Hibernation

I've come out of hibernation, and I'm going to give you some important updates! =)

1. I made the dance team!!! The auditions were in June. I figured I have nothing to lose so I might as well try. I'm actually surprised I made it. I'm so excited. There is a second audition (I'm going just for the heck of it. It is the same routine as the first one, so it will be super easy.) Then the "boot camp" is at the end of the month for 5 days. I've been training so I will be strong and flexible for it. I don't want to be a wuss for my first impression.


2. I almost have my splits. I've been stretching an hour every night for a month. I'm so close. I think 1 more month at the most and I will have it on my right and left sides. The center could take a year or longer. My hips just don't open very well that way.


3. I almost have elephant pose. That is the pose in the picture. I've come so far in yoga. I've only been doing it for a year, but wow. Last year I was just lucky if I could hold myself up in wheel/bridge/back bend (the same pose pictured, but with your leg down.)


4. I'm switching my diet. (yet again) I eat wayyy too much junk. Just and example, jolly beans, frosting (amazingly there is vegan frosting at wal-mart, who knew?), fake cheese, Macaroni, Pizza, Naked Juice (It is good for you, but I should definitely cut back). I almost never eat vegetables, so a dramatic change is necessary. I'm only going to get fruits and vegetables, that way I won't eat any crap. Once a month I may treat myself to a baked good (vegan of course.) but other than that, no no no. I'm also going to try fasting (one day, once a month.) I'm doing this to cleanse my organs and just give my poor digestive track a rest. I also watched a thing (and read a book), about calorie restricted diets. They said they help you live longer and I believe it. So one week every month I'm going to try and eat about half as much as I usually do. This prompts your body to go into starvation mode and be more efficient. Of course when I return to normal, I'll probably go into fat storing mode. Hmmm, maybe I need to look at this a bit more. I'll still try it, but if there are any nasty side effects (I'm sure there won't be, but it is always a possibility) I'll quit.


5. I got dance supplies. I ordered some tights and Dance Paws. I got them from Discount Dance Supply (I totally recommend them if you ever have any dance needs.) I got nude colored tights and some fun paint splattered ones. I can't wait to wear my stuff to class!


6. My dance recital party thing was... =( I'm not sure if I mentioned the end of the year dance party/recital was in May. I don't want to make negative comments, but my group's dance and just me in general kind of stank. I'm not going to go on, but I've learned some very important lessons.


7. I'm not going to be a ballerina for at least another year. Since I made the dance team, my parents aren't going to have the money (and time) to take me to ballet, dance, and yoga. I'll just see what happens. As of now the dance team is probably my best bet. Ballet is one of the hardest forms of dance. So by doing this I can get my feet wet before jumping in.

Pretty much all of my posts from now on are going to somehow be related to yoga, dance, flexibility or just health/fitness in general. I can't help it...I'm obsessed!!

Frustration

As you know I've been battling my acne (just imagine a 13 year old girl with cleanser in hand with a fierce expression). Well every where I go I see, "Oh acne is caused because of diet." This makes sense to me 100%. You are what you eat, but I eat no dairy products (have been known to cause acne). I also rarely eat fried or fatty foods. I think it is because I'm just not being patient. If I could have one thing in the whole world that would be it and it stinks because this is the thing I'm working the hardest and it's the one thing I have no control over. There is no "A" for effort in real life. Speaking of real life I hate how adults are always like, "Just wait until you get into the real world." Well then what the heck is this? Am I just practicing living or something. Is this life a lie? I don't get it. Yeah I know it sucks to be you Bills, Kids, Debt, Morgage, blah. I'm tired of hearing it. I will make a pact I should quit complaining about my life because it is so unimaginably boring and annoying to hear people complain. I good thing I didn't start this pact when I started my blog or I would have nothing to blog about. I think there is no point in complaining about something unless you are going to do something about it.
I apologize about my acne rant, I know I will eventually have clear skin but I hate waiting.

Fed up

Today I showed a girl on my bus a comic I received (I asked for it of course) from Peta explaining in a comic book form the life of a chicken. She didn't care at all. She even said, "Well people have to eat animals to live." If murder wasn't a crime... I can think of a million witty retorts now, but all I could say at the time was:
*look of shock, horror, disbelief*
Me: Well how do you think I live then?
Her(well call her blonde buddy): Well you excluded, I'm talking about other people.

These were not the exact words but it is the closest approximation I have. Now I understand what other vegans are talking about when they say, "It isn't the food part that's hard it's dealing with all the ***holes." I completely agree with them now. I'm not calling my friend that word (well she isn't even my friend, but I sit with her on the bus and we used to be friends in 6th grade so silence is awkward). We are completely different and bump a lot. She isn't nearly as opinonated as me, and if I want to see how a regular person would react to something I test it on her (so you could call her my guinea pig). I can't test this stuff on my friends, because let's face it they aren't normal. The one thing we do have in common is acne (I know how awful!) but my should be gone soon so we won't have that in common either (we both don't like the "pretty" preps too, me because they are annoying, snotty, narrcassitic, and always have to be the center of attention. Blonde guinea pig, because they get all the male attetion. I also dislike the "pretties" because of that reason, but not so much because all the guys are immature so they can have them.) I'm going to cut this post off before I start ranting off on differences and brains and junk like that!

Hello 2009

Well, sit down and prepare for a long ride. I have to cover Christmas and New Year's Eve in one Post (I really should get a medal for this). I'll start with Christmas since it comes first. My Christmas had three parts; Part 1 Thanksgiving (I consider Thanksgiving Christmas part 1, because it is warming up your eating muscles for Christmas dinner), Part 2 Christmas Day (Presents!), Part 3 Boxing day (The day after Christmas). I need to go a bit more into depth about Part 3. On Part 2 I received a keyboard as a present. However it was not the keyboard I wanted, so on Christmas Part 3 I exchanged it for the keyboard I really wanted. The keyboard is awesome, and if I can ever figure out how to work the connection cord I will put some music on my blog.

Now New Years, Well I think it was the best New Years eve I ever had. That really stinks because it was awful. Previous years have consisted of sitting on the couch watching the ball drop and then going to sleep, so anything can beat that. Well anyways my New Years Resolution is, 365 days Vegan. For a whole year I'm going to take pictures of what I eat. Yeah I know exciting, right? Well my friend told me some guy took pictures of what he ate for a year. He made a book out of it and people bought it. I don't think I'm going to be making a a book, but I do have a blog. It is called 365 days Vegan. The main purpose of the whole thing is to show people what vegans eat. It gets a little old when people always ask me, "What do you eat?". Then they make sure I'm getting enough vitamins. Uggh, it is usually adults too, and they think they are so smart and know more about food. Just because you have eaten more meals than me doesn't mean you know more about nutrition. If I tell people I take a vitamin they usually back off, but some people just don't get it. I hope you have a marvelous 2009, because if you can read all my rants you deserve it!

Never have I been more happy...

I've been looking up vegan quotes for an essay I have to do to enter a high school program. It is the IB program and I really hope I get into it. Otherwise high school will be devastating. This week has been boring. I was sick most of the time. I have a sore throat, and now I think I'm getting an ear infection as well. I think I should have Green Tea every morning in addition to my oatmeal. I don't really like orange juice. My mom won't buy an organic kind (it is only twice the price). I really don't want to drink Tropicana or that other junk we have. I live near a Tropicana plant and it is an eye sore as well as stinky. I also think corporations in general are stupid and I would prefer to buy from a company that cares to care, not because it looks good and sells a product. One last thing I think there a three types of people in this world, murderers, vegetarians and vegans. You wouldn't eat your dog/cat so why would you eat a pig/cow. I've been a vegetarian for a year and I can tell you I have no desire to eat meat anymore than I have a desire to eat you. I'm also very strong. I beat all of my friends at arm wrestling (well except for one but her arm is 3 times the size of mine and I'm not even joking.)

Well anyways, these quotes make me very happy to be a vegan. I want to share some of my favorites with you:

Howard Lyman If you visit the killing floor of a slaughterhouse, it will brand your soul for life.

Leo Tolstoy A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral.

Ruth Harrison, author of Animal Machines In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.

Neal D. Barnard, M.D., President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. Washington, D.C. The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of 'real food for real people,' you'd better live real close to a real good hospital.

Franz Kafka, while admiring fish in an aquarium Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?

Charles Mayo (founder of the Mayo linic) I abhor vivisection. It should at least be curbed. Better, it should be abolished. I know of no achievement through vivisection, no scientific discovery, that could not have been obtained without such barbarism and cruelty. The whole thing is evil.

George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) When a man wants to murder a tiger, he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him, he calls it ferocity.

Albert Einstein It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.

Gail Shepherd "And the kicker: "Our demand for meat, dairy, and processed carbohydrates drives us to consume way more calories than are good for us; and those calories are in foods that cause, not prevent, disease. The evidence is very clear that plants promote health." "We need to jump on this bandwagon and hang on for our lives if our kids are going to live in a world we'd even faintly recognize — if, for that matter, they live to see it at all."

Casey Affleck “Chickens, cows, and pigs in factory farms spend their whole lives in filthy, cramped conditions—only to die a prolonged and painful death. Their bodies are then turned into food products proven to contribute to heart disease and cancer. To eat that is to eat poison.”

Robert Cohen "Death, pain, and torture, by any other name, cannot sanitize the great injustice we do to animals."

Paul Harvey
Ever occur to you why some of us can be this much concerned with animals' suffering? Because government is not. Why not? Animals don't vote."

Isaac Bashevis Singer "People often say that humans have always eaten animals, as if this is a justification for continuing the practice. According to this logic, we should not try to prevent people from murdering other people, since this has also been done since the earliest of times." As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.

That is digusting

Well in case you didn't know prior to today I was a vegetarian. I did not eat meat, because of the inhumane ways animals are treated during their miserable lives. Now I am a vegan. For those of you who don't know what a vegan is, it is like a vegetarian except they don't eat diary. Some of them don't eat honey or use leather ethier. I will never eat an animal again. Well the only exception would be if I was stuck out in the wild and I was going to die, that is the only exception. I'm excited though, I'll be able to experiment with different foods. I'm probably going to have to buy most of the food myself. My parent will probably buy me tofu, or some other things, but they aren't going to pay for things like soy milk. They don't understand my views on a lot of things. Oh well. I'm going to try to make up for having expensive food by not asking for things like clothes, movies, games, or anything else. If I could just be homeschooled and have my vegan way life would be perfect, but sometimes that just doesn't happen.