Day 194

I have to thank TeamAction for being themselves. If they weren't who they are then I may not be as influenced by them. You see TeamFun has a lot in common with TeamAction in a variety of ways, and we love spending time together. TeamAction is half Vegetarian, half Vegan, and have been so for, well I don't know, a year now maybe? Or almost? Anyway, since they've embarked on more compassionate eating, it's gottem me thinking about it WAAY more often. I have made too many to count vegetarian meal choices over including meat since. I read more Vegan/vegetarian blogs, am trying more vegetarian cooking at home, and I'm even buying soley organic veggies (which makes DH very happy in itself :)
I'm not vegan or vegetarian, although I was for years at one point mostly vegetarian- eating only meat that was hunted, as I wanted the animals that I ate to have lived a normal, wild life and not be tortured (you know, no castration while fully awake and without pain meds, no slicing off beaks awake/w/o pain meds, no throwing of male chicks into a wood chipper b/c they're considered "Useless", no living a entire life unable to stand or stretch, the list goes on). I tried being vegan once for a couple months soley to feel the physical effects. I learned from that experiment that dairy is a bitch.
So these days I'm limiting my meat intake. We order bison from a farm that raises them in pasture, they're grass fed, and killed in the field- not anywhere near a slaughterhouse, and with no cruelty. (Some say hunting - such as how this farm kills their bison- is cruel. I think it's natural, it's caveman type of natural). I'm shelling out nearly $5 for a dozen eggs because they're raised humanely- they have lots of room to frolic, they're fed organic foods, they get to keep their beaks, they baby males aren't ground up. I'm saying no to cheese more often (but not entirely, not yet anyway) and have come to like substituting avocado slices for cheese slices.
When I make choices like last night's dinner- lean corned beef and salad- or this morning's breakfast at the cafeteria here- mostly potatoes with a bit of scrambled egg- I always always think about the fact that this meal is not without cruelty. So you see, I'm not perfect, but I'm changing, a little at a time. And it's adding up.

So thanks, Team Action. And thank you, Marissa at Vegan at Heart. And thanks Eric aat esgonevegan. There's a lot of great resources out there. And more and more these days there's LESS Fire-and-Brimestone Vegan PREACHING- something that I would not have started making these changes without.

So, today's post is without pics- at least so far. Instead here are some links:

http://esgonevegan.blogspot.com/
http://www.kindgreenplanet.org/programs/veganatheart/welcome
http://tinychoices.com/
http://soyfreevegan.blogspot.com
http://www.terressentials.com
http://www.myorganicmarket.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=A6B40AE98C7842A98FC8DE4784880288
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1bVLSfRNm0 <-- this one is so sweet it had me in tears. The woman who works at the shelter who was almost tearing up as she spoke is what got my tears a'flowin'.

There's more, but that's all for now, folks! I actually have to get to work :-P Hopefully I'll get a pic in today later.