Living with intention

The dairy-free lifestyle is all about living with intention. You may be living dairy-free because you choose the lifestyle for humanitarian reasons, or because you don't have a choice and are lactose intolerant or have an allergy. Either way it's a very intentional existence. Most people associate lactose intolerance and milk allergy as the same thing, but they are very much different things entirely. This ignorance becomes a serious problem when you're dairy-free because of a life threatening allergy, and so I find there is a great need for education and advocacy on the subject. My journey getting to the dairy-free lifestyle has been full of stark seriousness and the well-being of my child, and has had complexing discoveries that have shaped my perspectives toward everything. This road has taught me to think for myself and seek out my own truths. This concept seems pretty obvious, but it's amazing how little thinking people in general actually do. I've learned that living with intention is making informed and educated choices ALL of the time, and drawing independent conclusions by using your own gauge of conscience. 

Before learning to live with intention and living dairy free, I lived day to day just mulling around through life. Eating whatever I felt like, or what was immediately available and convenient. I chimed in on conversations from time to time, never really giving much thought to anything whatsoever. We (as a society) are led as a bunch of sheep be herded through life by the mass media sheep herder. Most people believe and take their knowledge from anything they see in black and white, online, or on TV. Mass media creates the ideals and opinions in their messages that will cause people to take action in a way that benefits the company campaigns. Profits tend to always trump truths and conscience. The way this works makes people never have to think for themselves. It sets the stage for what a healthy diet looks like in a commercial geared to amp sales and sell the lifestyle. Mass media does this with every aspect of our life from what we wear, where we grocery shop, and what brands we buy. Magic words like "healthy", "natural", and "good deal" are all a part of the psychological game to sell you products. Nobody really cares if things are in fact healthy, natural, or truly a good deal. There's another whole side of the business full of deceit and greed. Companies can get you to eat rat poison and arsenic using these magic words. In fact they do when they fill their products full of toxic chemicals and preservatives to make them seem more appealing to you, knowing that the sheep will follow the herd with some good communication tactics, selling the chemical diet in a pretty picture. Another thing I've noticed is the coupling of food with patriotism. Selling things as The American Diet. Basically processed junk packaged to make you feel like a good American. Companies know that you'll care about what they tell you to care about. It's simply not as profitable to tell you the truth. I'm a bit familiar with the selling game having obtained my degree in mass communication when I was still a sheep.

Living with intention changes everything in your life. Once you become intentional about some things, more things begin to matter. Suddenly your life is purposeful and you become one who leaves the herd and makes a difference by breaking the flow and making educated choices. I have some suggestions to those of you who want to live intentionally. Most importantly, don't base any choice or decision on anybody else's, even your own in the past. Start fresh and open your eyes and hearts to the the choices you make from this moment forward. You can start by being aware of how your actions and choices affect others. From sweatshop's that are manufacturing the clothing labels you desire, to asking if anyone has a food allergy before whipping out your bag of snacks for your kids at a public park shared by many kids, and their different cercumstances. This is the era of intentional effort and change. Every generation has some key people in it that leave the herd and make a difference and have made huge changes, even when everyone said they were crazy and it could never be done. The only thing that changes is the causes that require special attention and intentional efforts. I'd say the food allergy epidemic is at the top of the list! Not only because it can take a life in a matter of minutes, but because it's an epidemic that's growing exponentially and there is so much to be done.

Food allergies are not someone else's problem, they are everyone's problem. If you're aware of someone's food allergy, then you're responsible to act accordingly because you could be the reason their life ends. What a horrible thing and yet what a very possible thing that could happen. This can be by asking questions, changing your actions and becoming educated. The mindset that it doesn't affect you is selfish and ignorant. To not want to help a child when it would only require some thought is seriously disturbing, and a reminder of just how selfish and sheepish society has become. Many courses of action are necessary to change immediately. Proper food labeling is a must! Deciphering through 66 hidden ways milk can be present in 6 syllable chemical and preservative forms is unacceptable. Healthcare professionals that don't know the difference between lactose intolerance and a milk allergy is so beyond unacceptable that it's down right despicable. All of this injustice is motivational to the intentional mindset person like myself. I may just be a lone sheep who's fled the herd of ignorance, but I am not afraid to scream it from the rooftops until I see people take notice to life threatening food allergies. Not everyone is an intentional thinker and will make much of a difference in this world, I hope to be one that does. The holiday season is full of room for ignorance, because basing traditions on the past without consideration of the present is illogical and uneducated. Making it intentional keeps it fun and safe for everyone because that's the spirit of Christmas. When this ignorance and selfishness begins to separate family and friends, and that's not enough to cause change, then it becomes terribly sad and disturbing. When food trumps family and friends, you begin to seriously fear the future for your child. It also motivates the heck out of your mission to advocate and educate, and make your own safe environments filled with people who make the effort and support the cause. 

Here's a cute Santa idea with brownies. I used coconut yogurt ( vanilla flavored)  and a mix of No Pudge Fudge brownie mix and some added coconut whipped cream.

Add a strawberry stuck on with coconut whipped cream. 

The directions for coconut whipped cream: crack open a can of full fat coconut milk and refrigerate overnight. Scoop out cream and add 1/2 c. confection sugar and whip. I used a Nutribullet. Then refrigerate and add more confections sugar as needed to firm it up. Put together with strawberry. Voila! Darling little dairy free Santa brownies. Intentional efforts make the greatest gifts.