening on Thanksgiving.

Which wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that when they open on Thursday, the poor souls who work in retail [read: me and others like me, trying to make ends meet post-graduation, single parents trying to make their ends meet to take care of their precious babies, and sometimes non-single parents who just, like, work at Target because they get paid better than minimum wage and get benefits if they're full time, and sometimes non-parents for those same reasons and all kinds of people for all kinds of reasons] get pulled away from their families on Thanksgiving day just before 6 pm to go cater to the crazy shoppers who leave their families by choice to make sure they get the *it* toy or the giant plasma screen TV or whatever it is that they NEED, but don't want to buy at full-price.

Of course, not all retailers do this (bless you, TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Marshalls, Costco, etc.) but a lot of them do. And it's pretty screwed up. 

Because not only do these shoppers drag retail workers out of their homes and away from their family and friends to come in so you can buy whatever for 50% off or whatever, they're rude about it. They are, by and large, not going to be apologizing for the fact that they're coming in, and will possibly even get angry at the retail workers for not having something they want because, like, OBVIOUSLY, it's the cashier's fault that we only stock x number of this thing and you were the (x+1)th person to come looking for it or that the thing didn't ring up what you thought it would because the system is missing some discount that you saw a sign for, but we didn't because we're not out on the floor checking sale signs.

Now, I've never been a shopper on Black Friday (or pre-Black Friday) because I'm not about to go shopping with thousands of other people who could potentially, I don't know, trample me, stab me, pepper spray me, shoot me, or hit me with their car. This is a dangerous thing to do, guys. And of course, if it's dangerous for the shoppers, it's also dangerous for the workers, who we should care about (and I'm not just saying this because I work in retail now--seriously, my fellow Target Team Members are some of the sweetest people I've met and deserve all the good things).

So, like, if you can practice the self-restraint to NOT go shopping on Thanksgiving day and let retailers know that this isn't something the American people want or need, then please do. And if you can't, then at least be nice to the people who you interact with in the store, because you don't know them, and whatever is making you upset while shopping is probably not their fault. Feel free to come out on Black Friday, though. Just don't get violent while you're shopping. Like, it's not the end of the world if you don't get your precious little Jimmy or Janie or whatever your child is called that "Hatchimal" [the big toy of 2016, think how popular furbies were when they came out, or tickle-me-elmo when he came out] for 25% off. We really only have a few of them at a time [the shelves in my Target appear to only hold 8 Hatchimals at once, 2 rows of 4]. And there will be more at a later date, I'm sure.

#BoycottThanksgivingDayShopping #PracticeKindnessonBlackFriday 

Okay, moving on to #SelfCareSaturday

Today's #SelfCareSaturday Plans include:

Working at Mathnasium for a few hours.

Reading.

Doing my training modules for Mathnasium.

Possibly going to a grocery store with my mom to get stuff for Thanksgiving.

Possibly pulling some stuff down out of the attic.

Possibly getting some of my stuff out of the other bedroom in the house so that my sister and niece can stay there next month when/if they come down for Christmas.

Maybe going for a walk since it's gonna be b-e-a-utiful outside this afternoon.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming with #FoodForThoughtFriday

#FoodForThoughtFriday
#FreetheTitties

Today's topic is the bra, the medieval torture device for breasts, and a tool in centuries of oppression of women.

Now, the bra as we know it today wasn't invented until the early 20th century (Google gives the exact date as November 3, 1914--102 years and 8 days ago today), but binding and constricting the female breast has been around much longer. The reasons for doing so have been varied, but it's overwhelmingly an oppressive measure taken against the female breast (otherwise those who have male breasts would also be wearing bras, right?) and there are now tons of studies that say wearing bras is actually bad for your breast health (these are just five results related to the search "bras are bad" in no particular order).

I'm not here to say the things that have already been said by so many people; I'm here to break down why we still wear bras/consider it taboo not to wear a bra and to offer arguments on why we should #freethetitties.

So, the reasons that we still wear bras:

     1. Bras make breasts "look better." I mean, if you're a heterosexual male, the shape that a bra gives a female breast is pretty nice. Although this is highly contradictory to the second reason we wear bras.

     2. Breasts without bras are "distracting" to men. Which implies that without the bra, a woman's breast will draw a [heterosexual] man's attention more than with. Which kind of implies that they want to see the one without the bra. [of course, all of this hinges on the terrible social construct of "boys will be boys," which implies that "girls should modify their behavior to ensure boys aren't bad," a social construct that is harmful to everyone because it implies that men can't control their animalistic urges and frequently takes young girls out of school to change into clothing that is less distracting to their classmates, but that's a story for another Friday]

     3. Female nipples are offensive! Like, seriously? They look just like male nipples, but are surrounded with more breast tissue. Plus, female nipples produce life-sustaining milk for infants, male nipples don't [usually].

     4. Over time, wearing a bra has gone from something that was invented as a liberation from the super-restrictive corset to something that smushes the female breast into submission against the will of gravity and nature.

And the reasons why we shouldn't are numerous.

     To start with, it really is bad for your breasts. The muscle tissue in breasts can't get stronger if it doesn't have to work. Wearing a bra prevents your breasts muscles from working to get stronger. I mean, there are times when it's reasonable to wear a bra, such as when doing physical activities like running (because the amount of bouncing that can and will occur while exercising is painful), but other than that, let them breathe.

     It's also usually more comfortable to not. Like, 99% of humans who wear bras will tell you that getting home and being able to take it off is the best part of their day, or at least in the top 10 best parts of their day.

     Bras are expensive. Like, it costs $20-$50 to get a decent bra, and that's just if you're in the smaller (but not too small!) sizes. If you require "specialty" sizes, such as a band size smaller than 32 or larger than 40 (VS, I'm looking at you), maybe 42 or 44, or a cup size that is smaller than A (i.e. AA, AAA) or larger than D (VS again), or maybe DD or DDD or H, you have to go to a more expensive store, where they will measure you and fit you with a custom bra that probably costs upwards of $75. I don't know exact costs of these bras, since I fit in the non-specialty bra size category, but I know plenty of people who require "specialty" bras. And you could be using that money for more important things, like food.

     Bras usually don't fit a human the way they're intended. Because most humans don't have perfectly even breasts that are both the same size (I mean, I know there's nearly a full cup-size difference between my left and right which always makes my results come up weird when I get professionally measured) or sometimes breasts are kinda lopsided or crooked-like, most people can't get a bra that actually fits the way they need for it to look AND feel good. And, like, we should embrace the uniqueness of everyone's breasts, not try to fit them all in the mold of what is judged to look good by society.

    Bras are awkward to wash. Like, hypothetically, you're supposed to hand wash them or put them on a delicate cycle. Not doing so can cause them to have a shorter life, meaning you need to buy them more often, which means you're wasting MORE money on them. It's probably a conspiracy by Big Bras to keep you in a never-ending cycle of wasting dozens of dollars on bras.

In short, bras are basically just another form of oppression of women. Fight the patriarchy by not wearing them. Donate them to charity for women who can't afford to spend so much on bras, but still feel societal pressure to wear them even in the face of homelessness.

Or wear them anyway. Like, I can't tell you what to do.

But, most definitely, please do NOT burn them. That's like a weird thing that can put chemicals into the environment.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist

#FoodforThoughtFriday: Lawn "Care"

Happy Friday!

It's been a busy week.

Today's topic is Lawn "Care," since it's that time of year again! You know, the leaves are falling and people are spending hours outside picking them up only for more to fall on their lawns.

But I'm here to tell you that you don't need to waste your Saturdays raking leaves. Leave the leaves. They're good for your lawn.

Trust me, leaves were falling off of trees and covering the forest floor long before humans came around, got rid of forests, and started planting grass under the trees and then removing the leaves. And you know what? Those fallen leaves didn't kill the forests. In fact, those fallen leaves promoted the health of the plants on the forest floor.

When leaves fall from trees, it's because the leaves are dead and the tree is getting ready to sleep through the winter. The dead leaves fall to the ground, covering your ~beautiful~ lawn, so you think "well, I better get rid of those so my lawn can be beautiful a little while longer." But then your beautiful lawn gets all cold and unhappy over the winter, which isn't good for it. 

So in the spring, you have to do fertilizer and stuff to make it beautiful again.

Which is bad for the environment.

BUT if you just accept the fact that leaves fall off the trees and cover your lawn and make it not as beautiful a few weeks earlier and don't spend a bunch of time removing leaves only to have more fall on your lawn (like you're literally doing manual labor that will be completely worthless by the following Saturday), those dead leaves can help your lawn be happier and healthier in the coming spring.

How, you may ask, do they make it healthy and happy?

Well, friends, let me tell you.

Those leaves are like a blanket for your lawn during the colder months. Since they're covering the lawn, the grass' roots aren't getting as cold as they would in winter without the leaves. You like having a blanket in the winter, right? So why wouldn't you allow your grass the same pleasure?

And then, as the winter progresses and the dead leaves begin to decompose, they add nutrients back into the soil, which nourish your grass so that when spring comes again, you have beautiful healthy grass that's been nourished by the death of your trees' leaves.

You can even help that process along by going over your yard with a lawnmower when about half of the leaves have fallen from your trees. This will make the bottom layer made of the first half of your leaves which you've ground up with your lawnmower decompose easier, while allowing the second layer made up of the leaves to act as the blanket, keeping your grass warm through the winter.

The same thing works with grass clippings throughout the warmer seasons. If you leave the clippings, they will decompose, putting nutrients back into the ground and making your grass healthier and happier and thus more beautiful.

So save yourself the manual labor and leave your leaves (and grass clippings) to nourish your lawn!

ALSO, leaving your dead leaves on the ground creates homes for cute little animals to live in, like box turtles and chipmunks, and gives butterfly pupae a place to grow through the winter, which means your lawn will sprout beautiful butterflies in the spring (well, the caterpillars that don't get eaten by birds will become beautiful butterflies--they can't all be so lucky).

More information that has sciencey words available here:

One source.

Two sources.

Three sources.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist

#FoodForThoughtFriday: Plant-Based Living

Happy Friday!

Today's #FoodForThought Topic: Plant-based lifestyles 

(which, in case you don't know, means being vegan, though I support people who choose vegetarianism over veganism because the latter is a major life change that takes time and commitment)

Recently, the WWF came out stating that the world is likely to lose 2/3 of its wildlife by 2020. Need another article about it? 

That's in 4 years. Closer to 3 actually, because 2016 is waning quickly and will soon give way to 2017. 3. Years.

And they're not just saying this as a scare tactic. For a long time, humanity has had good ole mother earth on the fast track to an early death. We recently passed the point of no return for CO2 in our atmosphere, meaning that we will never see CO2 levels in our atmosphere lower than 400 ppm (ideally, we want levels below 350 ppm)

And while making a massive change in the way that we fuel our lives (i.e. moving away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy resources such as solar and wind) is a step in the right direction, we need to do more to stop global climate change where it is and work to reverse it. This is where converting to a plant-based lifestyle comes in.

I know, I know, how does eating plants help get rid of Carbon Dioxide? Don't they take in the Carbon Dioxide and turn it into Oxygen?

Well, yes, they do, and you can always plant trees to contribute in that way, but livestock production (the raising of animals for slaughter--a questionable practice in many ways) is one of the biggest greenhouse gas contributors. 

At every stage of livestock production, there's a massive amount of greenhouse gases:

A handy graphic that shows all the parts of livestock production that create GHG emissions.

Livestock farming is just a really problematic practice.

To start with, the grains that are used to feed livestock in the United States alone could feed 800 million people. To put that in perspective, about 795 million people don't get enough to eat worldwide. We could literally solve world hunger if instead of giving these grains to livestock, we distributed them worldwide to those who do not have enough to eat.

Then there's the amount of greenhouse gases that livestock animals emit (this is just fancy-talk for these animals doing what they do at the end of the digestive process, i.e. pooping), which actually makes up about 37% of GHG emissions (scroll down to "Sources of GHG in Livestock farms" section in this article). 

And don't forget the inhumane practices that go into livestock production. These animals are usually given growth hormones from birth to ensure that they get nice and big to produce plenty of meat, and often their size and/or rate of growth is unhealthy for them (read about chickens here). Not to mention the cruelty that goes into farming these animals (I hesitate to use the word "raising" when it comes to factory farming because raising implies caring for) whom are given too little space, and generally treated badly. After all, why be kind to an animal that you're just going to kill in a few months anyway?

And no matter what your argument for eating meat is, there are more reasons not to consume animal protein.

1. But where are you getting your protein? You HAVE to have protein!!

Yes, protein is a necessary part of a balanced diet. However, at least in the United States, people eat waaaaaay more protein than they actually need (we're talking like double the recommended amount here) (in case the Huffington Post isn't a good enough source for you, here's the CDC diet/nutrition guidelines page). I seriously get this question like anytime I mention the fact that I don't consume meat. And not in a concerned person kind of way, it's like a defensive "WHERE YOU GETTIN' YOUR PROTEIN, HUH? MEAT HAS PROTEIN" like I'm not attacking you for eating meat, why are you attacking me for not? 

2. But human beings EVOLVED to eat meat! That's why our teeth are the way they are.

Yes, in a way. Way, way, way back in the day, when humans were mostly hunter-gatherers, they needed to eat meat to get their appropriate caloric intake. The vegetables and fruits and other plant-life that were gathered by the gatherers simply didn't provide enough calories for these societies to move around and do all the things that they had to do to survive from day to day. As we moved away from hunter-gatherer societies and toward agricultural societies, it still made sense to eat meat because when the entire family was out working on the farm all day, they still needed all those calories. But once the Industrial revolution hit, and the majority of people started working jobs where they were stationary all day and using less calories, the need for eating meat kind of decreased a little. And now we're a post-industrial society in which a large quantity of people work in offices or retail and basically sit or stand around all day and live sedentary lifestyles unless they make a point of getting active.

So yeah, people ate meat and their teeth had to be suited to do that, but as we surpassed the hunter-gatherer, agricultural, and industrial stages of society, we didn't need to eat meat as much. And now people who eat meat are largely doing so by choice, rather than out of necessity.

3. But meat tastes good.

I mean, I disagree with that statement. Like I think meat tastes nasty. I can't convince you to not like the taste of meat. But that's a pretty weak argument.

Because a lot of meat that's on the market is a result of animal cruelty. Even companies that produce "free-range" meat aren't really taking care of their livestock the way that every living creature deserves. We love our pets; cats and dogs and small mammals and reptiles and birds, so why not promote loving ALL animals? Why does a cat's cuteness get it a free pass from this horrible life and into your home to be fed, loved, and cuddled but a cow doesn't? Cows are pretty darn cute, I mean, look at this face:

But we're okay with eating the animal that is attached to it?

4. But plants are living things, too.

Okay, yeah. Plants are living things. But, like, what else are we supposed to eat? Rocks? Dirt? Air?

Plants are the only sustainable option for human consumption. Livestock is unsustainable. 

5. What about hunting?

Are you hunting animals that are approved to be hunted? And following all of the laws surrounding hunting them? Are you doing it humanely? Are you planning on doing something with the animal?

I mean, animals that are hunted (deer, rabbits, turkeys) are cute and I love them, but I can vaguely understand the arguments for hunting. Like overpopulation of these animals can cause major issues in ecosystems that support them. So if you insist on hunting animals, just make sure that you're doing so in a humane way (like, please don't make them suffer--it only takes one good shot to the head to kill most critters) and in the correct time of year (there are apparently "seasons" for hunting-I don't know much about that) and without harming the environment in which the animals you hunt live.

Just be mindful about that kind of stuff, okay?

And please, for the love of all that is good in the world, stop posting pictures of yourself with a dead deer. Like, that's gross.

Okay, so now that we've gotten through your arguments for eating meat and my counter-arguments against 4/5 of those, let's move on to other things.

Simply changing to a plant-based lifestyle isn't inherently good.
There are plenty of unsustainable things out there which are totally plant-based.
I think most people know this, but palm oil is harvested in an unsustainable way that harms local ecosystems and kills primates (orangutans, more specifically, which are like super cute ginger primates like King Louis in the cartoon jungle book) and violates human rights in a lot of cases (because the people who harvest it often force indigenous people from their home lands) and contributes to deforestation. So watch out for palm oil and try to avoid buying things which contain it (it's a challenge, for real, more than half of products on the shelves in American grocery stores contain palm oil--and not just foods, it's in everything).

And I'm not saying that everyone needs to stop living their life the way they've been doing for years right now and go vegan (though I'd love if they did). What I'm trying to get across here is that the meat industry is a big problem for the world, and everyone can do their part to help.

Ways you can help (from least change to most change from a standard American meat-eating diet):

1. Start participating in #MeatlessMondays. This is actually a great step in the right direction. It's only one day of the week and gives lots of people a chance to see how easy it is to just not eat meat. There's even a whole website about it.
2. Cut red meat from your diet. This is another good step. Red meat (like beef) is not only unsustainable, but also unhealthy. Harvard Health offers a great take on this.
3. Try going pescetarian (this is a fancy word for a person who doesn't eat meat except for fish). It's not really the most sustainable because overfishing is a big problem, but if you're looking to keep some animal protein in your diet, this might be the answer. I started out as a pescetarian, and it worked for me for a while, until the awful stomachaches I was getting clued me in that maybe fish was not something I should eat (with a slight possibility that I could have developed an allergy to fish like my mom did--seafood is among the top allergens, so allergies can happen). Information on pescetarianism is available here and many other places online.
4. Become a vegetarian. Meaning you do not eat the flesh of dead animals. There are different types of vegetarians. You could be a lacto-ovo, lacto, or ovo vegetarian (eating dairy and eggs, dairy but no eggs, or eggs but no dairy, respectively) depending on your preference/allergies you may have (dairy and eggs are among the top allergens). The Vegetarian Resource Group has resources for vegetarians (as the name suggests).
5. Go vegan. Now, technically speaking, a vegan does not consume anything that is made with any animal product, meaning no dairy or eggs or honey or wool or leather or anything that was part of an animal ever. I adhere to a notion that veganism is not so much a binary (you are or you aren't) as a spectrum, like gender. I think of there as being many different kinds of vegan. You're definitely not vegan if you consume dairy or eggs or both, though. Resources from International Vegan.
   
   I consider myself a low-key vegan. I don't go out of my way to avoid honey because honey isn't inherently bad. Now, I'm not that into honey, so I also don't really go out of my way to eat it. It's just like if it's there, then okay, but if not, then great! I also don't avoid wool. Wool can be, and often is, sheared from sheep in a healthy and humane way; and sheep and other woolly animals need to be sheared yearly in the spring so that they do not overheat. Allowing these animals to continue growing their wool year-round is inhumane to them. (That being said, Uggs are created by skinning sheep which is 1000% NOT okay). I avoid leather and other fabrics that are made of something that requires the death of an animal. A good rule of thumb is that if it kills an animal, don't consume it. And if the treatment of the animals that create it is inhumane, don't consume it. (this is where the eggs and dairy comes in--comb honey is also something that we should be wary of, as the bees need the comb to survive the winter). A lot of vegans are also anti-fig because sometimes a wasp will like climb into the wrong kind of fig (they lay their eggs in figs and the babies hatch and escape, but this only works with the male figs, the ones we don't eat--sometimes a female wasp will climb into a female fig and then she's completely screwed and the fig breaks her body down and she becomes part of the fig which later is consumed by a human or other animal). I personally think it's a little silly to be upset about the possibility of consuming a wasp that made a mistake, but to each their own.
   
   You can see how this gets a little shady, right? So if you're all about veganism in the not consuming dairy and eggs way, but still like honey in your tea, then rock on. You're an admirable person for coming this far.

Now, there are more intense diets, like the high-carb raw vegan diet, which involves not cooking any of your food, and as far as I can tell people who have this diet eat mostly fruit. I don't know enough about it to put my seal of approval on it or not, but if this intrigues you, you can do research on it.

So, in a nutshell, what I'm trying to say is: eat less meat. You're probably eating too much anyway.

Wild animals worldwide are counting on you.

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist

#FoodForThoughtFriday

Happy Friday and TGIF and whatever

For today's #FoodForThoughtFriday, I've been inspired by Instagram

The Topic: Mental Health

For those of you who haven't read about it, Instagram just launched a new feature that allows you to anonymously flag a user's post if you think they might need help with these issues. There's an article about it on Hello Giggles if you want to learn more.

Mental Health Disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and the  ways in which an individual can seek help for these, have been stigmatized in our society for a while now, and this stigma does so much harm and no good, so Instagram is working with organizations like the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (The Lifeline) to help reduce this stigma.

In a society where there is an unprecedented amount of pressure on our youth and young adults anxiety disorders affect nearly 1 in every 5 Americans aged 18 and older, and as many as 1 in 4 children aged 13-18, and mood disorders (such as depression and bipolar disorder) affect nearly 10% of adults 18+ and 14% of children aged 13-18. 

That's a lot of people. And you probably know at least one of them.

But these mental health disorders are largely ignored and stigmatized in our society for some reason. And despite the fact that these disorders are relatively treatable through therapy, medication, or a combination of the two, not many people who have them actually get treatment; this is largely because of the stigma surrounding the disorders themselves and what is perceived as "weakness" when one seeks treatment for them. 

Speaking from my own experience, it can be very scary to get help for these disorders; it requires research to find the right counseling center, and then you have to find the right counselor, which can be a struggle (there are a lot of counselors out there, so there's bound to be one who's right for you) and deciding (with your counselor and someone licensed to prescribe medications for mental disorders) if medication is a viable option for you can be difficult, but once you find the right combination of counseling and/or medication (and sometimes some people might need to go to a treatment center, which is okay too), it becomes possible to live your life in a healthier, happier way.

Anxiety and Depression, of course, are not the only two mental health disorders affecting our populations today, and I encourage everyone to learn about all different types of disorders and their symptoms to help those around them who may be suffering. A good place to start might be at the National Institute of Mental Health and branch off into organizations that focus on specific disorders--such as NEDA, the Lifeline, and the Anxiety and Depression Association of American (ADAA)--from there to learn more about them.

And, most importantly, if you suspect someone in your life might have a mental health disorder of any sort, reach out to them in a gentle, supportive way and let them know that you're there for them. And if someone talks to you about their experience with any of these disorders, make sure that they know you're there for them if they need to talk and support them, rather than reacting in a negative way. A positive, supportive response when someone tells you about their struggle with mental health disorders can make a world of difference in that person's life, but a negative response can hurt them very deeply and cause them to lose their trust in you permanently.

And if you are dealing with any sort of mental disorder, don't be afraid to seek help. There are so many resources available to you and you deserve a chance to feel better and live your best life.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday and finds the things they need. <3

xx,

Sienna

The Fierce Feminist