And On the Second Day, She Had a Name...

I slept on it, stepped out the front door, looked at the bike this morning and thought: STILL TOO PINK.

On top of this, when I cycled to the Physio early this morning and dumped my stuff in the basket, I ended up with pink smears all over my favourite bag.

NO! NO! NO!

So I told my dude what happened and requested to please change the pink basket back to a regular black one. He was really sweet and apologetic about it and told me changing it to a black basket would be free of charge. That's what I call service! Seriously - if you're in the market for a bike in Amsterdam, check him out!

And I'm glad to report that having a black basket sure as hell tones down the Barbie-bike factor. Now... I can happily bedazzle the handlebars with rhinestones with no fear of being OTT. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Yes, I do realize the irony in my actions. I like to take the piss, even out of myself and the bike I ride... but within "reason". Heh.)

Here's what she looks like with a black basket. (Sorry, it's a bit of a crap picture coz I only remembered to snap the photo AFTER locking it. And it's a mission to unlock TWO locks. I have more stories on stuff I'm learning on bicycle-locks, but that's for another post).


So yesterday, EcoYogini suggested I give my bike a name to match her punk-rockness (EcoYogini's bike is named Veronica. Love it!)

I've been thinking about it, and I've decided to christen her Roxanne. HAHAHAHAHA! She's got a rocker-chick vibe... And after all, this bike is about 30 years old (does that make it vintage?), has probably gone through some hard knocks in life, and now that I've taken the bright pink basket off, she no longer has to "put on the red light". HAHA. That's a really bad joke. It's not even funny.

On top of that, Roxanne's a song by Sting... a fellow yogi. Right? ...See how all roads lead back to yoga? Eh? Eh? Eh? *On a bad joke roll*

Speaking of yoga... I've been a REALLY BAD YOGI - no real ashtanga practice in like... 2 weeks! Only did the 108 sun salutes last weekend. And er... I've been procrastinating and making excuses (and had legit excuses like Mother Nature's yoga-break aka ladies' hols)... So today since I have a bike already, I have no excuse that getting around town is a mission.

The new shala here is still in the intro phase with only evening classes (More excuses not to make class in time after work!)... But I decided to bring my gear to work so I could bike there right after. As it turns out, another one of my yoga-mad workmates invited me to a Vinyasa-Flow class he usually attends.

To be honest... the thought of jumping straight back into the Primary series after 2 weeks break was making me REALLY NERVOUS. Because... it's really obvious how much you've "back-slid" in your practice and I can't help feeling crap about myself because I can't help it, but yes, I compare what my practices feel like on a day-to-day basis. It's something I have to get over of course. But anyways... So when I had the chance to "jump ship" and attend a fun vinyasa class instead (and YAY! A yoga friend!), I went for it.

I'm glad I did. It's so superficial and not the point but seriously... I'm convinced the Ashtanga Primary series builds up so much strength and stamina. I promise you I would've been huffing and puffing through Primary today, but at a "Level 3" vinyasa-flow class, it was actually pretty manageable. And that made me feel good about myself. HAHAHA. Talk about SUPER EGO!

I'd forgotten how fun a vinyasa class is - all those mad twists and arm balances. This one started off with a headstand as the first asana. Like... HUH?!? It went backwards! We also had a flaming queen teacher who was barrels of laughs - I've never heard the F word so many times in a yoga class... Maybe from out of my mouth, yes - remember Laghuvajrasana? But not the F word from out of THE TEACHER'S MOUTH!! It was really fun and lighthearted though. Even through all his swearing, he was very enlightened. "Stop thinking about the pose! Stop thinking Ooh, I like this pose. Ooh, I hate this pose. Just shut the fuck up and DO IT!"

...I guess that's an extension of Guruji's "do your practice and all is coming." HAHAHAHAHA.

Another gem he had was "You think it hurts now? Wait till tomorrow... THAT's gonna fucking hurt!" I like a teacher who doesn't himself/ herself and the yoga too seriously. His bio page actually says he's writing a book titled "How yoga ruined my life?!" (HAHAHA. LOVE IT!)

So... I guess I'm easing back into some kind of practice. Hope it helps ease me back to Ashtanga! (The new shala's morning classes start next week). Whoop!

Ta-Dah, Here Comes My Bike!

...And I'm halfway between "I FREAKING LOVE IT!!!" and "What the fark have I done?!?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

So I have now graduated from my very first car, a classic shortfront Mini (complete with disco-ball hanging from the mirror)...


...To a Suzuki Jimny (when I got tired of driving stick-shift and wanted an automatic 4x4 with cup-holders. Hehe)...


...To taking public transport around in Sydney...


...To a push-bike. HAHAHA! Go environmentalism!
(Wait! Pictures to follow! I'm building the suspense...)

Getting a customized bike done is like working with a builder. It takes twice as long as they say it will. HA.

So one week became two weeks, but at least I've now got my bike. I picked it up this afternoon. May I remind you that all I did was give the dude references eg. "This is the kind of bike I like"... "These are the colours I like"... "Maybe this part should be pink, or that part should be black" etc. And away the dude went to source me a second-hand bike frame (knowing that I didn't want to get on a bike that was too high).

I had NO SAY in the frame he sourced, or what colours went where, since I kinda got the hint when I asked to take a look at work-in-progress and he said "You can pick it up in a week". He's a Monsieur L'Artist! So I left him to it and ventured over there today with butterflies in my stomach.

My initial reaction was "SUPER COOOOOOOL!!!"



I like how the frame's like a cross between a BMX and a Chopper. Kinda.

Check out the detail he went into with the bits like the pedal:


And my favourite part of the whole bike, the bell:


The dude was so sweet. He pointed to the hot pink rhinestone decorating the centre of the handlebars and said "I found that on the sidewalk and thought it would fit nicely."


Hehe, recycled through-and-through! Don't forget: My original plan is to add more rhinestones across the entire handlebars (the metal bits that are currently looking rusty). But now that this bike looks pretty LOUD as it is... I'm not really sure if I should! I'm feeling a bit chicken shit now. HAHAHAHA!

I have had loads of compliments from random strangers and people I know, and also gasps of horror from the boys at work (HAHAHA!) ...and now that 3 hours have passed, I'm slowly starting to get the sinking feeling of "HOLY CRAP! This bike is SO PINK!!!!" ...and I'm not sure if I'm gonna get a headache riding it around daily. Oh no, I'm feeling ill now. ("What have I done?!")

In a sea of dull, black bikes she sure is bright!


While parking the bike at home, I've already scratched part of the pink paint off the side of the basket. ARGGGHHHHHHHHHH!! ...Hmm, maybe I should just get the basket painted back to black. Maybe that's gonna tone it down just a little bit... Just enough for me to add rhinestones to the handlebars and not fear being OTT! Hahaha.

If you're looking for my dude, check him out at Recycled Bicycles. He sells and rents regular 2nd-hand bikes, and of course also customizes them if you want. They've also got a repair workshop with parts to service bikes. I like him loads - really friendly and a sincere vibe. To the point where if I decide to bring the bike back to get the basket sprayed back to black, I'm sure he won't mind! ;p

OK, I have to sleep on this and decide how I feel about it tomorrow. I like it. But it may just be a wee bit too much pink. ARRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!

Bike Obsessed!

To complete my Dutch experience while living here, I've decided: IT'S TIME TO GET A BICYCLE!!

The weather now is too good not to bike around town, plus I'm also fed up of walking everywhere. I don't get very far. HAHAHA!

Now that I'm on a bicycle-hunting mission, I've also had Queen's song playing in my head the past couple of days. Y'know the one... Bicycle Race... "I want to ride my bicycle... I want to ride my bi-cyyyyy-cle!"

Here's an apt video I found of someone cycling around Amsterdam. See what I mean by how pretty it is?



Because the government here encourages the use of bikes, I found out that they'll actually reimburse you half the price of any bike you buy as a tax break. WOW! Progressive innit.

SO... my bike obsession has led me to discover the coolest store. This dude actually customizes recycled bikes. It's much better marketing than saying he sells second-hand bikes. HAHAHA! And he's very clear that he doesn't sell stolen bikes coz he doesn't wanna support that "industry". Also, it's illegal to buy a stolen bike here. Apparently the cops can stop you on suspicion of riding a stolen bike and if you can't produce a receipt as proof, your bike gets confiscated.

I got really excited when I saw some of the bikes he has customized before.





I mean... HELLO?! They look better than any brand new bike! Plus, the best part is not only am I being environmentally friendly by riding a bike, I'm reducing my environmental impact EVEN MORE by getting a recycled bike (and did I mention even with the customized job, it's still half the price of a brand new bike?!)

Hello, McFly? I'd be an idiot not to do it!

So I've been eye-balling bicycles in the street even more than usual... just figuring out what I want my very own bike to look like.

I know I want a traditional Dutch bike.


BUT... of course it's gotta have the Jaime take on it. HAHAHA! I'd probaby swop out the wicker basket for a mesh one in the front:


And I want the rims and spokes in hot pink. Maybe the seat too. Or the basket. Kinda like this bike, but I'd make the white bits black. I was thinking of white and hot pink like this bike... but it's a little bit too Barbie. Just a tad.


I kinda like all-white tyres too, but that would be too much. Maybe black tyres with the white edge like this.

That's probably pushing it too. I just wish I knew how to work proper Photoshop so I could have a proper play. In any case, it's still fun dreaming up what my bike's gonna look like.

If I get somewhere with a colour palette by Monday, I should be able to be riding around town in my new swanky bike a week later. WHOOHOOO!!

Oh... Did I mention that once the dude's done with the paint job that I'll probably be sticking rhinestones on the handlebars too? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Might as well go all-out, guns-a-blazing BLING!!

Right? :)

Post-Urban Remedy Detox Cleanse

Ahhhhhhhh... Back to food. :) :) :)

The guys at Urban Remedy recommend eating only fruit the day after the cleanse, to help ease your digestive system back onto food, then the 2nd day after, raw salads and dairy, then 3 days after fish/ seafood, then 4 days after you can get back onto meat.

So on Saturday morning, first day after the detox, I headed to the kitchen highly anticipating breakfast which I had specially hand-picked from the supermarket the day before. ...A MANGO. HAHAHA. I never thought I'd ever be so excited to eat a mango.

Funny thing is, when I picked it up and held it in my hand, it was the size of my fist. I remember reading somewhere that any regular meal you eat should be about the size of your fist (No, SERIOUSLY). So then I paused and thought "uh-oh, I haven't had anything in my belly for 3 days. I think anything the size of a regular meal (ie. fist-size... ie. that mango) would probably be too much to handle!


So I put down the mango and picked up a handful of cherries instead. Hey, I'm practising mindful eating, y'all! Oddly enough, I was AFRAID to eat the cherries... y'know, to tarnish all the good that I'd been doing so far. I had a split-second thought of "maybe I should've done the 5-day cleanse to continue getting rid of all these toxins!" I wasn't quite ready to give up the detox yet (I was also secretly afraid I would lose my Supta Kurmasana bind. Hehe.)


But of course, soon enough I was surfing the interwebs, catching up on blogs, the usual Saturday morning lazing around... then one handful of cherries turned into the entire bowl full of cherries. Gulp. Well... berries are supposed to be easy to digest! (Never mind that cherries aren't berries... they're almost similar. So there.)

I tried munching on some Kellogg's Special K about an hour later (I munch them dry, like eating potato crisps), but within 2 minutes, my belly was in slight spasms, like it didn't know what to do with this alien stuff inside it, so I promptly put it away. I just wanted something to crunch on!!

For the next half of the day, I attended a couple of jewellery-making workshops (will save this for a different post - I think I've found a new hobby!), so I bought a smoothie along the way (Orange, pineapple, spirulina & mint. Pretty healthy and yummy too!)... and didn't have lunch.

I finally had that mango in the late afternoon and all was well... So when we went out for dinner with a couple of friends later that evening, I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and graduate onto a tofu salad and edamame beans. All was still well, no complaints from the digestive department. Yay!

Today, I'm back onto eating what I usually eat now - had some veggie dumplings at lunch and no digestive problems.

Oh... and... if you must know, the moment I started having solid food again, my #2 friend is back in proper action. What goes in must come out, I suppose. Haha.

I'm feeling well, no terrible side-effects from clearing out the toxins - just a mild headache when I stopped coffee. Oh, incidentally, I still haven't had coffee. YET. Come to think of it, in the last 2 days since I've been off the cleanse, I haven't even thought of reaching for the coffee mug. I suspect this will all change once the work week begins. Heh.

So my friends... that pretty much wraps up my super-long review of the Urban Remedy detox drink & delivery service. I would highly, highly recommend it. If you're unsure of a Level 1, 2, 3 or 1, 3 or 5-day cleanse, definitely get in touch with Emma at the company who will be able to recommend the right cleanse for you. If you're not on Twitter, you can also use the contact form on their website for more details.

I've been most impressed with the speed with which they get back to you with answers to silly questions (and you know how chronic I get, with LOTS of silly questions... they humoured every single one of them). It's a system that's been really well-thought out and well-planned. I give it 2 thumbs up!

If there's one thing I would suggest to Urban Remedy, it's to consider starting the 5-day cleanse on Wednesday and deliver drinks for the last 2 days on Friday evening, so people can spend the last 2 days of the cleanse at home. One of the reasons I chickened out from doing the full 5 days was coz they only start it on a Monday... and I wasn't sure if I could handle a full 5-day work week on a complete juice cleanse. (You wanna be kind to yourself and take it a bit easier, y'know? ...it's all psychological too!)

If there's just one thing I would suggest to you if you're doing the cleanse, it's to use flaxseed oil from Day 1 of your cleanse, or even psyllium husk, as mentioned in yesterday's post.

Oh, and the other thing is - recycle your cooler bags! You're not gonna need ALL of them, so be nice and give them back! I wonder if they'll take back their custom-made plastic bottles for recycling too? I'm looking at the mountain of bottles sitting in my recycling bin and thinking "that's A LOT of plastic!"

Anyways, if you decide to get on this cleanse, I would LOVE to hear all about it, we can trade "war stories", so let me know. And Happy Detoxing! (I'm off to eat another mango now. Nomnomnom).

Coffee, Yes Please!

I think it's interesting how most yogis are pretty into their coffee.

I came across this blog of another lady who'd been in Sydney for Sharath's workshop, and I love how he told her "No coffee - No prana!"

Here's proof! (The picture was taken by yours truly) :p


I took a couple of workshops with Mark Whitwell earlier this year, and an assistant brought in his morning latte. Someone exclaimed that they were surprised he drank coffee. And Mark chirped "Even Krishnamacharya drank 5 cups of coffee a day!"

So yogis... be guilt-free and drink up! (In moderation of course... I still think 5 cups a day like The Great K is a wee bit too much caffeine!)

I've also recently bought myself a travel mug... was starting to feel guilty about all the disposable cups I've been throwing away everyday with my daily morning order of "One double-shot soy flat-white, please!"


I actually lug this around with me in my bag wherever I go now, and am surprised by how many local joints don't bat an eyelid when I pull this out with my order. Yay! I'm a Planeteer! (...maybe those Captain Planet cartoons did have an effect on me afterall.)

The up side to this... I use this same mug for holding my daily intake of water at the office (with refills, of course). I like drinking hot water - no, I'm not a freak. It's a Chinese thing, where the belief is it's better on your system than cold water is. So this mug helps retain heat a lot better than a regular mug does.

Also, even though I wash it thoroughly after my morning cuppa, it still gives my water a subtle coffee flavour too! Caffeine-infused water. Mmmmmmm. (Wasn't that all the rage in the US a few years ago? Now you can DIY it, like me.) :)

Maybe that's what's keeping me up at night. I went to bed really late last night and didn't have very good sleep at all. Hence, I was useless when the alarm rang for practice this morning and I was glued to the bed.

Oops. Maybe too much coffee/ coffee-infused water isn't good for you (and your practice) after all.

Vegan Chocolate Exists

Oh yes, it does.

OK - all you pedants are gonna say "but... chocolate is vegan!" Sure it is, but most of the time those chocolate bars you buy from the store are almost always made with milk, or "milk solids" (what the heck is a milk "solid"?) ...and er, after reading up about what really constitutes "milk", it's just some form of white liquid (after pasteurizing, homogenizing... what's really left of the supposed "good stuff"?)

Oh, did I also mention that a certain percentage of pus is allowed in milk? PUS IN YOUR MILK?! SIC. Google it. It's from the poor cows who get mastitis - a mammary gland infection from constant milk-pumping. And it all leaks into your yummy glass of milk. (Healthy levels of somatic cell count in a healthy cow is 200,000 cells per ml, Australia allows up to 400,000 cells per ml. That's double the pus count. GROSS!)

Hang on, how did I digress so far into yet another gross post? I apologize.

But before I move on, that's just from a what-are-you-eating point-of-view, I'd mentioned the ethical treatment of the dairy cows (and other animals) in a previous post before so I won't get into that now.

So you see here folks, considering all of the above and how I love chocolate, I was trying to find something that didn't contain milk in it.

Enter Cocolo chocolate. Mmmmmmmmm...


I found them through Twitter, and their marketing people have confirmed that only their dark chocolate versions are vegan (although it's made on the same production line that makes their other milk chocolate varieties, hence there's a disclaimer on the pack that says "may contain traces of milk").

Other than being vegan-friendly, they're also Fair Trade, giving all the farmers along the way a fair deal. Why is this a big deal, you ask? Did you know that there's a strong link between chocolate and slavery?

Seriously, in this day & age, 43% of the chocolate consumed in this world is sourced from cocoa fields in the Ivory Coast in West Africa. In these fields, something like 12,000 children work as slaves (these are just the ones trafficked, kidnapped and forced to work... in total, you're talking about some 600,000 children working these fields).

So how come Nike gets all the bad press about child labour, and there's not enough on Nestle? (child SLAVERY is worse!)

Fair Trade basically gives the poor, disadvantaged farmers a fair deal, and also helps educate them in good/ fair business practices.


So apart from all this good karmic energy, here's more of the good stuff of what's actually in their 70% dark chocolate. Did I mention they use evaporated cane juice instead of sugar? While both sweeteners are made from sugar cane, evaporated cane juice does not undergo the same degree of processing that refined sugar does. So, unlike refined sugar, it retains more of the nutrients found in sugar cane.


With all of this good stuff in there, you'd expect this to be an absolute premium chocolate, only available in specialty health stores. Well, it is available in the usual-suspects-health-stores, but it's ALSO available in Coles supermarkets.

Yeah, good stuff for the masses too! At not a bad price - $4.50 a bar, slightly higher than your average slave-labour-Nestle, but I'd pay 50 cents more knowing my purchase goes towards the greater good.

The taste verdict? Absolutely velvety-smooth dark chocolate. Pure awesomeness. I always end up buying 2 bars at a time for "just in case", if that tells you anything (oh, and I won't share my bars with Kelly either).


Cocolo website in Australia here. And you can also follow them on Twitter @cocolochocolate

This was supposed to be a short-ish post, how did I get here (again)?! Call me long-winded, but I've got lots more to report on my yoga practice (handstands to dropover to backbend and stand up!) and the Xray report at the Osteopath (man, it's big news, and I'm still coming to terms with being a bit of a spinal freak. Still processing this)... so watch this space for those updates in the next week or so!

You Don't Have to be Captain Planet to Save the World!

OK, here's a completely different approach to how you can do your part to save the planet.

Umm... I guess there's a point to the message although I question the hygiene?

The Ethics of the Animal Industry

As I'd mentioned in an earlier post a couple weeks ago, I was going back into my "vegetarian phase". I have these on-again, off-again vegetarian phases, and these have always stemmed from a health/ detox perspective. I've just always felt lighter and with more energy whenever I've gone veggie.

A friend and I had gone on a 7-day fast & detox at a health spa in Koh Samui a few years ago, and I'd remained vegetarian for about 6 months after that. Early last year, I'd gone vegetarian again also for about another 6 months... that is, lacto-ovo vegetarian. No meat at all, with no seafood either. The only animal products I would touch were dairy (hence the term: lacto) and eggs (hence the term: ovo). However, my immune system crashed on me in a massive way - I fell ill about 3 times in those 6 months, and each time it would wipe me out for about a week at a time. I don't usually fall sick, and even if I do it wouldn't last more than a few days so something was definitely up with my diet at the time.

I'd put it down to pure vegetarianism not working with my body. After all, I had gone to a Kinesiologist who put me on a candida detox to clear out my intestines (no wheat, no sugar, no yeast) and she did mention that there was something to be said about the "eat right for your blood type" theory... and since I'm O+, I'm technically supposed to be a meat-eater.

Since then, I've kept to a largely veggie diet, but would eat some meat or fish a few times a week to "supplement" my diet. Having said this, every time I ate any meat, I would feel the effects - I'd feel a bit more sluggish and heavy, and chicken definitely got my sinuses going too.

A few weeks ago, I decided to go back to being vegetarian again as the more I thought about it, the more I reckon the reason why my immune system shut down on me the last time was probably coz I wasn't supplementing with vitamins. Oh. Duh. Yeah, seriously... I wasn't even taking a multi-vitamin or B12 or essential fatty acids supplements. DOH! Of course I was gonna get sick if I wasn't getting these anywhere else in my diet. (This time around, I'm supplementing and stocking up on those vitamins!)

Around about the same time I went back to vegetarianism, someone from my online yoga book club, Namaste Book Club (yes, I'm that much of a yoga nerd. I'm part of a yoga book club. An online one at that!) suggested I also read Sharon Gannon's "Yoga & Vegetarianism", which looks at it from a yogic point-of-view (based on the Yamas).


Now if you didn't already know, Sharon Gannon's the co-founder of a style of yoga known as Jivamukti Yoga. I have a copy of her book of the same name, written with the other co-founder, David Life. It's a beautifully written book on their yogic philosophy which their school is based on, and part of this philosophy is keeping to a vegan diet. There is a chapter in the book on "ahimsa", which translates as "non-harming" (especially to other beings). Hence their insistence on a completely vegan diet, free from any animal products and by-products.

When I first read the book, I pretty much skimmed this chapter. I found it to be a very polarizing, politicized view (yes, I'd conjured up images of PETA supporters splashing paint on people wearing fur, Sea Shepherd supporters strapping themselves to the front of whaling boats... and every conceivable extreme behaviour from animal rights activists). Perhaps I wasn't ready to listen to their message yet. Besides, my personal view of Ahimsa is also applicable to the self: if I'm harming myself by not eating what my body needs, and if I'm O+ and *need* to eat meat according to "Eat Right 4 Your Type"... then I'm not practising Ahimsa on myself! (exactly like what happened when the Dalai Lama's doctor ordered him to start eating meat!) ...well, yeah. It all made sense to me, since I'd always approached it from a health/ nutritional perspective.

For some reason, I was very intrigued by Gannon's ENTIRE book on "Yoga & Vegetarianism" (even though I couldn't get through ONE chapter on it from her previous book.) She tackles the subject based on the 5 Yamas - One of the Eight limbs of Yoga, taken from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. (The Yamas are basically guidelines to how you should interact with the world around you.) She summarizes the points in her book here, a link I'd seen on Elephant Journal. It's probably what got me intrigued.


I'm still halfway through the book, but she's already presented very clear and compelling arguments not only from an ethical perspective of how the meat & livestock industries treat the animals, but also from nutritional and environmental pollution points of view how we're just screwing everything up, ourselves included. It's making me think about it from a much larger perspective, beyond just ME.

And since I've felt the stirrings of shying away from meat from an ethical point-of-view, I've now come across yet another piece which has made me realize just how ignorant and how in denial I've been about how that juicy piece of "grain-fed steak" landed on the table in front of me (or even that grilled "free-range chicken breast", "naturally raised" smoked salmon... heck, while we're at it... that pair of Ugg boots, or that leather jacket came to be).

I guess eating meat and using animal products has been so much a part of my life, ingrained since childhood, that you just take it for granted - never questioning where it came from, assuming that every animal has its part to play in life and well... they're raised for food so it must be OK. And since those eggs I'm boiling are cage-free, free-range eggs, I'm doing my part to keep those animals "happy"... and since I buy mostly organic, I'm ingesting stuff that's got more "positive energy" surrounding it. And I was kept in my little bubble of denial - never-questioning, never-probing a little deeper than I have... until now.

Enter the documentary, Earthlings. Here's the trailer, narrated by Joaquin Phoenix:

WARNING: It is violent, brutal and very real.

You can watch the full documentary online here.

It is also deeply moving and a powerful kick up your butt to boot you out of your ignorance. For me, at least that's what it was. I'm still processing what it all means to me and how far I'll draw the line. I guess if you can still rest easy eating meat knowing where its come from and what's happened in the process of getting it neatly packed on your grocery shelf, then by all means, go ahead and continue eating it.

I can't.

In fact, I'm considering going vegan. As much as I love cheese, I'd blindly assumed dairy was fine since y'know... the cows don't get slaughtered or anything yucky like that... How bad could it be, right? But seeing them chained all day with a super-short lifespan, dying from exhaustion from producing milk... like ?!?!??? Yikes, do I really want to be contributing to THAT?

I think it's important to know where your food comes from - you are what you eat, after all. Which is why you should watch that documentary and make up your own mind about it. I am not preaching at all, I can only tell you what MY opinion is on the subject as it pertains to MY life and MY eating habits. I really believe that you consume things on an energetic level as well, which is why knowing what I know now, how can I continue supporting the meat & animal products industries?

It's probably going to be a pain in the ass and quite a mission to shift my dietary habits (oh dairy, how I love thee), but it's less of a pain in the ass than some of the things that go on in those slaughterhouses. Still processing where that line is for me. Watch this space for more mental farts on the subject.