Getting Back To Business

Hey guys. I'm sure you noticed that I was not around last week. To be honest, it was a REALLY hard week for me. I was having some personal issues that were causing me a lot of stress and anxiety. On top of that, I heard the news that Anthony Bourdain had taken his life on Friday and that really affected me. I know it isn't a popular opinion among the vegan community to be a fan of his but I was. A really big fan in fact. Sure, he made some disparaging comments about vegans but guess what… his discourse was meant to be extreme and polarizing. Sure, he's painting vegans in a negative light and that sucks. But,  I chose to look at all of the amazing work that he did for PEOPLE. I think sometimes we can forget that people are animals too and deserve the same kindness and compassion. Anyway, I had huge respect for his talent, his storytelling, his drive to champion and support the underdog and his desire to teach us what travel is really about… straying off the beaten path and experiencing local cultures the way they should be experienced. He allowed people to tell their stories to a global audience and shed light on how people truly live in places we would never otherwise see.

So while he made his comments about vegans and our diets vastly differed, I appreciated him for the work that he did for people. I also appreciated his humor, his snarky attitude, his raw honesty and his authenticity. And it makes me sick to see vegans celebrating a man's death because they didn't see eye to eye and because they felt personally attacked by his words. Sure, he compared vegans to Hezbollah in an extreme statement. But are you proving your point or his when you celebrate his death?

I'll finish these thoughts by including some of my sentiments that I already shared on social media. Mental illness doesn't care what you eat. It doesn't care about your race or gender. It doesn't care how rich you are, how famous you are or how much status you have. It doesn't not discriminate and we need more mental health awareness and we need to stop the stigma so people who need help feel comfortable enough to seek it.

Over the weekend a family member was injured and I have been helping to care for her. Then yesterday I found out that my Master's Thesis Advisor/Committee Chair had passed away from cancer. I had a great deal of respect for him and to be honest, it was an absolute honor and privilege to have been able to work with him. He was generous with his time and resources and he fought for me. He fought for me to get into that program, he fought for me to get an assistantship and he fought for me along the way when people gave me shit. He is the reason I went to that school and I'm so incredibly grateful for everything that he did for me and shared with me.

As you can see this week has been pretty shitty. And that is why I haven't been posting and I only have 4 images to share with you today. I'm tired, I'm emotionally drained, I haven't been eating much and what I have eaten I haven't really photographed much. All I have is last week's grocery haul and a few images of boring food. I'm going to share them with you anyway.

A small haul from Trader Joe's. Tomatoes, zucchini, baby carrots, avocado, eggplant (from a different grocery store), whole wheat couscous, basil and the new Peanut Date bars.

I highly recommend these bars. They are really delicious with simple ingredients. I've read in the Vegan Trader Joe's Facebook group that they are really good out of the fridge and freezer so I'm going to put one in each and see how I like them.

Some avocado toast on whole wheat bread. The avocado was perfectly ripe.

Finally some perfectly ripe, juicy peaches. So delicious. I'm so glad summer produce is finally here.

So that is what I have for you today. I'm sorry if it was a downer but I'm doing my best to rebound and get back on track. I'm also sorry if I seemed a bit rant-y in my discussion of Anthony Bourdain above but I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. Maybe I'll catch shit from the vegan police and maybe I won't. I guess we'll see. 

I'm hoping to be back on track with documenting my meals for a post on Friday. I'm not 100% sure because I am still helping to care for my family member (she broke her shoulder so she does need quite a bit of help for now) but I'm hoping to be able to find some balance and to get everything done.

I hope you all had a good week last week. I'm sorry again for the brief hiatus and the sadness in this post. Hopefully happier times are in the future.