Ever since I can remember, my mom has been fighting me on my vegetarian lifestyle. “But you aren’t getting enough protein!”

So, when my western medical doctor decided (during a routine exam, when I mentioned stomach upset) I should try to cut out dairy for 6 weeks, you know I didn’t run home to call my mom. I could hear her now, “But what about your calcium!” Instead I did some more research online and found this article:

http://veg.ca/content/view/127/110/

It starts with: Going Vegetarian? Dietitians Of Canada And The American Dietetic Association officially say it can be healthy.

And goes on to say: A vegetarian, including vegan, diet can meet current recommendations for all of these nutrients.

So, I downloaded their pdf, mentioned at the bottom of their article and am making appropriate adjustments, for leaving my beloved cheese out of my diet.

Oh, and I found the above mentioned article from this one (below) on Treehugger.com, about finding support for being a veghead:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/12/vegetarians-finding-some-support.php

Though I hate to have to defend myself for my eating choices, and I don’t make others defend their own choice (of eating things that make me squirm), I do hope this support helps those looking for a well-balanced vegetarian or vegan option.

I had the honor of getting a person tour of Corwin Bell’s new exhibit, Sacred Water, at the Museum of Outdoor Arts outside of Denver, CO.

The funny thing to know about Corwin’s show is, though it is at the Museum of Outdoor art, his exhibition is all indoors. Which was a relief to me, as it was a brisk winter day when we visited. The museum does have outdoor art installments, and part of the system that makes one of Corwin’s pieces work is located outdoors (on the roof of the museum), but the reason his show is included is because the theme is about water and the significance of this precious outdoor resource.

Corwin is the creator of the Journey to Wild Divine. So, I already knew what a creative digital artist he was, yet I didn’t know he worked in other media, as well.

The collection, on exhibition until February 16th, shows his multimedia artwork: animation, photography, ceramics, woodcarving, bronze work, and glass pieces.

My biggest surprise (other than that it was indoors): The bronze piece. It was stunningly crafted, even though it was the first time he has worked with bronze.

By the way, make sure you watch the DVD of Corwin and the MOA crew taking part of the exhibit to Burning Man. And, well, not to give too much away, what happened when the winds kicked up.

After going through the entire exhibition, make sure you go into the final room and watch the video – it pulls inspirations from individual pieces for you. It also left me with a tremendous feeling of hope and renewed faith that we aren’t going to squander one of our most required resources, water.

Corwin has plans to do a series of workshops around this subject, as well. One, close to his heart, is to provide schools with what I believe he calls the River Way, in which he discusses the importance of clean water, by having the kids build their own River Way using piece of his artwork.

There are so many cool interactive aspects of his show, that kids and adults a like will enjoy it.

I encourage you to visit the gallery, while it is still on display. If you aren’t in Colorado, consider if there is a gallery or museum that might be appropriate to host this important show, in your area.

Also, if you are an educator looking for a fun, informative and interactive way to address environmental issues, you can speak to Corwin about doing an age appropriate talk with you students.

By the way, he also is doing some incredibly important work with Bees and pollenation: http://thepollennation.com

ph: 303.806.0444

Monday – Thursday: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Friday: 9:00am – 4:00pm

The indoor gallery is closed Saturdays and Sundays and all public holidays.

Hope you check out the show. And, definitely, commend below with any questions or insights…

I hope to add images of the exhibit to this post, so if there aren’t any on it now, come back later on.

If you’ve watched Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, or have been meaning to, you may just find the video below even more thought provoking and informative.

John Doerr starts his Ted talk about climate change by stating simply “I’m really scared, I don’t think we’re going to make it.” Yet, he’s not willing to allow that fear to paralyze him and either should we:

Though it starts off with a heavy heart, Doerr’s speech left me with hope.  Find out what companies like Walmart, once thought of as the evil-empire, are doing to make major changes in the world.  After all, even if (like me) you suspect they might have began this shift as a PR move, it still forces others to step up and take action.

Let me know if you agree, disagree or have other questions… post your comment below.

…is an acronym for FEAR.

“Your mind is the greatest soap opera script writer in the world…“ says T. Harv Eker

That is the best line, about fear, I’ve heard in a long time. There is currently a free video and mp3 of a talk Eker gave on taming the cobra of fear:

http://www.enlightenedwarrior.com/ca

It is on a promotional page for an upcoming event, but you don’t have to add your name to a list to watch this insightful video. So enjoy!

I am not sure how long his video will be up, but it is a great exploration into Fear, Doubt and Worry. And even better than an exploration, it is a guide to get you to Act in spite of these limiting blocks!

So, don’t be afraid, just watch the video and then let me know what you think – by posting a comment below.

P.S. I don’t get anything for you going over to this page, or if you decide to join his event, I just liked the ideas he presents in his video!

Happy New Year. Have you heard the Story of Stuff?

Someone sent this to me over the holidays – actually a couple of people sent it to me, so you may have seen it, too.  I thought it was a wonderful gift to receive and a pretty appropriate time to show up during the ‘consumer-ccentric’ holiday season.

If you haven’t seen it, take 2 minutes and 37 seconds to watch Chapter 1 here.

It’s an informative and easy to comprehend, but important, video that explores consumerism’s effect on our environment.

If your like most American’s, you probably know the effect of spending on your wallet, but if you haven’t thought about how it effects our planet, then you might be surprised.

The Good News is Annie Leonard (and the people who put this together) offer solutions for Another Way – easy, everyday, attainable solutions to help us change a system in crisis to one that works for all of us.  If you want to watch the full 20 min video try the Story of Stuff website (it was down at the time of this post, but I am sure it will be back up soon, or so I hope).  But you can always catch the individual chapters on YouTube, as well: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=FreeRangeStudios

Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this video, so post a comment below.

Is the Mayor of San Fran penalizing water drinkers?

In a recent Newsweek article, Karen Breslau spoke with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who signed an executive order banning the use of city funds to purchase single-serving plastic water bottles.

I don’t drink anything but water (other than an occasional lemonade) and I prefer filtered or bottled water to Boulder’s ‘less than pristine’ tap water. So, I guess I am not eligible to become a San Fran government worker.

But, really, what does this mean to the Bay area government employees who share my same drinking habits?

Ugh, it’s back to the water fountain for them!

Are government buildings going to have filtered water dispensers available for employees to get a glass of clean water along with the “stainless-steel recyclable containers” the city is offering people?

Or will we see the mayor gracefully trying to avoid water up his nose as he bends over a fountain with too strong a flow? And what about the health risks associated with putting ones mouth on a faucet where the water pressure is too low!?

I can’t believe – once again – it will be easier for someone to get a sugar laden, high calorie soft drink than a refreshing drink of water.

I agree, the environmental footprint needs to be taken into consideration, but why just bottled water, why not all drinks sold in individual plastic bottles?

If the government of San Fran was really looking to reduce the effects, shouldn’t they make any individually sold plastic bottle a no-no?

And has the current mayor forgotten about the Twinkie Defense case of 1978, when a former San Francisco city supervisor killed the then-Mayor and “claimed that he was not responsible for his actions because he had OD’d on Twinkies.” (see Twinkie Abuse) – oh, the terrible things sugar can do!

I’m only half joking here. Obviously there was more to the ‘78 case, but it does make you wonder about the effects of switching over from healthy water to soft drinks. Weight gain, being the least of the problems.

But the real question here is why just water, why not eliminate spending of funds on all individual bottled drinks? If they can save $500,000 from bottled water, imagine what they’d save on all single-serving containers!

Maybe the extra funds could go towards making sure their tap water is really clean as he suggests!

What do you think of all this?

You know when you meet someone who gets the way you think?

As soon as I arrived, I saw her smiling and waving. Two hours later we were best buds.

But why am I telling you this? Well, Marni isn’t just a new introduction to me, she is someone who shares LifeMaking Ideas:

The first one is a site she introduced me to that I think you will equally love:

Their slogan says it well:

Ideal Bite offers bite-sized ideas for light green living.

They offer small bites of Quick and Simple Ideas to help you comfortably let your green shine through.

TODAY’S TIP (this is not a permalink, so if you read this after 6/15, please search their site’s Library):

What drug habit do we all need to break?

It’s their Easy Solutions for keeping our expired meds from going down the drain and into our rivers and drinking water.

What’s that you say? You never thought about the effects your old antibiotics, birth-control pills and hundreds of other meds had on our water supply?

Definitely check out these quick and easy solutions – because, it is not about the problem, its about taking actions on easy solutions!

Bummer – And I thought that since I was working at home, I was saving the world.

OK, maybe not the world, but at least some CO2.

Today I read an article on treehugger.com called:

Working from Home May Produce More CO2 than Going to Office

In this article, Lloyd Alter notes a new report done in Britain, which “suggests that while home workers can save carbon emissions by not commuting, the extra heating and power they use during the winter months can outweigh the benefits.”

He goes on to point out that, unlike in Britain, North Americans tend to heat our homes the same whether we are there or not.

Hmmm?

QUESTION: Is he suggesting home offices in North America are OK, because we’d have been heating our homes anyway? Or is he suggesting that this continent needs to readjust our lifestyles? I’ll leave that up to you to discuss…

Personally, I want to thank the EU (European Union) and Canada for their efforts to ban certain questionable ingredients from personal care products. Even if the U.S. is not putting into law similar logical mandates, at least, by default, Americans are getting some of the benefits… (I’ll discuss that more in a minute.)

If you aren’t familiar with the topic of safety in cosmetics, I’ll be reviewing it a lot on this blog, but please feel free to do as much research on your own and post comments below. This way we can all learn from one another.
I’m providing a link to a recent article that addresses this subject well. The article is called:

Cosmetics safety comes under fire

Clicking the title of the article will take you to where I found it – on theolympian.com -it was written by ROBERT COHEN of Newhouse News Service.

Though I thought Robert’s article gave some good info, I found the quotes from both Eric Schwartz (chief operating officer of OPI) and John Bailey (executive vice president for science at the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association) to be…well…”incomplete,” and that maybe “they are not telling the full story.” (Which – if you read the article – is ironically what Bailey suggests of the parties pushing the ban.)

Granted, it is difficult to do a full review in a short article, but I would like to have heard valid evidence supporting the use of toxins by these parties…not that I believe there is any, but would like to hear it, if it truly exists.

As Robert Cohen and so many others have pointed out, “Under U.S. law, the FDA neither tests, reviews nor approves cosmetics and personal-care products before they go on the market…” So, how can there be valid proof when there is no testing?

Bringing this conversation back to my initial comments of wanting to thank the EU and Canada, Cohen’s article highlights some good news for the health conscious: due to bans outside of the U.S., cosmetic manufacturers are starting to reformulate products (sold inside the states) by removing ingredients that propose toxic concerns.

See, when a U.S. product is sold over in Europe, it needs to meet the 2004 EU ban on over a 1000 “chemicals known or strongly suspected of causing cancer, mutation or birth defects.” This means U.S. based companies are changing their products in an effort to retain their international sales.

This works for me in the cases when the manufactures implement those changes in their product lines across the board, and across the world.

However some companies, like the makers of Grecian Formula (hair dyes for men), are forced – by a ban – to remove dangerous toxins due to another countries standards, yet retain that toxic ingredient in the products sold within the U.S. market.

(In the case of Grecian, Cohen’s article points out they have removed lead acetate for their distribution in Canada, but still sell it with this proven harmful ingredient here in the U.S.)

QUESTION: What do you think about the fact that in America you can not cover gray walls in your home with lead in the paint, yet men are still covering their gray hair with lead in the dye?

So, I was looking for a Greek Salad and pulled up Google…

Typing the words “greek salad boulder,” I found a listing back to Judy’s Book

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I got to this page there was nothing about Greek Salads. However, as I read down the page, I found a post by someone named Jud V.

This Jud guy started talking about an all vegan, organic fast food place not far from my house. What is he nuts? I would have known if this place existed, wouldn’t I?

I guess not, because I ended up looking online and found their site, V.G. Burgers.

I read what they had to say and gave them a call – to find out exactly where they are located (if you are in Boulder, CO – they are on 28th, between Checker’s Auto Parts and Taco Bell. Not the best location, but close enough to my side of town).

So, I went and checked it out. YUM!

I arrived thinking I would get the Falafel Burger , since that was the closest thing to the Greek salad I had been looking forward to. However, as I waited on line (yes, there was a line – other people knew about this place), I started reading about the Three Nut Burger. Since it comes with BBQ sauce, I had to try it – I am a big BBQ sauce fan. Also, the idea of fresh pickles, onions, crispy tomatoes and lettuce sounded too good to pass up. After all, it is a burger joint, right?

Now granted, the burger by itself was $6, but it was delicious, fresh and all organic. So, I can’t complain. It was so good, I’m already thinking about going back and trying something else.

I’ll let you know how it holds up on return visits.

P.S. They were a bit too busy to chat, but I did get to ask how long they have been there – since the week before Thanksgiving! I need to get off the computer more often.