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eat awesome

based on the survey data i recently collected and pushing from my friends and followers, i have begun writing an information and recipe ebook. it’s around 50 pages and contains 30 recipe and meal ideas – with entirely plant-based and whole food ingredients. i’m going to be self-publishing and selling it on this blog and the eat awesome website.

the book is called: eat awesome: a regular person’s guide to plant-based whole foods.

i’ve put together a coming soon page, mailing list (with a free recipe!) and a facebook page. the book is for the most part written, and i’m now focusing on doing the photography for it. there’s no release date set yet, but it will be within a month or two.


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slow down

i spent the good part of 10 hours yesterday working a technical problem on a website (not a live one thankfully). i tried everything in my arsenal to fix it and nothing worked. i built and rebuilt the site and it’s content many times, in various ways, and the bug wouldn’t go away. i was at my wits end, and ready to give up web development completely to go live in the forest with the other hippies in tofino.

then i went to the grocery store, came home and fixed the bug in 30 seconds. and immediately felt both relieved it was fixed, and frustrated that i hadn’t thought of the right solution sooner. after all, i’m a professional and should have known how to remedy the solution and move on.

my gut reaction when something breaks or goes wrong is to immediately rush to fix it... which rarely works out well. instead i should have stepped back and not done anything at first, except think about the problem. or stepped back, had a deep breath (or three) and not done anything but focus on being calm.

how many times in your life have you rushed to fix something, only to become caught in a downward spiral of things going less and less the way they should? when we get stressed, we tend to speed up, which seems like the opposite way to go. when you’re cool and collected, you can focus better (i’m sure it’s a scientific fact).

next time i get stressed out about a problem i’m having (with work or anything else), i am going to really try to focus on stepping back for a second and breathing.

and only once i’ve rooted myself will i proceed.


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fuck being cool

high school is over, but we all still want to be thought of as “cool”, myself included. why is that? especially since the people in my high school that were considered cool happened to be total assholes.

cool people are cool because they’ve got their schtick down to a science: not actually doing anything (in case it makes them look stupid), not trying new things (in case they fail) and not putting themselves out there (in case someone else who is cool thinks “out there” isn’t cool).

trying to be cool can be exhausting. but then, it’s not cool to try... the whole thing is rather confusing. it’s as if we’ve all become so scared of judgement, we sometimes let it rule us.

we’ve either got the word cool mixed up with something else (perhaps with “uncool”) or our collective societal cool-meters are all broken. there’s either got to be a radical redefinition (can word definitions be radical? heck yes websters dictionary!) or we need to scrap the word from our vernacular and work more at encouraging without judging.

so...

i’m going to continue to try and fail at a whole shitload of things, on a regular basis.
i’m going to try new stuff, even if i look like a total “kook” doing it.
i’m going to do what makes me happy, even if someone else thinks it’s dumb.
and i’m going to tell cool to fuck right off.


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writing a vegan cookbook

i’m pondering the idea of writing a book. more specifically, a short and sweet vegan recipe + information ebook that i’ll self-publish as a PDF.

i spend a lot of time emailing recipes and information to folks who aren’t vegan but are curious about the way i cook, what i eat and how i can make well rounded meals without meat. i think there might be a market for “vegan curious” folks who might not want to go full-on vegan (or maybe they do), but are interested enough to try eating a little more in that vein. i’m not sure how i feel about using the word “vegan“ but i have come to terms with the fact that it might need to be used, since it might be the most accurate descriptor (although i’m hoping i can get away with “plant-based”).

the ebook would be a quick/short guide (with recipes and photos) to eating a: well balanced, whole foods, gluten free, plant-based diet (enough descriptors eh?).

you can follow along with my mostly-food related photos on my instagram, where i’m @mojave.


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an examined life

the end of a year often causes reflection and examination. what were some memorable moments? what did i learn? what’s in store for next year? after all, an unexamined life is not worth living and all of that.

some highlights of the past year:

  • visiting the grand canyon with my wife, at a very remote part of it, and being the only people for hundreds of miles, with our feet danging off a precipice thousands of feet in the air.
  • travelling for 2 months around the US without any plans or goals.
  • working on some pretty amazing projects with some amazing clients.
  • playing some pretty rad festivals (with some great riders) with my band.
  • getting an airstream(!).

what i feel i might have learned:

  • focus is key. i cut out everything i don’t want or need (this is an ongoing process). this applies to everything from stuff i own to projects i want to do, and people i want to work with. i am lucky enough to be able to pick and choose my work, so i need to start doing that.
  • possessions are tethers. i’ve been actively pairing down everything i own this year. if i need to live on the road or travel indefinitely (ideas i’ve been throwing around my head a lot), i almost can now.
  • knowing what’s important, and what is not. i’ve learned a lot about what i value in my life and what my priorities are. this makes it easier to make future decisions, since it’s a template for what i know i should or shouldn’t do. that said, i will totally scrap or ignore those priorities if i want to.

what has been your most memorable moment? what have you learned? let me know via twitter.

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