A day without meat

Today is Meatout 2015.

Sponsored by Farm Animal Rights Movement, Meatout is a day for those who consume animal products to give them up for a day.

One day.

No meat, no dairy, no eggs.

Why Meatout? From their website, which I will link at the bottom of this post, "Every year, Meatout raises awareness of the benefits of eating vegan: helping animals, achieving great health, and saving the planet."

That sums it up for me.

As you know, every day is Meatout for us. 19 years for me and 11 years for Mike. What I love about Meatout is that it gives folks who are not vegan a chance to learn about veganism and the many benefits for so many around being vegan.

I know many of our readers are not vegan or are newly vegan. Check out the Meatout website. Consider eating plant-based today. For help, recipes, and tips you can also checkout the links on our blog.

Here is the link: Meatout 

Thanks for reading!

Who represents you on city council?

I write a lot about getting active politically and getting to know those who represent us throughout political levels.

Watching so many people protest in cities around the country for or against issues that are local, I decided to write about being active with one's city council.

Who is the city council member that represents you?

In Lakewood, Colorado, where we live, we have two folks on city council who represent our part of the city. Some cities have one for their area and then some who can be elected city-wide.

The city council has more power than you might think. A lot of politics is local.

I have met with our city council members about issues as diverse as chain laws for dogs kept outside, marijuana stores in town and seeing what can be done to make sure our police officers are trained in a way that they never feel they need to shoot and kill a dog.

Some cities have hundreds of employees. Do they honor same-sex couples? Smaller cities may not even have considered how animals labeled as "pets" are treated. A locally-supported Meatless Monday?

Recently a city council of another suburb of Denver, Castle Rock, were inundated with citizens who wanted them to hold off on slaughtering a colony of prairie dogs so a mall could be built. Those pleading with the council were only asking for time to move the colony. The way some council members treated those speaking for the prairie dogs made me sick.

Find out who represents you on city council. Let them know what issues are important to you. You never know what amazing difference that can make or what voiceless being you could support.

Thanks for reading.

Grocery shopping at Safeway

I have been reading news and posts about where people shop (and where they don't want to shop!) and have always wanted to write about where we shop.

Why?

Every week I get emails from folks who are newly vegan. Believe it or not the grocery store is a whole new world when newly vegan, and I often get asked where we shop.

We live in the west suburbs of Denver and have many choices. For the last nine years my main place to shop has been Safeway.

It's a chain, pretty big in Colorado. For those of who shop only at all-vegan markets, you'll want to skip this one.

There are many reasons why I love my local Safeway. There are always items on sale (I love their 10 for $10 specials) and even when items aren't on sale most of what I buy fits into our food budget. They have a great organics section and over the years have progressed into selling more and more vegan items.

They carry national vegan products like Gardein and Daiya and Immaculate Baking. And in some Safeways (not ours yet) the in-store bakeries are making vegan cake. Mmmm.They also have an amazing assortment of breads that don't cost $6.00 a loaf!

I also am often surprised by finding vegan products there that I haven't heard of before.

When I look at all of the places we shop (Safeway, Whole Foods, King Soopers and Vitamin Cottage) I always end up back at Safeway and happy. And so is our budget.

If you have a Safeway in your area check it out. If you live in the Denver area ours is the one at 38th and Wadsworth.

Happy grocery shopping.

Thanks for reading.

I ran a 5K!

Last weekend I ran into a couple of friends of mine who told me about a 5K race they were running the following day.

I got super excited. I am training for my next half marathon and thought this would be perfect. So I decided to join them.

Fantastic decision!

I arrived to the race and it was 17 degrees out! It was 19 degrees when the race began.

I finished with a time of 34:30. I felt amazing.

At 49 I feel like I am healthier than I have ever been.

I decided to write about this race to hopefully inspire those who want to get healthier. It's possible. At any age. Being vegan and living a live that includes exercise, whichever form, is awesome.

And remember, two years ago I wasn't even a runner. Since then I have run two half marathons.

I try to get to our gym twice a week. I also try to go heavy on fruits and veggies and focus on whole foods. Don't get me wrong, we eat our fair share of processed foods. Have you tried the new Gardein meatloaf! But I must say that over the past several years Mike and I have definitely been eating more fruits and veggies.

I physically feel incredible and I think being vegan and exercising have a lot to do with that!

Thanks for reading!