Monk Mode vs. 'Sicko Mode' Challenge

A Buddhist nun followed in the footsteps of her brother who took the monk mode challenge.

(Tasty Husbands) Cleveland hates pervert Glenn Quagmire for cheating with his wife on Family Guy

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If he succeeds, I'll become a Buddhist nun.

I tried to spend a week eating healthily, meditating skillfully, reading wisely, and sweating profusely by running 5K [as tapas or "burning off" the bad by austerity] every day, all while ditching television completely, giving up social media scrolling, and turning my back and not touching alcohol at all.

I failed, but that didn’t stop it from changing my life.

Health trends are 10 a penny on TikTok, from the genuinely dangerous Gallon of Water a Day for 30 Days trend to the brutal 75 Hard Challenge and the ever-popular 12-3-20. And guys are more likely to be influenced into giving extreme ones a go more than women, according to a recent study.

• If only Doggone could write, we'd know all about it. He took a challenge with Ananda to "muscle" his way to meditation. Then he doesn't turn in his results write up.
• Male sex, high age, little physical exercise, and low levels of education are all associated with allostatic load

If I stare at this rock long enough...something?

I clearly am one of those gullible men. I wanted to throw myself headfirst into a new challenge. I've tried and failed any number of them. (Over lockdown, I stuck to the 100-pushup challenge for a little while).

But after hitting a bit of a slump at the start of the year, I wanted something that would jolt me out of it. I was exercising pretty regularly, but spending too long trapped in YouTube rabbit holes and not reading as much as I’d like. That’s where “monk mode” came in.

Going "monk mode" was far harder than I ever thought (iStock/Indy 100).

It was great living up at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center above LA as a Zen monk before music fame.

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First Western Buddhist monk was Irish

It’s a pretty far-reaching term one sees bandied across the internet from time to time, and it can encompass any number of different elements.

There are some challenges listed, including ditching caffeine, which I was afraid to do, considering I was only doing monk mode for a week and had absolutely no intention of giving up my addiction to coffee in the long run, so it didn't make sense.

But in essence, monk mode involves dramatically cutting down screen time by placing a ban on drains like social media and TV. 

And it proved to be tough – tougher than I ever imagined it would be. The exercise part was by far the easiest part.

Monks East and West are different. Travel East.

I’m a regular runner anyway, and all it took was upping the level from three 5K runs a week to every day. 

It was a bit of a blessing that I went into monk mode after a relatively heavy weekend, which had involved plenty of Guinness [a type of addictive gluten alcohol the use of which is rampant in Ireland and parts of Europe] during a trip to Twickenham, so the no drinking wasn’t much of a problem either.

The challenge taught me a lot about my habit for procrastinating, though. I don’t think of myself as a social media addict, but I found my thumb unthinkingly heading for the Instagram app – out of boredom more than anything else – and I kept having to stop myself. More

"Sicko Mode" (rap rock metal cover)

(MaryJane Daniel) Here's our favorite rap metal/rock cover of "Sicko Mode"

Trip to America's stupidest city

(MindSquire) Stupidest city in US (Jackson, Mississippi) is full of Americans

• Harry Fletcher (indy100.com via MSN, 2/28/24); Tasty Husbands; MaryJane Daniel; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; MindSquire

Science: 1st European cities were vegetarian

Aristos Georgiou, Newsweek, 1/5/24; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What was there to eat in Europe?

Prehistoric humans living in Europe's earliest mega-settlements ate a diet that was almost 100% vegetarian, a new scientific study from Germany has found.

In the study, published in the science journal PNAS, a team of scientific researchers investigated the agricultural and economic system of ancient "mega-sites," which were built around 6,000 years ago by the Trypillia ("Three Fields") culture.

Moldova coat arms

That's [in the cold Kiev Oblast, formerly part of Russia's Soviet Union] in what is now Ukraine and Moldova in Eastern Europe.

• Science proves it: Isotopes prove advanced, integral crop production, and stockbreeding strategies nourished Trypillia mega-populations | PNAS

These early European cities covered up to 320 hectares (791 acres) and housed as many as 15,000 inhabitants.

At the time, the mega-sites were the largest settlements in the world, according to the study [though probably smaller than countless megacities in the Amazon now being discovered in the Americas/"New World" using LiDAR technology].

Each of the mega-sites existed for multiple generations. But to date, the economy of the Trypillia settlements has remained poorly understood, particularly when it comes to how exactly the mega-sites' inhabitants sustained themselves with food.

Those inhabitants were largely farmers who grew crops and raised livestock. But how could such large groups of people have secured their food supply with the technology available at the time?

• [This is an odd question since the larger an organism or population, the more likely it is to be vegetarian to sustain itself -- e.g., the whale, gorilla, cow, water buffalo, and formerly the grizzly bear -- because it is much more efficient in terms of its impact on the environment. Imagine, e.g., all the grain, not to mention the water and other greens, needed to convert to just one pound of animal flesh. If humans ate that grain directly, they would be far healthier and many more of them could be fed.]

The latest study has shed new light on this issue, finding that the mega-sites survived thanks to an "extremely sophisticated food and pasture management" system, Frank Schlütz, a paleoecologist at Germany's Kiel University and one of the authors of the study, said in a press release.

The team came to these conclusions after analyzing nitrogen and carbon isotopes in human remains, animal bones, and charred crops found at Trypillia ("Three Fields") settlements, which enabled them to shed light on their ancient food webs.

Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons.

• More: Diets were almost exclusively vegetarian in the first European cities (Newsweek via MSN)

Here's what the ancient diet was like throughout history

In the 1970s, a gastroenterologist created an eating plan that was supposed to imitate the Paleolithic diet, but he got many things wrong.

For instance, he assumed that ancient people didn't eat wheat [a high source of toxic gluten, a plant lectin used to protect itself from being eaten].

This proves that many people don't understand how ancient humans ate.

The human diet progressed far earlier in history than most people think. For instance, people have cooked for at least one million years, and Neolithic people processed milk [a source of hard to digest lactose, which most humans do not have the enzymes to process after they have been weaned from their mothers].

Most may be surprised how early people hunted, cooked, and farmed. Read on to learn how diet devolved throughout human history.

• More: Here's what the ancient diet was like throughout human history (msn.com)

Plant-based mushroom "chik-un" chef (video)

Chef, can you make us something like this Buddha's Delight out of tofu or green jackfruit?

Mushroom tastes like chicken, so make KFC

Why did the chicken cross the road?

(Sauce Stache) 9/15/19: I finally got my hands on "Chicken of the Woods," the mushroom that tastes just like poultry.

I can't believe how incredible this mushroom tastes, so I knew I had to make a plant-based KFC ("Kentucky Fried Chik-un"). I ordered mushrooms here (no sponsorship): oregonmushrooms.com.

Vegans love to love and be loved by chickens.

The goal of SauceStache is to continue trying something new to me and something different. I find inspiration from The SauceSquad and my constant hunt on social media to see what food is being made around the world and how I can try to make it. Let's try to make some food while having fun.

Patreon.com/saucestache. JOIN the SauceSquad Saucestache.com to print recipes and merchandise. Music by Joakim Karud (joakimkarud).

Dead animals, clean meat, mushroom solution

Paul Shapiro, TEDxSouthLakeTahoe, 1/3/18; Ash Wells, S. Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The best, cleanest, healthiest, tastiest "burgers" will be made from mushroom fibers.

Clean meat: the clean energy of food | Better Meat's Paul Shapiro

We're not cannibals. We won't eat animals.

(TEDx Talks) Since the dawn of Homo sapiens, animals have satiated one species’ craving for bloody meat.

But with a growing human population and capitalist demand for animal products increasing, raising such huge numbers of animals to become food poses serious challenges.

But what if human could have animals and eat them, too? Enter "clean meat" — real meat, grown without animals — which has now moved from science fiction to science fact.

We would sooner eat each other.

Paul Shapiro serves as the vice president of policy for The Humane Society of the United States, the world’s largest animal protection organization.

In 1995, Shapiro founded Compassion Over Killing as a high school club, building it into a national organization over the next decade.

An inductee into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame, Shapiro has published dozens of articles about animal welfare in publications ranging from daily newspapers to academic journals.

He’s also the author of a book on the clean meat movement (Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx.

Vegans: Animal Chaplaincy Training (6/25)

Wm. Melton (Compassion Consortium), Ananda (DBM), Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

I can help animals and humans? Yes!

Celebrate the graduation and ordination of the Animal Chaplaincy Training Program on June 25, 2023. It is a celebration of the graduation and ordination of animal chaplains, trained students.

The service will include practices, prayers, and messages created by the emerging chaplains, celebrating their certification, graduation, and ordination who have completed the initial-year of the Compassion Consortium's 9-month Animal Training Chaplaincy program.

It will include immersive spiritual practices — such as a musical reflection, meditation, prayer, and loving-kindness (metta).

• We celebrate the ordination of our Animal Chaplaincy Training Program, Sunday, June 25, 2023, 1:00 PM | Meetup

This muscle is built from 100% vegan foods

Animal chaplains support both animals and humans by using ritual, ceremony, and the tools of spiritual companionship. 

The training program helps them fulfill their heart’s call to honor and celebrate the lives of all species, including how to companion them through joys and challenges.

The program is non-denominational and does not require students to have any specific spiritual outlook. It does, however, work with a diverse set of belief systems, so that students can support people regardless of their own personal outlook.

Beauty's in a bottle or on a table?

Animal Chaplaincy Training is available in 3-month, 6-month, and 9-month program durations. All programs begin each September.

Training includes live classes (available worldwide via Zoom) with CC faculty and guest speakers. The program also features curated readings and reflections, film discussions, peer-supported practice groups, 1-on-1 mentoring, and community-based experiential sessions.

An optional year-end, in-person retreat is offered. The curriculum combines chaplaincy fundamentals and bereavement basics with best practices from the innovative fields of inter-spirituality, humane education, animal theology, nature spirituality, and human-animal studies.

• Animal Chaplaincy Training | Compassion Consortium

Pat and animal companion

ABOUT: Mindful Coach™ Patricia Denys will be featured on the June 25th Compassion in Action segment. She is an artist, animal activist, educator, photographer, vegan, yogini, and advocate for the well-being of artists, activists, women, animals, and all who are seeking purpose and peace. She has been teaching for over 25 years in the Los Angeles area and has been a working artist, photographer, published author, and animal activist her entire adult life. She was trained as a professional coach by CTI (Co-Active Training Institute) and is a member of ICF (International Coaching Federation). Her life has been spent as a working artist, photographer, educator, graphic designer, academic dean, writer, and activist. Her most recent studio works have focused on the dichotomies that exist between society’s perception and the reality of animals in containment, such as in factory farms and the public display industry, specifically regarding the plight of Tilikum, the Orca held hostage at SeaWorld. Learn more about Patricia and her work at patriciadenys.com

Free Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck (11/24)

Rancho Park Vegan Potluck Picnic (Facebook); Ananda (DBM), Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

• Annual Rancho Park Vegan Potluck on Thanksgiving Day | SEVA (Selfless Service) 💚 | Facebook
• FREE RSVP: Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck (11/24)
• Dharma Buddhist Meditation

L.A.-based Beyond Meat going to China

AP.org via KTLA.com, Sept. 8, 2020; Ananda (DBM), Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Vegan Starter Kit (peta.org)

El Segundo-based Beyond Meat signs production agreement in China

Beyond Meat will begin making plant-based meat in China later this year under an agreement announced Tuesday.

They are building building two facilities outside Shanghai.

• El Segundo-based Beyond Meat reports jump in sales as more people try plant-based burgers
• Dunkin’ to launch Beyond Meat breakfast sandwich nationally

Production will begin later this year, with full production expected in early 2021.

Beyond Meat products made their Chinese debut in April at Starbucks, which sells the company’s imitation beef in lasagna, pasta, and a spicy wrap. [Sadly, most Americans have not yet stopped eating toxic gluten.]

Beyond Meat burgers entered Chinese grocery stores in June through a partnership with Alibaba.

This is Beyond Meat’s second international expansion this year. It opened a manufacturing facility in the Netherlands in June. More

Last Week Tonight: Modi's India (video)

John Oliver (HBO, Feb. 23, 2020); Pfc. Sandoval, S. Auberon, A. Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Vegetarian Modi with cow-devouring Trump

John Oliver talks about India’s own "Trump," the right-wing nationalist, Hindu extremist Prime Minister Modi: why he’s popular, why he’s controversial, where things are headed for the largest democracy in the world.

• Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi's India (The New Yorker) Modi's closest adviser, Amit Shah, tied to a sensational crime
• Under Modi, a Hindu nationalist surge has further divided India... (NY Times) religious-based hate crimes
• How Hindu nationalist groups support Modi in the U.S. (The Intercept) Modi began fostering ties with Hindu nationalist groups in the US...and hate crimes against Muslims and other minorities have skyrocketed... How many covert wars...
• In India, Modi faces a growing backlash to his Hindu nationalist... India's 2020 Citizenship Amendment Act...applies to migrants from three neighboring countries
• In India, Modi is putting Hindu nationalism above global relevance [Will] Trump be enough to hold off a trade war?
• King Modi (Washington Monthly) India's recent election shows that majoritarian nationalism is hard to defeat
• Modi's got a bloody massacre on his hands (The Guardian)

For more almost news as it almost happens (LWT), find it like your mom would (FB), follow it for news about jokes and jokes about news (Tw), or visit the official site for all that other stuff at once (HBO).

Go Veg: Meat-eating leads to Climate Change

Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly; MeatlessMonday.com

Veggie foods taste better and promote youth, life, health, and strength (Tofu kabobs).

"Go Meatless Mondays...for Climate Week! Less Meat, Less Heat" (MM)

 

Good planets are hard to find; let's save this one!

  

Climate Week NYC Embraces Meatless Monday

Killing animals is killing the planet?

The United Nations Climate Summit will meet in New York on September 23 to discuss actionable plans to fight climate change, during Climate Week NYC.

 

Why is Meatless Monday involved?

["The personal is political"?] Practicing meatless Monday saves the environment. 

Going veg is going green to save the planet

When we reduce our meat intake, we minimize pollution, pharmaceutical use in animals, and water usage because the production of beef requires 1,850 gallons of water, countless antibiotics and chemicals and poisons to cultivate animal feed, while the production of vegetables requires 39 gallons of water.

Climate Week NYC begins this weekend

When we reduce our meat consumption, we reduce our carbon footprint -- and make a more significant change by reducing methane output into the environment (most of which comes from the feeding of bad food to cows who are ungulates feeding on fresh greens not grains, cement, other cows and corpses, and artificial feeds) -- because beef production creates 30kg of greenhouse gas per kg of food. Carrots, potatoes, and rice require .42, .45, and 1.3kg respectively.

• Check out all the facts at Why Meatless?

Are those worms? Meat is toxic and tainted.

Meatless Monday makes a splash at Climate Week NYC events.  An all-vegetarian lunch will be served at The Climate Group’s kick-off event at the Morgan Library. Marcus Samuelsson, chef-owner of Red Rooster Harlem and Meatless Monday supporter, has curated the menu for the prestigious Equator Prize private reception at Lincoln Center for United Nations dignitaries held prior to the Equator Prize Awards.

 

Join Meatless Monday at The People’s Climate March in Manhattan starting at 11:30 am, Sunday, September 21 in Central Park. Get details on how to meet our staff at the event and signage to download and print on Meatless Monday’s Climate Week page.

If not attending the march, please share Meatless Monday Climate Week graphics via social media. Participate in the discussion on Twitter with the hashtags #MFMclimatepledge, #CWNYC, and #MeatlessMonday.  Take a stand by pledging to go meatless on Monday with us at Meatless Monday.

 

According to United Nations, “[UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon] has asked [summit] leaders to bring bold announcements and actions to the summit that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement in 2015.”

 

Human flesh, cow, pig, or chicken?

The prevailing thought leading up to this summit is “the cost of inaction is greater than the cost of action.” And it’s a thought that has considerable traction. After all, it’s not just global leaders and politicians that are rallying around the cause. Case in point -- The People’s Climate March organizers are expecting more than a 100,000 participants.

 

The People’s Climate Website reads, “With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history. We’ll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.”

 

We're cows and calves, not beef and veal

Meat Free Monday founder [and former Beatle] Sir Paul McCartney says, “Going meat free one day a week is a simple way to contribute to a more sustainable future. 

So McCartney and UK leader Greg Barker have also launched a Meat Free Pledge for Climate Week to help show world leaders that going meatless on Mondays helps fight climate change.

The Meatless Monday team has been working diligently with our UK partners to promote the pledge and we hope you’ll lend your name to the cause and pledge your support for going meatless on Mondays specifically to support stopping climate change. What events will Meatless Monday take part in? 

• An all-vegetarian (Meatless Monday) lunch—served at the Climate Group’s kick-off event at the Morgan Library.
• The People’s Climate March—starting at 11:30 am, Sunday,  September 21 Central Park West.
• Equator Prize Ceremony: Building the Movement for Inclusive Climate and Development Solutions—September 22.

Take a stand with us and be heard, join Climate Week NYC. Here’s a link to the full CALENDAR of events. More

Democracy Now! Covers the People’s Climate March

Special LIVE Broadcast: Democracy Now! is broadcasting live (Sunday 10:30 am-1:30 pm ET) from the People’s Climate March in New York City, part of a global mobilization in advance of a U.N. special session on climate change. More

"Pink slime" (meat) for school kids

Add toxic ammonia to dirty skin and meat scraps, and suddenly it's edible meat-like slime. At least it's pinkish.

"Pink slime" will be schools' choice

ABC News has the learned the U.S. Department of Agriculture will announce Thursday that starting this fall, schools will be able to choose whether or not they buy hamburger that contains lean finely textured beef known as “pink slime.” The announcement comes one week...

Top Obama fundraisers among state dinner guests

Days after Afghanistan massacre, suspect[s] unnamed

Polls are close in Illinois, the next battleground state

Syria marks anniversary of uprising, violence grows

Harvard study: Oops, Meat Eating is Bad!

A burger a day means health will decay, study says

"Are those worms?" "They would be microscopic if they were." "Oh yeah." Investigators in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate examine a sample of lab meat Nov. 30, 2005 in Koblenz, Germany. After several recent cases of illegal meat processing and selling of rotten meat [ammonia-treated "pink slime"] in different German states the health authorities are enforcing their food surveillance rules (Ralph Orlowski/Getty Image).

We know that red meat is high in saturated fats and is tied to many kinds of disease in humans. But a new Harvard study gets even more precise on the types and amounts of meat that cause harm.

Harvard researchers say that adding a small, three-ounce serving of processed red meat -- such as one sausage patty -- to our daily diet increases the risk of premature death by 20 percent.

Eating the same amount of unprocessed meat increases that risk by 13 percent. Scientists analyzed two dietary studies that surveyed 110,000 Americans over 28 years.

They have concluded that almost 10 percent of premature deaths could have been prevented by consuming less than half a serving of red meat per day [more prevention with even less consumption].

• Buddhism and meat eating
• Meat eating wastes massive amounts of water
• Cloned meat in the food supply
  
• Sexism, racism, and "carnism"

"We should move to a more plant-based diet," study co-author Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health told CBS News.

When red meat is replaced with [raw, soaked, rinsed] nuts, legumes, whole [unprocessed] foods or even other slaughtered animals like fish and birds or dairy, the risks decrease.

There are some criticisms of the study [by a desperate meat industry and paid spokespersons with dietician certifications on the line], centering on the difficulty of tracking individual diets accurately. Anyway, it could all be a 110,000 "coincidences" because correlation does not prove causation.

• Meat-loving, secretly Republican, albeit effeminate macho man Larry Mantle (SCPR.org/AirTalk) sits down with Harvard scientist An Pan, co-author of the study, who is a Research Fellow in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Using a crutch (like bad diet that keeps us tired, cancerous, munching on feelgood junkfoods, diabetic, obese, with "diabesity," dependent on chemical pharmaceuticals and blaming life) is no way to live. Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing more frightening than to be divested of a crutch (Ashish Tamhane).

• Animal Legal Defense Fund?

Meat-Free Mondays (Johns Hopkins)

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (meatlessmonday.com)

Monday is the beginning of the week, the day we move from the freedom of the weekend to the structure of work or school, the day we set intentions for the next six days.

Why Meatless
Going meatless once a week may reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel.

Read about these benefits below. But keep in mind that just going meatless is not enough. That’s why we give you the information you need to add healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives to your diet each week. Further, if you do eat meat on other days, we strongly recommend grass-fed, hormone-free, locally-raised options whenever possible.

• Who's going meatless?

Health Benefits
LIMIT CANCER RISK: Hundreds of studies suggest that diets high in fruits and vegetables may reduce cancer risk. Both red and processed meat consumption are associated with colon cancer.
REDUCE HEART DISEASE: Recent data from a Harvard University study found that replacing saturated fat-rich foods (for example, meat and full fat dairy) with foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fat (for example, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds) reduces the risk of heart disease by 19%
FIGHT DIABETES: Research suggests that higher consumption of red and processed meat increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
CURB OBESITY: People on low-meat or vegetarian diets have significantly lower body weights and body mass indices. A recent study from Imperial College London also found that reducing overall meat consumption can prevent long-term weight gain.
LIVE LONGER: Red and processed meat consumption is associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.
IMPROVE YOUR DIET. Consuming beans or peas results in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron and magnesium with lower intakes of saturated fat and total fat.

Environmental Benefits
REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide...far more than transportation. And annual worldwide demand for meat continues to grow. Reining in meat consumption once a week can help slow this trend.
MINIMIZE WATER USAGE. The water needs of livestock are tremendous, far above those of vegetables or grains. An estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires 220 gallons of water per pound.
HELP REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE. On average, about 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef in the U.S. Compare this to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. Moderating meat consumption is a great way to cut fossil fuel demand.

Spread the Movement!
Get the tools you need to start a Meatless Monday wherever you may roam! We offer our tools for free so that you can take an active role in the health of your community. Please write or send pictures to info@MeatlessMonday.com and show us how you’re using them. Your efforts may even appear on our website!

Free Meatless Monday Toolkits (PDF)
With free, downloadable toolkits, talking points, information, and helpful hints are available to enlighten everyone about this growing movement.
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