It is very clear that the the North American diet is totally messed up. It is also clear to me that a whole foods, raw, plant based diet is the best diet for our health. It is interesting however, to see how hard this is for people people to learn and accept. That said, we also need to be careful about the plants (fruits and vegetables) that we do eat because of the genetic modifications and the chemicals that are put onto the products to make them grow faster, more perfect looking and look good after traveling around the world to supermarkets. This article asked some experts what foods they would avoid. Can you believe that apples, tomatoes, and potatoes are on the list – what…. read on >>>>

On the back page of this weeks paper, the first listing of Market Place IGA’s advertisement is “Fresh New Zealand Strip Loin Grilling Steak…” Before I get started, full disclosure ~ I’m eating very little meat these days. (for more on that, read this post). Regardless of what you feel about eating meat I don’t believe we should be importing beef from New Zealand to sell in our stores in Canada. The way to stop this is to not buy imported beef and bring this choice to the attention of the butcher.

Environmentally it is just WRONG! Beef has a very high carbon foot print to make a pound. Then you fly it from New Zealand instead of grass fed Pemberton beef or maybe Abbotsford, or the Caribou area or if we must Alberta (where arguably the best beef in the world comes from and where my Dad farmed and raised great beef cattle). There has been a lot of talk and understanding of the benefits of the 100 mile diet. In Whistler most of us know the challenges of the 100 mile diet concept as there are some foods we just can’t get from within 100 miles and we are not up to modifying our diet that much. But, flying beef (that already has one of the highest carbon foot prints just to produce) literally to the other side of the world where there is plentiful supply of exactly the same product makes no sense from an environmental standpoint?

Economically it makes no sense! Support our local industries! When you think of the costs to ship the product from a farm in New Zealand to the IGA in Whistler, you know the farmer in New Zealand is getting very little for his product. At the same time, Canadian farmers are getting government subsidies (that is your tax dollars) to offer lower prices for their beef to be competitive with New Zealand beef (who are also getting subsidies). Yes you got that right… by buying New Zealand beef a portion of your taxes go to Canadian farmers to offer competitive prices – so you really aren’t getting a bargain are you?

This is a rant ~ So please forgive me if the flow is a bit off or the logic as typed is not as clear as it is in my head.

(click on this image twice to see the large version) For the source article click here

There is a lot of miss information that is being put out there by the anti-HST group. As British Columbian’s Consumers and business benefit from a single harmonized tax. We pay less for government resources having to track and monitor (audit) the old embedded PST based system. This video highlights some of the miss information and is actually quite entertaining. I am voting NO and I encourage you to do the same if you care about being better off financially.

CBC News – The National – Rex Murphy – Rex’s take on the riots.

What a great run the Canucks had toward the Stanley Cup. In spite of all the expectations they didn’t quite finish. But hey, that is sports and it is just a game. Both teams are on the golf course today – one team just gets their name engraved on a cup and big ring

I was proud of the Vancouver fans when they gave a rousing ovation to the Canucks after the game. I was also happy to see the Vancouver fans in the stadium applaud the awarding of the cup to Boston and a big applause when home boy Lucic got his turn to carry hockey’s coveted trophy.

That pride quickly turned to shame and embarrassment as the news turned to the riots going on outside. I could not believe what I was watching. I was happy to see the news media not holding back in their editorial comments about how bad the situation was. Watching a few concerned citizens put their well being in danger to try and stop the xxx (insert ~ thug, idiot, hoodlum, low life, fool, drunk, good kid caught up in the moment – here). Their actions showed that not everyone in the crowd had lost their mind.

Vancouver is a great city and unfortunately the great reputation was damaged by one night of bad behaviour by a few non-hockey fans.

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I found it very interesting to see that the Whistler High School Newsletter used an image of a yoga pose along with their reminder of the importance of daily physical activity. I think this is fantastic. Probably only a few readers of the newsletter even made notice of this, as they skimmed the newsletter. Also unlikely, is that the image used was a conscious choice to use a yoga image while browsing clip art to create the newsletter. However, the fact that it is there is gratifying to me that in our high school yoga is on the radar as a physical activity and we know yoga is much more than that.

This certainly has turned out to be an interesting day. Starting off waking up in one of the most serene places on earth. I was deep in the Callaghan Valley at the Callaghan Country Lodge. The lodge and scenery is so beautiful.

The day now ends with images and thoughts of war and the 9/11 tragedy. We have learned that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by US Special Forces. A long time coming, but finally tracked him down. Peace would be so much easier. Now the questions of what does this mean are already starting to bubble to the surface. Will there be ramifications ~ yes. When, where and who from – probably nobody knows. Does the world feel safer – well I don’t know but it will be different tomorrow that is for sure.

Today’s event will take some of the steam off of tomorrows Canadian election.  We are now only 5 days from the Whistler Yoga Conference.  There is still time to register. http://whistleryogaconference.com

Who would have ever thought in a million years I would be in a yoga poster. Well here it is!

Meatless Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday! People become vegan for their own very personal reasons. At this time, I admit that I am not vegan, but when I see videos or articles such as the one below I wonder why not. This video discusses five good reasons to go vegan. I think it comes down to three:
* Compassion for living beings – as humans we have the opportunity and the choice to not eat or wear other animals.
* Compassion for the environment – farms that produce animals have a higher environmental impact than farms with plants.
* Compassion for our own bodies – more and more science is proving that a plant based diet is beneficial for health and longevity.

Far be it for me to tell you what you should do – we have to decide for ourselves and I certainly will not judge, but for these reasons I’m eating less meat, dairy, eggs and any other animal based products.