Lost love

     Confined to my own thoughts and suppressed with a heart of regrets, my mind drifted off to what was and what could have been and the agony and tantalizing wonder of a long lost love.  A year of separation, my still shattered heart contemplated past events.  Water filled my eyes with confusion for the future and a longing for the past. With utter loss comes great euphorias that remind us of what once was. A past that seems so long forgotten, yet the quick whiff of his cologne or a memory of his ever endearing smile could swiftly remind you that you may never come upon such a smile again.

You would assume that not hearing his voice or being in his presence would partially erase the now traumatically happy glimpses of your history together.  But to your demise the past is ever present and you lie awake questioning if it was all a dream.  Only pictures and videos from previous engagements make way for the light to click on and you realize it not a dream but an extremely real memory. After time has divided your once inseparable hearts and you come to terms with what all came to past, you begin to question everything. You question your love for that person, you seek to find that love that is lost in others, but not avail.  Unless you yourself are deeply embedded in the relationship yourself you would never be able, as an outsider, to understand the inner turmoil one feels when they have lost what they once thought was their soul mate.  At the same time you yourself and others judge your actions in a confused daze that does not give reasons for your wrong doings, but hopeless and unanswered questions into your ever damaging actions. 

Deep inside you may also question if you ever loved that person but then you realize that was the only person you love more than anyone in the world.  Things may have transpired faster than you anticipated, but you know that he was the only person you would ever care to be with eternally until death do you part.  In the meantime while your in such a confined state, you open up to the wrong people that you believe can fill the void.  Everyone knows exactly where the void comes from and yet we fool ourselves into thinking if can be satisfied by someone else.

So, what do you do when your once perfect world collapses from within itself and the hope for any type of future filled with love vanishes?  You simply pray.  I once heard that there can be no real despair without a glimmer of hope. So dealing with your self-inflicted despair, you rely on hope and a prayer to keep you from collapsing.  Hope and prayer make way for you to live out another day without what you know in your heart was a God-given love. So to this day that is the only ground that heartbroken lovers can stand on for without these grounds, we would become lobotomized victims of our own inflictions.  So we wait for the day when our hearts can either be free of the pain and the past or when we are hopelessly wedged into finding a love similar yet not equal to what we haphazardly let slip away.

Juicing and Spirituality

So, since I have been home, I have had the privilege of using my parents Champion juicer that is a marvelous and an equally simple machine to use on a daily basis. I have realized that juicing on a daily basis is a an easy thing to master. My trick for juicing is to keep the juicer on the counter all day everyday. Without that constant reminder to juice, it is easy to not do it on the regular. Keeping it on the counter allows me to continue my year without to clean within a lot easier. The same thing goes with my blender for smoothies and having constant reminders to continue what you are doing.

My favorite juice to start off a good morning is 4-5 carrots with two apples. I think it is important to not have too much fiber in the morning as your body is still trying to recuperate from the day before and starting your day off heavy starts it off with low energy.  Everyone knows that our food is supposed to energize your body for the day ahead.

Since coming back from France, juicing has been a crucial and fairly easy part of my life.  Like I have stated before, peeling everything and getting your fruits and veggies ready allows the juicing process to be a lot easier.  When juicing on the regular, getting the 25 pound of carrots is a must. If you are juicing by your self, that bag may last for 2 1/2 weeks, but as I have 3 older sisters and rocking parents who support my endeavors, they were all eager to try the plethora of juices I was making each day and so a 25 lb bag lasted one week.  With that 25 lb bag as well, it leaves a lot of carrot skin for your compost.

Along with juicing, smoothies, and salads, this healthy lifestyle that consists of no meat, no dairy, and 85% raw food has been pretty normal. I love trying out new smoothies and juices and I found out that a great one for my skin is carrots, beets, oranges, and swiss chard.  This one really gives me energy and I can go many hours without a lot of food. If you think about all the ingredients of this juice, that is a lot of food that you would probably not eat in a salad, but when you juice you can have a lot more than you might have had if you were chewing it.

I have seen a noticeable improvement in my skin, my nails and hair and I am looking forward to more improvements.

Spiritually, I think that I need to work on this aspect with my year of cleansing because I have not really honed in on becoming the person that I want to be for a future husband, my future self, and my future career. I pray constantly that I do what God wants me to do and fulfill my dreams and I know that will not come to pass unless I find out who I am as a person and become the best version of me that I can be. I still do yoga almost every other day and I want to have a purpose driven life. With that being said, I think I need to re-evaluate some of my past choices, old friends, and the places that I need to be going. My pastor Ron Carpenter said that “you will never find the right people in the wrong places” and that hit home for me.  I do not want the next 10 years to pass me by and I have nothing to show for it. I may slip and slide and fall back into my old ways, but I want to be moving more forward than backward in order to have the best life that I can make for myself.

 

Some good juices to get you started:

    

Entering the Inner workings of the Iranian World through the eyes of an inquisitive American

“Are you from ‘eye-rahn’ ?” I asked excitedly to my new friends. This was the first ignorant mistake that my American brain made when I was introduced to my first Iranian friend and her boyfriend here in France. Quite mistakenly, I pronounced Iran as ‘eye-rahn’ when it is precisely pronounced ‘ear-rahn’.  Picking her brain, I found her and her boyfriend to be beautiful, intelligent, and  quite open minded individuals who would later enlighten me into all the positive and negative inner workings of their country. 

I, like most Americans, had nothing but negative thoughts when it came to thinking about Iran.  Even more so, I just imagined Iran as an extremely hot desert swarmed with army tanks crawling with American and Iranian militia. When she politely enlightened me of the actual reality, I was pleasantly surprised. She told me that not only does Iran have beautiful deserts, but this country of 74 Million inhabitants has rain forests in the north of Iran, large mountains in the West, and clear water beaches in the North and the South. She talked of the countless beaches that are in her country that are untouched and quite pristine. An hour from the capital of Tehran, and holding the 3rd longest gulf in the world lies just one of the many beautiful beaches (pictured below) located in Kish, Iran.  

Despite my new found reality of this beautiful country I knew nothing about, the political problems of the land seem to out weigh the natural advantages they could use to enhance their countries appeal. Their political regime has caused many internal issues for the people of Iran. Just 40 years ago, Iran enjoyed the comfort and normality of human life. Women could dress how they wanted and there was a general respect for the opposite sex and the government.  As we all know, much has changed in 40 years under the direction of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Due to intimidating “leaders” who are hungry for power and wealth, the country is now ruled by Islamic extremists completely disregarding the wishes of the people.   Khomeini 

The disregard of the people is apparent as we saw with presidential hopeful Mir-Hussein Mousavi. Mousavi wanted to run for election in 2008 and all the people loved him and wanted him to be the new elected president.  Despite the wishes of the people, Ahmadi Nejad, the current president became their new leader. Riots and strikes were the norm for a few days after the election because even though the people had voted, their voice was not heard because Ahmadi Nejad was elected when they cleared wanted Mousavi.  In spite of the riots and after the elections, Mousavi was swiftly ordered to house arrest and protesters were shamelessly murdered for protesting. From the thoughts of my Iranian friend, Nejad was elected because he would do all the evil summings of Ali Khamenei, who is this Jesus figure in Iran. Ahmadi Nejad is president, but all Iranians know that this is just a show for other countries and in actuality Ali Khamenei is the supreme extremist leader and moreover an abusive dictator forcing the Islamic religion and harsh conditions on the Iranian people. My friend tells me that religious leaders and government officials go hand in hand. No power is strictly the governments, but in fact the religious leaders like Khamenei control all of Iran and his word is more powerful than the presidents. Khamenei is an extremist religious leader that preaches of Islam, yet he does not follow the rules of Islam himself. He just likes having the power to shove it down the throats of his people and only uses the parts of Islam that work for his controlling regime.

Mousavi

 

Take for example Neda Agha-Soltan, the girl who was brutally murdered by a Basij militia member during the 2009 elections for protesting her vote. All she wanted to know like the rest of the Iranian citizens was where had their vote gone? They know they did not vote for Nejad, yet he one. Much controversy surrounded the widely televised video of her death, but what is more disturbing is the fact that no justice was served because of the controversy around the whole situation. Her parents still believe the government murdered their baby calling it political assassination.  She is just one of the thousands of incidents that have taken place because of the opposition citizens have against the government.

The atrocity that constantly returns to my mind is the innocent citizens of Iran being jailed and relentlessly murdered just for rightfully being frustrated because  their voice was not heard. Many innocent Iranians are still in jail because of the 2009 protests. Can you even imagine being in prison for 4 years of Nejad’s term, just because you questioned you your vote was not considered? No one thinks about these innocents people thrown in jail as criminals. The freely given human rights that westerners take for granted are simply not provided to these people who want a normal life with their family like everyone else. It is sickening to me and I wish I could think of an idea to do something, but for now I will just create awareness. It is their right as citizens of that country to live as they were promised; in a democracy run by who the people deem fit. It is not that way and the people whose vote was not counted suffer from this injustice.

Side note: This is just one of the many interesting thoughts I have had lately because living in another country gives you a window into many of its neighboring countries problems.  One rainy Friday afternoon, my Iranian friend talked about all the qualms she had with her beloved country of Iran.  Not only do many countries refuse to accept her homes currency or passport, they have boycotted her country making it quite difficult to get money transferred as she takes classes here in France. Transferring money to her is nearly impossible. Her father pays much extra for the transfer solely because it is an Iranian transfer, and that is not even considering that the exchange rate for 1 euro is 4,800 rials. That is a hefty sum of money due to sanctions many countries have against Iran. I wish I knew or had the power to help a friend and her beloved country.

In the mean time, I would love to travel to Iran with my new friends and explore the many beauties of this foreign land. It is really cheap and that the dollar would go along way in Iran because of their horrendous exchange rate they have because of sanctions. 

Side Side Note: I think I wrote all this to explain that I think we should be more aware and conscious of the whole story and not just the side given to us by the media. We should research for ourselves and look into things before we go judging someone’s homeland.  I never want to assume things unless I have done the research to prove my accusations. Let’s do better to create a better world.

Side Side Side Note:  June 14, 2013 is the date set for the next elections in Iran. We shall see if any relevant changes will take place.

My Monotonous Meltdown/Week 3 of Veganism

It is officially week 3 of my journey and its always been told to me it takes 3 weeks to break a habit, so yeah me for going this long. With that being said, all the crappy symptoms of detoxing have now gone, but I am finding my food selection to be a bit monotonous.  After repeatedly eating cereal, salad, a sandwich, and those three things in different orders, you ask yourself what you can change to keep your taste buds interested. I think it will be better when I am back in the US and I can juice for some my meals. Until then it is back to the grocery store to find some healthy alternatives.

At Carrefour, the local grocery store here, I remembered my vegetarian days eating falafel, and it hit me. I could make vegan kebabs. Purchasing falafel, wheat pita bread, and all my usual veggies, I grinned to myself knowing I was finding ways to stick this regime out for the full year. I also picked up some olive and tomato spreads for bread and crackers to top with avocados and artichokes for a delicious snack.

Unfortunate Disclaimer:  Being in France, I can read most of the labels on my food and the olive spread I purchased seemed like the perfect addition to my new food choices.  After eating a few scrumptious olive spread and avocado coated crackers, I had one super fishy bite and I freaked out.  Unbeknownst to me, after looking up all the french ingredients pasted to the little glass bottle, I realized anchovies were in my new olive spread. Frustrated, I closed the bottle to contemplate handling this situation.  Anchovies are in no way vegan, but this bottle was 4 euros and my college student budget does not allow for throwing food out. With that being said, I decided to finish the bottle and take this as a lesson learned to thoroughly read my labels.

Everyone makes mistakes and this was one of my new to veganism mistakes, but I can still move forward. Despite my setback, dinner that night was a major success as I made falafel kebabs with avocados, lettuce, tomatoes, and my homemade dressing. It was absolutely satisfying and what my taste-buds wanted. Next night I fixed a rice salad with lots of veggies, cooked rice, wheat crackers, and my sauce.  Topping dinner off with a juicy kiwi, it made for one good night of sleep.

On another side note:  That night of delicious food, I dreamt of myself nonchalantly chowing down on a greasy pizza and drinking coffee and I was never a coffee drinker in my life. Also in my dream, I felt really bad for eating it and thinking how this would affect my new vegan lifestyle but just like my olive spread mistake, but in the words of Maya Angelou, like dust, I rise! 

Side Side note: One of the most sensual yoga videos I have ever seen and continue to watch for motivation has to be posted here for all you lovelies to witness.  Namaste ❤

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loszrEZvS_k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjEdSyDAh0A

First Week of Veganism

“Only when the last tree has been cut down; only when the last river has been poisoned; only when the last fish has been caught; only then will you find that Money cannot be eaten.” ~ Cree Indian Prophecy

My third day into my new lifestyle, I thought I was dying. I have always been a healthy girl rarely getting sick, so when I awoke in the middle of the night not being able to breathe through my nose, I thought it was quite strange but I did not put much thought into it and tried to go back to sleep.  When I woke up the next morning I had severe nausea, my nose was completely stopped up and my throat hated me every time I had to swallow.

After skipping class to try an sleep off the cold, my nose was so clogged and when I had my mouth open, the air hit the back of my throat with a stinging vengeance making a nap quite an impossible task.  Being forced to stay awake,  I thought it would be a good idea to do some research as to why I was feeling how I was and to find information on my new vegan lifestyle.  To my amazement, there was an abundance of information to guide me step by step into this new regime.  Articles, videos, blogs, and websites explained to me why I was feeling how I was and that it was simply my body detoxing from all the junk I had fed it previously. http://www.rebelleepoque.com/2012/01/21/vegan-detox/ My internet research also showed me what NOT to do while being a vegan, how to spice up meals, and what would be my main food staples from here on out.

http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html#conversation

http://thecoolvegetarian.com/blog/

Some of the research I found allowed me to find a Katie Couric interview with Ellen DeGeneres discussing why she would always be vegan and what propelled her to stick with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSA2j4oiDA She recalled watching a movie called Earthlings and when asked if she had seen FoodInc as well, Ellen swiftly responded that FoodInc was a Disney movie compared to what you saw in Earthlings. http://earthlings.com/  I immediately jotted down the name in hopes of watching it in the future. Fortunately a quick google search showed me that I could watch the entire hour and a half movie on Youtube and that is exactly what I did.  I highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to become more aware of how we are depleting the world of its natural resources and the inner workings of our slaughterhouses.  Many people fear losing their appetite or having disturbing mental images if they watch a film like this, but in actuality, movies like these should be played in schools for our children and educators to understand the damages our western diet has on our entire world and our bodies. Consciously disregarding the maltreatment of animals and the physical damage our planet has undergone on behalf of our western diet is simply horrifying and the movie Earthling does a good job at tackling what is going on and how we can change the system.

Starting off, I  purchased many fruits and veggies, carrot juice, some cereals, pastas, falafel, pita bread, crackers, and non dairy milk. Many people assume that i will be starving and forced to eat only fruits and veggies, but that is in no way the case.  I think it is quite important to have those staple foods in your regime that you can count on, but that is not all I can eat. After returning home with all my groceries, I remember seeing fruit and vegetables at my parents house and thinking how annoying it would be to peel, slice, cook, and prepare all that food, so I rarely ate it even when I wanted it. Now living on my own, I had the brilliant idea of peeling, slicing, and preparing all my food before for immediate snacking in order to cut down on preparation time in the future. It takes a bit longer after the grocery store, but for the week you will be using that food, it is well worth it and this deemed to be quite successful for me.  No more feeling sad that nothing was prepared, whenever I was hungry I could easily grab whatever I wanted and it was ready to go straight in my mouth.

 

Being in France,  they do not have all the comfortable commodities that us Americans are priveed to, like the joys of a plethora of dressings and various other things.  So I decided the cheaper and more effective plan was to make my own dressing which I did fairly easily.  As a study abroad student, I did not buy measuring cups and all that, so I just combined some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little big of mustard, some lemon juice and voila you have got yourself a yummy homemade dressing for pennies less than a manufactured dressing. I do not think I will ever buy salad dressing again especially knowing what kinds of unnecessary stuff they put in those bottled dressing.

These simple prep steps made my first week of veganism quite simple and smooth. Despite my night of terror, living a vegan lifestyle has been quite refreshing. While on this regime, I have realized that a Western Diet has conditioned us to believe we must consume food 3 times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I have found while eating vegan, I do not get hungry as often and I can be satisfied with only 2 meals a day. I eat when my body wants nourishment and energy, not when our man made watch tells us it is 12 pm and it is obligatory to have a massive lunch that does not even give you energy but makes you even more groggier than before. I believe if you are putting in the right type of food, your body can go longer with less because it has the energy from the healthy food you gave it.

All in all, week 1 of Veganism was a success and I look forward to seeing even more changes in the weeks to come.

1st Day of Veganism/Birthday of Good Deeds

I cannot even lie when I say I cried a little bit inside thinking about me, Michelle, the girl who will try anything and everything once, actually becoming vegan and living this lifestyle for a year, if not longer. As I had a breakfast of carrot juice and an orange, I realized I had a lot more research to do because, lets be real, this chick likes to eat and that was NOT going to cut it.  Lunch time, I went to a fabulous restaurant called So Green here in Nice and had a huge salad with cucumbers, avocados, artichokes, tomatoes, peppers, with a splash of balsamic vinaigrette dressing!  I had almost devoured the whole thing before I managed to take a quick picture of my first vegan meal.

While checking out, they placed a lovely baguette on my tray which made me automatically questioning if i could attack this warm, read to eat french bread or not. Quickly pulling up google on my phone, I found out that there is bread vegans can eat, but bread containing eggs was a no no, so I donated my bread to someone else and just ate my salad. After my lunch incident, I thought it would behove of me to do some research and to my amazement, my girl Oprah came through with a great grocery list for vegans http://static.oprah.com/images/packages/vegan-starter-kit/vegan-shopping-list.pdf and so did other online sites. Once I saw the abounding list of yummy food that I could eat, all my fears were allayed knowing that I would not starve for a year, but that I could actually eat some good food while on this journey to clean within.   I am sure once I go grocery shopping tomorrow, my meals will become more fulfilling and diverse. Dinner was delightful and quite filling couscous with avocado and tea.

I can also say that my day filled with good deeds was a great success. Although, I went on my excursion alone on my birthday, starting this journey by myself was the ideal way as I must become contempt with my own thoughts and feeling totally alive and happy without a single person by myself.  As I started this excursion, I knew I had a list, but I wanted to see what things would just open up for me to do for others. The first thing I saw walking from my residence overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean was that the trash bag by our school gym had fell open.  This a great opportunity for me to start my 21 deeds off by picking up a bag of trash. The before and after pictures say it all and I am assuming some french animal thought that this plastic or whatever was wrapped in it would become a good midnight snack.

 

After this quick check off my list of deeds, I commenced to the school bathroom where I proceeded to write “Vous êtes belle!” on the mirror. I think everyone should be reminded that they look beautiful no matter who they are.  Along these lines, I had also cut out paper hearts and wrote “Vous êtes belle! Bonne Journée.” Leaving the bathroom, I headed to the campus library and dedicated two french books to receive the uplifting notes and leaving the library I also adorned 7 hand-picked cars with the words of encouragement. This would now count as  11 deeds down, 11 to go.  I commissioned my mom to donate and send my prom dress to the Princess Project http://princessproject.org/.  Disclaimer: If I can find a picture of my prom dress (which I found), I can show and explain how  it was specifically made for my body and how much I loved everything about it, but this life is not about material things, so I thought it was a good idea to let it go.

Never got around to paying someones bus fare as it was too beautiful of a day to take public transportation, and instead I walked around enjoying the city that I would leave. While I was enjoying the beatiful Nice, France, I found an old man who was really struggling but still pushing through his jog and proceeded to give him a high-five. He completely stopped jogging, said “Bonjour!” with the biggest confused smile I have ever seen and contined jogging. :p  Heading further down the promenade,  I found a telephone booth and left some change there for the next time someone needed to make any type of phone call.

After walking for a bit, I saw the homeless man that seems perfectly capable but sits under a bridge begging every single day. Anywho, in my half-fluent French, I asked him if he wanted something to eat.  I expected a huge and gracious ‘yes I would love something to eat’.  That is not quite what happened because he seemed as thought this was a common question and proceeded to pull out remnants of all the wrappers of food that he wanted me to buy for him.  I chuckled a bit inside, but I was not about to buy an entire grocery list of food for this homeless man, because I AM a college student.  Nevertheless, he asked for some bread and I thought I could manage granting that wish for him.  While in the grocery store I found out they were promoting a seeming worthy cause (http://ela-asso.com/)by selling flowers for a euro and so I bought three beautifully colored flowers. After checking out, I handing the warm french baguette to the homeless man and he seemed grateful enough. 🙂

Once that deed was done, I had another interesting experience walking on the promenade by the beach.  I saw a woman who seemed deserving enough to receive one of my flowers. In french, I asked her if she would like a flower and she kind of passed not realizing I was talking to her. When I asked her again, she turned around with a shy smile saying in french, “For me? Is it free?” and I said “Yes ma’am, of course, have a great day.” With teary eyes she proceeded to cross the street. I tear up super easily when someone else is about to cry, so choked up and fighting a tear, I journeyed on towards the hospital to the pediatric ward.

Two flowers in hand, I met three young nurses who looked at me cautiously.  I advanced to the counter and presented the flowers saying I wanted them to give a child suffering today a flower. Quite defensively, one of the nurses asked why I was doing this? I was not expecting that question so in my broken french I contested that it was my 21st birthday and I wanted to do something nice for someone else.  The other nurses lighted up and wished me a very happy birthday and a good day and merrily expressed how nice I was.  Hope some little one suffering feels a little better with a bright colored flower by their side.

Leaving a euro in the drink machine at my dorm, ridding myself of my bad habit of chewing pen caps, holding the door open for people when i left a store, sending a friendly smile and good vibes to bystanders, writing a letter to congress asking to reverse the Monsanto Protection Act, and forgiving myself of ALL, yes ALL my past mistakes, made for a complete and productive birthday doing 21 good deeds. I normally try and do good for others so I am sure this will continue but I wanted to actively bless some people and the world on my birthday and I think I succeeded in doing just that and to top it off, it was a glorious day in Nice!

21 Good deeds for my 21st Birthday

  I turned 21 and in doing so, I knew quickly that getting wasted and not even remembering such a paramount birthday was not the way I wanted to go.  So I began considering all the ways that I could turn 21 in a way that was different than most Americans or youth my age.  With much thought, I came up with doing 21 deeds for my 21st birthday. After skyping my mother and enlightening her on what I wanted to do, she was thrilled and agreed to do 21 deeds as well in honor of my birthday.  So I have come up with 21 deeds to do to others on April 13, 2013, my 21st Birthday.  Pictures are sure to come as I tackle 21 ways to brighten someones day.  As a college student, money is a large factor, so my task was to find 21 deeds that I could do without breaking the bank.  With careful consideration I decided to attempt these 21 deeds.

1. Go to the mirror of the school bathroom and write “Vous étes belle aujourd’hui!” (Disclaimer: To those who do not know me: I am in Nice, France right now on my study abroad so I think I should put this one in French it means ‘You look beautiful today!’)

2. Leave a word of encouragement in French in a library book.

3. Buy flowers and give them to kids at L’hopital Lernval who need some extra support for the day.

4. Give the homeless man I see all the time some food.

5. Consciously make an effort to stop my own bad habit during my year lifestyle change: Chewing pen caps (I know, I know, it is gross but I do it all the time in class, at home, on Skype, etc.)

6. High five joggers as they run on the promenade ( I have done this one before as I was running and I have seen nothing but smiles for the extra ‘get me up’)

7.Leave extra change in the drink machine at school

8. Leave pennies facing up at a playground for kids to find

9. Give a euro to a kid on the bus who is being well behaved

10. Make peace with my past mistakes (All of them!)

11. I thought of buying cookies for the fireman at the firestation here in Nice but as I am promoting a healthier world, I will bring them strawberries 😀

12. Pay someones bus fare (1 euro)

13. Buy fruit pops if the weather permits and pass them out the nearby playground.

14. Carry grocery bags for elderly to their car

15. Have my mom donate my (oh so beautiful) prom dress to the Princess Project back home

16. Hold the door open for 5 people

17. Write a letter to congress about how upset I am that the Monsanto Protection Act was signed by Obama

18. Pick up a bag full of trash around my residence

19. Give my favorite custodian flowers for her daily clean up

20. Slip pieces of paper on cars saying a special quote

21. Make a new friend in my hall and invite them to have dinner with me

Pictures will ensue once all my deeds have been fulfilled…I am pretty excited to make this happen and maybe I will be able to do more by being observant and thinking about other people instead of myself. 

A Year Without to Clean Within

Let me first introduce myself as a curious soul with many eclectic thoughts.  As I endeavor to change myself in this year, I realize one year is not quite sufficient when I have lived 20. This blog is to follow my year journey to clean myself from within.  I want to rid myself of the toxins that I have taken in physically, mentally, and spiritually. This journey is one that will hopefully allow me to connect with myself on a deeper level and will give me the insight I need to change my world, ultimately changing the world around me.  I know that it is within my reach to acknowledge who I am on a personal, spiritual, and even molecular level in order to clean within.  Starting on April 13, 2013 until April 13, 2014, I will change my diet from that of a carnivorous mammal to that of a conscious human who respects all living things and takes into consideration how it affects our planet. With that being said, a raw vegan diet is all that will enter my body for one full year until I am 22.  I am not sure what to expect with this personal exploration, but I am excited to give it a try.

Let me get some things out in the open before I start this expedition.

1. I love chocolate, icecream, pizza, cheese, BREAD, and the things that will make most girls happy. I especially crave these foods when it is that time of the month.  With that being said, this jaunt will push my will power and self control as I say no to the things I love in order to test the boundaries of my mind, body, and soul. What is a year anyways?!

2. I love yoga and all that comes with pushing my body’s limits physically.  From an early age I was placed into gymnastics, and from then on,  I have loved all sorts of sports.  At this period of my life, yoga is fulfilling my love of staying healthy and active.  I am sure that I will have a few posts about what I do when I practice yoga and how you can start as well. I am also considering becoming a certified yoga instructor. I believe that my year without to clean within would not be the same if I was not doing something physical along with cleaning from the inside out.

3.  I am not a hair specialists but two summers ago I decided to do the BC (big chop) after reading many articles about the harsh chemicals that are put into relaxers and texturizers.  As I clean within, I believe my hair will appreciate the cleanse and will grow at unthinkable rates.  I love doing research and finding natural remedies that keep my hair healthy as I take the ‘au natural’ road. Throughout my year, I think it will be beneficial to me and all those who read it, to find ways to make their hair as beautiful as it can be.

4.  I have never had terrible acne or serious skin problems, but then again I have never really LOVED the way my skin has looked. Like most women my age, I will have good days and bad days. During this year journey, I want to encapsulate how my skin looked before to see what it may look like after I choose a raw food and vegan lifestyle. I have heard of the “vegan glow” and I would be elated to walk around glowing all the time! :p  It will also be beneficial for others who are reading and myself, to post what products I use and which crazy cool concoctions I create to make my skin feel silky smooth. Everyone wants beautiful skin and I think it starts within.  

5. Recently, I have felt the need to use my Facebook as a venting mechanism to share my utter disgust with the food industry and all that it encompasses. I am sure my friends and family agree with most of the things I post, but I think blogging is a more civilized way of  publicly expressing my ideas.  In this way, I can put out as much information as I want, in order for those who really care to comment, criticize, or encourage my endeavors.  I will leave Facebook to the practice of legal stalking and use this blog as my outlet to share all that I can while I rid myself of traditional values and ideals that I do not agree with.

I think that that is enough for my first ever blog post, but I wanted to give whoever is reading insight on what they may find on this blog in the future . In actuality, whether anyone reads this or not could not particularly phase me, this is a journey for me and if others can learn or take something away in the process then so be it.