Creating Alternatives to Sayings That No Longer Serve Us

When we clear and open our minds on a low-fat raw food diet and gain a greater sense of awareness, layers of conditioning and programming inevitably peel off most or all of us faster than the golden, spotted peels of bananas in our kitchens. In good time, we literally become what we eat, and if we don’t eat some foods such as animal or cooked products anymore, we might instinctively find ourselves watching our tongues when it comes to saying things such as …

Kill two birds with one stone.

I wish to avoid this kind of language, I found myself discovering a few years ago. This saying, which is short for doing two things at the same time instead of just one thing, among other variations, can be replaced with, and I give Josh Tiska full credit for this clever adaptation:

Feed two birds with one hand.

How’s that? Talk about “cool beans”—er, how about, “cool cucumbers,” (thanks, Anna Chmielewska) for wholly raw fooders—used to describe something as “very favorable” or “pleasing,” according to UrbanDictionary.com?

Then there’s …

Bread and butter

which I now call …

Bananas and dates

when referring to “the essential, sustaining element,” “means of livelihood” or “ordinary, routine,” according to TheFreeDictionary.com.

You can even make reconstructing some of these adages a fun challenge! Consider these figures of speech—and, if you’re inclined, kindly share what you came up with in the comments section below! I discovered well more than 100 of these idioms on Learn-English-Today.com.

Hook, line and sinker.

Fish in troubled waters.

Other fish to fry.

The world is your oyster.

Live high off the hog.

Make a pig of yourself.

Lipstick on a pig.

I could eat a horse.

Hold your horses.

Mutton dressed as lamb.

Of course, some sayings such as …

Eagle eyes.

and …

Eyes like a hawk.

actually celebrate traits of other creatures. I see no reason to stop uttering these kinds of sayings when a friend spots, for example, the only ripe avocado in a bin of dozens of hard green ones at a market.

Sayings such as “cash cow” and “guinea pig” have no place in a vegan’s heart, however. I also don’t choose to refer to parts of fruits as “meat” and “flesh,” opting for “meal” instead. When we banish these expressions from our vernacular, making them obsolete, and dream up creative replacements for them, we create the kind of language—and world!—we desire. Quite simply, our thoughts become our sayings, actions and whole world.

If you’re not already, start exercising some freedom—and emancipation of all the world’s lovely creatures, from aardvarks to zebras—in your speech!