This song has been stuck in my head for the past couple days. I am so torn on this issue right now. Is it still a wonderful world? Parts of it, yes, and other parts are far from it.
I ended my night last night watching "Food Inc." a documentary about food production in America. I spent a fabulous part of my day today outside, in the sun. It is a beautiful day. Today it is a wonderful world, last night though, not so much.
As I have said before, I am trying to be healthier and have better habits. Watching "Food Inc." makes me want it, and actually do it, that much more. It also makes me look further into important issues. While I might not turn vegetarian, I can watch the quality of my food and know where it comes from as well as decide where and how to spend my money. (I highly recommend watching both "Food Inc." and "The Future of Food" by the way. Both are very informative films about the food we eat everyday, though I feel the latter is a bit more factual while the former plays a bit more on your emotions. Both are still great and should be watched by all.)
Today, even though I started my morning with a coffee brewed with Starbucks beans(free from my brothers so at least I saved money there!) and a bagel with cream cheese, I will eat better the rest of the day. And after reading a very informative book in my Eastern Concepts of Health and Healing class, where we spent the day outside in the Piazza by the fountain and the trees, I will definitely cut back on coffee because of all of the adverse affects I realized it was having on my body. Look up everything you eat and drink and you will find such interesting information, both good and bad! Coffee was only one of many things I looked up.
Anyway, class ended a bit early and I had some time before my next class so I took my professors advice and went and sat with a tree. It was a bigger tree to its energy weighed a bit heavier with me, just as she said it would. It's amazing to me how westernized we are and a few people gave me the "what the hell is she doing" look. I didn't mind, I just leaned into it and smiled. Thinking back, I should have hugged it... I'll save that for next time. But it was interesting to me how just sitting down and letting go allowed me to sense things I normally wouldn't.
I guess I'm just tired of our western and closed-minded ways and I'm sick of having to constantly ingest pills for my allergies and acid reflux. Even with the medication I take for my acid reflux I still get it which makes me have to take more meds. I started taking a prescribed herbal remedy a week ago and haven't even had a hint of acid reflux since! Obviously people survived and adapted since the beginning of time without our western remedies so I think I will continue to venture more into older ways and I encourage others to do the same. Of course there are plenty of illnesses and problems where obviously a westernized fix is the better choice, but in my daily life I would rather try to work with more natural ways of healing my body and living in general.
I encourage others too look more into the things you eat and what goes into your body on a daily, weekly, monthly, whatever basis. Anything else interesting you care to share? Comment below.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Organic for Beginners
I subscribe to emails from MyRecipes.com. Every week I learn new recipes for anything and everything someone could want to make. There are a lot of themes in the emails (like a holiday or casserole recipes) but this time I found a great article about Buying Organic for Beginners that I wanted to share. http://bit.ly/d5PAmt
Having an organic lifestyle is a lot easier than it seems. I have also found it less expensive as well! I tell other college students all the time that shopping at Traders Joe's is far less expensive than at a store like Vons or Ralphs, plus TJ's has mostly organic and far more healthy options than the other two. Sprouts is one of my favorite grocery stores. It is nicer than Trader Joe's but not crazy expensive like Whole Foods. Sprouts also has a whole section of herbal supplements and essential oils, which I will talk more about in the future since I am currently using both to help deal with stress and allergies.
Another great way to buy organic for even less than Trader Joe's? Farmer's Markets!! My favorite way to shop. There are a few great ones here in Orange. The one I go to almost every week is on Lemon across from the Post Office. It's small but it's fantastic and all organic- no pesticides, no GMO's. LOVE IT! It's every Thursday afternoon and I highly recommend it. I have walked away with three huge bags full of food for less than $20. Can you say that for any grocery store? I don't think so.
Check out the article and let me know what you think or if you have any questions. I would love to know where others stand on organic living.
http://bit.ly/d5PAmt
Having an organic lifestyle is a lot easier than it seems. I have also found it less expensive as well! I tell other college students all the time that shopping at Traders Joe's is far less expensive than at a store like Vons or Ralphs, plus TJ's has mostly organic and far more healthy options than the other two. Sprouts is one of my favorite grocery stores. It is nicer than Trader Joe's but not crazy expensive like Whole Foods. Sprouts also has a whole section of herbal supplements and essential oils, which I will talk more about in the future since I am currently using both to help deal with stress and allergies.
Another great way to buy organic for even less than Trader Joe's? Farmer's Markets!! My favorite way to shop. There are a few great ones here in Orange. The one I go to almost every week is on Lemon across from the Post Office. It's small but it's fantastic and all organic- no pesticides, no GMO's. LOVE IT! It's every Thursday afternoon and I highly recommend it. I have walked away with three huge bags full of food for less than $20. Can you say that for any grocery store? I don't think so.
Check out the article and let me know what you think or if you have any questions. I would love to know where others stand on organic living.
http://bit.ly/d5PAmt
Why don't we?
I like to learn from others. I take in the good and the bad. I want to know why others do things, how they think, what they want, what they do and don't know, what they should know... I also want to know this about myself.
This all led to me becoming a Public Relations & Advertising major with a Psychology minor at Chapman University in Southern California. I find they compliment each other well and I like my surroundings that I now call home. My other home is in San Francisco and Marin County (Northern California) where I grew up with a large family and constantly wondered, "Why?" in so many situations I found myself or my siblings in.
Being the middle child I was able to learn a lot of life lessons from my older siblings and hoped my younger brothers, twins, would follow in learning from the rest of our mistakes. Being twin boys, though, they felt the need to make all of their own mistakes as a lot of people do, but I wasn't one of them.
I have believed since I was ten years old and my older brother came home drunk for the first time (well not so much came home as got dropped off on the door step in a very interesting game of ding-dong-ditch by his "friends") that I did not need to live through all of the major dangerous and sometimes frightening life events many teenagers feel so strongly that they should; I was perfectly content learning from others. For example, I have never had a drink in my life thanks to my older brother scaring the hell out of me when I was ten and he almost went to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.
I do, however, find the fact that so many feel the need to have their own horrible experiences very interesting. They feel it shapes them and teaches them never to do it again. I turned out just fine watching others fall on their ass and learned enough not to do it myself, though this does not necessarily apply to all circumstances. I am now an adult, and as much as it sucks, I still have to deal with missing a bill and getting my cell phone shut off. And if it helps someone else to drink themselves nearly to death so that they never do it again then that's what they needed to do. There are some better ways to be informed though so I hope this didn't come off as snobbish, I merely want to share learning experiences and life tips here.
Still, for the most part, I am unsure why others don't participate in safer and healthier life practices and try to become more informed on a daily basis... come on, even a weekly basis! I can only hope that by sharing my experiences and what I have learned from others that I might be able to help some people out there looking for answers, advice, even a good place to start.
As hard as it is to be a college student on a budget, especially at a very expensive private school where I am paying for my own education, I would like to help others stay informed and make some better choices than I did in my college career. Now in my fourth year I feel that I am qualified to do so. It is much easier that you would think to eat healthier, be green, and have more of a say in your life and this world. I hope that I can get more people to really use their voice. I also have some fun hobbies, like knitting and other crafting stuff, that I would like to share. Being a Southern California resident there will be some great going-ons that I would love to inform others about. Also, being a PR/Ad student there are some wonderful resources I have to share. I also will put some of this stuff on my twitter if you would like to follow me (twitter.com/jessiemcdaniel)
Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts, I have some cool events and such to put up tomorrow. :)
This all led to me becoming a Public Relations & Advertising major with a Psychology minor at Chapman University in Southern California. I find they compliment each other well and I like my surroundings that I now call home. My other home is in San Francisco and Marin County (Northern California) where I grew up with a large family and constantly wondered, "Why?" in so many situations I found myself or my siblings in.
Being the middle child I was able to learn a lot of life lessons from my older siblings and hoped my younger brothers, twins, would follow in learning from the rest of our mistakes. Being twin boys, though, they felt the need to make all of their own mistakes as a lot of people do, but I wasn't one of them.
I have believed since I was ten years old and my older brother came home drunk for the first time (well not so much came home as got dropped off on the door step in a very interesting game of ding-dong-ditch by his "friends") that I did not need to live through all of the major dangerous and sometimes frightening life events many teenagers feel so strongly that they should; I was perfectly content learning from others. For example, I have never had a drink in my life thanks to my older brother scaring the hell out of me when I was ten and he almost went to the hospital with alcohol poisoning.
I do, however, find the fact that so many feel the need to have their own horrible experiences very interesting. They feel it shapes them and teaches them never to do it again. I turned out just fine watching others fall on their ass and learned enough not to do it myself, though this does not necessarily apply to all circumstances. I am now an adult, and as much as it sucks, I still have to deal with missing a bill and getting my cell phone shut off. And if it helps someone else to drink themselves nearly to death so that they never do it again then that's what they needed to do. There are some better ways to be informed though so I hope this didn't come off as snobbish, I merely want to share learning experiences and life tips here.
Still, for the most part, I am unsure why others don't participate in safer and healthier life practices and try to become more informed on a daily basis... come on, even a weekly basis! I can only hope that by sharing my experiences and what I have learned from others that I might be able to help some people out there looking for answers, advice, even a good place to start.
As hard as it is to be a college student on a budget, especially at a very expensive private school where I am paying for my own education, I would like to help others stay informed and make some better choices than I did in my college career. Now in my fourth year I feel that I am qualified to do so. It is much easier that you would think to eat healthier, be green, and have more of a say in your life and this world. I hope that I can get more people to really use their voice. I also have some fun hobbies, like knitting and other crafting stuff, that I would like to share. Being a Southern California resident there will be some great going-ons that I would love to inform others about. Also, being a PR/Ad student there are some wonderful resources I have to share. I also will put some of this stuff on my twitter if you would like to follow me (twitter.com/jessiemcdaniel)
Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts, I have some cool events and such to put up tomorrow. :)
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