The Alpine Village

I have absolutely no idea where the time goes. It feels like a blink and an entire week goes by. It’s probably because it’s sunny and I play volleyball every single day- so I have no time reference point. To be honest, I never really know what day it is.

Last Sunday I went on a non-volleyball related adventure. I went to my first Swat Meet. I was really excited. In England during Summer, my Mum and I scour car boot sales each weekend- looking for pretty house stuff, fabric or rich peoples old clothes (that aren’t really old and have been worn like once, maybe twice at most) I thought a Swat Meet would make a good no junk post about buying old, pretty things instead of new disposable things. Unfortunately, it sucked. It was basically poor Mexicans trying to sell junk or stolen things from the back of trucks. It was all packaged in plastic and it made me sad.

It wasn’t a wasted trip though. The Swat Meet was next to an ‘Alpine Village’. It was like a tiny Swiss village had been taken off a mountain and randomly plonked just east of the 105 freeway. Everybody spoke German. There was a little German bakery that sold pastries and cakes in paper bags. There was a cafe that sold goulash and beef bourguignon in large bowls with homemade strudel. They served European beer. They had a European pub- complete with blonde German bar maid with pig tails. It was surreal and magical. It also had a book shop.

The blinds were pulled down on the windows; from the outside you couldn’t see in. When you walked in, the first thing you saw was a little man with a pointy, wizard beard sat behind a desk that had been eaten by books. There were piles of books in front of the desk at least as tall as 5″10 me.

The whole shop smelt of old books and it was so hot your could barely breathe but I was happier than a pig in shit. I dragged poor Jaren around that shop for at least an hour. The bookseller had first edition books dating as far back as 1700- the USA isn’t even that old!

The whole, unexpected experience was like taking a trip back across the Atlantic- even if it was for just a few hours.

Unfortunately I had to be dragged away to go and work out but it’s nice to know that there is a little piece of Europe just east of the 105.

This is me stretching on the power plate, probably thinking about my magical trip across the pond.

Meet your vaginas new best friend: the menstrual cup

Before I decided to do this whole ‘no-junk July’ thing, I never really thought about the impact that tampons and sanitary pads have on the environment.

Each month I flushed my tampons down the toilet and didn’t think any thing of it.

According to the internet, the average women uses 9,600 tampons in her life. Each tampon is individually wrapped in plastic.  For obvious reasons, tampons were out of the question for ‘No Junk July’. I’ve found an alternative that has seriously changed my life.

I’d like you to meet…the menstrual cup.

It’s basically a silicone cup that is inserted into vagina where it collects menstrual blood. The wearer empties and washes the cup a two times a day (or more, if needed). I love it.

Here is why it’s awesome:

1. I will never again be that girl that has to ask a stranger for a tampon because she didn’t bring one from home. I was that girl A LOT! You can insert the menstrual cup before your period starts and once it’s in you just wash it and re-insert.
2. I will never have to spend money on tampons again. I bought the Lunette cup for $40. The Lunette cup can be used for 10 years. $4 a year ain’t too shabby. It’s certainly better than the $4 a month I was spending on tampons.
3. There is no health risk. Tampons are made out of wood pulp that has been bleached in chlorine which can screw with the chemical balance in your body. Every single period, without fail, I would get thrush. As if my life wasn’t already miserable enough with stabbing cramps and the whole bleeding out of the vagina thing I would get an itchy, rash that would sometimes take a week to go. Sanitary pads were worse. They create this gross, warm, bloody environment that seems like the perfect breeding ground for bacteria. With the menstrual cup there has been no sign of thrush. *YAYAYAYAYAYAY*
4. You can leave the cup in longer.  Tampons offer just eight hours before TSS becomes a possibility. With menstrual cups, you can go up to 12 hours in between ’emptyings’.
5. It doesn’t have that stupid string that tampons have. For most girls that probably isn’t a problem but I spend 90% of my time in a bikini. *Oh hi tampon string sticking out of my bikini*
6. The Lunette website tells me ‘Lunette is so discreet that your partner won’t notice a thing during oral sex’. That’s good to know.
7. It’s better for the environment!

BUT there are a few things you should know.

1. You are going to have to get VERY comfortable with your body. You do have to put your fingers into your vagina when you insert/adjust/remove your cup. You do have to see and sometimes touch your menstrual blood. You do have to get in touch with your PC muscles to help push the cup out. But you may learn some new cool stuff about your body in the process- I learnt that when you pour the blood into the toilet water it doesn’t sink right away. It makes these pretty patterns-  kinda reminds me of a lava lamp…too much information? OK, moving on….
2. There may be an adjustment period. You will have to learn how to insert it properly so it doesn’t leak. There is a ‘knack’ to it. It may take a few days but once you get it, you’ll never look back.

I wish I was told about menstrual cups years ago. If, like me you had never heard of one, you have now! You owe it to yourself and the environment to invest in one. They make periods hassle free!

I’m going to leave you with a BuzzFeed about menstrual cups because BuzzFeed knows what’s up.

Women, periods and science.

This post doesn’t have anything to do with plastic or the environment. It’s about periods, athletes and science (well, lack of science). 

Yesterday, I went to do my regular work-out at the gym. A quarter of the way through, I wanted to die. Ok, that might be a bit dramatic but it was seriously miserable. I was tired, nauseous and could only physically manage about half of what I can normally do.

This morning I coached. I was showing the kids some basic co-ordination games. The ‘throw the ball in the air and catch it behind your back’ kind of stuff. Normally, I can do this   hundreds of times and only drop the ball once or twice. Today, it was like my arms belonged to…a really uncoordinated thing. Maybe a giraffe? Anyway….

A few hours later, I started my period.

If I train or play a tournament just before my period it’s a disaster! EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.

I looked on the internet to see if this was common. I hoped that I could gain some knowledge about how elite female athletes deal with their periods and there was….NOTHING. There has been no research done on this. I know, it’s crazy! If you don’t believe me, google it. There are no academic articles or research papers.

**I’m tempted to go on a ‘the world is such a sexist place’ rant but I won’t. Although, I think that if men bled out of their penises, got cramps and sick each month we would understand every detail of a period**

The human race has flown a space ship 3 billions miles to take pictures of Pluto and we have never researched the impact of a period on the female body? Something has to be done about this.

Firstly, I am going to experiment on myself. I haven’t figured out all the details but it involves coordination, strength and endurance tests. I’ll do them at different times of the month to see if there is a noticeable difference. I’ll attempt to measure how drastic the change is when i’m on my period- this will probably involve blood pressure machines, measuring heart rates and some other fun science stuff.

Once I figure out the best way to test the impact that periods have on athletes, i’m going to test all my athlete friends. I’ll possibly go to the local schools and test some girls in P.E class. Half the population is female, how hard can it be to find some girls to test? 

I’ll also test women who aren’t athletes- to see if it impacts them in the same drastic way.

If you talk to female athletes, it’s pretty obvious that there is a huge difference in athletic performance when they are on their periods. If the results confirm this i’m going to contact Californian Universities and see if they will help me research this or research it themselves so:

1. Women can understand the impact that periods have on their bodies.

2. Women can figure out a way to manage it.

If you are a female who struggles with periods get in touch with me- i’d love to hear from you. If you like science stuff i’d love some help. If you would like to take part in some coordination experiments get in touch! (Even if you aren’t in California I think I could do a youtube video of the coordination and strength tests, send you a form so you can record your results and you could send them back to me) If you would like to be involved in any way or are just interested in the project, send me an email: michelletownson@hotmail.co.uk

Farmers market day

I’ve had so much sun in the last few days that I think my brain has been fried and turned into a unthinking ball of jelly messiness but someone sent me a message today saying that they were inspired by the blog and to keep it up so i’m going to try and write a coherent post. I apologize in advance if this fails….

Tuesdays are Manhattan Beach Farmers market days. I try to buy the weeks fruit, vegetables and eggs there. It’s a pretty awesome place full of healthy, delicious, environmental friendly goodness.

There are a few reasons that we should all try and shop at local farmers markets:

1. The food is so much tastier. It hasn’t travelled 1000’s of miles- like most food bought in large supermarkets. The farms are usually just down the road.
2. It hasn’t travelled 1000’s of miles- like most food bought in large supermarkets. The farms are usually just down the road.
3. It’s not more expensive. I wouldn’t say it’s much cheaper than supermarket bought food but it is definitely better quality and not noticeably more expensive.
4. You eat food you’ve never had before. There is a farmer at the market who likes to cross-breed fruit; I spend so much time trying all the crazy fruit. Waterplumcot anyone?
5. The eggs are definitely free range. I used to buy a brand called ‘Happy Eggs’ from the supermarket. I never really trusted those eggs- it seemed like the company was trying too hard. Happy eggs? Seriously?
6. The vendors are pretty awesome. After a few trips they’ll begin to save samples of food that they think you will like or even create recipes especially for you.
7. Nothing comes in plastic!

This was my fruit and vegetable haul for this week…

(The little red fruit is a cross between a cherry and an apricot. Yes, they are as amazing as they sound.)

I think that’s all I can manage for today. I’d love to hear about your adventures at your local farmers market or any ideas you have on recipes or zero-waste shopping. You can tweet me @nojunkathlete, email me at michelletownson@hotmail.co.uk or just comment in the box and i’ll get back to you. It seriously makes my day!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!

I hope ya’ll (sorry England I say ya’ll now. It’s just easier) had a good weekend. This weekend my no-junk July fell apart and I need to get let the guilt out…

1. I had a Paradise bowl. It’s basically acai, fruity granola goodness blended together. It’s served with a plastic spoon and in a disposable bowl which is definitely NOT bio-degradable.
2. I played in a tournament Sunday and I got really really hungry. I packed food but it wasn’t enough. In my defense, I have a crappy shoulder so I wasn’t expecting to make it to the playoffs serving underhand and not being able to hit. My partner was a stud and it was windy and we did make it to the play-offs. I bought food. In styrofoam. I hate myself.
3. Today, I was not expecting to be at the beach all day. I helped out at a USA volleyball youth tournament and they provided food. It was delicious but came in styrofoam. I double hate myself.
4. I bought naan bread. It came in plastic. Planet, i’m sorry.

I’m glad that I let that out. My life is an un-organized shambles. I love the messy unpredictability of my days but I need to be better prepared. It’s Monday and Mondays are for fresh starts and this week i’m going to try harder to act like I love the planet.

I did do some good zero-waste things and read some good things.

1. I made junk-free energy bars. I made a flipagram which you can see on my instagram here. It’s basically gluten free oats, red quinoa, chia seeds, carob chips, honey and yummy nutter-buttery goodness from Manhattan beach farmers market all baked together. It’s a healthy, easy, gluten free breakfast I can train on. I bought all the ingredients loose and took my own bags. The nutty butter and honey come from the farmers market and I take the jars back and they get re-used.
2. I’ve been reading some good tips on how to use less waste. Some good websites to check out are zerowastehome, trashisfortossers and livingzerowaste.
3. The lemon tree, peach tree and apricot tree in the garden are all starting to bloom- which is exciting!
4. I made hummus and chick-pea curry from scratch. (this will be a separate blog post at some point) They were both delicious and totally zero-waste.

I also did my regular weekly trip to the library to feed my reading habit. I still can’t decide whether books are bad for the planet. They do use a lot of paper. Libraries are probably better than buying books but buying books supports the authors who write them so they can write more books. I did have a kindle. I’ve actually had about 5 but I always break them. Anyway, this was my reading list for the last 10 days or so.

1. Finding Zero by Amir D Achel. If you like books about numbers you should probably read it. It’s about one mans journey to find the first recorded zero in history. I liked it because it read like a novel- it actually reminded me of ‘Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert’. I know that’s a bit weird because this is a math book but it is written so well you don’t even realize that it’s about math. Sometimes I can be quite arrogant and think that the ‘West’ is a better, more intelligent culture and this book challenged that. I didn’t leave the house until 2pm on July 4th because this book was more interesting than any Independence Day party.
2. Traveling to Infinity by Jane Hawking. I read this book and instantly thought of my feminist friends. It’s about the women behind the genius. If Stephen Hawking is an idol of yours, I wouldn’t read it- there were times that I really disliked him.
3. Shindlers List by Thomas Keneally. There isn’t much I can say about this book but go and read it. Right now. Make sure you have tissues handy.
4. How Not To Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg. If you liked books like Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman or Incognito by David Eagleman. You’ll love this book- it’s witty, funny and readable.
5. In Pursuit of Excellence by Terry Orlick. I like books about the brain; how it works, how to make it work better, how to make it work in your favor. As an athlete it helps me train on and off court but I think this book would be useful in life in general.

I’d love to hear about what you’re reading. You can email me book recommendations at michelletownson@hotmail.co.uk or leave a comment in the little box.

Homemade toothpaste

I wanted to share this recipe ages ago but last week my tooth cracked. I went to the dentist today and they told me that it wasn’t because of using homemade toothpaste! Yay! Instead, the dentist said it was probably because I haven’t been to the dentist in over a decade. Ooooppssss…..

Anyway, commercial toothpaste was the first thing that I removed from my daily routine. I removed it because I read the book ‘The power of habit‘ by Charles Duhigg. You know that tingly clean feeling you get after brushing your teeth? Well, companies include the ingredient that creates that ‘clean tingly’ sensation not because it makes your teeth cleaner. They include it so that brushing your teeth becomes a habit. When you leave the house in the morning you know when you have forgotten to brush your teeth. Your mouth isn’t tingly, you can actually drink orange juice instead of getting the bitter mix of orange and peppermint. That mental trigger reminds you that you haven’t brushed your teeth- that’s because brushing your teeth with that kind of toothpaste is a habit. You crave the tingling clean sensation that you get after you have brushed your teeth.

“Consumers need some kind of signal that a product is working,” Tracy Sinclair, who was a brand manager for Oral- B and Crest Kids Toothpaste, told me. “We can make toothpaste taste like anything—blueberries, green tea—and as long as it has a cool tingle, people feel like their mouth is clean. The tingling doesn’t make the toothpaste work any better. It just convinces people it’s doing the job.”

It weirds me out that the ingredients in toothpaste centre around a commercial mind fuck to get people to make brushing their teeth a habit so they buy more toothpaste. These chemicals are sodium lauryl sulfate,  ammonium laurel sulfate and sodium lauryl ether sulfate. You can learn about them here and here.

I don’t want that it my mouth. *That’s also what she said….ba dum dum tsss*

I now brush my teeth with a mixture of equal parts baking soda and salt. The dentist said that it’s abrasive enough to get rid of plaque. The salt acts as an disinfectant and baking soda will whiten.

When I eat eggs I save the shells, bake them for a few minutes in the oven, grind them and add the shells to the salt/baking soda mixture. Apparently they have lots of calcium and other good stuff that can keep teeth healthy- the dentist said that it wouldn’t do any harm to brush with eggshells. 

I keep the mixture in a pot by the sink and when i’m ready to brush my teeth I wet the toothbrush and just dip it in. It doesn’t taste particularly pleasant but at least it isn’t poisoning you.

Every time i’m in the shower I take a spoonful of coconut oil and pull it through my teeth. Oil pulling is meant to be super good for you. I’m obviously not a dentist but by changing my dental routine my mouth feels healthier and cleaner that it did before. My gums no longer hurt, which is nice.

I was really sad when my tooth chipped. It made me realize that i’m not going to be 22 forever and I need to take better care of my body. Not consuming pointless chemicals that are only there to make me buy more stuff is a good place to start!

To meat or not to meat?

No Junk July: Day 6

I’ve been trying to eat less meat. I have aspirations of becoming a vegan. Meat has a crazy high environmental impact. More than 60% of US grain is fed to livestock. Not to mention the way that we farm animals. It’s makes me cringe just thinking about the way our society treats livestock. But if I don’t eat meat, eggs or dairy I become a hungry, iron deficient mess. There are some athletes that swear by a vegan diet but it takes a lot of nutritional knowledge to make it work- I don’t have that knowledge.

After training today, I had a meat craving. When I went to the store I had completely forgotten a container for the meat. (I still havn’t received a reply to my email I sent a few days ago, so I can’t use a container anyway) Most store bought meat comes in a horrible styrofoam container wrapped in plastic. According to the internet, styrofoam takes over a million years to biodegrade and it can’t be recycled. A million years! That’s absolutely crazy! And it can’t be recycled? Why would we wrap our meat in this stuff? It’s frustrating that meat already has a high environmental impact, it’s more frustrating that we wrap that meat in the worst substance on the planet. 

I am NEVER going to buy anything in styrofoam again. So, today I went to the butcher counter and the man behind the counter agreed to wrap my meat in just paper- no plastic bag first and then paper *hug to nice butcher man* I then re-used that paper to pick up the dogs poo on our walk today. Paper takes a month to decompose- definitely better that 1 million years.

Whilst I was walking the dog, I had a strange image of people digging up our civilizations ruins in 1000 years. I wonder what they will think of all the plastics bags filled with dog shit?

The Gluten Free train.

I am gluten free. There, I said it. I didn’t want to say it out loud because it’s such a cliché Los Angeles bandwagon to jump on. Nevertheless, I am firmly aboard the gluten free food train and have been for about a month.

I didn’t consider becoming gluten free until I met Dylan. He is a volleyball player who has celiac disease. I spend quite a lot of time with Dylan because we have the same coach. Anyway, one day I was saying that I was tired all the time. I also had the worst farts imaginable- like seriously they were so so bad. I would fart and they would stink out a whole room. (Probably too much information but I don’t care) He suggested that I go gluten free for 2 weeks to see if it improved my tiredness, bloating and gas.

I tried it and I feel so good. I don’t feel sluggish, tired or bloated. I don’t stink out entire rooms anymore. I now weight 149 pounds- 10 and a half stone in English terms. I haven’t weighed 10 and a half stone since I was a teenager. The only change in my diet is switching foods with gluten to food without gluten. Instead of pasta, I eat sweet potatoes or quinoa. I’m still eating the same amount.

Today, I had a work out at the Yard with Arqum the body wizard. I used to get really dizzy, tired and nauseous during our work outs. He suggested that I stop eating gluten back in October but I just shrugged it off. Europeans can’t be gluten intolerant, our whole diet is gluten! When I told him I had gone gluten free and I don’t get dizzy or nauseous anymore he wasn’t at all surprised. His response was ‘most people have some form of gluten intolerance, they just don’t know it’.

If you’re tired, sluggish or generally feel like crap consider not eating gluten for 2 weeks. If you see no difference you are obviously fine with gluten but I know that there was something funky going on with my body and something as simple as changing my diet fixed it.

In terms of No-Junk July eating a gluten free diet is definitely helpful. Yesterday was July 4th. Beer has gluten in it so I didn’t drink any. Most packaged food has gluten in it so I didn’t eat any junk. I still haven’t created any trash and that’s AWESOME! I haven’t put any bad stuff in my body either. *body hug* *planet hug*

In other news: I had my shoulder checked out today. It’s not injured. My bicep tendon had flipped over and some ligaments were out of place. Arqum worked his magic and put everything back in place. It hurt like hell but my shoulder is happy!

The ‘NO JUNK DIET’

No Junk July: Day 3 

Shopping for food is the easiest part of this whole ‘no trash for a month’ thing. The bulk of my diet is fruit and veg- which is waste free apart from those annoying little stickers. (I’m going to keep them and i’m sure I can find some fun ways to use them.) Today, my shopping basket looked like this……

…after I bought this I went to the butchers counter in the local supermarket. I took my own container and asked them to put a chicken breast into said container. The conversation went something like this…

Me: “Can I have one chicken breast, please? Can you put it in this container instead of wrapping it?”

Butcher: “Are you being serious?”

Me: “Er, yeah. I’m trying not to use any plastic”.

Butcher: “Are you actually being serious?”

Me: “Yes”

Butcher: “Seriously?”

Me: “Yes!!!!”

He put the chicken in a plastic bag and then put it in my container which kind of defeated the point of me bringing a container. *face palm*

When I got home I emailed the customer service department. The email went something like:

Today I went to the butchers section in the Redondo store. I took my own container in the hope that the butcher would be able to put the container on the scale and then place my meat directly into it- in the attempt to reduce my use of plastic and paper packaging. 
It surprised me that he was unable to do this (he basically thought I was crazy)
Our oceans, beaches and wildlife are suffering because of our plastic consumption. 
I hope that you will be able to change this. Your packaged meat comes in styrofoam and plastic, which is not biodegradable. Your meat from the butchers is wrapped in plastic. People bringing their own containers is a great way to reduce our environmental waste but still encourage people to shop at your store. 
I hope you will provide steps to encourage this.

It seems like such a simple thing to bring your own container but apparently it’s a weird thing to do. Hopefully i’ll get a nice email back saying they like the planet too and will help reduce plastic.  So, yeah, that was my exciting food shop.

Next time you go to the store, buy some meat from the butcher section. It’s no more expensive than the packaged stuff! Take a container instead of having them wrap it. The more other people do it, the less people will think i’m crazy! It’s also such a simple thing and will drastically reduce the amount of waste we create.

As a side note: if you want to lose weight the ‘No Junk diet’ would probably be a pretty good way to go. It’s impossible to be fat if you are living of food that doesn’t come out of a packet. 

Play it again and again and again….

No Junk July: Day 2

Recently my right shoulder has been bothering me. Volleyball problems. I needed a lacrosse ball to roll on and get some of those kinks out. I went to buy one and pretty much all lacrosse balls come in plastic. Why does everything come in plastic?! *sigh*

Then I went to this pretty awesome second hand sports store. It was basically a sports thrift store: buckets of used weights, baseball bats, gloves, ice skates, skateboards, boxes of balls- anything you could need.

This second hand shop is such a great idea. It keeps perfectly usable items out of landfills and I didn’t have to buy a new ball in plastic wrapping. The ball was also under $2- 50% cheaper than a new ball. *happy face*

I saved money today and didn’t create any trash. Even though I need to rest my shoulder and can’t play for a few days i’m still winning at life.