The Real Life Vegan Wife

Monthly Resource Collection May 2021

May 29, 2021June 4, 2021 thereallifeveganwifeLeave a comment

My newest obsession (aside from quitting coffee- which is going amazing by the way) is learning about how beauty, health, and wellness spaces have been colonized and therefore systematically made inaccessible to many people because of varying identities. I’ve been seriously studying this topic because it inherently intersects with just about every “ism.”

As a beauty professional (but also just as a human committed to social change) I believe it is so important I make the effort to understand how beauty, health and wellness practices have been stolen and appropriated from different cultures and religions, but also how these sectors of business have been whitewashed and healing has been constructed as a privilege for the few. These practices have very real and dangerous ripple effects on the mental and physical health of our society, affecting some much more than others.

Currently I feel like I’m constructing my own college semester (or several semesters) consisting of books, podcasts, webinars, documentaries, and articles created by BIPOC, people of various body sizes and shapes, disabled folks, and LGBTQIAA+ folks to try to learn from those who have not been placed conveniently in the front and center of the behemoth which is our current beauty, health and wellness industrial complex.

I’ve been on my fitness, health and wellness journey for years, focusing on the physical components. As I transition into a me that still loves moving my body, but is much more focused at this time on working on my mental, emotional, and spiritual fitness I think it is imperative to seek out a wide range of perspectives as teachers. People who specifically consider and recognize intersectionality and social systems as inextricably entwined with our healing and wellness. Individually, and as a collective. Healers who understand the implications these systems have on physical bodies.

If you were to look at my home library, I’d like to think the diversity of voices there is great. But when I started looking at the wellness / self improvement section of my collection, the majority are written by cisgender, non-disabled, White women, with some cisgender, non-disabled White men sprinkled in there. I didn’t have ONE book on business, self improvement, fitness or veganism written by a Mexican (my other half). What a disgrace.

Instead of feeling disempowered or guilty, I instantly saw a huge blind spot in my learning and turned it into an opportunity for change and growth, that hopefully I can share with you. There are so many more amazing authors, teachers, badass fitness instructors, vegans, and holistic health practitioners that want to share their gifts with us. Unfortunately, it takes more than diversifying our social media accounts to find many of them. It takes effort. Research. Time and energy. It takes paying them for their services if you are able. Until one day when finding a Latina business coach with a emphasis on holistic wellness from an intersectional perspective becomes as easy as finding a White woman on social media, eager to help you lose weight.

These are the resources I found particularly enlightening this month, but there are many more coming.

Books:

*The Body Is Not An Apology,* Sonya Renee Taylor

Every. One. With. A. Body: READ THIS BOOK! I received it with my monthly subscription to http://www.feministbookclub.com and oh my, did it deliver. Taylor posits that in order to dismantle systems of oppression we must learn to practice “radical self-love.” This is different than self-acceptance, confidence, or even self esteem, which she argues are not “scalable,” but restricted to the individual. When we work to unlearn and dismantle the systems that have taught us not to love our own bodies this will translate into empathy for bodies different than our own, and ultimately help to create a world where hate and terrorism against bodies will no longer be acceptable or common practice.

When we speak of the ills of the world – violence, poverty, injustice – we are not speaking conceptually; we are talking about things that happen to bodies… Racism, sexism, ableism, homo-and transphobia, ageism, fatphobia are algorithms created by humans’ struggle to make peace with the body. A radical self-love world is a world free from the systems of oppression that make it difficult and sometimes deadly to live in our bodies.”

Check out Sonya Taylor: https://www.sonyareneetaylor.com

Lalah Delia is a “spiritual writer, wellness educator, and certified spiritual practitioner.” She is such a light in the world and I am so glad I am learning from her! This book is an overview of her concept of “vibrating higher daily” which is essentially a way of existing in the world in a positive and enlightened way that draws you closer to your purpose, the collective, and the “divine” in order to use your gifts to create a better world.

Lalah Delia also teaches amazing webinars on everything from energy cleansing to divine timing. I signed up for her monthly subscription at https://www.vibratehigherdaily.com and I have been extremely happy with the amount and quality of content available for the $22 / month. I highly recommend!

Podcasts:

*Shine Brighter Together Podcast* with Monique Melton

Season 3, Episode 29: “Do Better w Rachel Ricketts”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shine-brighter-together/id1464945623?i=1000518800938

5/21/21: “Masks Off With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/latino-usa/id79681317?i=1000522634422

5/13/21: “NMA Chats: On Being a Vegan Activist in the Black Community with Jasmine C. Leyva”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-meat-athlete-radio/id476196931?i=1000521580114

Season 2, Episode 47: “11 Rituals to Raise Your Vibration”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-loved-up-with-koya-webb/id1455677259?i=1000470869132

12/17/29 59. #55. “Creating Space To Expand: A Live Conversation with Rachel Cargle”

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-girl-in-om/id1117951237?i=1000459859296

Episode 22: “Decolonize Your Diet: Luz Calvo and Catriona R. Esquibel

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-food-media/id1215522970?i=1000414763700

Movies:

This documentary focuses on the environmental impact of fishing, but also touches on the human rights violations perpetuated by a highly unregulated global industry.

It’s Week 4 of Less Coffee.

May 22, 2021May 22, 2021 thereallifeveganwifeLeave a comment

Today marks the fourth week of my plan to phase out coffee. I’m taking the slow and steady approach, rather than quitting cold turkey. Today I’m sharing my exact method for quitting, and my favorite alternative plant based energy-boosting beverages that are making the transition pretty simple and painless.

My plan for quitting coffee:

-Week 1: My baseline “normal” amount of coffee I consumed on a regular day before this experiment was about two liquid cups. This week I cut it back to 1.75 cups per day, and instead of drinking it out of my 20oz Yeti Tumbler, I drank it out of a regular coffee cup. This may seem irrelevant, but I find that my brain thinks that a ton more liquid fits in a Yeti even though the reality is that it fits about the same amount (or slightly less) as a medium-size coffee mug. Since a lot of this transition is mental, I decided that even though I was only drinking a quarter cup less coffee this week, if it looks like a full mug of coffee instead of a slightly less full tumbler, it couldn’t hurt. Hopefully that makes sense. The mind games are real.

Week 2: This week, after a very successful and painless first week, I cut my coffee intake down to 1.5 cups per day, and started experimenting with mushroom lattes here and there, just to find a recipe that I liked. We’ll get into that later, but mushroom teas and lattes can literally be delicious, and give me WAY more energy than I expected.

Week 3: Week three is when I was afraid things would begin to go downhill. Up until this point I was feeling great, and not much different. But now I cut my coffee intake down to one cup per day. At this point there was simply not enough delicious warm liquid to pair with my morning ritual. So I’d enjoy my one cup of coffee with my Nutpods creamer in my cute 14oz Yeti Rambler Mug (get yourself something cute to make this process fun), then make myself a mushroom latte to follow. All week, I felt amazing.

Week 4: Today marks the beginning of my week of only 1/2 cup of coffee per day. Now it feels silly to have two separate beverages, so I’m back to using my 20oz tumbler, but with my 1/2 cup of coffee blended into my mushroom latte. For a full two cups of delicious morning-routine goodness.

Week 5: My plan for next week is to continue to mix coffee into my mushroom latte, but cut it back to 1/4 cup per day.

Week 6: 1/4 cup of coffee mixed into my mushroom latte every other day.

Week 7: I’ll reevaluate how I’m feeling at this point and adjust accordingly, but I think at this point I will cut it back to two days this week.

Week 8: One day this week.

Week 9: Full mushroom latte, no coffee!

Obviously you can see it will take me about two months, or a little bit more, to fully quit coffee. I rarely consume any other caffeinated drinks, and am not concerned with the small amount of caffeine I consume through foods like cacao. So I’m taking it slow so my mood and energy can maintain, and hopefully improve, without many of the common withdrawal symptoms or irritability. I’ve been drinking coffee for about half of my life, so I want to quit it in a way that will be sustainable forever. So far, so good.

The Mushrooms:

I picked up Cordyceps, Chaga, and a 5:1 Maca concentrated extract from a brand called Moon Juice. I was already mixing Lion’s Mane Elixir from a brand called Four Sigmatic into my coffee on occasion so I also keep that in our cupboard regularly. I’ll link everything I purchased below, with a brief description of why I chose these ingredients. Just click on the photos for more information. I imagine that this list will be ever-evolving as I figure out what I like and try new things, but at this moment these are the energy-boosting ingredients I’m experimenting with. I also did a ton of outside research before landing on these, so I encourage you to do the same.

Cordyceps “Bioactive Supershroom”

For energy, recovery, balancing blood sugar.

Chaga “Protective Supershroom”

For energy, concentration, and immune-boosting.

Lion’s Mane Elixir

For mental clarity, focus, and endurance.

In addition to these “supershrooms,” I also ordered a 5:1 concentrated Maca powder.

For energy and mood.

Current Mushroom Latte Recipe:

1.5-2 Cups Plant Milk (I use unsweetened almond)

1 tsp Mushroom Powder (I choose one type per latte. Cordyceps seems to be my favorite so far.)

1 tsp Maca Powder

1 tsp Raw Cacao Powder

1 tsp Maple Syrup

(If applicable, you can add coffee to this recipe in any quantity you prefer, just reduce the amount of plant milk added.)

Directions: Put all the powders in the bottom of your mug. Heat up your coffee / plant milk separately then pour over the top. Mix thoroughly and enjoy. I use a Powerlix Milk Frother to mix it and it works great and even froths it as well.

Let’s Talk About Coffee

May 8, 2021May 8, 2021 thereallifeveganwifeLeave a comment

Part 2 In the “I’m Quitting Coffee” Series

I’m not a doctor. I’m not even medical field adjacent. However, I can do research (thank you internet) and make decisions for myself based on my findings. I’m not trying to give anyone health advice; this blog is mostly about telling you what works for my body and lifestyle with the hope and intention that my adventures will give you something interesting to think about. If you implement one of my lifestyle changes or experiments in your own life and it works for you, that’s awesome.

That being said, the research on caffeine and its effects on anyone with a menstrual cycle who is not planning on having a baby are discouragingly minimal. Shockingly, research on caffeine and the “human body” in general, is everywhere. We’ve all heard that too much caffeine could mean increased heart rate and blood pressure, more anxiety, maybe some irritability and headaches, a touch of stomach issues, and then usually there’s a slight mention of “pregnancy and fertility” issues. None of those reasons inspired me to look into quitting coffee… at first glance. My husband and I aren’t having kids, and the other reasons just weren’t enough of a concern to get me to quit my beloved and delicious coffee. Then I started thinking about it. Women have hormonal cycles that can be significantly disrupted by many things (including stimulants) who may NOT be trying to get pregnant. Pregnancy and fertility are not a concern to me, but obviously there is an underlying issue there that is specific to women.

To summarize the readily-accessible mainstream data: unless I’m planning on being pregnant, I shouldn’t worry about what coffee is doing to my body even though something about regular caffeine consumption could alter my hormones enough to make it hard for me to get pregnant.

Why isn’t women’s health important to study outside the context of our ability to grow babies? Most of us know the answer to that question. The good news is that the research is slowly being done, but because there is so little data many of the findings are considered anecdotal or unsubstantiated. We need more information, but I’m fine with that. I’m willing to roll the dice on something like this. If it helps, that’s excellent. And quitting won’t hurt me.

Here are the three reasons I am quitting coffee:

1) Blood Sugar

If you’ve been following my blog for a while you know that I quit eating refined sugars over two years ago. I noticed that every time I ate sugary foods I would get extremely tired and lethargic, and my anxiety levels would skyrocket. I almost never felt hyper or energetic; I went directly to having an exhausted body with a huge amount of anxiety and mood swings. I did some basic research and concluded that my body can break down and benefit a lot from natural sugars (I still eat a ton of fruit throughout the day and get plenty of clean energy from it) but anything too high on the glycemic scale causes my blood sugar to get too high. For anyone who may not know, this means that in response, the pancreas releases insulin (a hormone) into the bloodstream to help cells absorb the sugar.

What I didn’t know, until recently, is that these spikes in insulin production can interfere with ovulation, which interferes with progesterone production and can lead to estrogen dominance. I will let you do your own research from here, but estrogen dominance and progesterone deficiency (essentially hormonal imbalance) are some of the major contributors when it comes to any and all “PMS” symptoms like cramping, headaches, bloating, moodiness and depression, chronic exhaustion, etc.

The other thing I didn’t know is that studies have been done that show that caffeine, just like sugar, can have similar effects on the body, especially if consumed in the morning before food. Even without the sugary creamer, coffee on it’s own causes blood sugar levels to rise, which in turn causes insulin and cortisol (stress hormone) spikes, and therefore, hormonal imbalance.

2) PMS and Estrogen Imbalance

Even though I’m breaking this down into my top three reasons, there will be overlap because all of these issues are so interconnected – that’s kind of the point.

As long as I can remember I have gotten headaches, or even migraines, right before my period starts. Recently, I’ve also started to experience increased cramping and lethargy, which I haven’t had for many years. The flood of estrogen into my system is what I’ve found to be the culprit and I’ve done several things to help. I increased my intake of flax because the omega-3s help reduce inflammation in the body, I take b vitamins to help with energy, and I upped my magnesium consumption with dark leafy greens and cacao in my smoothies almost every morning. Magnesium helps convert food into energy, helps regulate blood sugar levels, increases cell’s ability to absorb sugar from the bloodstream, and has anti-inflammatory properties, among many other benefits.

I have definitely noticed an improvement in all of my PMS symptoms after quitting refined sugars and increasing my omegas, b vitamins, and magnesium consumption, however, I have begun to wonder if caffeine consumption is somewhat sabotaging my results as it works actively against all the progress I’m making by contributing to hormonal imbalance.

3) Magnesium and Micronutrient Absorption

This last point sealed the deal for me. Caffeine, plain and simple, drains the body of hormone-balancing minerals and nutrients. On the one hand, the acidity in coffee can create an imbalance in your gut flora which can make it harder for you to absorb all the nutrients in a healthy diet. In turn, this makes it harder for your endocrine system to balance hormones. Additionally, caffeine doesn’t necessarily leach magnesium and b vitamins (amongst other nutrients) out of the body, but it may reduce the intestine’s ability to absorb the nutrients in the first place. Therefore, it can lead to deficiency’s over time.

So, in conclusion, I’ve made many changes over the last several years to heal my mind and body, and for some reason I feel like I’ve hit a plateau with my PMS symptoms. It’s not a surprise when I look at these findings and realize that caffeine (something I consume on a daily basis) is contributing to blood sugar spikes, hormonal imbalance, and less absorption of hormone balancing minerals and nutrients. Caffeine is actively working against my efforts to improve my symptoms in pretty much every area. So it goes!

I begin my transition out of coffee drinking today. Instead of two cups, I’m having one. And then I’m going on a mushroom latte adventure.

______

Useful Resources:

http://www.Floliving.com

https://moonjuice.com

https://us.foursigmatic.com