The Green Queen

More addiction confessions and more raw pizza!

My last post I wrote about my former addiction to pepperoni pizza and how I finally feel I have it under control.

However, what I didn't share is something that I'm very much addicted to today, even while I'm striving to be raw.

I don't like using the word "addicted", because it definitely doesn't resonate with me, but how else do you describe something you use even when you know it's bad, that you use as a way to stuff your emotions and keep you numb, and something you feel like you have no control over.

I'm talking about CRISPS. (Potato chips to some of you)

This photo is part of a campaign by the British Heart Foundation to expose hidden salt, fat and sugar in common foods. They specifically target crisps because the average child eats these readily available "treats" frequently. Unfortunately, I'm probably not the only person in the modern world to have a crisp addiction. Even Oprah has struggled with them. It's funny. I've never tried drugs (except for the odd whiff in Amsterdam), never experimented with pills, always hated cigarettes and I rarely drink. But seriously, sometimes I crave my crisps like a junkie!

I can go weeks without even thinking about a bag of crisps, and then (like yesterday), I'll eat four bags in a row. If I'm at a party, I really can't resist them. It's not a recent habit either. I can remember spending my lunch money on crisps until I went to a school that banned them, but then I was right back on them when I went to High School.

Rationally, it's probably because I haven't connected giving up crisps with my values. Giving up McDonalds (another former addiction) was easy because of the ethical, environmental AND health concerns I had. Then giving up meat for me, followed a similar process. I'm still working on dairy, but I fundamentally believe it's not a good product for my health or the planet. My diet coke habit didn't really wane until I read about how soft drink companies destroy local environments and water safety in third world countries. Now crisps, I think of as bad for my health (my supposed number 1 value), but nothing environmental or ethical. Hmmm.... interesting.

My aim now is to investigate crisps a little further. Why exactly are they bad for us? How do they impact the environment, are they an ethical product? Hopefully I find some real dirt and I can finally get them outta my life. I think it's a powerful lesson for me. Hopefully in the future my health will be reason enough, but in the meantime, I gotta guilt myself about the planet, animals and third world countries. 

Please share your addictions in the comments section and how you overcame them. 

On a more positive note!

Here are some pictures of Blanka and I enjoying some more raw pizza at her house. We have a Tues ritual of meeting for yoga and a green juice. We just extended it a little today for lunch too. Our green juice blew my socks off. Seriously green and amazing. Lots of herbs: parsley, coriander and mint; pineapple for sweetness; celery, fennel, brocolli stalk, lime and ginger. WOWSA.

Oh, and Blanka lent me her copy of Evie's Kitchen which has a recipe for deydrated potato chips. Maybe I need to carry an emergency box with me everywhere I go!

First Lady of Change

I was so inspired to read about the vegetable garden being planted at the White House, overseen by the inspiring Michelle Obama.

The last vegetable plot was there over 60 years ago as part of the WWII Victory Garden campaign.

The garden will use a 1100 square foot plot to grow vegetables, berries, herbs and salad for use in the White House kitchen. Two bee hives will supply honey. Some of the fertiliser will come from their own garden compost.

This rings my bell for several reasons:

Health: This is what Michelle is championing here, using the garden to educate children on healthy eating. Particularly important as childhood obesity rates are sky-rocketing. Getting people to eat more fruit and veg and less meat and dairy would make a profound difference to the health record of the developing world.

Hard work: Once again the Obamas are talking about seeing the fruits of your labour, reward for hard work and the joy of seeing something growing, not instant gratification.

Grow locally: Wouldn't it be awesome if this sparked off personal and community gardens? Vertical gardening so everyone could grow their own salad.

Sustainability: I suspect it's easier to go for the obesity angle at first, rather than talking too much about global food supplies, food miles, carbon footprints, whatever, but it's an ease into the discussion later down the track.

I imagine the only people who would be annoyed at this would be suppliers of fruit and veg to the White House. Not that it will be self sufficient overnight, but what a great start!

So, now all the White House need to do is put on a green and living roof, solar panels on the White House (again), a wind turbine, maybe some ground heat pumps and they'll be good to go!

Maybe after the Obamas screen The Age of Stupid (as they are rumoured to soon), they'll be inspired to go even further.

Ok, I'm off to have a lunch of salad and foraged dandelion leaves from my neighbourhood weed patch!

Photo: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Is smoking being glorified again....? (Twilight cast smoking it up)

I haven't written for a week, and it took photos of the Twilight cast smoking up a storm on the set of their new movie to bring me FURIOUS to the computer.

Why is this a green issue?

First of all, it's a health issue. Maybe these young stars are too young to remember the horrific anti-smoking ads of the 80s. 

There is no doubt that smoking is incredibly addictive, horrendously bad for your skin, lungs, tongue, hair, throat. Yuck - kissing a smoker would be disgusting!

I'm also supremely pissed because millions of kids around the world WORSHIP these actors, and seeing them smoking all cool and moody, makes it look extremely seductive. 

Sorry to be a grandma, but SMOKING SUCKS, and these cool kids would be a lot cooler if they bucked the trend and avoided the peer pressure.

Everything old is new again

Today Mark and I went wedding band shopping. As I mentioned in my previous post about wanting a green wedding, we were looking for antique (AKA recycled and green) rings. Platinum is a metal that is quite dirty in an environmental sense, so we didn't want new ones.

Antique platinum is not easy to find, and we went from place to place asking before being turned away. However, in Gray's Antique Market in Bond St, there were lots of good possibilities. Some very old, and others from fifty to seventy years ago. Mark got my engagement ring from there. It's circa 1930's and it's absolutely, absolutely beautiful. 

The jewellery in this market is amazing. Using the word market totally undersells what this place is - from cameo brooches (like the one you wish your granny had) to tiaras - dusty but gorgeous watches, eye popping aquamarine earrings - everything absolutely gorgeous. Diamonds everywhere.

We also went to the Burlington arcade and found this very upmarket jewellery store that looked like it might have antiques. We were ushered in and asked to sit down. As like in all these places, they sneak a look at my engagement ring to see what we can afford. We asked the question "do you have any antique platinum bands?"

"Antique" he asked. "Do you mean, second-hand?"

We smiled at him. "Yes"

"First of all - there is no such thing as second-hand rings, and secondly, nobody would want that anyway"

"I would" I said.

He looked at me. "Why would you want a second-hand ring that came from a dead person's finger, or a divorce?"

"Or someone who had a happy marriage" I countered. "I think it's romantic".

"I've supplied rings to hundreds of couples, I advertise in every bridal magazine. Nobody wants a second-hand ring" he said. 

So we left, thinking "what a wanker"

I don't want to be buried with my wedding and engagement rings. If our marriage is a long and happy one or lasts six months, that power isn't stored in a piece of metal. I would want someone else to enjoy it and continue to be a symbol of love for someone else. 

Secondly - why is new better? When we are running out of raw resources, or killing the planet to find the ones that we do still have (for the time being), buying antique is not just incredibly romantic, but it's better for the environment too. Believe me, when they are all shined up, you will never tell the difference, NEVER. A wedding ring is only a symbol of love. Love isn't actually embodied in the physical thing. What is embodied is potentially some heavy forest degradation, child and slave labour, supporting corrupt governments and poisonous environmental waste. To give you an idea, a single gold ring can produce over 20 tonnes of mine waste. (source)

AH - rant over! What a self righteous little Virgo I can be sometimes!! If you are getting married soon, or just buying jewellery for someone you love - go antique, and make up a lovely story about the owner(s) of it, cherish for the time it's yours and then let it go for someone else.

 

Other posts you might like

My kinda sorta, not really Green Wedding

We are Circle, by Corrina Gordon-Barnes

Buying a wedding dress you can wear again, by Katie at Ethical Weddings

Mining and Its Effects on the Environment

If you would like to attend the Eco Chic Wedding & Home Show on Sunday the 8th March, readers of The Green Queen can get 2 for 1 offer on tickets (which would make them just £4 each) with the code: ECWHS-GQ

Turn off the TV

A year or so back, we moved to a flat that didn't have a TV. It was wonderful. We both read so many books, we played Scrabble, we talked over dinner and we watched movies.

We'd go to friend's places, and I'd be freaked out by the loud noises and bright lights of the TV. I couldn't follow the quick images, but I also noticed a few things - SEX was everywhere. I couldn't believe how graphic music clips were, or how gratuitous sex scenes were. Shows were incredibly repetitive, and adverts were almost comical in how much they encouraged conspicuous consumption.

Of course, we have a TV again now, but I've noticed that I'm not watching it much at the moment. We unplug the TV when we don't watch it, and it can go a day or so without being plugged in at all.

The thing is, I get totally addicted to TV. The times in my life where I've felt a bit down, I find I watched more and more. I would stay awake to watch the end of crappy shows, just because I started it - even if I had seen it before. It would turn into a mindless drug

When I was about 13, I got a TV in my room. I literally watched that thing every second I was in my room. At night I would put it on an automatic timer, so I would go to sleep watching it. In the morning it was the first thing on.

No Impact Man also talks about the TV, and how it makes you feel bad about the things in your life that you don't have, and so increases consumption. It also increases the amount of junk food you eat. And I'm sure I've read somewhere that it almost acts as a mild depressant. It does for me.

One time I was at a friends house and we watched a whole day of Extreme Makeover. By the end of the day, I was seriously considering plastic surgery. At the very least, I felt really bad about myself - my normal breasts, my stomach, thighs, nose and I wanted hair extensions.

There are some shows that I find genuinely life affirming - like The Dog Whisperer, Oprah, The Secret Millionaire and shows about conservation, being a good person, learning to garden, or to eat better food. I'm going to make a conscious effort going forward to let TV be a good influence in my life.