Yay! I get excited when you update. I recently went veg*n as you say since I do eat honey and use beeswax. I would like to know more about balance in your diet. I also have been writing unit plans on carbon footprints and have been taking my own advice by avoiding processed food straight down to my favorite cereal, Nature’s Path any variety- I gave it up for good old oatmeal and banana. I’m fine at home but when I go elsewhere there is little to eat other than junk. I feel the affect immediately too!

Also, I tried the peroxide/vinegar reaction and it didn’t whiten! I followed your directions to a tee. However, the vinegar and baking soda pairing has changed my life and lengthened it I’m sure.

I love your site and all of the great stuff you teach us. Thanks for all of your hard work!

yay you’re back! guess what!? My friend and I are doing the master cleanse All of my coworkers think I’m nuts. I love it go clean body go!

Woooo! It’s exciting to have a friday feedback forum again! I’ve been waiting since the end of March to ask you about your dishwasher. Do you find that you need to rinse your dishes before washing them? I got in a discussion with a friend who I was visiting over spring break. He said that he tried a variety of “natural” dishwasher soap, but with all of them he had to use more water for rinsing, so is using a more chemicaltastic kind, since otherwise he is just wasting more water that’ll get chlorinated. SO, if you DON’T pre-rinse, what kind of dishwasher do you use?

(I hope that all didn’t sound as convoluted as I’m afraid it does…)

Welcome back!

Welcome back-you’ve been missed So have your recipes. Would love to see some new ones!

Sayward,

While you’ve been gone I’ve been catching up reading your blog and it’s funny–I already do a lot of the things you recommend here; however, one thing I have never done is a cleanse. I’ve been researching it and I think I want to try it. I know you’re breastfeeding, but how would you feel about leading us in a master cleanse where you are just here for support instead of participating? Thoughts?

I’ve joined the Sustainability Club at my school and intend to share practically all of your cleaning recipes! I’m super excited, good to have you back!

I was seriously ecstatic when I got, count ‘em, FOUR updated posts in my blog feed from you. Welcome welcome WELCOME BACK! The both of you. After seeing pictures of the baby bump, it’s nice to see the wonderful baby that you will be raising!

As you can tell, I have absolutely no life.

I would love to see some new recipes I’m so glad your back, I’ve really missed reading your blog. I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do next Happy first mothers day

I’m guessing that you’re using cloth diapers. I’ve seen pictures of a diaper sprayer that is connected to the toilet and I’ve heard that you can make them yourself. Soo… it would be awesome if you did a little DIY diaper sprayer tutorial, I have two months to go before I need one.

Hope you have a wonderful sunny mother’s day Sunday! It must be so special this year for you =)

Happy Mother’s Day Past few months have been a whirlwind as I’ve bid adieu to my boyfriend for 5 and a half months as he camps in the Sierra Nevadas with the Backcountry Trails program and am hopefully making a job change myself. My only feedback is to ask if you’ve read Ishmael… it has been on my bookshelf for ages now and I finally cracked it open to page one and within 2 days had devoured in it its entirety. I want to share it with the world, so if you haven’t read it and are interested please let me know!

http://tinyurl.com/ishmaelthebook

OMG I love Ishmael! It’s definitely in my top ten books!

Shelby have you read any other of Quinn’s works? I just ordered the next 2 after Ishmael and am waiting to see how those go to see if I should check out the others.

Happy First Mothers Day!
While you’ve been gone I’ve been taking more steps towards a healthful lifestyle. I’m getting ready to try the no-shampoo method. I’ve been reluctant because my hair is so oily, but one of my mottos is “don’t knock till you’ve tried it.” I am also becoming more vegan: using soy milk & other milk alternatives in my cooking, and giving up hard cheeses. I am doing research into the fishing industry and leaning toward giving up salmon. I have even considered doing a master cleanse.

So glad you’re back!

Happy Mother’s Day Sayward!

Question:
Why did you choose to avoid kombucha while you were pregnant?

Like TeanyTinyStar, I’d like to see more recipes, especially those to boost my prenatal diet with protein and calcium! (I am vegetarian, but I do occasionally supplement my diet with dairy.) My dietitian recommends 60-75 grams of protein daily. I’m curious to hear how you met your pregnancy dietary needs!

Happy First Mothers Day!!! Wahooo!!!

Nina, no I haven’t and I don’t know why I haven’t looked for them because he’s amazing! I’ve reread Ishmael a few times (it’s easy to forget the important stuff, haha!), but I just read whatever I come across/have handed down to me. I’m definitely going to scour the used book stores for those! I doubt they’re any less awesome .

@ Sybil – Well firstly, hooray! Congrats to you for going veg*n! And good for cutting out the processed stuff too (isn’t it amazing how you can feel the the crap, once you’ve stopped eating it?!). But what do you mean about balance? What kind of stuff are you interested in knowing?

Glad you’ve been enjoying the bs/vinegar recipes, and I’m so glad you like the site. Hope to see you ’round here!

@ Crystal – Awesome! Hope it’s treating you well. Let me know how it all works out for you!

@ Meghan – No, not convoluted at all! The thing is, I always feel like it’s wasteful to pre-wash dishes before the dishwasher. It’s like, either I run sink water and wash the dishes all the way, or I just throw them in the dishwasher un-rinsed. My dishwasher is ancient, too, but it mostly works for me. Once in a while I have to re-run a few dishes, meh. It may not make sense but I’m crazy like that, haha.

For what it’s worth, I don’t know that the water getting chlorinated is a fair trade off for the chemicals in conventional detergent.

@ Heather – Recipes are on the way! I have a ton of them ready to go. =)

@ Kenna – Interesting idea, leading a cleanse. Even if I don’t do it officially, I’d be more than happy to be a sounding board/resource for you if you do it. Fell free to email me any time!

@ Shelby – That’s so cool, good luck! And I hope they like my recipes!

@ Becks – Aw thank you, you’re so sweet! That’s so great to hear. =)

@ TeenyTinyStar – Thank you! And yes, lots of new recipes coming soon!

@ Cary M – I love my cloth diapers! I don’t need a sprayer yet because he hasn’t started solids – I still have a few months before that. But I’ll need a sprayer then, I think, so I’ll definitely look into the DIY options. I’m on it! =D

@ Minna – Thanks lady. It was, so so special. And sunny too!

@ Nina Zephyr – Wow, lots of change! Good luck with everything. And yes, I read Ishmael many years back and loved it. Haven’t read anything else by Quinn, but I’ve heard the rest of the books in the Ishmael series are not as good. =(

But I should revisit Ishmael . . . let me know how you like the others!

@ Valerie – Oh I hope the no-pooing goes well! And that’s great that you’re moving more towards veg*nism! Sounds like a lot of great changes. =) Good luck!

@ April – Kombucha, like soft cheeses and raw fish and deli meat, carries a very small risk of food borne illness. So, it’s safer to avoid it while pregnant, ‘just in case’. Not that it’s more likely to hurt you ’cause you pregnant. It’s just that if it does, it could be very bad for the developing fetus. It just wasn’t worth it to me to take the risk.

More recipes are coming! But are you really having trouble meeting your protein and micronutrient needs? I found that if I met my calories and included a variety of grains and legumes and nuts, I didn’t really have any issues. I would write down everything I ate once a week or so, and track it at http://www.nutritiondata.com/ Its a great resource and a great way to keep your sanity! I was always surprised at how much I was actually getting. Just remember, protein = whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, good hearty whole grain bread, legumes like beans and lentils, nuts and nut butters, and seeds like sunflower and hemp (hemp seed is a complete protein)

Calcium can be a tricky one. Make sure you include lots of dark leafy greens, beans, almonds, and sesame seeds/tahini. I also took a tablespoon of Blackstrap molasses every day.

Feel free to email me if you have any other questions! I love talking nutrition!

@ Tenise Rae – Yay, thanks lady! It was a great day. =)

Welcome Back
I would like to recommend against the master cleanse or any other longer term fast for anyone but especially first time cleansers. I work as a holistic nutritional consultant and I am against them and so are the Naturopaths I work with… it’s very depleting for the body and your body should be really supported while you cleanse. There are plenty of good options out there to assist in cleansing but even just cleaning up your diet and drinking some lemon water in the morning can help.

For those of you talking about reading more of the books by Quinn, or any other books for that matter I have this to say: Please check out your local library, the original green industry. If your branch doesn’t have it another in the system might, or they can even Inter-Library-Loan from potentially thousands of libraries. If you find that you want to purchase the book so you can refer to the pages often, try to buy used, there are so many great used bookstores such as local businesses, half price books, goodwill, st vincent de paul stores, etc, and of course amazon sells used too. Buying new should be a last resort. Thanks for hearing me out!

I’m The Naked Redhead, and I’m super green because I don’t wear any clothes. I’ve been reading for awhile but have never commented. I went veggie last October (not quite Vegan yet!) and I’ve loved it so far.

You also said I could mention a project…well, I just published my first ebook, and what’s greener than a digital book? And what’s better for summer reading than a FAUX-MANCE novel!?!? Feel free to check it out! http://www.thenakedredhead.com/thenakedredhead/first-ever-tnr-e-book.html

Thanks! I’m glad to see you posting again, too!

@ Ashley – Thanks for the input! I understand that cleansing is a very controversial topic. I’m comfortable sharing my experience because it’s my own truth, but I always encourage others to do their own research and make their own informed decision. To each their own. =)

@ Valerie – YES! Great points, thanks for the reminders.

@ The Naked Redhead – Well hooray for the first comment! Welcome out of the lurk. =)

Congrats on the e-book. You’re site is rad!

Farm.
I know you’ve been busy growing a special sprout, but it’s SPRING!

@Cary M, Sayward, & other new mom’s:

here is a DYI for a diaper sprayer & making your toilet a dual flush model:

http://www.younghouselove.com/2010/05/easy-upgrade-super-toilet/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YoungHouseLove+%28Young+House+Love%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

@ Nathan – Working on it! =D Are you growing anything this year?

@ Valerie – Awesome, thanks for the link!