Happy Hug A Vegan Day!!

Yay!!  I'm so excited!  It's my first celebration like this since I've been a vegan.  I didn't know that it even existed, but I suppose I should have known.  There really are all kinds of things that go on in the vegan world and it's amazing.  Just need to look out for it all.  Sometimes it seems like there is nothing going on and at other times there are many things going on!  

I know this is posted later in the day (sorry!), but I hope you received a hug and gave some out!  Mine were all cyberhugs :)  What about you?  Happy....

The Importance of Water

I got really thirsty all of a sudden and thought, I'm going to make a blog post about it.  

Water is so critically important for the body.  Most of the body is made up of water which is one reason why we need to make sure we are very hydrated.  There are in fact so many reasons why drinking water is so good that I don't even have to do any research on it.  Everyone knows that it's important.  But how many of you are actually drinking what you're supposed to?  

How much water should we be drinking anyway?  I believe the food pyramid says we should have eight 8 ounce cups per day.  I think that's a severe minimum of what we should be having.  In my opinion, three liters per day should be the minimum.  That's about 12 cups of water.  Almost a gallon!  And that's not counting if you're getting exercise!  If you are exercising you should be getting a lot more water.  Coffee, energy drinks, soda, and any other liquids don't count!!!!  Including tea!  Just because you put water in to make your coffee or tea doesn't count as water being drunk...  

In that pictures posted above is a good start for why everyone should drink enough water.  It also helps with digestion and prevention of constipation.  Gross, right?  But hey, it is what it is.  Don't want that crap (literally) inside you, right?  Personally, I drink at least a liter of water every morning before I eat.  I'm so thirsty anyway from not having anything to drink all night it's so easy to do!

Where should you get your water from?  I suggest filtered tap water.  NOT water bottles from the store!  For more information on that watch the documentary called Tapped.  It's very good.  Plus, if you're not recycling they just end up in landfills and ruin the environment.  And I believe that even though many people are recycling there are too many to recycle anyway and it all just ends up polluting our Earth anyway.  Using a reusable water bottle is very helpful.  I got my husband one that is made out of glass because he hates the plastic ones.  Glass is much more able to be recycled too so if it breaks and we have to throw it away, I'll feel a lot better about recycling it than those other ones....

So with that......

It's so good for you!  It's so incredibly important to have it!!  Think you can't drink that much water?  Give it a try!  See how much water you can consume in a day.  Keep track of how much and how you feel at the end of the day.  Yes, you will pee a lot.  That's because your body is flushing out all the yucky stuff that it doesn't need.  Eventually it gets easier.  Just keep at it.  And eventually it will feel good to drink that much water.  

You'll know you're drinking enough when your pee is clear every time you go.  That doesn't mean you can stop for the day.  It just means that you're doing good!  Freelee from 30bananasaday.com suggests peeing about 10 times per day!  That's a lot, right?  It just seems that way because most people aren't used to that.  

So give it a try!  I dare you!  And with that, have a great Thursday!  

Why I Went Vegan

I couldn't wait another day to post this up since it's on my mind.  And honestly, I don't have to wait if I don't want to, right?  Pft! Heck no!  lol

So my reasons for going vegan....Originally it was because I was severely overweight and wanted to change my diet to lose weight.  In the past (before my switch) I had tried many different diets and I usually did them just because I thought they were crazy and I wanted to see if I would actually lose weight and see if I could even finish the week or whatever it was!  They were usually just so crazy! There are many out there, however, that I wouldn't even give the time of day.  

So there I was on my search for something real.  I looked into the Mediterranean diet, an Asian diet, strictly following the food pyramid...I figured, these were supposed to be real and actually keep people healthy, right?  And I should lose weight too, right?

Not really... I just couldn't follow and I always felt hungry and just some things didn't make sense to me.  Then one day I found the gourmet raw vegan lifestyle.  It's fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds.  All whole foods that are natural with all the nutrients the body needs.  The hardest part was that it would be raw.  I decided it was important to find out, "why raw"?  Which was a great idea.  It wasn't long later that I finally convinced my husband to throw the microwave away!

I lasted about 6 months eating a raw gourmet diet.  In the beginning I ate bread and cheese, thinking I couldn't live without them.  Eventually I weeded them out.  I still drank a ton of alcohol.  Eventually, we went camping and I didn't have enough variety of food.  I think all I had was this "chocolate fudge" stuff I made.  Sure it was delicious, but one can't live on that for long.  Everyone else around me was feasting on all their camping foods.  I was drinking and finally gave in to what they were eating.  I had lost about 40 pounds during those 6 months and I was very excited about it. 

I fell off the wagon and wasn't sure about going back.  There was something about the diet, though, that was just so good and right.  The idea of eating all whole foods, raw, to get the most out of them was just undeniably good.  Of course, the gourmet way wasn't the right way, but it was definitely a good start.  

For a long time I went back and forth with being a meat eater minus the dairy, vegan, raw....It was such a rollercoaster.  Anytime I went anywhere to visit people would ask my husband, "now what is she eating?"  It was embarrassing a lot of times because I just wanted it to work and I never could get it to work.  

Last year I was doing well with being raw until around the holidays, (I think)...  Somehow one bite turned into something else.  I didn't tell anyone and tried to hide it, but many caught on.  In January I FINALLY quit eating meat for good.  I was just so done with it.  I was still eating cheese until probably February.  I was finally done with that one too.  Thank goodness!!!!!!

So since February I have nutritionally been 100% vegan.  That's how it happened.  It started with trying to lose weight and was always the main goal.  Once that wasn't the main goal and the animals and environment were it was a much easier change.  It's gross, to say the least, how things are done in the meat and dairy industry.  It's just so wrong.

That is my why.  Did you catch all that?  What is your why for going vegan, raw vegan, or at least vegetarian?  

Veggie News

Happy Hump Day!!  I love Wednesdays.  I think it's mostly because my husband usually works from home (even though he isn't today), but I also think it's because the first half of the week is done and now I can look forward to getting ready for the weekend.  Post people are working for the weekend.  I suppose a Wednesday might be a bit different for those who don't get the weekends off.  

Back to the point!  So I was having a tough time figuring out what to write about today.  I wanted it to be good, ya know?  I decided to get into bed and rest my foot while I did some research on the internet using my Kindle.  I got curious about how many people are at least vegetarians these days.  

The first link I saw was at Vegetarian Times and their article is called Vegetarianism In America.  It's a pretty cool study that was published by them and was done in 2008.  Now, I know that was five years ago, so the numbers I would imagine are going to be bigger.  Some fun facts that were noted:

• 11.9 million people are "definitely interested" in following a vegetarian based diet sometime in the future.
• 7.3 million people follow a vegetarian based diet.
• 1 million of those 7.3 million are vegans. (Woohoo! Go vegans!)
• 22.8 million people say they largely follow a vegetarian-inclined diet.

A vegetarian-inclined diet to me means they aren't the type of people who just focus on what meat they will have and possibly think of fruits and veggies first.  Maybe.  

Other fun facts was that the percentage of men or women who are vegetarian are about 50/50.  It's pretty darn close!  And 57% of these people have been vegetarian for at least 10 years!  That's a long time!  Next time I'll have to look for a study done on vegans.  

One thing that this article made me think about was how people make the awesome decision to stop eating meat, but not any of the other products.  Sure a lot of death is prevented and that's amazing.  But with continuing with eating dairy products and usually eggs, there is still a lot of death that is happening.  Not to mention the amount of yucky stuff that's in those products.  I suppose I'll have to do a post about that too.  But it also makes me wonder what their real "why" is to go vegetarian in the first place?  Which is what the next blog post will definitely be about!  

Have a great Wednesday!

Reference

Vegetarian Times. (2013).  Vegetarianism In America.  Retrieved on September 25, 2013 from: www.vegetariantimes.com/article/vegetarianism-in-america/

Woohoo! First video!

Hey everyone!  I finally did it!  I got my first video up on YouTube!  It's just an intro, but it's a start, right?  Gotta start somewhere!  Go ahead and check it out!

http://youtu.be/ogAC3QF4tpI  I'm really excited!  Happy Tuesday!

Moving Things Forward

Good morning everyone!  Yesterday I worked hard on all my projects.  I have a lot going on lately!  So I wanted make sure that you're all including on what's been going on.  

Vegan to Raw is now on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube!  I don't have any video's up yet, but I will be doing that today.  I'm so excited to be actually moving forward with everything!  

So make sure you go check out all those places!  It's all the same name - Vegan to Raw!  Ya buddy!  

Let me know what you would like to see more of around here on Vegan to Raw and I'll see what I can do to incorporate it.  

I hope everyone is having a great day!

Update: Sports drinks at my kids' school

I've contacted the principal of the school and she said that the foods in the vending machines are along the policies based on how much sugar is in them.  I asked her who else I could talk to and she said she would send my emails to the superintendent and invited me to go to a safety meeting next month.

I'm really excited about the meeting!  I plan to be there with information to prove that those drinks shouldn't be allowed at the school, even in the vending machines.  There is so much more in the drink to consider besides sugar content!  

I'll keep you updated!

Exercising While Foot is Broken

Happy Monday everyone!  Last week I make a post about how I hurt my foot.  It's not getting much better very fast, so I've been down and out this whole time.  It still hurts so much and is so bruised.  And my "ring toe" keeps going numb.  I've been having a hard time getting it to not do that....

Before I hurt myself I was starting to get back into an exercise routine.  I'll admit, all last week I didn't exercise...  I was emotionally and physically down and out.  I can't be like that forever, though, right?!  Heck no!!  So this morning my husband and kids helped out by putting my weights next to my desk so I can easily get to them and do some upper body work while I'm sitting around.  No reason not too, right?  Heck no!!  

It feels so good to be able to do something.  The crutches are a workout though too.  My arms and right leg are definitely stronger!  But, to keep in the habit of exercising every day I have to do something and that is my plan.  Some exercises I did this morning are some chest flies, shoulder press, bicep curls, and triceps extensions.  

I just hope my foot heals up fast...I'm trying to take it easy so it can heal. 

That's about it for now though.  I hope everyone is having a great Monday!  Gotta start it out right!

I managed to hurt myself...again!

Happy Friday everyone!  I've been down and out for a bit...  A few weeks ago I hurt my back.  I was in bed literally for days, couldn't hardly move...eventually it got better.  I was good for about a week or so, started to feel comfortable with exercising... Even started to forget about my back!  How exciting, right?  Ya...well then last Sunday I was working my butt off outside in the side yard.  Cleaning up, kicking butt, throwing stuff away...It was awesome.

I was only going to do so much, but the side yard was looking so good!  I couldn't stop, I was almost done!  So there were some boards that needed to get cut so we (husband and I) could just toss it in the garbage when the can wasn't so full.  The boards were actually plywood.  They were rotted, moldy...just plain nasty.  They were tough to break on our own so my husband thought we should just cut it with a saw.  Sure thing!  Well, it wasn't working out so well... So he propped it up and said to just kick it.  Sweet!  That was so much fun.  It really, really was.  I got the board 2 times; doing great.  But then the third try came...it was all bad...  

I hurt my ankle.  It hurt so bad.  I was so scared to even try to use my foot right after I kicked that board.  But I knew that I had to try so I did and it was hard.  Had to sit right back down.  In a matter of seconds my ankle was so so SO swollen.  It looked so bad.  I told my husband that I had to get to the doctor.  My breath started to become short and I got super dizzy.  I seriously thought I was going to pass out.  I just made sure to take deep breaths and stay calm.  When I got inside the car my head started to feel better and I was able to catch my breath.

To the emergency room I went.  They took x-rays and gave me some ibuprofen.  Thankfully, it wasn't broken!  I was so happy about that.  However, I still needed to use crutches and stay off my foot for a couple of weeks.  

I haven't been able to do anything!  Aside from video games anyway :)  Yesterday I went to Costco and shopped for about an hour with out the crutches.  My foot was good!  I knew I shouldn't have done that, but at that moment it was necessary.  Today, my ankle hurts a little extra bad.  I know it's from walking around so much yesterday...  I made sure to set myself up so I can work on my computer today :)  

I'm really hoping it heals up fast.  My whole foot and ankle are swollen and very much bruised.  The bruising goes all the way up around my shins area.  Seriously, from my toes to my shins...I'm super bruised up.  It's gnarly!  

I hope everyone is having a great Friday!  "See" you soon!

Banana Muffins and Banana Bread Madness!

Hello hello!  So lately I have been baking like crazy!  Here's how many bananas I was starting with and what they were looking like:

Something had to be done!  There was no way I could make that many smoothies.  I mean, sure I suppose I could have... But realistically, I knew it wasn't going to happen.  And to be honest, I really didn't feel like freezing them.  Sure it would have been quicker and easier, but I just didn't feel like it.  

Here is what they looked like just before going in the oven:

Here is what the muffins looked like after the oven (drum roll please!):

They were so SO delicious!  I sprinkled sugar on top.  There are two missing from that top picture because I couldn't wait.  The kids and I ate one :)  Here is what the bread loaf looks like: 

So so good!!!  Oh and I have a picture of the muffin cut up :D  

Sorry, It's a little blurry...  But you can still see how thick and wonderful it looks.  The banana flavor is amazing.  Just darn right amazing.  The texture is wonderful as well.  Yum.  Just, yum.

So far I have made over 5 loaves of the bread at about 5 or so dozen of the muffins.  Right now, I currently have 2 more loaves in the oven and a batch of muffins just came out to cool down.  Need to start getting ready for the next batch!  I still have a good 3 more batches to do at least. 

I will admit that this has been a lot of fun!  I love baking, but it's like it is always unhealthy and I was usually the only one who would eat it.  This time around it's vegan, making it a healthier option of baked goods, I used up bananas that may have gone to waste, and the kids LOVE them!  

If you're interested in the recipe let me know.  It is super easy!  

Have a great Thursday everyone!

Phosphoric Acid

The other day I found a video that was posted up on Facebook by Natural News.  Apparently they have a t.v. channel!  The video is about how phosphoric acid effects teeth.  Now, phosphoric acid is what is in most sodas.  The video can be found here.

It's amazing how much the teeth get so eroded.  It's gross really.  And it's no wonder that people who drink a lot of soda can tend to have bad teeth.  I always tell my kids that soda is liquid candy.  With a bunch of other stuff in it too.  Yuck!

And keep in mind, this is just the effect of phosphoric acid!  This doesn't include all the other ingredients that are in soda.  When my parents were truck drivers, they had to wear hazmat suits when transporting soda.  That's hazardous materials!  So many people put that stuff in their bodies daily!  It's terrible.

It's amazing what the government will let go through in our foods and yet there are other things that are illegal that would be so helpful.  Hemp is a great example.  But now I'm just changing the subject!

Have a great Wednesday everyone!

GMO's

Hey there!  So I was just looking through Facebook and saw some stuff about GMO's.  I follow a good few groups that are anti-Monsanto and GMO.  It has become one of those things that I can't stand and it makes me angry that it's even allowed.  And it's crazy how it's outlawed in other countries!  So, what the heck is America's problem?  Well, I know one answer to that...money.

I'm not a political person or anything, but I do know that there is a lot of funny business going on and I don't like it.  I'm thinking I need to start asserting myself a bit more and take some action!  Does anyone have any ideas on how to start doing that?

I do know that I will start buying more organic produce.  I know, I should be doing that anyway, but it is more expensive and whatnot.  But really, it's so important to switch.  Not only for my health, but my family's health too.  Plus, the more I don't buy non-organic the more I'll be rebelling, right?  Haha!  Having our own garden makes a difference too.

Do you buy organic?  What do you do to stay away from Monsanto and GMO's?  Can you taste a difference in the foods?  Write your comments down below!

Earthlings

Hello everyone!  I just finished watching the movie Earthlings.  I have heard that it was a great movie and everyone should watch it, but for some reason I never did.  It's probably because I don't like to sit at my computer terribly long and movies are usually just that.  I found the video on YouTube.  

To be honest, I'm surprised I finished it.  At about 30 minutes in I was so ready to turn it off!  Some of the stuff I have already seen as clips in other peoples videos.  Even still, though, it was hard to watch.  Really hard.  My husband kept saying, "Why are you still watching that?  Just turn it off".  I was like, dude, I don't know.  I couldn't even drink my smoothie.  It's 11am and I'm just starting to work on breakfast!  

If you haven't watched it, I highly suggest you do.  It's hard to watch, but it is so informative and shows how things really are.  This is how the animals are raised, treated, and "processed".  It's so horrible and there isn't any reason for any of us to do these things.  It's ridiculous and horrifically sad.  

Has anyone else watched it?  What did you think?  What were your feelings?  If you are watching it for the first time let me know what you think.  

This is the actual video that I watched. 

Warning: This video is graphic.  Kids should not be around for this.  

With that, remember to keep being fruity and raw!  Have a great day everyone!