Body Beautiful

  This is a new video by one of my favorite YouTube channels, Fit on Raw. This is a channel that I recommend to everyone, and I would certainly recommend it to new vegans, or people who are vegan curious. She's very calm and rational. I always wish I could carry people like that around in my pocket, and pull them out when I am accosted by aggressive, confrontational people. I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but sometimes I forget facts because I get so flustered, and then I think of all of the things I should have said after the fact. Especially when people are just giving you that look like everything you say is already wrong, before you've even said it. Those kind of people rattle me every flipping time. Anyway, this is a wonderful message about fat shaming, and I of course love it because I agree with it all. As an ethical vegan, I want to save animals. Of course I want to feel and look my best, but saving animals is what matters most to me. So, when I hear of people really struggling with various types of shaming/judgment in the vegan community, to the point where people are not comfortable calling themselves vegan, or feel ashamed because they aren't lean, or even people who are veg-curious, losing interest because of the toxic judgment, I have a problem with that. We need all types of people representing this amazing lifestyle. And we need all kinds of people eating all kinds of delicious vegan food to show that no matter what kind of food you like, it can be veganized! And when someone says they've been following Meatless Monday's, instead of side-eying and thinking it isn't good enough, high five them and maybe suggest a recipe, or a new vegan cheese(Chao, Chao, Chao!) or a new veggie burger or snack. I feel like the vegan movement is really on a roll, and I want it to keep rolling, and I want to encourage, not discourage.
Vegan or not, body shaming is never okay.
Earth Month marches on, and today I have a random tip I learned from an eighty year old woman at a laundromat. If you throw two tennis balls in with your clothes in the dryer, it does the work of the softener sheets! It keeps clothes from getting stuck in the corner of sheets and blankets, and prevents static cling. It is the best lesson learned in a laundry ever. I have been using tennis balls for two years, and I have lovely, soft, static free clothes, blankets, and sheets!