So lately I have been feeling overwhelmed by how much there is to do for animals and I think that makes it hard to choose exactly what I should be doing for animals. So today's post is just to speak to those of you who are feeling the same way and say let's work together and instead of doing nothing, let's do something!
Like what? Well, you could...

• put a bumper sticker on your car
• wear a t-shirt with a message
• write something on your back windshield
• speak up for animals to someone at the grocery store or someone you are eating with
• visit or volunteer at an animal sanctuary
• read a book about veganism or activism or start a book group to discuss it with others
• post on your Facebook page or blog about animals
• start an animal activist group in your area or attend an existing group
• volunteer with an animal activist group
• share facts with friends, family or colleagues
• write an editorial to your local newspaper or another organization
• share an artistic expression like art, writing, music

Let's make it our goal this week to do something. How about everyone choose something to do and then post a comment to this blog post. And if you have other ideas of what we could do, post those too!
I am really excited to see what we can all accomplish this week!
Be an Animal Warrior... a Voice for the Voiceless!

Cute pig, right? Until you realize he is part of an event in our area called the Pork, Peanut & Pine Festival. http://www.porkpeanutpinefestival.org/
This event has a mother pig and her piglets that you can visit and pet and then at the same event you can dine on pork products. Isn't that just sick? So I have decided when something frustrates me I am going to deal with it rather than let it bother me. So I wrote a letter to our local newspaper:
"I am incredibly saddened and disgusted by a society that can encourage children to pet a mother pig and her piglets at the Pork, Peanut and Pine Festival and then allow them to eat pigs at the exact same event, which is dedicated to killing pigs and eating their bodies. How can you tell kids how cute the little piggy is and rub its belly and then eat hot dogs, bbq sandwiches and bacon? How are you teaching compassion for all when you can have a festival celebrating the death and consumption of a pig that feels pain and doesn’t want to die just as much as your beloved pets. Make the connection that you are eating an animal that is intelligent and wants to live. Pigs are no different from your dogs or cats. Why pet a pig and love it one second and then subject it to inhumane living conditions and slaughter the next? Please learn the facts and teach compassion to your children. Otherwise you are teaching them that some lives are less important than theirs and don’t all lives matter?"

Then I pick up a copy of our local Health Journal and this is the photo I find inside along with an entire article about roasted pig. Seriously? In a "Health" Journal? So I wrote them a letter too!
http://www.thehealthjournals.com/puerto-ricos-lechoneras/
"I was horrified to see the article by Kimberly Cuachon Haugh titled "Puerto Rico's Lechoneras". A photo and description of a roasted pig? What does this have to do with health exactly? I cannot believe that this pig's life was worth so little that the author could photograph it being roasted and describe how its skin and flesh tasted. If this were a dog or cat I highly doubt you would find it okay to put in your magazine. I think this pig is just as intelligent and his life is just as important as any other animal. I wish you would consider putting such graphic images in your magazine for my children to have to be subjected to see. I have seen references to vegan recipes so you must hope for vegan readers and yet you show no sympathy to how a vegan reader or anyone with an ounce of compassion might feel seeing such a horrific sight as a dead pig. Really? "Health" Journal? I would like an apology and a promise that there will be no future articles celebrating death or I will no longer seek out the Health Journal in the future and advise others to do the same."

So I encourage you to do the same. Instead of us having to feel sad, angry, frustrated, etc. we need to fight back with our words. Write the newspaper about an event, write a magazine about an article, write a government official about the law. We need to speak up for the animals and the more of us that do it, the more our voices will be heard. After all, we are the only voices that the voiceless have. Their lives are depending on us. So, fight back and "WRITE" back!

*Update: This is the response I received from The Health Journal:

"Thank you for your feedback on the article.  I passed your email along to our editor and publisher.  Just so you are aware, and not that it will change your feelings about the story, but the photo was taken from a software program called Thinkstock.  The writer was just writing about her experience."

Whew, I feel so much better knowing it wasn't a photo she actually took just a photo they decided to put in their magazine!  ;)

So I am making some exciting changes to the blog!  After all, weight loss is only one small part of my journey as a vegan.
So instead of just writing about my weight challenges I hope to write about the challenges of what it is like to be married to an animal activist, do my own animal activism, raise vegan children, live and work in a non-vegan world and strive to get back to a happier, healthier me despite these challenges. Hopefully some of you will be able to relate and maybe feel a little bit like you belong somewhere when so often we just feel like we don't belong. I hope you look forward to these changes and join me on my journey as it is one that is not common among our colleagues, neighbors, friends and family...so let's become a community of vegans and animal activists together! And together we can make changes and find a place where we finally belong.

 A really easy lunch or dinner idea that is super low in calories:
Cook frozen cauliflower rice from Trader Joe's instead of pasta
Add
-Steamed summer squash
-Tempeh
-Pasta sauce
So good! And it can be made for less than 200 calories and is super filling and delicious!

So I have decided that one way to eat less is to do more.  Especially if doing more involves helping animals in some small way. One reason I eat is because it is so upsetting to be in a world where we are surrounded by people who do not have compassion for animals the way we do, who don't understand us and actually dislike us for having compassion and also to be constantly reminded of the pain and suffering animals are enduring every second with the actions by those around us and the overabundant amount of animal products we are forced to see everywhere we go. Well, it is just depressing and eating is an escape from this constant reminder which makes it kind of hard to lose weight since a key factor is to eat less!
So for the 4th of July, Ryan and I talked about going out to protest that it really isn't a day of independence for the animals that carnists are grilling up. I  came up with some ideas I wanted and Ryan helped me make my very own protest sign. And then we went out and walked up and down Duke of Gloucester Street with hundreds of tourists in  Colonial Williamsburg while holding our signs in front of us. Don't get me wrong...I was scared. Ryan has it down to an art but even though I feel the frustration and anger and sadness that make me want to protest, sometimes actually doing it can be slightly harder. But I really wanted to do this with him and support him. (I wish he didn't always go out alone when he does his protests which brings up a few more reasons why I eat- because I am scared for him and distracting myself, mad at myself for not being braver and alone, which allows me to eat in private.) And I really wanted to do it for the animals.  I know that doing something for animals makes me feel better than doing nothing at all. So I did it. And it felt really good. And we actually didn't get too many negative comments or looks. And Ryan says we planted some seeds. I hope so. It seemed like lots of kids stared at my sign. I hope they will ask their parents questions. Oh, and I ate less. After all, it's hard to eat when you're trying to speak out for animals. Win, win.

I love breakfast! My trick is to microwave a sliced ripe banana in a bowl for about a minute and a half. Then I add the oats on top of that and microwave with water. The banana sweetens your oatmeal without added sugar and it is so delicious.
Today's treat included frozen blueberries, pecans, flax seed and almond coconut milk. Sometimes I add hemp seeds or walnuts instead. And I add calcium carbonate for an extra dose of calcium.So it is really tasty and super nutritious!


Some of my other oatmeal ideas to add to your banana and oats mix include:

-Chocolate Peanut Butter (Add cocoa powder and peanut butter... I like to add raisins too...yum!)
-Baked Apple (Cook some apple slices like you do the banana to soften them- add some cinnamon and it's an easy way to make a baked apple! Then add raisins to the oats before you cook them and walnuts and extra cinnamon afterwards)
-Add any kind of seed or nut and cinnamon and raisins or another fruit and your favorite non-dairy milk

Also, as you can see in the picture, we do own a kitchen scale. It helps us all stay aware of serving sizes and it is what helped me realize what a serving of peanut butter actually looks like! When I am tracking what I eat the scale helps a lot.  Notice I said, "when" I am tracking! Let's just say it is still a work in progress.

I want to share with you some of my strategies to help you stay on track.

I constantly read, listen to audio books and podcasts (especially useful for driving to work or workouts/walks) and watch shows and videos about weight loss, veganism, health, food, sugar fitness and habits. Some recent ones include:

Gretchen Rubin's Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives to reexamine some of my bad habits and get back to better habits. This book also explains the difference between people who are Moderators and can handle things in moderation and Abstainers, people who can't (like me!)

Books by Joel Furhman for a super healthy approach to a vegan diet like Eat to Live and The End of Dieting

An old favorite- Skinny Bitch... these vegan ladies will kick your butt in gear!

Anything about reducing or eliminating sugar like Sugar Blues (Warning: some really disturbing scenes for vegans like us) and That Sugar Film 
and I recently listened to an interview with the guy from 30dayssugarfree.com  Looks like there is a book to go along with it but I have not been able to access it. Love the title though- I Love Me More Than Sugar!

I do get upset when what I watch, listen to or read is from not yet vegans who say or do things that would be disturbing for a vegan to hear. For example, I was reading Women, Food and Desire by Alexandra Jamieson and there was some good information in it  so I tried listening to her Podcast, The CraveCast and I was so infuriated I had to stop listening to it and also didn't pick up her book again. I just couldn't handle listening to someone tell me to listen to my body when I have a craving for meat and to honor that craving. Or to the people she interviewed talking callously about eating meat or her touting the use of animal bones in all her recipes. So I guess what I am trying to say is that whether you are reading, listening, or watching, if the material is too stressful for you as a vegan then there is not enough good information for it to be worth it to suffer through it. So stick to vegan literature, videos and podcasts as much as possible, there is a lot of good stuff out there. And if you're trying something new like I often do (I love health magazines!) and it's not worth the stress, put it down. We already live in a difficult world, no point in having more stress added to your life. Some great vegan magazines are VegNews and Vegan Health and Fitness and don't forget the book by Our Hen House's Jasmin Singer who is vegan and lost a lot of weight, Always Too Much and Never Enough! Loved it!
A vegan, animal activist who lost a lot of weight? My hero!