Category: Lifestyle

Where to Find Hemp Fashion

Leave a comment

Natural fabric blends, including those with hemp, are one of the up and coming trends that has came out of 2020, the year with no fashion shows. Fashion designers have been forced to slow down and rethink their industry and business models. Consumers have also been forced to be more mindful and change their shopping habits. At large, this could be great news for the planet and the hemp textile and fashion industry.

While the average person may be just starting to read the labels on their clothing, there is a sub-population that is already intentionally experiencing the advantages and luxuriousness of hemp. There are also a growing number of fashion makers who are using mostly hemp in their creations.

Currently, most clothes available to the masses are made with plastic. You have to really search online to find fashion made with hemp and other eco-friendly textiles.

There are many boutique maker shops to be found on Etsy from around the world where you can get a wide variety of handmade hemp clothing, accessories, and home decor. For the most part I have had good luck on Etsy finding well-made, unique, and fashionable hemp clothes. That being said, I also feel like I have had to swim through a lot of fashion makers that are using hemp but not designing styles I would wear.

eBay finds: Vintage Adidas and Nike Hemp Sneakers

On ebay, I have found deals on designer European dress clothes and accessories. Italian, French and other European designers are known for using hemp fabrics in their canvas and jean fabrics. Look closely when you see Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Louis Vuitton…or any fashion coming out of Europe. Unlike the US and many following countries, some nations never banned the production of hemp for textiles so their industries continue and have been able to preserve the craft of turning plants into beautiful fashions.

Hemp silk nightgown, made in China.

There is Amazon which appears to be a limited source of Chinese hemp fashion. China has been growing hemp and using it in textiles for centuries and still leads the way in making fabrics with hemp, cotton, and plastic. My hemp fashion purchases made in China thus have included a pair of sneakers, a bikini, and some hemp silk tops.

Then there are the now infamous Hemp Hoodlamb coats, clothing, and accessories; designed in Amsterdam, and made in China using hemp, organic cotton, and recycled plastic bottles. While this company recently declared bankruptcy and closed their doors for good, they had been producing high quality clothes from hemp, organic cotton, and recycled plastic bottles for over two decades.

Tips to Help You Buy Hemp Clothes Online:

  1. Read labels closely to learn where your clothes were manufactured and what exactly they are made of. Anything you are buying online should be able to provide a picture of this label and give you the type of fabric blend. I’ve found plenty of hemp clothes that are made with a blend of non-organic cotton and polyester.
  2. Search a variety of shopping sources with “hemp” as a keyword. Consider also looking with other languages (ie. canapa, canva, chanvre, hanf, hamp, hampa)
  3. Read the description very closely. Sometimes the word hemp is used in the item title but there is no hemp in the fabric blend.

While hemp and other natural textiles are currently more expensive and less plentiful than polyester/acrylic blends, the slow trend for big brands and designers to put out eco-friendly collections that reduce their large ecological footprint will eventually happen. Until then it is up to you and me to be conscientious consumers as we drive our own desired market.

Searching For Hemp Fashion In The Cannabis Industry

Leave a comment

Since attending my first Seattle Hempfest in 2011, I’ve been looking for the clothes that they are saying from the stages can be made with hemp. I attend several cannabis conferences and events every year and rarely do I see much for hemp fashion or even marketing swag made of hemp. So I ask, Where is all the hemp fashion in the cannabis industry?

Now, I get it, there is no infrastructure in the Americas for large scale hemp fabric and textile production. Nor is there any kind of major hemp fiber production happening by the farmers besides maybe growing test plots to find potential fiber cultivars that will fair well in their terroir. Hemp is still in this bizarre CBD craze phase that is a monetary distraction from its millions of other potential uses. The hope is that the money made from hemp CBD will further the development of what else is possible with hemp biomass.

Continuing my search for people selling or wearing hemp at a cannabis event led me to the recent Lift&Co cannabis conference in Vancouver, BC. There was one vendor to be found out of the hundreds that had hemp clothing. Flying High Cannabis was a local brand that had a small collection of casual wear along with with their cannabis accessories.

While at the show, I asked about 100 people if they were wearing hemp. 7 people had something hemp on. Besides the guy who knew that he was wearing all wool, most people had no idea what their clothes were made of despite knowing that it wasn’t hemp. This ratio and reaction is the usual result.

I have happily never met a person at a cannabis event that did not already know that clothes could be made of hemp which is more than I can say for many when I bring up the idea of eating their plants raw.

Last year at the Emerald Cup I was fortunate to have met Hoodlamb Hemp Tailors in person at their booth where they had a huge selection of clothes and offering trade show discount prices. They have been one of my favorite hemp fashion designers because they can also be actively found doing other valuable things in the cannabis industry space.

It is often the old school advocates and growers of the cannabis crowd that are culturally choosing to wear hemp.

Back to calling for a hemp fashion revolution. The change is already happening. People are shopping at thrift shops at a much higher rate than ever before and, according to Vogue, the current high fashion trends are pointing towards a future of eco-fashion.

There are a lot of good fashion designers using hemp but you really have to look for them. Online shopping sites, like Etsy, can connect you to small slow fashion designers around the world making your clothes to order. The tough side is that you will pay more for those clothes than you may be used to if you tend to frugally shop fast fashion or thrift stores.

You likely don’t want to pay more for your clothes but choosing eco-friendly hemp clothing sends a message to the fashion financial world that people are hungry for a revolution. If clothes can be seen as a type of investment worth keeping and using rather letting them slip into a cycle where most of them end up in a landfill, we might be able to create change.

Proper hemp fashion could save your money from being used create more pollution and tragic suffering for the workers that make clothes.

Saying Goodbye to Synthetic Fashion and Hello to Hemp

2 Comments

I once went to a birthday party where the theme was to wear something plastic. Me, getting literal, showed up to a downtown club wearing a blue garbage bag, Saran Wrap, clear plastic high heels, and a Ziplock bag purse. Other people were warmly dressed and casually sporting a plastic belt or shoes.

If I knew then what I know now, I could have went to that party straight from work in my Lycra spandex day uniform of a jogging suit and been a lot warmer.

Turns out most of the clothes I have been wearing for most of my life are made partially or entirely with synthetic fibers and I have been oblivious as to what that means or how that impacts the environment.

I quit shopping fast fashion at malls a long time ago and shifted to vintage and thrift shopping for clothes and accessories with the exception to knickers and footwear. I managed to create a whole cycle where I would clean out the clothes in my closet that I no longer wear or want to keep and donate them to good will. Then I would take a trip to my favorite thrift shops and go on a mini shopping spree for unique clothes I couldn’t find at the mall.

If I’m being honest, my shopping patterns made it easy to bring some things into my closet that I never wore because it was a good deal and was appealing on the rack. I wasn’t really thinking about the life that piece might have after I was done with it.

Then I heard the statistic that the average person throws away the equivalent of 44 tshirts a year. I don’t think I was going through that many clothes but I also wasn’t cognisent to where they went after I donated them.

50% of donated clothes end up in a landfill.

I dislike the thought that half of my old clothes are just sitting in a landfill not breaking down until long after my body has died and broken down.

So, I have become much more textile conscious. I’m now reading the label of everything and attempting to only bring in clothes that are long term keepers and made with hemp.

I initially set out with a vision to create a head to toe hemp outfit and then eventually an all hemp wardrobe. I can’t say that my closet is all hemp but I can say that I wear some kind of hemp everyday.

Finding hemp clothes that I find fashionable has been a task. I’ve managed to score some things from Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, or directly from the designers but many of the things I want don’t exist and I will have to custom make.

That being said, I was excited to recently discover some European fashion designers who have never stopped using hemp, they just didn’t advertise it after prohibition happened during the 1930s in America. I’ll be posting more about that very soon.

Stay tuned! Choose Hemp!

Change Your Clothes, Change The Climate?

1 Comment
My muse, dressed head to toe in hemp fabrics.

Do you know what the clothes you wear are made of or why it matters?

The reason I bring this topic here is because I feel there is a lack of urgency and education by the general population around the unsustainable fashion industry. This somewhat alarms me. It doesn’t matter if you go to the high end designer brands, the fast fashion knockoffs, or the second hand clothing stores, our fashion choices have been generally reduced to synthetic options. Most of those clothes inevitably end up in a landfill and will outlive their owners.

The average American throws away 70 lbs of clothing each year.

  • Clothes made with synthetic fabrics are literally made of petroleum. Once thrown away, those clothes do not break down for hundreds of years.
  • Synthetic textiles have microfibers that break off in the wash and get sent into our water systems.
  • Pollution is created from pesticides used on fiber crop production and the chemical processing of fabrics.
  • The industry chain of factory workers, fabric producers, fashion designers, fashion buyers, the retailers, consumers, and disposal workers who are all exposed to chemicals.

Not all people think to look at what kind of fabric their clothes are made of as part of their purchasing decisions or what the life of that garment will have in their closet.

Where do your old clothes end up?

I have to be honest, when I tuned in to the atrocity of synthetic clothes I was shocked to discover that most of my own closet was filled with them. Cycling through them was no longer an option for me.

While it is amazing that technology figured out how to turn oil into cheap clothing this invention comes with its own set of interesting statistics that are worth investigating.

  1. The average American buys 68 new articles of clothing per year.
  2. The average piece of clothing is only worn 3 times or less.
  3. About half of the clothes that are donated to thrift stores are thrown away.

Personally, I have responded by updating my fashion habits. I have generally stopped buying new clothes. I shop vintage, thrift, consignment, and craft in an effort to find original, quality clothes I can’t find anywhere else.

I try not to go too crazy at the thrift shop because things are cheap and I no longer think of it as the first choice for my clothes to get donated to.

I read all the labels. I used to only really pay attention to size, care instructions, and where they were made but now I also scrutinize what they are made of.

As a long term project, I am slowly bringing new pieces into my wardrobe as needed that are made of hemp fabrics. I have been inspired to start sewing again to make my own hemp fashions that I literally can’t buy.

Stay tuned.

In 2020 I will be posting a series of blog posts and videos that highlight hemp fashion you might want to wear, hemp food recipes you might want to make. If you can think of hemp fashions and designers that I should know about and be highlighting, please let me know!

For those of you still following from the start, I had to take 2019 off from my blog and creating to recalibrate. In 2020 I will be posting weekly again. You can expect posts about hemp fashion, hemp food recipes, medical cannabis, scoliosis, and ideas to keep yourself healthy. Peace.

The CBD Bath Bomb Experience

3 Comments

IMG_2088

The tea is brewed, music turned on, and the lights are turned down low. As the tub fills for this special bliss bath, I sprinkle in spoonfuls of Lavender and CBD infused epsom salts. The smell pushes my first relaxation button. Yeah, I’m about to relax, on purpose. 

I sink into the hot water and almost instantly take a big sigh. I am here and nothing else matters right now. My only mission is to relax and stay in here for at least 20 minutes to let my skin absorb CBD and magnesium from the salts. A timer was thoughtfully set in case I think I need to be doing something else before my 20 minutes is up.

I take a few minutes to settle in, breathe, and relax. This is holistic self care at its best. Tension and chaos start melting away.

Getting CBD through the skin is one of my favorite delivery methods for using cannabis. I don’t have to eat or inhale anything, my skin does the job for me. 

As the bath continues, I’m all scrubbed up and now just waiting for the timer to go off. It is time to take it to the next level of relaxation. Add meditation. I remind myself that I have no where else to be that is more important than right here and focus on my breathing to relax and tune in a little bit more. Before too long I am able to find that bliss point where my body goes into full relaxation floating mode. Hurray! Making it to this bliss point feels like a real accomplishment since I was feeling so wound up when I got into the tub. 

The timer goes off and I celebrate my ability to relax for 20 whole minutes by lingering in the tub for another 10. I’m no longer in a rush to get out of the tub. With finger tips that look like raisins from being in the bath so long, I pull the drain and lay there while the water gets lower and my skin is exposed to the colder air.  I get out of the bath feeling warm and good to the core that I have done something so nice for my body and being. I proceed to crawl into bed, fully relaxed, and and sleep soundly until sunrise.

Did you catch all the benefits of this bath?

Physical and mental relaxation, great sleep, absorbing CBD and magnesium (among other beneficial herbs blended into the bath salts) through the skin. After the CBD bath, my body is in less pain and feels rejuvenated. Amazing.

Bliss can be found in a hot tub full of infused water.

Peace. 

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach to people seeking natural ways to feel healthy and get support as they manage scoliosis or chronic illness. To enquire about working with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

2018- The Year Cannabis Goes Raw

5 Comments

IMG_0803.jpg

You think you know about cannabis?

I thought I knew about cannabis because I had tried it in every form from smoking, vaping, dabbing, vape pens, edibles, topicals, suppositories, tinctures, patches, pills, bath bombs, lubes, and throat sprays. Plus, I had tried hundreds of different varieties and was successfully managing my chronic health conditions without any additional medications.

Then, I tried it raw. No longer did cannabis feel like a bandaid to be reapplied every few hours or even a pain medication alternative. Cannabis in its raw form felt like it was healing me on a deeper level and providing benefits I wasn’t receiving from all of those other forms of ingestion.

Very few people eat the cannabis plants, even if they grow, and many more still have no idea such a thing is even possible or why they would want to bother with such a thing.

For this reason, I’ve made it a personal passion project and mission to spread this message. Through my weekly blog, that I welcome you to follow, people who want to live healthy and learn more about the health benefits of raw cannabis and the vast ways it can be used for wellness.

Raw cannabis is only one part of living a healthy lifestyle which is why I started a Butterfly Sessions profile on Patreon. As a health coach, I know that people succeed 80 percent more of the time when they have support to reach their health goals. People usually have some idea of how to be healthy but what they really need is somebody to check in with, encourage them, remind them what they are working on, give them ideas to try, and help them acknowledge and celebrate their success. Having this subscription platform really allows me to give that back to people who follow and support me.

With the help of my patrons I will be self-publishing a book about eating raw cannabis in Feb 2018 and moving forward in spreading a health message about this beneficial and nutritious plant.  (Thank you to all my supporters!)

Follow for more health tips follow:

YouTube @Butterflysessions, Twitter @butterflysesh, Facebook @butterflysesh, Instagram @butterflysessions

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

5 Ways Cannabis Can Help Chronic Back Pain

3 Comments

Chronic back pain is a condition like no other.  It’s a horrible ailment, actually.

I am one of those people who will always have issues with my spine. While I have been dealing with this stuff since I was a child it wasn’t until my very early 20’s when every doctor I saw started freely prescribing me synthetic drugs to manage my spinal condition.

I’ve tried to avoid taking too many synthetic pills too often because they always end up making me feel like crud, they mess up my digestive system, I don’t ever want to be addicted to them, and the idea of having to take them from now until I die as a way to cope with pain is not a future I am about to roll over for. There are better options to consider.

When I first explored using cannabis as part of my long term pain management I honestly thought that it just worked by acting more like a mental mask or a distraction from the pain. I didn’t fully understand how beneficial cannabis would be for managing the enormity of my chronic spinal condition. Turns out a lot of people I know still believe that cannabis only provides a happy distraction for pain, so, for you I write the following… 

5 Ways that Cannabis Helps Manage Chronic Back Pain:

1) Cannabis is a natural pain killer. Cannabis doesn’t just mask pain or distract you from it, it works with your body to relieve physical pain. One of the biggest plusses of using cannabis (for me) has been the pain relief without the unpleasant synthetic drug side effects or the potential risks with long-term use of synthetic medications. When you’re looking at a potential lifetime of chronic pain, you tend to take the  long term side effects of pain medication very seriously. 

2) Cannabis acts as an anti-inflammatory in the body. Having aches and pains caused by inflammation is a miserable experience and over time can negatively impact your overall health. Cannabis brings inflammation down to relieve pain and discomfort. Ideally, your pain management program will also be able to find what may be triggering inflammation in your body so you can address it from all angles.

3) Cannabis acts as a natural muscle relaxer and suppresses muscle spasms. Back spasms take chronic pain to a whole new level. I used to take muscle relaxers regularly to deal with muscle spasms but now that I have been taking cannabis regularly, muscle spasms and super sore overactive back muscles hardly ever happen.

4) Cannabis calms anxiety. Experiencing chronic pain creates anxiety, stress, and tension in the body. The anxiety, stress, and tension in the body create more pain thus building a vicious cycle of pain that never ends. Using the right strain of cannabis can significantly reduce or eliminate anxiety altogether by calming down the body and nervous system. Once you break the cycle of anxiety from creating stress and tension in the body, less pain will follow.

5) Cannabis helps to lift the depression that can come with chronic back pain. Being in pain every day and dealing with a debilitating back condition is one of the most challenging things a person can go through and there are predictably going to be dark spells along the journey. Pain can create a physical depression and depression can create more physical pain. Cannabis can lift the depression that will benefit not just your body but also your mental health.

Cannabis: The pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxer that also acts as an anti-anxiety and an anti-depressant. One plant working naturally and synergistically in the body to heal, calm, and create well-being.

Pain is supposed to be one of those things in our body that is there for our benefit. It is our job to listen to what it has to say,  respect it, and do what is necessary to relieve it in the healthiest way possible. Cannabis is one effective option and worth considering if you are somebody dealing with chronic back pain.

Peace.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

What Happened When I Ate Raw Cannabis For Two Weeks

5 Comments

Eating raw cannabis had been a dream of mine ever since I was enrolled in nutrition school and heard David Wolfe, a raw food expert, speak about the advantages of eating a raw food diet.

During his presentation he briefly mentioned how cannabis was one of the most superior plants for nutrition on the planet and described with passion and delight how amazing it is to eat. I immediately wanted to be eating leaves on my salad but it took some time before I could find access to raw cannabis. It’s not like you can buy it with the kale at a grocery store.

IMG_0597I was told that for the first few days of me taking the raw juice that I might feel kind of gross as it has a detoxifying effect on the body. That is exactly what happened. I had a headache for 5 days and my digestive system got worked over. I felt like crud. Towards the end of the first week, though, everything started feeling better.

I noticed that my back pain in the morning wasn’t as bad and getting dressed was not quite as difficult. I would say that my overall pain dropped by 1/3! I felt more motivated to exercise and my energy increased. My mood seemed to be set on a steady “happy” into week two.

The other thing that I noticed is that my tolerance for other cannabis medicine went way down. My overall use dropped in half not because I was trying to use less, I just didn’t seem to need as much. That is a totally new experience and it felt great.

During those two weeks I took about 1 ounce of raw juice (flowers+leaves) and 7-10 leaves per day.

To eat the leaves, I chopped them up and mixed them in with my salads or blended them in smoothies. They blended nicely with other raw herbs and vegetables.

Adding raw cannabis to my diet felt like I upgraded my entire nutrition regime. I felt healthy, clear, and energized.

IMG_0608My initial goal was to try it for two weeks and five years later I am still learning more about using cannabis everyday. Eating it raw changed the way I look at my medicine and how I can get the most from this amazing plant.

Just when I thought marijuana couldn’t get any better it goes and does this to me. Thanks Mary Jane.

Until next time…Eat your greens.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com  

How To Save Money By Wasting Less Food

Leave a comment

22 Days Of Blogging- Day 3

The tips in this post could potentially save you 40% on your food bill forever.

Wasting food is a common health coaching conversation because most people are spending a lot of money on their healthy food only to throw a large portion of it out.

Throwing away food is unfortunately the current norm in our society. About 40% of all food that is ever produced is never eaten, it is thrown away and wasted. Think on that for a moment. All of the energy that is spent to create food and almost half of it is destined for the landfill rather than the tables of people who it was grown for. On a personal level, the average individual is also throwing away about 40% of the food they purchase at the grocery store.

Since I have learned how to stop throwing out my fair share of food, I can tell you that using all of the food you buy without waste is a skill. It requires you to become food conscious from the time you are at the store to the time you are forced to deal with the leftovers.

Here are 5 ways that I keep food waste to a minimum:

  1. Plan your meals. Make a menu of what you’re going to eat for breakfasts, lunches, and dinners this week and then fill your pantry and fridge. Keeping a regular theme (i.e. Taco Tuesday) is a great way to keep your favorites on the menu and your fridge stocked.
  2. Keep a whiteboard note of what is available or possible to eat in the fridge right on the door. This is also a good place for family members to make requests and write down food items you will need for your next grocery shopping trip.
  3. Store your food properly. Veggies that are stuck in a plastic bag on the bottom of that drawer in the fridge often get forgotten. Instead, place them into a reusable airtight container and that will preserve their flavors and nutrients better. Most vegetables will only store for a few days so have a plan to use them or freeze them.
  4. Plan to eat leftovers. Cook once, eat twice. Put aside a few servings for later that week or in the freezer for anytime. It can be really helpful to make a few things in one cooking session so overall you end up spending way less time over the stove.
  5. Pick one day a week to clean out the fridge. This can also be when you challenge yourself to make a meal with only what you have in the fridge and pantry. Get rid of the stuff before it goes bad.

Reducing your food waste is a simple and smart way to save money. Imagine how different your food budget might feel if you were eating all of it.

Surviving The Holidays With Food Sensitivities

4 Comments

File Dec 08, 11 20 19 AM

21 Days of Blogging- Day 2.

Few things seem to bring out people’s food issues like sharing a meal at the holidays.

During this time of year you’ll hear about people gaining 10 pounds of ‘holiday weight’ as they gorge themselves on the lovely indulgence of traditional dishes that don’t always serve a healthy or healing body.

During these festive get togethers my sensitivity and avoidance to foods that contain gluten, dairy, sugar, some nightshades, and corn frequently feels like an issue or an inconvenience if I’m the only one eating that way.

If you would have known me several years ago I was the first one to the table as I sampled through everything the table had to offer and then go back for seconds. Family dinners were awesome.

Those awesome eating experiences changed when I quit eating gluten and dairy. People generally don’t have any idea how to modify their recipes (nor do I ever expect them to do so only for me) so unless I expose my digestive system to gluten and dairy I am left out from enjoying everything on the menu. My experience has often been that I will be able to eat the meat (when I’m eating meat) if it doesn’t have any weird spices or sauces and I can eat the veggies if they are not dressed with butter or cheese. It is a very limiting experience and if not planned for a major let down while everybody else is drooling over their decadent food and you are left with plain food.

  1. When possible, talk with the host beforehand about what is being planned for the menu and ask if you can bring anything and/or if they can set aside your portions without dairy and sauces containing gluten.
  2. Bring your own dishes or sauces and make enough to share. Your dish might be the one thing on the table you will eat.
  3. Be grateful. No matter if you can only eat one thing on the table, you can eat one thing. Enjoy every healthy bite while you share time with loved ones.
  4. Prepare to have other people feel bad for you because you are so fragile and limited and can’t indulge like they can. Ugh.
  5. Try to keep your manners and not be judgemental when people tell you how they know they would be much healthier if they gave up certain foods and then proceed to pile said foods on their plate, eat them up in front of you then complain about their indigestion and bloated bellies after dinner. Its an odd experience for me to watch and an exercise in holding my tongue.
  6. Prepare to not be able to have dessert. This one hurts. As a foodie, this one hurts. Bring your own, if possible.
  7. Remember why you are skipping the foods that cause angst in your body. Honoring your body with the best food possible will leave you feeling better in the morning.

When you face food limitations because of your health, you also get to witness how limited other people are in the same old food habits they don’t feel are necessary to upgrade.

Good luck keeping your food healthy this holiday season! We got this.

See you tomorrow.

Pam Dyer is a Holistic Health Coach who trains people with scoliosis and chronic illness how they can improve sleep, gut health, immunity, and brain function to live full and hurt less.  To book a consult with Pam please email:  butterflysessions@gmail.com