Just a quick update on my little veggie experiment. Yesterday, Thursday, was Day 1 of my little experiment to see if i can survive on being a veggie and to see what its like not to eat meat. You know what...it feels great! I feel much less a hypocrite for sticking to my convictions and beliefs, i know its only one day, but its the first time in a long time I've gone through a day without eating meat at any point. Obviously i know it was only the first day of it, but it was lush, plus it worked out a lot cheaper doing the shopping for the weekend, only cos £9!!! And £1 of that was a rather lush and gloriously unhealthy Belgian bun! YUMO!
Yeah, so for breakfast, i had shreddies with raisins, which i always have, lunch in work consisted of strawberries,melon plus a nice foccaccia pizza thing with roasted veg on top, which was gorgeous! Then for tea, we had cheese and spinach ravioli with roasted veg (told you i loved roasted veg!) sauce complete with Quorn meatballs, which tasted rank in all honesty! Obviously they didn't contain the crap that meat meatballs contain, which is good, but they just didn't taste very nice, but I'm not giving up on them, i think with the right sauce and in the right thing, they could potentially be nice, time will tell though, its all so new to me so i guess I'm going to find stuff i don't really like along the way.
Today, well for tea, i think its a sort of pannini pizza thing with olives and peppers and onions, together with some garlic bread, plus i might even crack open a bottle of white vino as its a Friday!
So yeah, times are good. I'm still excited about ditching meat, and still think its something that i could do without, or certainly something that i can do with cutting back on severely.
Peace out
Friday, 29 June 2007
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Veggie-ness
OK I have decided...after 27 years of eating meat, I'm going to make a serious effort to seriously cut out and eventually end my consumption of meat.
The reason behind this is two-fold. Firstly, i am an animal lover, i love wildlife and love animals, id sooner trust most animals than a lot people i meet. They are amazing things, with feelings, emotions, everything we have, but yet we as a race treat them as some sort of inferior species, we have this arrogant attitude that we are somehow above them and that we can do what we like with them. I do NOT agree with this at all, we are all on the same level, we all are part of the giant circle of life, and i just don't think we should farm and kill animals just cos we like the taste of them, so how can i eat meat if i don't like seeing animals killed..exactly why I'm cutting it out.
Second, environmental issues, farming obviously affects the environment, raising cattle produces more Co2 than transportation! So I'd like to lessen the effect I'm having on this aspect of things. Livestock farming, the world over, is responsible for habitat loss and conflict with animals such as Tigers, Leopards, the list goes on, they live and hunt in areas where livestock is kept, maybe to be used my local people, but maybe used to satisfy the large demand of meat.
However...there is a flaw in this great plan...i don't really like vegetables! Yes that's right, i really don't like them. Actually, that's not strictly true, i do like them, but only cooked in a particular way, I'm sooo awkward! I hate boiled veg, all of it, its all minging. Its all stodgy and slimy and doesn't really taste of much, its got a horrid consistency, and is just generally not nice. Now roasted veg, stir-fried veg, that i do like. I like a bit of crunch there and a bit of bite and flavour.
So my plan, at first, I'm not, not going to eat any meat, i don't want to just stop all of a sudden, as i don't think its a healthy way of doing it. Instead, I'm going to set myself some goals to reach and try and improve along the way. I am very excited by this prospect as I like a challenge and this will be one of those, and a challenge which is doing some good for my fellow animals in this world. I'm sure I'll fall off a few times on the veggie cart to veggieness so PLEASE encourage me lol
My first step is this weekend, i always spend the weekends with the Vixster (my girlfriend of Bristol fame!) we always go out and have food out, which costs a bomb. So this weekend, no going out for food, we are headed to the supermarket tonight and hopefully to the local farmers market on the weekend to buy some things. So. this weekend, no meat, none at all, nothing, not even a smidgen! I might even try some Quorn and see what that tastes of.
I'm thinking of some meals already, now i LOVE pasta and rarely have meat with that, so I'm thinking a couple of pasta meals with veg sauce, homemade veg sauce as well hopefully. I'm thinking a nice stir-fry with some nice veg and some rice together with a sauce. And now I'm stuck...I'm going to have to look for inspiration! I need to basically buy for 4 meals, tonight, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night, snacks i can rely on fruit and cereal bars as always.
So the challenge is set, my first meat free weekend...ever...ever...im SO excited :)
Ill let you know how i do, if anyone is interested and if anyone is actually reading this lol
The reason behind this is two-fold. Firstly, i am an animal lover, i love wildlife and love animals, id sooner trust most animals than a lot people i meet. They are amazing things, with feelings, emotions, everything we have, but yet we as a race treat them as some sort of inferior species, we have this arrogant attitude that we are somehow above them and that we can do what we like with them. I do NOT agree with this at all, we are all on the same level, we all are part of the giant circle of life, and i just don't think we should farm and kill animals just cos we like the taste of them, so how can i eat meat if i don't like seeing animals killed..exactly why I'm cutting it out.
Second, environmental issues, farming obviously affects the environment, raising cattle produces more Co2 than transportation! So I'd like to lessen the effect I'm having on this aspect of things. Livestock farming, the world over, is responsible for habitat loss and conflict with animals such as Tigers, Leopards, the list goes on, they live and hunt in areas where livestock is kept, maybe to be used my local people, but maybe used to satisfy the large demand of meat.
However...there is a flaw in this great plan...i don't really like vegetables! Yes that's right, i really don't like them. Actually, that's not strictly true, i do like them, but only cooked in a particular way, I'm sooo awkward! I hate boiled veg, all of it, its all minging. Its all stodgy and slimy and doesn't really taste of much, its got a horrid consistency, and is just generally not nice. Now roasted veg, stir-fried veg, that i do like. I like a bit of crunch there and a bit of bite and flavour.
So my plan, at first, I'm not, not going to eat any meat, i don't want to just stop all of a sudden, as i don't think its a healthy way of doing it. Instead, I'm going to set myself some goals to reach and try and improve along the way. I am very excited by this prospect as I like a challenge and this will be one of those, and a challenge which is doing some good for my fellow animals in this world. I'm sure I'll fall off a few times on the veggie cart to veggieness so PLEASE encourage me lol
My first step is this weekend, i always spend the weekends with the Vixster (my girlfriend of Bristol fame!) we always go out and have food out, which costs a bomb. So this weekend, no going out for food, we are headed to the supermarket tonight and hopefully to the local farmers market on the weekend to buy some things. So. this weekend, no meat, none at all, nothing, not even a smidgen! I might even try some Quorn and see what that tastes of.
I'm thinking of some meals already, now i LOVE pasta and rarely have meat with that, so I'm thinking a couple of pasta meals with veg sauce, homemade veg sauce as well hopefully. I'm thinking a nice stir-fry with some nice veg and some rice together with a sauce. And now I'm stuck...I'm going to have to look for inspiration! I need to basically buy for 4 meals, tonight, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night, snacks i can rely on fruit and cereal bars as always.
So the challenge is set, my first meat free weekend...ever...ever...im SO excited :)
Ill let you know how i do, if anyone is interested and if anyone is actually reading this lol
Wednesday, 27 June 2007
Fox Hunting
OK well, something not strictly a green issue, although it is linked. It's a subject that, especially in the UK, is always bubbling on the surface of people's thoughts. Fox hunting.
Now, I'm strictly anti fox hunting, for obvious reasons to anyone with half an ounce of conscience and compassion for all things living.
Let me just say how i feel on the subject. It's a sport from way back when toffs ruled the land. They lauded about on their horses and tweed jackets thinking nothing of hunting an animal to death, letting their dogs chase and then savage an animal half their size to death all whilst sitting on their horses blowing their horns. Not one to one, man on animal, but instead, in a large group of horses together with a larger pack of dogs. So there you have it, 1 fox, against god knows how many foxes and hounds. Oh yeah, that's so "upper-class" isn't it.
2005 ended it, a ban was imposed in England and Wales, well sort of, hunts still go on, through loop-holes in the ban. You can still hunt foxes, as long as you don't let the dogs kill them, you can still hunt if you use a bird of prey, etc etc etc So it still goes on to this day, but now, many more people are aware of what goes on at these hunts, thanks to protests and thanks to organisations such as the RSPCA and the League against Cruel Sports, please support them!
Now there is a massive amount of information out there on fox hunting, which I'm not going to go into. But a few facts remain...
Fox hunting IS cruel
Fox hunting IS class-orientated-in other words its usually so called "upper-class" folk who indulge in it-oh yeah, as they are oh so above everything/everyone
Fox hunting belongs in the past and has no place in a modern society such as ours
Fox hunters are arrogant-no really-they are-going about the place with their "Fight the prejudice-fight ban" stickers
How people, still in this day in age can think they are "above" certain animals is beyond me. Its an arrogant attitude and is one of the big problems of today, this thing of humans being top and being able to do what they want with the Earth. We weren't here first, and we are not as advanced as you might think! Wow, we can make things like buildings etc, so what, we are not king of all animals at all.
So the other day, in the Lake District, i clapped eyes on a car with a pro fox hunting sticker...so i got out and told them what i thought of them and took a photo which you can see above! Boy i would have LOVED to see their reaction :)
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
First steps
Well here it is...the first post on what promises to be a blog charting my quest to leave as little as footprint on the Earth as possible.
Firstly, some background knowledge, just a little about me, myself and what I am and what I do. Yeah, I know, your thinking, god damn it, I came here to read about all things eco, and all things little...well...patience my friends...patience...that will come.
Now, I'm presuming you have all read my profile...what??? You have'nt???? Well, do so now, as I'm not typing that lot out again, and no, i cant just copy and paste it, you cheeky lot!
OK, I live in Gowerton, a little village of 4000 people, about 5 miles outside Swansea and right on the edge of the Gower Peninsula, the UK's first area of outstanding natural beauty. I work as a graphic designer and wannabee wildlife photographer in Cardiff, which is around 50 miles away from where I live.
What made me start this blog was something that happened to me about 6 months ago. I was happily sitting in work after travelling the best part of 500 miles in my car during the week, when all of a sudden...an email arrived...it was an Earth Footprint test http://www.myfootprint.org/ go check it out! I did the test...it came out with 6.4...YES...6.4...so in other words, my Earth Footprint was 6.4 so if everyone lived like me, we would need 6.4 Earth's to survive. That shocked me, it was by far the highest in my office, and for someone such as myself who loves wildlife and who loves the outdoors it was a horrible realisation about what i was doing to our Earth, i stared into my coffee cup and knew i HAD to change.
It was time to make some cuts. There was no way I could go on like that, i was doing roughly 700 miles a week in my car, 90% of that was on my own in the car, i was blindly buying ready meals for lunch, wasting paper, getting plastic bags with everything, using normal light bulbs and just generally not thinking about stuff. It's easy to do, its easy to go out at lunch from work, walk into a supermarket, pick up a ready meal, pay for it, put it into an oh so convenient plastic carrier bag and wander back to work, completely unaware of what you have done.
I never thought about the packaging on ready meals, a cardboard sleeve, a plastic tray, with a plastic cover. Food that comes from god knows where, no where near organic, and no where near fair trade, a plastic bag that you use once, or maybe you keep them, stuffed in a cupboard, because its a "shame" to throw them out.
I never thought about driving my car to work everyday, never thought about flipping a switch in my bedroom that turns all my electric appliances off so they aren't on standby, nothing about swapping my bulb in my room for an energy efficient one, never thought about using my bag, which i carry everyday, instead of a plastic bag, never looked at the fresh food that's sold in the market in Cardiff. I didn't not think of it on purpose, it just never entered my head.
Well now it has...and now I AM doing something about it!
So far, during the last 1 month,
Please stay tuned to my blog, and please comment, i want your views on things. I want my blog to influence people, as well as that i want "Little Eco Things" to spread the word about helping the environment and about how to live in a more Eco way.
Firstly, some background knowledge, just a little about me, myself and what I am and what I do. Yeah, I know, your thinking, god damn it, I came here to read about all things eco, and all things little...well...patience my friends...patience...that will come.
Now, I'm presuming you have all read my profile...what??? You have'nt???? Well, do so now, as I'm not typing that lot out again, and no, i cant just copy and paste it, you cheeky lot!
OK, I live in Gowerton, a little village of 4000 people, about 5 miles outside Swansea and right on the edge of the Gower Peninsula, the UK's first area of outstanding natural beauty. I work as a graphic designer and wannabee wildlife photographer in Cardiff, which is around 50 miles away from where I live.
What made me start this blog was something that happened to me about 6 months ago. I was happily sitting in work after travelling the best part of 500 miles in my car during the week, when all of a sudden...an email arrived...it was an Earth Footprint test http://www.myfootprint.org/ go check it out! I did the test...it came out with 6.4...YES...6.4...so in other words, my Earth Footprint was 6.4 so if everyone lived like me, we would need 6.4 Earth's to survive. That shocked me, it was by far the highest in my office, and for someone such as myself who loves wildlife and who loves the outdoors it was a horrible realisation about what i was doing to our Earth, i stared into my coffee cup and knew i HAD to change.
It was time to make some cuts. There was no way I could go on like that, i was doing roughly 700 miles a week in my car, 90% of that was on my own in the car, i was blindly buying ready meals for lunch, wasting paper, getting plastic bags with everything, using normal light bulbs and just generally not thinking about stuff. It's easy to do, its easy to go out at lunch from work, walk into a supermarket, pick up a ready meal, pay for it, put it into an oh so convenient plastic carrier bag and wander back to work, completely unaware of what you have done.
I never thought about the packaging on ready meals, a cardboard sleeve, a plastic tray, with a plastic cover. Food that comes from god knows where, no where near organic, and no where near fair trade, a plastic bag that you use once, or maybe you keep them, stuffed in a cupboard, because its a "shame" to throw them out.
I never thought about driving my car to work everyday, never thought about flipping a switch in my bedroom that turns all my electric appliances off so they aren't on standby, nothing about swapping my bulb in my room for an energy efficient one, never thought about using my bag, which i carry everyday, instead of a plastic bag, never looked at the fresh food that's sold in the market in Cardiff. I didn't not think of it on purpose, it just never entered my head.
Well now it has...and now I AM doing something about it!
So far, during the last 1 month,
- I have taken 1 plastic bag from a shop, and that was only because a shop assistant wrapped a shirt in one, before i had a chance to protest
- I cant remember the last ready meal i ate
- I have replaced my energy wasting bulb in my room for a an energy saving bulb
- I have cut my weekly mileage down to 200, I get the train 3 times a week now
- I switch off all my electrical items in my room so nothing is on standby
- I always unplug my phone charger when its not in use
Please stay tuned to my blog, and please comment, i want your views on things. I want my blog to influence people, as well as that i want "Little Eco Things" to spread the word about helping the environment and about how to live in a more Eco way.