Throwing away diabetes by changing what you eat:

The Engine Diet author Rip Esselstyn speaking on being a vegan fire fighter and having a vegan crew:

This is an excellent video that I had never seen before. Rip is a fire fighter who has transformed his entire station into a vegan haven, and has dramatically improved the health of all the people he works along side. Watch it!

Schools kill creativity- Why you might consider home-schooling your child, at least for a while:

I may have talked about this TED Talk by Ken Robinson before, but I was reminded of it again when I asked Josh how his day at school was yesterday. He answered "It's getting old". I know exactly how he feels, and it has been progressively getting worse since I was in high-school. There is a stifling of creativity that occurs while we are being trained as worker bees who are all popped out of identical moulds.

Josh is bored. Students are taught one way, and if your son doesn't happen to learn in that particular way, well then he's out of luck. He simply won't excel, his self-esteem will diminish because he is told over and over how badly he's doing, and he will feel like dropping out because what's the point in staying in school and going to university when it no longer guarantees you a job in the future? It's a fact.

Here is a real question- Why is math, language, science, history and geography more important than creativity programs such as art, dance, music and drama? These are always the courses that have no funding, and treated as filler; but they are culture. They are what make kids look forward to school. Some children learn primarily through visual devices (like myself), some learn through sound, some through physically interacting and working out problems in three dimensional space, and others learn from a combination of these things or other. I know that most kids thrive more in an outdoor environment. We are sucking any joy from learning when we plop a teacher at the front of a room, get the kids into straight rows facing her/him, and force them to copy things from the blackboard and regurgitating information that is already set in stone.

I home-schooled Josh some years, travelled with him and reintegrated back into school in between. Whenever he was in a structured school he liked it for the greater social interaction, but suffered badly of boredom and restraint. I was not a perfect teacher, but I spent a lot of quality time with my son, had some fantastic adventures, laughed a whole lot and gave him a freedom that most kids never experience. He always had choices and I gave him room to do what he needed at the time.

Josh has a personality that needs a lot of activity- physical, social and mental. When he became interested in painting I let him dive right in, when he got into surfing in Costa Rica I let him do his work in the mornings and ride the waves all afternoon, when he wanted to make jewellery I gave him the crystals, wire and tools, when he wanted to play guitar I got a friend to teach him lessons... It will change all the time because that's what exploration and creativity is. It's the most beautiful thing and we, as adults, tend to lose it as we fight our way through school and make our way into the working class. We criticize ourselves for not having focus on one thing that we can become good at, but trying a lot of different things and having experiences is what life is all about.

So how do I ignite the dulling flame of Josh's enthusiasm for school when I don't believe it's actually in his best interest to go to such a life-force leaching place? He's in grade 11 now and has one and a half years left to go until he graduates, but how do I convince him to struggle through and tell him everything will be fine? He's extremely smart and creative, this is clear- so it's not that he's a dumb kid who can't handle the grade level. In fact I don't believe many kids are dumb at all- they just need something different than what they are being given.

So I am going to do the best I can to give him a positive experience at home and not freak out at him if he's not making the grades at school. He needs social interaction and teenage lessons, so I'm not going to take off travelling with him at this point; but I'm very very glad I did when he was younger. Do not be afraid to teach your own children. At least they will remember your time spent with them more than the math class they missed.
Click here to watch the TED Talk video.

We're finishing up the book! So stay tuned...

Want to know who else is vegan and vegetarian? You might be surprised...

Oprah on factory farming. What are we eating?

Here it is! Oprah does an amazing show on factory farming! I don't have a TV, but I found this on-line. The world has been educated... now let's see what people do with it. I'm impressed.


Here is part 2, but I can't seem to find the rest- anyway watch Food Inc. below.
I'm impressed.


Here is the link to the documentary Food Inc., which Oprah talks about. Watch it for free by clicking here. It's aREALLY good film, so take the time to watch it. It covers everything.

Sweet Mysery documentary about artificial sweeteners... Just amazing.

Here is the quick trailer for the film. Click the link below (at the bottom) to watch the whole documentary.

Watch this documentary. Anyone who has Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromialgia, Diabetes, hypoglycemia, Brain Cancer or a number of other neurological diseases must become aware of the dramatic effects of long-term use of artificial sweeteners. I am blown away- really. And it's not just Aspertame, it's Equal, Nutrisweet, and a slew of chemical sweeteners that are in thousands and thousands of product we eat everyday.

Click here to watch the whole film!

It's the best one I've seen on the subject. There is a direct link to consuming artificial sweeteners and disease. When you stop ingesting it you get better.