365 gratitude, back surgery, Blog, children, discectomy, Family, Food, healing, Home, inspiration, mom, parenting, photo project, support

Wow…  I have no idea what day it is!

Brief update:  After my first back surgery, my disc re-herniated on day 6, so on day 10 (day 10 after my first surgery…) I had a second back surgery.

I am healing slowly and taking my time.

I am accepting help and have received a great deal of kindness and generosity.

It has been truly heartwarming.  ❤

I have a hard time being patient and letting others do for me, but I have surrendered this time.

Despite the challenges of the last few weeks ( the last year, really….) there is still a LOT to be grateful for.

I am going to slap ya with several of my photos from the last 10 or so days all at once so I can get back on the program!

I do admit that I missed a few days in the thick of it… Chocolate Ice Cream… need I say more? The beautiful St. Johns bridge on our way to the hospital. Delicious banana bread from a good friend, Gluten Free! Add “chemical coffee” and it can’t get better! An empty ER waiting room after waiting 5 hours to be seen the previous day… grateful. My Valentines Date… we are taking a raincheck on that one 🙂 My bulbs have sprouted! New leopard print jammies, thanks mom! My trusty companion Duke, at my bedside. Even my far away sweet friends sent love in the form of chocolate covered strawberries. An amazing meal delivered by a family that we only met a few weeks ago.  One of Brayden’s school mates.  Such kindness. Great reading material, also gifted to me.

There seems to be a theme here….  hopefully I can get moving soon!

Such gratitude for the outpouring of support from our friends and family.

With Love and Gratitude, balance, being mindful, Blog, choices, coffee, compassion, Drink, enjoying, Family, fill your soul, finding balance, Food, Health, Home, inspiration, live a little, making choices, Mindfulness, moderation, mom, path, path to health, rejuvination, role exploration photo via pinterest.com

Earlier in the week, I wrote a post about choices and how it is about so much more than just food and nutrition.

In a perfect world, we would only eat healthy food, whole food.  We would only eat the food that is nutrient dense and full of all of the things that keep us from getting sick.

I suppose the world isn’t perfect, far from it. Balance (Photo credit: Summations)

The critics ask-

What about balance?

What about ” Everything in moderation”?

Or “Just live a little”?

Those, to me, are useless phrases designed to provide us with excuses (to be frank and opinionated for a moment…)

Moderation to me might look like a cup of coffee once a week, but to someone else may be the grande mocha frappe instead of the venti,  everyday.    The same could be said for “balance” or “just living”.

So what is a gal (or guy) to do?

Here is my oversimplified answer, but to me, speaks VOLUMES…

Do what fills your soul, but do it with thought. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If having the cup of coffee fills your soul for that moment.  Drink it.

When you drink it, ENJOY it.  Every moment of it.

Make that one concession, whatever it may be, and make it enough.  Enough for you to feel fulfilled, recharged and complete.

Bask in the wonderful fullness ( of your soul, emotion, whatever) of that moment and don’t look back.

Then continue on your path.  Your path to health.  Whatever your path looks like.

Find the balance (moderation, life, fill in the blank ) for yourself in each moment and have compassion for yourself and your choices.

Then, and only then will you find it.

How will you find your balance? I’ve got this stuff down.

Knowledge of what to eat – check.

Knowledge of what not to eat – check.

What diet feels best on my body – check.

But what will it take to tackle the other stuff? The emotional connection.

The unresolved feelings in my past.

What will it take for you? acne, addiction, addiction to sugar, authority nutrition, authority nutrition article, Comfort food, Emotion, Emotional Eating, Family, Food, food as comfort, Health, Home, Human nutrition, mom, mother, Nutrition, nuturing, self care, Sugar, sugar addiction, things that are not good for you, turning to food, why, why do we eat for comfort, zits

Good Morning my friends and readers!

As I move farther into my nutrition education and just my personal exploration, I have found myself thinking about things that move beyond just the mechanics of what to eat and why.

I NEVER stop thinking… a curse sometimes.

Why do we do things that we know are not good for us?

I am thinking of this question in terms of food and nutrition, but really it could be about so many things! Sugar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is what I know…

When I eat sugar, I feel like crap.  Then after a couple of days, I start to explode with zits (which I completely hate, by the way…but who loves zits?).

I know this to be fact…

Yet I still choose to indulge.  Maybe not everyday, but I do indulge.

My answer is simple, and very complex at the same time.

It is about so much more than just sugar.

Of course there is the addictive quality to sugar that we read about all the time ( great article here from Authority Nutrition ).

And then there is the emotional piece, and that’s a biggie.  Not just a biggie, but the BIGGEST.

There is something about sugary comfort foods, or the teaspoon of sugar in my morning cup of decaf Joe that just nurtures me and fills my soul (for the moment)…

It is the first thing I turn to after a hard day, a stressful time, a celebration… the first thing I want to reach for.

All the while, I know it is so not good for me…  for more reasons that just the ugly zits.

Why do we do that?  What is it about for you? How often do you allow yourself to be vulnerable around others?

There you have it! Good Morning!

Via Vlog, of course! I am getting into this…

What are your Hay Fever solutions? Apple pie, Cooking, Family, Food, Gluten-free diet, Greek alphabet, Home, Mathematics, mom, pecan crumble, Pi Day, Pie, whole foods

Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world by those who even have a clue what it even is… Symbol Pi on Norro 1 style (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This morning as I was heading in to drop off Brayden at school, our neighbor said Happy Pi Day!

Then, following conversation with a friend of ours, we got to talking about Pi Day and somehow the conversation veered off onto Pie!

You know with me, it will always come back to food somehow and so today I present to you, my version of Pi(e) Day! It would have been awesome if my boys would have let me snap a photo before taking off pieces of the crust, but you get the idea!

Usually, I blog about health food.  About ways I discovered to make good (for you) food, taste good.

Today, I bring you apple pie with real sugar.  Yes I said it…sugar.

To my credit, the pie crust is gluten-free, the apples are organic, and I added a crumbly nut topping with walnuts and almonds to get some good stuff in there…

Here is the math lesson ( going back to the whole Pi thing.)

This pie above is what we began with… This is what we were left with…

If you do the math, Brayden, Brent and I ( all off of our usual dietary programs….) ate half of the pie.  That would be 1/2 🙂

Wow.  It really did taste delish…we all have to go nuts every once in a while!

The pie crust was gluten-free purchased from none other than (you guessed it!), Whole Foods.  It was yummy!

I did a simple apple pie recipe where I tossed the apples with sugar, nutmeg, cornstarch and cinnamon.  I just eyeballed the amount.

For the nut topping, I altered (seriously) a recipe for salted pecan crumble (recipe here):

I put approximately:

1/2 c almonds

1/2 c walnuts

1 stick butter

cinnamon to taste

I threw them in the food processor and crumbled it on top of the pie.  I totally omitted the salt (which would have been pretty tasty…I was just going with it) and the flour.

It turned out delish and kinda hardened on top.

All in all, a great Pi day ( in my opinion!).

Did you celebrate Pi Day? children, Emergency Preparation, Family, Food, Food and Water, food storage, Freeze-drying, Home, kids, listen to instinct, Revolution, Wal-Mart

I made a committment to myself a long time ago that I was going to listen to my instincts when I got a message loud and clear.

I can honestly say that yesterday was the first time that I really followed through on my promise.

Now that’s progress in the forward direction!!

Monday night, I had the most bizarre dreams.

I typically don’t dream in vivid color, but these dreams were no doubt, vivid. To sum up the dream, my family and I were wandering the streets of the city that had been wiped out by some type of disaster… it was like an episode of that show Revolution where there was no electricity and everything was just dark and weird.

Dream analytics might say something else, but I took my dream to mean it was time to get prepared and not just talk about it.

About a year ago, I heard about food storage.  Maybe I was really late to the party, but I had no idea that you could order freeze-dried emergency food kits that would last you 1 month, 6 months, one year, etc…

We have been talking about what a great idea it would be to have a supply of food in case of emergency, but until my dream, it was just a great idea.

I finally did it.

I went online and ordered the beginning of our food storage supply!  It seems like Augason Farms is the leader in this arena, and their products are widely available.

I ordered two 30 day emergency kits and a 55 gallon water storage barrel… whoop whoop!  I found the best deal to be at Wal-Mart and you get free shipping! photo via augasonfarms.com We figure we will start with a two-week supply for our family of four, and then build upon that.

The shelf life of this stuff is like 20 years!  The water lasts for 4 years with purification tablets… good stuff!

I guess if we have no food and water, I will be ok with it not all being organic and pure huh?

Are you prepared?  What do you have for emergency food and water in case of emergency? A yoga concept, no doubt. photo by nkzs http://www.stock.xchng.com

I made it for 5 days exclusively… Raw chocolate hearts (Photo credit: Raoul Pop)

And when you are aware, change can begin to happen.
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