Promises to Myself

I've been thinking alot lately about really getting back on track, focused and Committed to myself and my health. Life has a funny way of taking over and controlling our actions and thoughts and feelings. I've always been the kind of person with a bag full of dreams and projects I want to do and accomplish, but at the same time I'm also the person who forgets what I was doing five minutes ago. I catch myself all the time starting projects and quitting or "putting off" untill a later date, as with my health. Once again I let myself go because I've been to focused on other things in life. I know my diet is still health compared to most but for me I'm lacking and boy can I feel it...  I want to always have me and my health in the for front of my mind, so I thought I would try to combine my art with my health and maybe it'd would keep me energized and focused.

     So starting today, a Thursday in November on the 3rd day of this beautiful month to make a BIG promise to myself. I am going to attempt....no no

• I AM going to wake up early instead of my little ones waking me up
• I AM going to drink, drink and drink more WATER!!
• I AM going to cut out ALL junk food <----- boy this is a hard one, ugh!!
• I AM going to make time for myself in the middle of the day so I don't short circuit :)
• I AM going to stay on top of preparing all our meals at LEAST 90-95% RAW
• I AM going to promise myself a minimum of 10-15 mins of hardcore working out
• I AM going to take time out of the day to Play with my girls, uninterrupted 

I'm sure I'll think of a few more things I want to throw up on that list, but for now I think that's a pretty good start. So, now where the 'art' part is tied in. I've seen this really cool project on pinterest where a family takes a picture everyday for a year, then at the end you kind of flip book them and you can see the changes that occurred within one year. I've been wanting to do this with the fam, but I also thought i'd be good to document what changes occurred with myself when I fully commit to my health. I hoping to see alot of changes in my self,  not only through fitness and healthy eating, but spiritually. I feel my inner light is dim and I need to bring the brilliance of my inner light back to shining bright :) 

Oh right and did I mention I'm going to take my pictures with no makeup on... Also I thought I'd take one full body shot at the beginning of each month, you may want to turn away if you squeamish, lol :) 

                                                                           Day One:

 

                     

                                                            

-Florence and the Machine, "It's always darkest before the dawn, and it's hard to dance with the devil on your back, so shake it off, shake it off..."

3rd Annual Juice Festival, Today!!

       I'm just bursting at the seams with excitement for today's Live Broadcast of the 3rd Annual Juice Feast, held in Washington.

This post is going to be short and sweet :) I just wanted to get the word out to everyone...and maybe mention my first book will be presented today there by Dave "The raw food truck driver", and the beautiful Jackie Ryan. The title is The Raw Food Family Guide, by Jennifer Matthews. You can check out my book and many other Great authors at: http://gettingthewordoutmedia.com!

Are You Ready For The Rawvolution???

The poor man's detox

Life has been more hectic than normal for me lately. Lots of change...and fast. Unexpected moving and shifting threw me completely out of whack. It's crazy how the body handles situations, and deals with stress. In about a month I went from being completely focused, healthy, and happy to depressed, sick and no direction what so ever. I found myself just floundering under all the pressure.
        We recently relocated by necessity  rather than choice really. So, with the world wind of tasks that needed to be completed, the normal day-to-day went all to hell. I didn't have time to worry about what we were going to eat for dinner, or play tea party with my girls. I had to much to do, or so I thought. Ok, yes I really did have alot going on but because I neglected the basics I recently found myself a complete and total mess. Tired, lazy, unmotivated and on the verge of depression. I lost sight of whats really important, Health first and family of course. It's funny how you can be so oblivious to what really going on in a situation and something minimal will be brought up in a conversation that just hits you like a ton of bricks, and you think omg how could I've been so blind. ALL of my problems stemmed from a poor diet...yes, seriously.
        I didn't have the energy or will to pay attention to what I was fueling my body (and my familys) with.  We were still eating healthy compared to most but, I'm so in-tuned with what my body really needs and wants to get the most out of me. So, after this realization I started planning out dinners, and taking the time to prepare my family's meals, and It's been 5 days since we've been back on track and wouldn't ya know it....I'm back to "normal". Energy in bounds, clear coherent thoughts, creativity and problem solving skills.

         Ok so here's the "Secret formula" I've come up with. We (husband and I) call it the poor mans detox :)
We are really into juicing....don't know what that is? Well it's what it sounds like, juicing fruits and veggies. I've read, watched and listened to everything about juice feasting, It's more than amazing, think of it as eating a huge plate full of raw veggies, sounds a little daunting right? Well, when you juice your able to concentrate all those wonderful marvolous vitamins and nutrients into a big glass of deliciousness!!!   The unfortunate part about juicing is that is costs an average of about $14 a day to do whats called a juice feast. Which is basically a Wonderful detox you do anywhere from 10 to 90 days, that's living solely on juice for breakfast lunch and dinner. I know some people think it sounds crazy but it does wonders for your body.
        So, with 2 kids and only one person working in our house hold $28 a day for just me and hubby isn't gunna fly. I sat down to make my weekly grocery list and decided we'd do Juice for breakfast, a completely raw lunch and a 80/20 raw/cooked ratio for dinner. And, needless to say by the third day I felt like a new woman. Oh, right and did I mention the grocery bill for the enitre week was................$93.00. Yea that's right 2 adults and 2 children eating ridiculously healthy for 93 bucks.

               If you feel like I did or just feelin froggy try out my "The poor man's detox" for one week and tell me how difference you feel!!! Have a Fabulously healthy & happy productive day :)

Why Sunday is my Favorite day :)

     I know most people's Sunday consist's of relaxing and preparing for the work week. Well, at our house Sunday is our most productive day. Between laundry, cleaning, taking care of the animals, baking, blogging (of course) and playing with the wee ones. I took lots of pictures so I thought I'd share a few with you :)
  
                  First on our list of things to do is feed the chickens and ducks.... but Scooby can't
                                                           resist the chicken feed either.

                    We spotted a cool looking butterfly on our front porch, it had 4 separate wings.

                                                               A fruity breakfast, yummy!!

                              But our favorite part about Sunday is making lunches for the week, baking
                                                         and trying out new delicious recipes!!

        My husbands works on a construction site and still takes his lunch, this is his usual pictured below. Naked burrito (or sometimes he'll bring a tortilla wrap) which includes lots of chopped fresh veggies, jasmine rice with lime and cilantro, black beans and of course hot sauce and a big ice cold tea. **Note this is 3-4 days  worth. We make a bunch so in the evenings before work he can just put everything into on container and he's ready to go.

     We bake our bread for the week, and this week we tried an artisan style loaf with honey and oats. And of course we had to taste test it and it turned out great!

And for dinner we made a raw buddha bowl, but I decided to switch it up a bit for the kiddos because they love finger foods. So here's the kid version...                                                     

    and the adult version...

 Did I mention they ate every bite? They love their raw veggies!!

Well, I hope everyone has a great week and make sure and check my recipe page. I'll add recipes for everything I mention on my blogs and others. Thanks for stopping by :)

Food for Thought

Gooooood Morning!!! I'm in such a fantastic mood this foggy Saturday morning. I wanted to share and disprove all the people out there that say....I would love to eat healthy but I just can't afford it. I'm sure you've either thought it yourself or heard someone else say it.

     Let me start by telling you last year I received a book from my father-in-law titled "The Vegetarian Handbook". I never talked about becoming a vegetarian, nor did I ever even consider it. I'm one of the lucky ones that never had an issue with weight and no medical conditions to speak of. Come to think of it, I'm not really sure why he had the book seeing how that entire side of the family are huge into hunting (for food, not sport).

     Anyways, needless to say I cracked it open and read the first three chapters and that was it! The book isn't new, it's was actually written back in the 1987. It was full of disgusting and eye opening facts about not only how meat effects your system, but how the FDA goes about checking our food and the biggest was the effect of all this in our children. DONE, how could I go back to eating the way I was after reading all these facts?

      I didn't start by cutting everything out, it was actually a gradual process. First, the red meat HAD to go, a couple months later I no longer felt the need for chicken and I only cut out fish in the last two months. So, It took me and my family a grand total of about 10 months to become a full veggie :) Oh and I forgot to mention the easiest switch was the milk. I first tried soy and ehhh it was alright but then I found Almond milk. Ahhhh Almond milk if you've never had it I highly suggest trying it Vanilla, Original, and Chocolate, Yummy!

      Ok, so before you quit reading this because you expect the rest of this entry to be me trying to convert you over to vegetarianism, I'm not. It's not for everyone I completely understand the only thing I'm an advocate of is if you feel the need to eat meat either cut out red meat at least or buy Organic if you can afford it. And, most importantly PORTION control! So, on that I'll get on with what this post is really about.....Groceries!!!

      I did my weekly shopping yesterday and I hit and all time low on my bill. I have a family of four, and we like to munch all day. And ideally I like to buy Organic everything, but moneys tight and the food prices keep going up and up. So, unfortunately we had to settle for the chemical ridden fruit and veggies that most supermarkets have readily stocked just in till our garden starts coming in!!

Drum-roll please......................total price for an entire week's groceries.......$88.49   Tah dah!

    I would like to add that the only ingredients besides what I purchased from the store I'll be adding in for our meals was 2 bags of dried beans ($1 something each), a 5 pd bag of brown rice ($4-5) and 2 bags of sprouts ($1.49 each). So, if you'd like to save a bit of money on your next grocery bill try my weekly meal plans. I'll be adding a whole section of recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cheap, easy and fast to make!! Oh and did I mention super nutritious???

Lastly, food for thought. Every time you go to take a bit of anything stop and think about what your going to benefit from it. It's not about being full to be full, it's about getting the most from everything you eat. And tell me, what's more important than your health? Just take control and be aware :)

Soap Day!

 Good Morning!! Hope everyone had a great weekend, I sure did. It was my favorite kind of weekend...the one that's lazy and slow! The weather was beautiful and warm. We got to meet some great new people and share a few drinks, do a bit of gardening, mowing and of course a little laundry. I was running low on detergent so I figured I'd share with you how I make my own from scratch! Besides cleaning the clothes wonderfully it's Super cheap compared to buying a store brand detergent. I've been making my own for about 6 months now and I love it.

                 Only a few ingredients: Borax ($3.25), Washing Soda ($2.25), and Laundry Bar ($1.15)

Measure out 1/2 cup borax and a 1/2 cup washing soda and 1 laundry bar. You can use a grater if you'd like, I tried that once and I could barely finish the whole bar it wore my hand out!! So I use a sharp knife and just cut into chucks so your blender doesn't have to work as hard. I got my little blender for $5 at a local grocery store and it does a great job chopping it pretty fine.

Thats it! just pour the borax, washing soda, and finely chopped laundry bar into what ever kind of container you'd like to use and stir it up good. One full washer load takes 1 spoonful of detergent and I like to put about 4 shakes of peppermint oil into my laundry. Lavender smells nice too!

I usually make two batches at a time and it lasts me a little longer than 6 months and that's for a family of four. And if you use any kind of essential oils they just seem to last forever... I've had mine for over a year and I'm about half way done with the small bottle. And I'm telling ya my husbands work cloths are  D.i.r.t.y so if this stuff can get his cloths clean it's good enough for me. Not to mention how much money I'm saving not buying a new bottle every month for 20 bucks or more.

So if your feelin froggy try it out and see how it works for you and let me know!

** I buy my Laundry bar at a local natural food store, you can check your local stores or always order them online.

Step Outside The Circle

About a year ago I really "Looked" at my life. It's not that I was really unhappy with my situation I mean I was (am) happily married with a beautiful house and two great kids... Everybody else looking in would say your so lucky you've got everything. But what's everything? From the outside I played the part, I did what I thought I was suppose to so I didn't make any waves or stick out. At that point in time I didn't want to be different I wanted to fit in, and be 'the american dream', nice house, nice things, dinner partys to plan, being little susie homemaker. But what I started to realize was that maybe I didn't want what everyone else seems to think is Sooo great.

I was always worried about every move I made and how it would affect someone else in my life. It was all a show... everything I did from how I dressed to how I decorated my house. I began to realize that every decision in my life was based on what others would think or react towards it. I didn't want to deal with any of the stress, but the funny thing about that is I've found the minute you stop worrying about what others think about you is the same minute you realize you've been living your life for everyone but yourself.
     Ok, so let me back up a bit. My husband lost his job due to the economy about 3 months after we had just purchased our first house (figures right?) For 2 years we scraped and borrowed and managed to keep our heads just about that water line...barely. In those hard times I began to realize

#1 I was a shopping addict.. If I had $5 i'd cash in my change jar and spend $8.
#2 I spread myself so thin trying to help others, that wouldn't get off their butts if a refrigerator fell on me
#3 I wanted Dreads for years but bahaha think about what everyone would say!
#4 Do I really need to buy new decorations... for the outside of my house, so when people drove by they could oooo and aaaahh about how nice my house is compared to my neighbors.

Alright, so needless to say I started 'seeing' things that I never noticed before. I was a follower...really??? When I was younger I was a pack leader. I dressed however I wanted, did what I wanted without any regard to what people said. Where did that person go? Ok, so no I didn't want to go back Punk rocker style and be a hard a$$, but the point is, somewhere in the midst of getting married and having children I lost Me. So, the first step that I took catapulted me to where I am today... Stop caring about what everyone else thinks!  I don't mean say anything regardless to how it might make someone feel, just stop and think about the line of questioning I'm going to receive if I do _____.
        Since that epiphany last year
I dreaded my hair,
sold our house to move out to the country,
cut a few people out of our lives,
cut the shopping addiction,
I'm still working on becoming a minimalistic,
we're working on moving off-grid,
became a vegetarian/vegan/raw food addict (lol yes a mixture of all),
Opened up to a Spiritual side I never knew existed
Began practicing Yoga
And, just learning to Live in each moment everyday.

I can't tell you how happy I am. I mean Truly happy. Once you've stepped outside that Circle of "Normal" your eyes will open up to a world that is full of possibility's. I feel like I'm 5 again... do you remember when you had dreams? when you actually believed your parents when they told you You can do anything you want, if you just set your mind to it. Well I DO believe I can do anything, and I will.

What are your Life goals? think about it... really think about what YOU want to happen in your life without concern to what others may think about it, because this is YOUR life right? People may think your crazy or weird but does it really matter? Do you really want to follow others when their just following someone else? Be your own person, I'm not going to lie and say everything will be smooth sailing because it won't, trust me I know! But think about all the great people in history...if they just followed everyone else because of the backlash they would receive where would we all be? I by no means am saying I'm going to be remembered in a history book, but Ill know at the end of my time that I lived my life the way I wanted and hopefully inspired a few people to be themselves and be great at it!

Now get off the computer and start living your life! :)