Have you ever heard of dumpster diving? Dumpster divers are people who live from trash. It might sound weird but think about how many food ends up in the trash, especially by supermarkets. A lot of the food that gets thrown away isn't even rotten, but it simply gets thrown out because it doesn't look that pretty or may have a brown spot here or there. Dumpster divers are people who take food that is still eatable out of the trash. It is cost-effective and it minimizes waste.

There is no denying farmers markets are back to being cool. A healthy lifestyle is trending and we want our food to be local and fresh. We're back to growing vegetables and herbs ourselves and urban gardening is cool like never before. Although there are a lot of initiatives to get your food local we still rely on supermarkets. There's a lot more we need than just vegetables and fruits right? Did you ever asked yourself why there is an alternative for greens, but not for all the other stuff?









Main reason we love supermarkets is of course the convenience of it. All the things we need in one place, what's not to love? Gerrit Jan Groothedde (aka 'de eetschrijver') thinks otherwise. He wrote a book about supermarkets vs the alternative. When the writer moved to Almere Buiten he noticed that this 'City of the Future' has a great lack for alternative and local food. He challenges himself into not buying food in a supermarket for six months.
In his book he writes about his confronting conversations with (among others) a master chef, a culinary journalist, a food trendwatcher, a sustainability activist and asks for the 'normal' people's opinion. I haven't read the book myself, but it makes me very curious. I wonder what his discoveries will be in his food-life outside the supermarkets.


The great thing about this book that it is really transparent and a good example of 'the open world' we live in nowadays. Groothedde compares supermarkets not only in their price range but also in quality and their offer in products. He shares his discoveries about a range of different products but mainly focussed on vegetables, fruits, meat and dairy. 

The things that makes me really want to buy the book is that he shares a practical buyers guide in which he shows you all the alternatives for supermarket-shopping.


The book is for sale at bol.com for €19,99. Click here more information.

Welcome to the fourth chapter of the year: food! I have a feeling this is going to be my favorite one. Do I even have to explain why? Let's kick this chapter off with a subject which might seem familiar to you: urban farming!

source: The Pretty Blog, pictures by Christine Meintjes

Urban farming is making it's comeback and presenting itself in all kinds of shapes and sizes. It's getting more and more attention and there are countless organisations for getting involved or doing your own gardening. Countless (food)bloggers are giving urban farming a try. For example 'The Pretty Blog' who wrote an article on growing herbs and using them in recipes. 

In chapter one I already gave you three reasons why urban farming is super awesome. I talked about the increased awareness of chemicals being used on vegetables and fruits in the food industry - a bad side of the open world because people are becoming more and more suspicious about the origin of their food. With urban farming you can make sure your own greens will be the healthiest ever! I myself used to have a little greenhouse on my windowsill with herbs. I loved taking care of my little plants but by my lack of knowledge about the herbs they all died in the end. I tried many times, but all the plants ended up dying every time. So the problem of this DIY vegetable trend is a lack of knowledge. To make this sad story a little bit happier I want to introduce you to "Rauwdouwers".

Rauwdouwers DIY packages

Rauwdouwers is a company where you can buy seeds and get started with your own vegetable garden. But why pick this one over all the other organisations who are alike? Let me explain to you why rauwdouwers is the best of all! The cool thing about Rauwdouwers is that you will learn with small steps. Every month you'll get a package in your mailbox with seeds and a manual that learns you all about the 'what and how' of the plants. The cherry on top is the design of the manuals. Cool little books decorated with great illustrations give you all the information you need so that your plants are fail-proof. If you think that is great.. there is more! The books also contains little experiments, puzzles and recipe. How amazing if you can successfully grow your own vegetables and make an awesome dinner with it, all by yourself!

We can say for sure that urban farming is a booming trend. It still has a lot of growth potential because of the authenticity of it. People want to know more about the origin of their food. Growing your own gives a guarantee on fresh and chemical-free food. Do you still haven't got your own urban garden? The time to start is now! 

Society Nine is a brand for every female fighter founded by strong, empowered, diverse female athletes who are fighters in and out of the ring. 

The idea started out of frustration with the lack of quality equipment available for women.
"Manufacterers think that taking the lowest-quality glove and turning it pink is what we need. I'm here to tell you that this way of thinking is dead wrong" says Lynn Le, the brain behind the project.
She created Society Nine for the female fighter who trains in combat sports, and to also represent the every-female fighter in our lives, across all sports.

Like I talked about in my previous blogpost the average women now a days isn't just a woman. She's a friend, a teacher, a sister, a student working two jobs and above all a fighter. A fighter in the literal sense of the word (let's keep it to boxing, shall we?) but also figuratively speaking: a woman that can take the world! This clothing line is especially made for these strong woman.

"We want to create a movement and community that unites strong, empowered, diverse, fierce woman who are fighter for more than physique. We are the brand for this community of badass woman"




The collection starts with a glove. If you go to google and image-search for "womans boxing glove" you'll find a collection of girly pink boxing gloves (just try it!) But according to Lynn, most of the woman's boxings gloves aren't at all adapted to the needs of woman.

The team behind Society Nine studies every boxing glove on the market to understand how they were constructed, what materials they used and how they fit. Next they asked different woman in sports (professionals but also amateurs) to their opinion and with that feedback they made their first design.






I think it is great that people like Lynn start projects like this. Gender equality is definitely not where it's supposed to be in the world of sports and this is a step in the right direction. I hope woman will feel empowered to do whatever they want to, even if it's in a mens world. The Kickstarter for this project is still running and they are already halfway to their pledged goal.

For more information, a sneak peak of their collection and the progress of the Kickstarter check out this webpage.

We've arrived to the ending of chapter three, 'appearance'. Like i did before in chapter two, I'm going to analyse my blogposts and place them in the Quality of life model of Felce and Perry. The model knows 5 domains of wellbeing; social, physical, emotional, material and development + activity.


I think emotional wellbeing will be the most important this chapter, but there might be some overlap with other domains. Let's see if we analyse them one by one!

I am what's underneath
This project is a really good example of emotional wellbeing. The goal of the project is to create a worldwide movement for self-acceptance. The need for authenticity grows and we don't want to see the perfectly photoshopped skinny girl anymore on the cover of a magazine. It's proof that the fashion industry is chancing. The project has a positive effect on the self-esteem of the participants, but creates a self-acceptance with the readers of the stories on the blog.

You are more than your uniform
This project can be placed under the sub-category 'status' - you are what you do, and in this case you are more than what you do. A good example of emotional wellbeing aswel, but it has a little overlap with the domain development + activity. The photo series shows their life next to their job, but it's no secret that the people in the pictures are proud of their job. When we look to the model we see that 'job' is a sub-category in the domain development + activity so that explains the overlap.

Hipster or Muslim?
The photoseries 'Hipster or Muslim?' is maybe the opposite of wellbeing. It can be linked to the domain social wellbeing, but it is not an example of a good wellbeing. It raises questions about how truthful our own identity is and it shows us how easy people can create an identity for you. It also shows us how easily you can manipulate your identity but just using material things.

The female body image
The people at Greatist.com made some cool illustrations to show how much the female body has changed over the years. It's hard to place this one in a domain. I think emotional wellbeing is the best fit. Although it might seem that physical wellbeing could be linked to it, it's not about our health and state of our body. The illustrations show beauty ideals over the years and that has effect on our satisfaction about our own body. 

Golden oldies
In this blogpost I talk about elderly making an appearance in advertisement for the fashion world. A few domains of the model can be linked to this. The photo series of Dean Bradshaw is a great example of physical wellbeing. Not only young pretty girls can be used for sport campagnes, but elderly are still fit and tough enough to do it aswel. But the campagne by Dolce & Gabbana on the other hand, shows a lot more emotional wellbeing. It's all about authenticity and real women. Perfection is boring an not so much inspiring. We want to see real people and more diversity. Magazines already payed attention to different size girls and now they are adding different ages. 

Like I predicted, emotional wellbeing is the most important one in this chapter. An explanation can be that appearance is so much about your physical appearance, but also about your inner self. Everything reflects on identity and our satisfaction, self-esteem, status, contentment and trust: all connected to our feelings. 

Did you see the new campagne of Dolce & Gabbana yet? If you are expecting over the top glamour girly girls, think twice, because old is the new young. A cast of three elderly Spanish women are the new campagne lady's for D&G's 2015 spring collection.

Not only Dolce & Gabbana has faith in golden oldies, but the French fashion brand Céline also goes for a different age category. The eighty year old writer Joan Didion stars as the face of their new collection.

Why are our grandma's en grandpa's that cool all of a sudden? Perfection is boring and not so much inspiring. We want to see real people and more diversity. Magazines already payed attention to different size girls and now they are adding different ages. Age elasticity is trending!




Another great example is the photoseries by photographer Dean Bradshaw, who uses elderly to show that age is nothing but a number. A funny response to the traditional models usually found in sport advertisements and magazines. The cute and tough photo's of elderly almost make you feel guilty for skipping the gym this week.

And last but not least: Not only big fashion brands are using elderly for their campagnes, but also on a smaller scale we see this trending topic making an appearance. The Instagram account "Fashion Grandpa's" shows fashionable grandpa's found in public. What is not to love?! Clearly not only wisdom, but also a sense of fashion grows with age!

During my research about 'shifting identities' one thing in particular seemed to cross my path again and again: the perfect body. Every magazine contains at least one article about getting in shape, losing weight and being skinny. "Get in shape for summer" or "train away your christmas belly" or "this new superfood wil make you lose weight in no time". What is this obsession of ours about losing weight? We all want to be skinny like the cover girl from Vogue. Or at least, that's what the media is telling us.