Earthlings Free Documentary

Download Full Version here:

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=119

Everyone should see this documentary just to know the truth about what is really happening to animals on a DAILY BASIS.

In my opinion, Earthlings is THE documentary that fully exposes how animals are abused and used everyday in the largest industries- 

FOOD-CLOTHING-PETS-ENTERTAINMENT-SCIENCE 

"Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, EARTHLINGS chronicles the day-to-day practices of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit" ~IMDB

I always thought these animals were roaming the hillsides. This is simply not possible due to the massive number of animals needed to feed our large population. The entire process of these industries is Cruel, painful, and treats animals like Objects. 

This is an important term to define:

Sentient- able to perceive or feel things

So you have to ask yourself - 

Do you believe that animals  are sentient beings that can feel emotional and physical pain? 

Then you have to investigate- What is the truth about what these animals go through?

I could only watch this video in 5 min increments it was so upsetting to me. But I'm so happy to know the truth and begin to make the changes in my life to not contribute to any of these atrocities.

Cancer Link

The next book I will read:
I've been doing more research on the health consequences of eating meat & meat byproducts.. I think KNOWLEDGE is the key to staying with this diet. Whenever I start to doubt I go back and read a new article or research piece concerned with eating meat. 

Today I ran across this Amazing audio file about CANCER LIES. I learned so much from this. This guy looks and sounds like a preacher, but don't let that stop you from listening..

http://www.jonbarron.org/audio/audio_files/TalkR15.mp3

It talks about the 3 causes of Cancer- TOXINS, a Compromised IMMUNE SYSTEM, & CIRCULATION. 

I feel reaffirmed in my Health change today. This speaker mentioned the toxic effects of the antibiotics fed to animals & is in the meat people eat. He also spoke of the Liver and arteries that are overworked due to the Fat content of the typical American diet.

I am going to focus on making sure I get the amount of fruits & veggies recommended along with Omega 3's. 

A Scarf Surprise

My dearest friend Elizabeth mailed me this beautiful summer scarf for my Birthday! I was so excited when I got it in the mail. The thread is so thin and the stitching is so detailed. I can't believe she spent all that time on a gift just for me.. I LOVE IT! It's also that perfect color that will go with almost anything and look good on everyone. 

You may be wondering who needs a scarf in TX 110˚F heat.. I do for sure, I actually freeze to death from the AC in the office. I get cold quick. This thin scarf is perfect for keeping me warm and not having to hide my outfit with a too hot sweater. 

I LOVE YOU Elizabeth! Thank you so much!!! 

Fishy guilt

My initial and main purpose for becoming vegan was for health purposes, and not just to lose weight.. but to maintain a healthy body that will live longer and feel healthier. So now I seem to have confused alot of my friends & family about what I have been doing and why. At a family gathering I told everyone I was on a "special diet" that is cholesterol free. This was an easy and accurate explanation and it was received well. 

However, next family gathering my grandma did not understand why I wouldn't eat baked chicken since it was "healthy". "You're not eating chicken?!" Apparently that is the staple of most diets. She had even gone and bought a healthier butter wish is very sweet. Smart Balance is almost Earth Balance except it has animal products in it. 

I really am committed to becoming a full fledge Vegan. Everyone keeps asking me if I am going to be a vegan forever.. what a question. Can you imagine if you were dating someone and everyone kept asking if it was going to be forever.. Actually I went through that too. My point is YES, I hope so and I plan to! 

Now, although my original intent was to become a vegan for health reasons I have also done ALOT of research into the treatment of these animals and now it is also for ethical reasons. Not to mention the complete repulsion and disgust I feel when I think about where this meat has come from. And this knowledge/feeling is not something I want to be desensitized from again. 

So my weekly update-- I've been doing so good but last Saturday I was at a Movie tavern with no options besides fried french fries (which would not have been vegan either due to meat being fried in the same vat).. or Fish Tacos. So I ordered fish tacos and they were good but may have been just as good without the fish.. I will try that next time and see. I have a harder time empathizing with fish and really need to make this a focus and do more research on what happens to fish. I may end up abstaining from fish for Environmental reasons.

I hate having to tell other vegans that I am a new vegan (except that I occasionally mess up and eat fish)... because really that just makes me a non lacto ovo pescavore and who has time to say all that..

A Vegan Stir Fry

Today I ate a little better. I cooked this really great Stir Fry using Walmart's frozen stir fry veggies + sliced onion + Quorn brand meat-free Chic'n Tenders. It was so Yummy! Matt even said he didn't mind the chicken not being real. Seemed like chicken to me...

After subtracting my 2 mile run with the dog <-- my total calorie, carb, and protein count all ended up being right at 100%. Pretty cool.

My fat intake was 36%, cholesterol at 1g from the Brown Rice? weird. Sodium was at 99%.

Everyone thinks I am having to watch my protein intake but I still seem to make 100%, probably even more often than before I went veggie.. I used to just eat cheese enchiladas every day. 

Here's a rundown on what I ate today:

Breakfast- Banana + cinnamon raisin bagel + Earth Balance butter

Early Lunch- Amy's Black Bean Enchilada meal w/ rice and beans

Lunchtime snack- Jamba Juice strawberry Swirl smoothie

mid-afternoon snack- Box of organic Raisins

5pm snack- glass of Soy chocolate milk

Dinner- Faux Chicken Stir Fry with brown rice 

A Day of Munchies

We all have them for whatever reason. The munchies, stress eating, fridge pillaging, binge eating.

I ate really horrible today, full of junk food! I thought it might be interesting to show what a Vegan junk food day might look like. I should have ate more fruits & veggies. 

My worst culprit was a "vegetarian" Black Bean burrito. I asked for it without cheese thinking that would do the trick. It is definitely NOT VEGAN! And at almost 500 calories for 1 item NOT worth it! 

I also had 2 vegan ice cream sandwiches, tons of Ruffles potato chips (yep vegan), & cashews. The worst thing is I'm posting this and haven't even cooked dinner yet. I was trying to wait until 10pm when Matt gets home and this probably led to my daily diet demise. 

I know you can't see the stats very well. I am currently at 123% of my daily cal value, 123% fat, 0% cholesterol (Yeah!), 113% Sodium, 66% carbs, 96% Protein. Not a very good day. Hopefully tomorrow will balance this out and then I can show what a healthy day looks like.  

Good thing I did my 2 mile run!

PS. I use www.livestrong.com to casually track my calories/exercise. I completely recommend using this site. It is Free and they have a great food database built up.

YEAH!! A new best friend!

YEAH! We got Spencer! We adopted him and I've already bought everything I could think of for him. 

He is soooo Super Sweet! Today i took him for a car ride to Petsmart. He did really good in the car and stayed seated in the back seat. He does pull pretty hard on the leash though. We'll have to work on that. Petsmart was a little crazy. I could tell he was overwhelmed by all the people walking and dogs barking. I won't be doing that again anytime soon. 

I thought I would just take him to pick out a doggy bed and toy but I ended up just grabbing a doggy brush and getting the hell out of there. 

I'm SO HAPPY! I am going to pick Matt up from work with Spencer in the back seat. That would have been the best surprise ever if I hadn't already texted him that we got him. 

OK, on a side note-- I wanted to share how I almost messed up my vegan diet today. I had bought this Macaroni & Soy Cheese frozen meal, I think its Amy's brand, and I thought it was vegan. I was all excited and getting ready to eat it when I noticed it said Caseinate (animal protein) and was like WTH! Why would they go to all of the trouble of not using real cheese to then throw Casein back in there?? I really had my heart set on it so I went ahead and cooked it while fighting in my head on what to do. I ended up deciding it didn't look yummy enough to eat and feel guilty for it. The 2x I had some kind of milk or cheese since I started this diet I ended up with a big tummy ache, so knowing that it makes it super easy just to stay away. Anyway, Im still pretty proud bc I really did want to eat it, but found a way to talk myself out of it. I actually threw it in the trash while saying outloud (yes to myself) "We don't eat this kind of stuff." 

Speaking of eating--Any tips for getting a dog to eat? Nobody knows what this dog has ate and liked in the past and he just isn't eating. I even bought meaty food. I guess I'll try mixing in a wet dog food with the dry.

Right now he is sitting under the desk right by my feet. What a happy life.

Super Social Saturday

What an exhausting wonderful day. 

We got to meet Spencer! He is everything we have been wanting. He's a very lovable dog. We told the lady that we knew we definitely wanted to adopt him and she suggested that we do a Foster-to-adopt instead. To me this sounds as bad as a rent-to-own situation. I don't want to test drive. A dog is a living being and will make mistakes so whatever issues he may have we will work with him on it. I can't imagine adopting a child on the same premise.. When I told her we'd rather just adopt him she said well what if you decide it won't work out? Then I got to thinking maybe she means if WE don't work out? I'm not sure what we're doing wrong here..or what she thinks we may do wrong. She said I could call her tomorrow to talk more about the paper work and doing the adoption so today I went to Walmart and stocked up on doggy basics. 

We had a great time at the park by our house. Played soccer with our friends for all of 3 min then Kickball, then we did a relay race. On my leg Matt completely beat me. I don't know why I thought I had a chance. We then swam & played pool volleyball for 4 hours, which is how I ended up Red lobstered.

We then rushed out to Richardson for our friends' wedding reception. The food was all Indian and delish. I even stayed on the vegan track, pretty easy with Indian food. No cake for me though. I should bake and bring my own in my purse next time bc my mouth was on FIRE! 

I was really happy to see my pregger friends, especially my friend from 2nd grade.. It's still so odd to me that she is going to be a mom. We're the same age. I guess I am about to be a doggy mom. If all goes well. Crossing fingers, silent prayers. I really think we'll be able to give him the best life because we are so active and will run & play with him all the time. I hope we get him tomorrow!

The meaning of a Vegan Life

I really wish I had started blogging 4 weeks ago when this big change was so fresh in my mind. I certainly experienced an epiphany reading the Skinny Bitch book.. which led me to several epiphanies as I did research on Veganism. I was a sponge indeed-scouring podcasts, searching, reading. The more I read the more I was appalled, the more I opened my eyes. This change was not over night, but a culmination of years worth of puzzle pieces coming together and finally making sense. 

I kept this growing knowledge, internal changes silently inside me the first 2 weeks. I was so scared to face other's questions. I knew what I was doing would be strongly opposed by some and I wasn't ready to let that doubt in. So now feeling more confident I can share this a little better. Come out of my lonely little vegan closet.

Most people know what being a vegan is, but they don't know what it is to be a Vegan. To me it is realizing that we have been desensitized to not feel for these animals we eat. What is the difference between eating a cow or a dog? And, beyond that realizing the horrible life of suffering these animals have to live in huge factories. The realization that an animal is not an object for us to abuse, but a living, breathing, feeling, thinking being.

We have been blind. 

If you open up the door to see inside these slaughter houses you will then KNOW. And what do you do with this knowledge? Do you push it under like most people? Or do you fight against something you know in your heart to be wrong. 

I hold the horrors close to my heart now. I don't want to let it go. I want to know now. 

To be open to the truth is where a vegan life begins... I'm not sure where it ends.

A corny dog that changed my life..

That's right a corny dog!

Recently I started my new vegan diet and I'm loving it! So far I have lost a total of 8lbs in a month. The weight is just disappearing and Im eating all the time. I got tons of vegan recipe books that make it easy to use substitutions for everything non vegan (milk, butter, meat obviously, etc.) and bought alot of alternative frozen goodies like this.

When I decided to do this vegan thing the first thing I did was go through all the labels of the food I had at home. Apparently the corny dogs I have loved & have been eating for the last 2 years are already vegan. Seriously these are the best Corny dogs I have ever bought at a store. They are called Morning Star Corn Dogs and have NO CHOLESTEROL! Thats the best part; for the last month I haven't ate anything with cholesterol and haven't even had to think about it. I can't wait to go back to the doctor and tell them I cured my high cholesterol. 

ok wow I sound like an infomercial... I'm just really excited because last night I also tried a recipe that mimics Queso. If you know me, you know this is my ultimate weakness. I used the "Uncheese cookbook" by Joanne Stepaniak and made "Tomato con queso sauce" and added the fresh chopped cilantro. It was Really Good! I know my taste buds may have changed some since I haven't had any cheese in a month but it tasted alot like it! 

It's sooo amazing to have kicked my Cheese addiction! Seriously this was my only addiction I have ever had (oh ya & chocolate) The ingredient in cheese that makes you addicted is called "casein", it's literally an opiate that is found in milk that makes babies addicted to milk. Look for casein in other foods too because most food companies know the power of adding this ingredient to your food. 

"Opiates hide inside casein, the main dairy protein. As casein molecules are digested, they break apart to release tiny opiate molecules, called casomorphins. One of these compounds has about one-tenth the opiate strength of morphine.The especially addicting power of cheese may be due to the fact that the process of cheese-making removes water,lactose and whey proteins so that casein is concentrated." http://www.healthdiaries.com/blogs/vegetarianblues/archives/2004/09/casein_and_cheese_more_addictive_than_chocolate.html

Doggy Dog World

I know it's a dog eat dog world, but I like to think our world has the potential to be better than that.. to be simply a Doggy dog world. One full of all the joys we wish for when we were young. My first memory ever is of my dad running holding me like an airplane so that I could fly over my puppy dog. It's such a beautiful memory it seems unbelievable to me. In my head everything is soft and white with a nice gaussian blur vignette on the edges. (My head must have done some nice CS3 post production)  

Matt & I have been wanting a dog for awhile, pretty much 7 years now. We always talk about "when we have a doggy" with affection. After a year of searching Petfinder.com and not committing to one, we finally found the ONE. Only problem is the lady running the organization doesn't seem very eager to get rid of him. It seems like a really small organization, 6 pets saved and the pics of the dog we want (Spencer T) he is riding in a golf cart. Hmmm..

I will not buy a dog from a pet store now that I know most pet stores buy from Puppy Mills. They have to to keep up with the demand. If you have any curiosity about the horrors of Puppy Mills, here is a link: http://stoppuppymills.org/inside_a_puppy_mill.html

So we really wanted to "rescue" a dog from a shelter, but I dont know if Spencer needs rescuing from his plush lifestyle with his foster home. I like to think he will have more of a life with us as we are younger, run all the time, and have alot of energy. I haven't heard back from the organization since we sent in our app. What makes us unworthy? 

WTF! Who Stole my car?!

OMG I can't even believe it! Matt & I went out to our driveway to go to work this morning and he was looking for my keys in the console of our Prius. He looked at me & said "Where are your keys?" And I said, "Where is the CAR?!" We looked at each other dumbfounded for awhile and then looked around the yard like it was going to appear.. We then circled the whole house & went over what we did with the car the day before. We just couldn't believe it. 

You know when you come out to a huge parking lot and can't remember where you left your car, and start to think someone had to have stolen it, but you know thats crazy. Thats how it feels. We just keep repeating, "Really?" 

So ya, we must have left the Prius unlocked and whoever opened it was very lucky to find the car keys to our Scion and just took it. I bet that was a very exciting find for them. I hope they get a ticket for my inspection being expired, along with being pulled over at gunpoint. 

The scary thing is my keychain also has the house key, so we are rekeying all of our locks today. To do this, Matt is just exchanging our front door knob system at Lowes. Sneaky devil. The rest of our locks are the smart kind that you can rekey to any other main key. 

We thought they had taken our garage door clicker thingy, but then we found it in the back alley a couple of houses down. Matt bagged it for the cops to do finger prints on it. BUT apparently they dont check for finger prints in Lewisville unless someone dies. 

I know its totally my fault. It was very stupid to leave the keys in the car like that, and unlocked. We had gone running at the park with our friends and I had separated my bulky keychain from the Prius key so it wouldn't be too much to run with. Threw bulk keys in console, ran a couple miles, came back home and forgot to lock car or get keys out. UGH!! 

What is wrong with me?

OH YA- and they better not checkout books using my library key card, OR go to LaFitness to work out! JERKS!

Blogging ADD style

Ok so I made it this far. I created a title, mulled over the url address and came up with alot of nothing. I thought Brooks-stress was funny, but not very positive. So whatever, my blog is boring for now. At least I can maintain some anonymity behind the Brooks name, thank you husband. 

I do have some interesting thoughts that I've been dying to put to paper. I feel huge changes in me, in my mind. And it all started with a road trip to Houston. Pre-trip= rummaging through an outlet book store for the perfect journal and ran across the "Skinny Bitch" book. I went home and read half of it immediately and forgot to pack. ADD again.. which oh ya is another story..

So during the trip Autumn was reading the book outloud & it was hilarious! In her best valley girl voice she read, "Beer will make you fat, bloaty, & Farty!" Damn, I don't remember the quote exactly and already lost the book. 

Long road trip & long story short-I read the whole book in 1 weekend and felt committed & disgusted. I really clicked with the health concerns of eating meat- Pesticides, growth hormones, saturated fats. The chapter on Milk made so much sense. Why do humans drink milk from another species. Cow milk is supposed to fatten up and grow a calf not a human.. I'll try to avoid the gory details of the animals' suffering for now. But I really felt bad for the dairy cows, being a woman with nipples and all. 

That's all I will say for now. My journey started 3 weeks ago in a bookstore looking for a journal, and now I am journaling in an environmentally friendly way because of the book I read.