hanging out with friends

Life cant get any better.

Recipe for Green Juice

Here is the Mike's Green Juice recipe:

All ingredients are organic if you can find them.

1 Bunch of Celery (You may add 2 bunches for yield)

1 Bunch of Lacinato Kale

2 Cucumbers

1 Bunch of Parsley

1 Bunch of Cilantro (This may be omitted for taste)

1 Bunch of Spinach if you can find it with roots and all (Otherwise a couple of handfuls of Baby Spinach)

1 Green Apple (Add two if you like)

1 Pear (This can be omitted for taste but you will miss a great taste treat).

Thoroughly wash all ingredients and run through your juicer (I do half the recipe at a time) and pour into blender or Vita-Mix when juiced.

Juice of 1 grapefruit

Juice of 2 Limes

Juice of 1 Lemon

Add these juices to the blender or Vita-Mix and add a pinch of sea salt along with a handful of ice cubes. Blend until frothy and serve chilled.

Repeat this process with the other half of the recipe and store in glass containers in the fridge. Recipe makes about 1 gallon and stays good for a couple of days! If stored, stir before using. For a higher yield, run the pulp through the juicer a second time

His & Hers

we have two built in closets in the play room and some how these two kiddos have each claimed one.

What I have learned as of today

I have been on a journey over the years and now its time to share what I have learned. I have several journals filled with my life over the last 8 years. And now I think I'm on to something. Most of it involves health, working out, yoga, nutrition and emotional healing.

A few people have asked me to give them some recipe ideas or feeding kids healthy snack ideas. So I figured I would just do one big post on the simple things I have learned so far.

A few tips to make your day a little healthier.

-drink 1-2oz of water first thing in the morning. Before coffee, breakfast or anything else.

-drink half of your body weight in oz of water everyday...or more!

-eat 2 servings of vegetables at every meal

-50% of your diet should be raw...yikes.

-read the ingredients. ya, because that stuff is actually in the food you just swallowed

-For the parents, Feed your children real food

-out with the old , in with the new. replace one bad food habit with one good food habit. for example, cut out the bagel and eat an apple with almond butter.

-get some sleep for crying out loud

- don't forget to breathe

Addicted to soda or diet soda?

If you like drinking them for the carbonation try switching to carbonated water. I replaced my diet Dr. pepper with La Croix sparkling water with berry flavoring. They have all different natural flavors. And I buy it in the cans so it actually feels like I'm opening a can of soda. Its all mental! :)

Don't replace this for your water though...this is just a fun drink for those who like sodas.

Meal Planning =not my favorite thing to do.

So every week I just fill in the blank

Fish and veggies:

Mexican: ( who doesn't love Mexican?)

Slow cooker or soup:

raw meal: (just getting used to this one)

new recipe or a recipe that takes a lot of ingredients:

Cook more than you need and you have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Keep fresh or cooked veggies on hand for lunches and snacks

If your going to eat fruit have some nuts to go with it. Fruit has SO much sugar and the nuts will help keep your insulin levels from going through the roof.

Snacks

apples and almond butter

celery and almond butter

oh wait, anything and almond butter

fresh veggies (carrots, cauliflower,broccoli)

fresh fruit with nuts

Nuts and seeds

dried fruit ( mmmm craisins)

veggie chips

boiled eggs ( and dont forget to steam your face at the same time :))

Recipes: Just a few of my favorites

Pork chops with apples,onion and spinach- http://unfetteredlife.com/?p=102

Spaghetti Squash -http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-spaghetti/

Corn tortilla tacos ( easy breezy)- any meat ( ground buffalo is really good), corn tortillas, avocado, tomato, and any other veggie ( onion,peppers,spinach,etc) Done.

Roast beef- Beef shoulder,apple, onion,carrots, and a little beef broth or just water

Okra.bacon.almonds- cook bacon, set aside, cook Brussels that are cut in half in bacon grease, chop bacon, chop almond. Mix and taste the goodness.

Baked salmon and asparagus- So simple and classy :)

Betsy's Smoothie- recipe to come soon.

Those are my weekly meals. This is where I go to look for more recipes.

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/

http://everydaypaleo.com/

http://memoirsstrong.wordpress.com/

http://unfetteredlife.com/

want to see how much sugar is in fruit?

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1846/2

Note: I did not make all of this up. I am just passing on info that I either read or I was told. Although, I will take credit on the boiling eggs and steaming your face idea...that's just genius. ;)

Cameron Park Zoo

It was the middle of the day and all the animals were taking an afternoon nap, it looked so lovely.

Winter days

walking down the runway

snow days at the creek

hot cocoa!

Transformation

In the Spring of 2010 I started working out with Jordan at Blackbox. I was getting really good results doing their crossfit workouts. Then this fall she challenged us to do 30 days of strictly Paleo diet. That was for sure a challenge. But I started to notice a difference in my body. My problem areas ( ahem, stomach) were not so much a problem anymore. When I got dressed for the day, I wasn't working around certain bad features. I was comfortable and confident enough to put on whatever I felt like wearing. I'm not going to lie, that was a good feeling knowing that I had put in the hard work and it was paying off. BUT, the main transformation I noticed more than my body was my attitude and mood. I didn't even see this coming. 'Attitude' wasn't even on the list of things I needed to work on. I thought I was just on edge a lot because I have two little kids and that's just part of it. NOPE!! I still have those two little kids and somehow I am much more patient with them. Don't get me wrong, we have those moments...But overall, my mood has changed. I honestly had no idea that was a result of changing your diet.

Then winter rolls around and things start getting a little stressed. Things that were out of my control and just part of life( money, jobs, yada yada yada). When I started to get stressed, I was craving comfort food, which made me feel sick, which led to getting sick. What happened? Oh! That was a habit of mine in the past. Get stressed, eat comfort food, duh. So, once I recognized what was going on , I had to change that habit and nip it in the butt. That involved a lot of arguing with myself inside my head. And I still am working on that one.

So I was working out, eating good...but stressed. Then I started noticing my strength and endurance had gone way down. One day I was running sprints and felt like I was in slow motion. I could not figure out what was going on. I asked Jordan about it and she said it could have a lot to do with my stress. So, now something else to work on. After that work out of sprints in slow motion, I came home and decided to sit and be still, meditate and pray. Ah ha! that's it! That's what I needed to do. I realized I was trying to control all these different aspects of my life that only God can control. I realized that I was so worried about our future that I wasn't even living in the moment. I had no idea my body had taken a beating from me being so stressed.

So today, I have realized that its not just your work out or your diet or your mental health. Its ALL of it. There is so much more I could write about that has to do with my emotional healing and how all this ties in together. But for now I give you a taste of my day to day life and how it has changed. It has changed the way I interact with my family too.

I am excited to start the year with this transformation in progress. I just started my Yoga teacher training. I will become a CCYT(certified Christian yoga teacher) and a RYT ( registered Yoga teacher through Yoga Alliance). I look forward to learning more about how God created our bodies and how to take care of them.