Day#1 of Vegan Eating!

Well today is the first day (on my own at least) that I'll be living a Vegan lifestyle! I just returned from the most amazing Love Your Body retreat run by two amazing women, Kalima Harvey and Anita Shepard. They each have their own amazing skills that brought all five of us participants that were there immense joy and peace. I have learned so much about food and how to really 'love your body'! I thought I was pretty up on most things nutrition and most things related to exercise-but NOPE I have learned so much and really how to let go of any of the 'bullshit' that I carry around, the rigid pole along my spine has finally been broken! I'm so ready to do everything and try new things and just be a new and inspired person! I'm sure I'll have more tomorrow or at least Thursday-since I'm going to a book signing for a fantastic Vegan chef in Brooklyn! Now those of you that know me, Brooklyn is normally NOT my hang out-I'm normally SUPER anti Brooklyn actually, but in all reality, that's silly-2370's 'incident' happened 5 years ago and since Brooklyn has really become an amazing place! lol. On that positive note I'm going to sign off to meet a friend with a code red :( Enjoy food everyone!
L

Food!

Good morning! I started this blog on Feb 15th and am finishing it today-going to try for another one throughout the day :) I decided today is the day to start my wonderful blog! I might overuse my allotted amount of exclamation points for the day in this blog because I'm thrilled to be writing about fitness and/or nutrition! So I'm not always sure I'll have something interesting to say but it's sure worth a try!

So for today's breakfast I had what is pictured above, Agave nectar, steel cut oats, soy protein, flax seeds and cinnamon. This is a fantastic breakfast as it is very filling, tasty and healthy! There are several healthy components of this breakfast but for this blog I'm just going to highlight Flax seeds-the rest of the amazing things the rest of the ingredients can do will be highlighted at a later date:

Flax Seeds: These can be healthy because they contain the following:*

 

Omega-3 essential fatty acids, "good" fats that have been shown to have heart-healthy effects. Each tablespoon of ground flax seed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s.

Lignans, which have both plant estrogen and antioxidant qualities. Flax seed contains 75- 800 times more lignans than other plant foods

Fiber. Flax seed contains both the soluble and insoluble types

Not only do they contain all of these things but there has been some research to show that flax could possible reduce the risks of certain cancers as well as cardiovascular disease and lung disease.

*Source: WebMD

Holiday Feelings

So this blog entry will be slightly more personal as it pertains to the ever entertaining holiday season that America has turned into commercial hoopla. This post focuses on my interfaith upbringing, if you could call it that. My parents had decided to let my sister and I choose which religion to be apart of when we reached a certain age, an admirable idea however confusing it might be in truth. This season tends to be the hardest for converted Jews, half Jews, whole Jews, quarter Jews, the whole lot, because America is filled with Christmas this and Christmas that and when you aren’t exactly a part of the Christmas fold, or might have been at some point but aren't now, it causes immense internal and even external conflict. Everything from what do I say to people when they say Merry Christmas to am I supposed to care about Christmas if my family does?, did I used to care about Christmas and want to now but can’t?

It's very complicated because many people are self hating Jews or self hating Christians and I’m neither. I get to be stuck in some weird limbo, like I’ve been ashamed? to be born half and not whole and having to convert because I wasn’t whole. Because of these weird feelings I’ve always presented myself as a whole Jew with no feelings toward Christmas etc. in order to prevent people from saying I wasn’t Jewish enough or worse yet, not Jewish at all. So now that I’m far more secure in my Jewishness (why now I don’t know), I find myself opening up to Christmas again in a dinner with family kind of way of course but no one really gets that because I’ve been SOOOOO Jewish and leaving behind everything, my ‘traditions’ (in the small amount they might have been compared to a rich Jewish heritage) that I grew up with. It’s very complicated especially because I’m surrounded by non-Jews which means I must make sure to draw a fence around myself and my feelings  in order to not let any Christmas in, again so people won’t say I’m not Jewish or Jewish enough. Some people seem to believe that Jews born from a Jewish mom who have a Christmas tree are way more Jewish than I who wouldn’t even dream of that in my own home, some people seem to see it that way, as if those born ‘whole’ can have these little christimakkah trees or celebrations or whatever that all is and I can’t (not sure that I’d want to but the fact is I’d never entertain the thought).

I see the reaction in some peoples’ faces when I tell them my mom isn’t Jewish but my dad is, I always feel the need to make sure that they know that and that I converted (so I’m ‘real’). It’s got to stem from something other than my ex boyfriend and his family and all of the feelings, ideas and actions that occurred during my conversion time, so what could it be? And why does it arise now?-Because I’m dating an extremely supportive non-Jew? And how do I let Christmas in without loosing my Jewishness? As ridiculous as that seems to even type because clearly I couldn’t and wouldn’t loose it now, I’d have lost it after the ex if anything and I didn’t, because it’s who I am, it’s who I always was, and it is who I will always will be. It’s like I created this anti-Christmas self in order to self preserve the Jewish self, why I don’t know, and I know that it could be coming from feeling that others might see me as an inadequate Jew, even though that’s insane as I’m far more involved (because I want to be not because I’m forced) than most born Jews, so why this feeling? Why this need to separate so much? Why this need for an 89 mile fence around myself in order to not let Christmas in……

Blog Post #1-Really?

So I'm about 100% sure no one will read this blog, mostly because I do not intend to let anyone know about it for awhile lol. I'll basically use it as an online diary of the ridiculous things I do, think, say and encounter on a daily basis. The names and exact events might be changed but overall should be entertaining at some point. So that's my first entry for now since I don't have much time, must run out of the fun place I work in to grab some vitamins at GNC, really entertaining I know.