Dear Readers, 
So its been 3 and a half weeks since I last posted…. I’ve been away volunteering in Sri lanka, working with both elephants and teaching english to 4year olds! Its been the most incredible experience although being vegan out there had its challenges! I stayed in Am
balangoda, a small costal town famous for its devil masks, located near places such as Hikkaduwa, Mirissa and Bentota which are far more tourist orientated and feature beautiful beaches.
I exprienced and saw some amazing things which I will keep with me forever, including trekking through Sinharaja rainforest, mediating with monks and watching my pupils english skills progress with me throughout my time with them. Being in a 3rd world country was incredibly 
eye opening. To see the lack of development, infrastructure and commercial companies was in some ways refreshing. To see a country so untouched my man-kind, left instead in its natural beauty, is a such a special sight. Despite being a less economically developed country, which does have its consequences, such as poor sanitation, poor health care and lower living standards. However, as is often the case in L.E.D.C’s the populations life is much simpler, they often appear happier and even healthier than populations within M.E.D.C’s. 
This has been argued to be down to their diet.
Most of Asia eats a predominately plant based diet, due to lack of meat and dairy in their culture. In fact Okinawa, Japan, has the highest life expectancy in the world, with an average life expectancy of around 110 years, it is believed this is due to their diet and amount of exercise they incorporate into their daily lives. Sri Lanka, being a country in Asia, meant that the food their did feature high levels of grains and vegetables, for example rice with dahl or vegetable curries where the main dishes available and eaten widely there. This diet is highly sustainable and very nutritious. ‘The China Study’ by Dr. C. Campbell looks at this diet in great detail and created the asian food pyramid, “As you will see in this book, there is a mountain of scientific evidence to show that the healthiest diet you can possibly consume is a high-carbohydrate diet. It has been shown to reverse heart disease, reverse diabetes, prevent a plethora of chronic diseases, and yes, it has been shown many times to cause significant weight loss.” -T. Colin. Campbell, The China Study.
Being in a country like Sri Lanka makes you realise how simple and natural life could be, it makes you forget about all the pointless aspects of life back home which so many of us spend far too much time worrying about, such as owning the latest technology, having the best paid jobs, living in the biggest house, driving the most expenisve car, even silly things, like the amount of ‘likes’ a photo you just uploaded on Facebook gets. When you’re out there, surrounded by their culture and way of life, seeing how people live, 
the suffering some endure but yet still appear to be so content with life makes you brutally aware of how stupid and insignificant so many of the things we revolve our lives around are. If only we could just let go, even detach oursleves from this bubble we find ourselves in and take a step back to appreciate the real meanings to life, I think the world really would be a better place.
Especially considering so much of the problem is the amount of corruption caused by the addiction of some people to gain power, money and status, if you look at the meat and health industry it has been argued so many times by countless scientists, nutritionists, authors, researchers etc that the extremity and consequently damage from these industries is caused by the lack of care for anything but money, if the wellbeing of animals, the planet or even us, was even remotely in their list of priorities the world today would be another place. It saddened me to see the presence of the ever dominant fast food chains such as McDonalds, KFC and Pizza hut scarring the otherwise very authentic and cultural landscape of the towns and cities I witnessed whilst there. These companies have spread their damage so far, poisoning even the most untouched countries such as Sri Lanka, bringing with them the illness and cruelty and pollution package thats seemingly inescapable with places such as these. It shows how dominant and powerful these companies have become, they are literally taking over the world and it needs to stop. But until people begin to wake up to this reality more and more beautiful places are going to be ruined, more animals are going to die and more people are going to get sick.
But unfortunately people like this exist and will always exist and the modern societies we live in today in our western world are now so ingrained in our consumer culture of needing more to be a ‘better’ person etc that simple acts such 
as changing our diet to veganism are little things which we can all do to help us get back in touch with our planet in its most natural, simplistic and beautiful form. So if anything, this trip to Sri Lanka has widened my eyes, boosted my confidence on this vegan lifestyle I lead and shown the damage man kind can have on its planet if given the opportunity. Look out for my next posts where i will be reviewing more of Arbonne’s products,
Heres to a better future, until next time, charlotte xxxx
Power Is With You 