Friday, November 09, 2007

Buffets - Food everywhere but nothing good to eat!

We went out to a buffet last night for dinner. It’s been a REAL long time since we’ve done that. As a matter of fact, the last time we did that was when we evacuated for the hurricanes in 2004. And now I remember WHY it has been so long since we’ve gone out to a buffet. Last night we abandoned the camper in freezing weather for the comfort of a heated hotel room. Since it was a little difficult to cook in a hotel room, we decided (on the advice of the friendly hotel clerk) to try a buffet for our dinner meal. We thought it would be fast, easy and convenient and would give us a good selection of fruits, vegetables and salads. Boy – were we ever wrong. There was indeed a wide variety of salad items and cooked vegetables – but nothing was what I would call good. All of the salad toppings were loaded with fat and cholesterol. And, after sampling most of the vegetable selection I now know why most people can’t understand how I can base my entire diet around fruits, vegetables and grains. All of the vegetables were completely overcooked and soggy – and if there was any flavoring added it was in the form of chopped meat or cheese products. Although my dinner was really quite horrible – I am very grateful for the experience for several reasons. It really opened my eyes to the struggles that most people face when making the transition to a plant-based diet. I can’t imagine eating a plant-based diet if it tasted like the foods I tried on the buffet. But there is hope! Vegetables don’t really taste like that! A few quick recipes, seasonings, and proper techniques and a plant-based, whole food diet is WONDERFUL! That is what my website is all about – empowering people to eat and truly ENJOY whole foods. Sampling the foods at the buffet also helped me see how easy it is for most people to inadvertently overeat. When we are hungry, what our body really wants is some high quality nutrients it can use for fuel. We will continue to eat and eat and eat to find those high nutrient dense foods. If none are available and all we have available is low nutrient, highly processed foods, our bodies will continue to search for a good fuel source. Junk foods and processed foods may be satisfying to our mouths, but not to our bodies. I sampled so many foods at the buffet trying desperately to find something satisfying that I felt totally stuffed when I left – yet not satisfied at all. That is also what my website is about. Whole foods are INCREDIBLY satisfying and appealing to our tastebuds and mouth – if we just give them a proper try.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Camping - at a Hampton Inn?

Another camping blog – sort of….I am actually sitting in a Hampton Inn right now enjoying a warm room, soft bed, my own bathroom and wi-fi. Why you might ask. Well, a cold front came through and it is supposed to be near freezing tonight. We bailed! We woke up this morning to 38 degree weather, a stiff wind from the northwest and a son coming down with a bad cold. It was time to break camp and move on to another state park for the next 4 days. We were moving south, but not as fast as the cold front. The thought of another frigid night and day was a little too much for all of us. So, we packed up, drove to the next state park, dropped off the camper and went to the closest hotel for the night. Tomorrow we are planning on going back and finishing the camping trip as the warming trend sets in. It’s going to be hard to leave this great room with all of its amenities – but the call of the wild remains strong. We still have salamanders left to hunt and woods left to explore.

Hot fresh pears - campfire dessert!

Camping and outdoor living are one of the things we like best. Sometimes our eating habits suffer when our routines are changed or we feel we are on vacation. They don’t have to though. This week we’ve managed to be fairly creative with our menu while still enjoying the bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables. We have had our share of roasted marshmallows, but they weren’t the only sweet and hot desert item on our camping menu. I had brought along some nice pears to enjoy – ripe and sweet right off the core. However, the weather turned pretty chilly and I was really craving a nice hot dessert. Pears! All I did was chop the pears, with the skins on, and slightly cook them with a tiny bit of Earth Balance and a little brown sugar. We were all hooked! Sweet and warm and just what we needed around the campfire on a cold evening. Oftentimes I have overpacked for camping trips and not allowed my imagination and creativity to run wild with the foods I did bring. I’m still learning – and enjoying the process. Sometimes my creativity results in a miss and sometimes it results in a glorious hit. Basic foods with a minimum of preparation always seem to taste the best – even if you aren’t enjoying them out of doors.

Whole Grain bread - or not?

They fooled me – didn’t think it was possible – but they did! Who? The bread manufacturers and labelers did. I couldn’t believe it!!!! What am I talking about? Well, last week, right before we left on an eight night camping trip, I taught a cooking class. One of the topics I covered was how to select whole grain breads and how easy it is to be fooled – especially if you believe what it says on the front label of the bread. For the class, I bought 8 loaves of bread – 7 of which were really whole grain or whole wheat and one was not. Without reading the ingredient labels and by going only by the front label, I had them try to discern which loaf was NOT whole grain. A few of them got it right, but most of them didn’t. The one loaf which wasn’t whole grain was labeled 7 Grain bread – all of which were seeds or berries sprinkled on the top of a healthy looking loaf of white bread. Boy, was everyone surprised. The least healthy looking loaf of bread, and the softest one, was probably the best. It contained whole wheat flour and NO high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) – only brown sugar. I would much rather feed my family good old fashioned brown sugar than HFCS any day of the week. Brown sugar does not interfere with one of the body’s hormones called leptin. Leptin is the hormone which signals the brain that you’ve had enough to eat and are satiated. HFCS is one of the ingredients that block that hormone from reaching the brain – causing us to eat and eat and eat – without seeming to ever get full. Does that sound familiar? I certainly have struggled with that in the past, but switching to a whole food, plant-based diet with minimally processed foods has cured me – and it will you too. However, back to how I was fooled!!!! Getting ready for an 8 night camping trip in the same week I held a cooking class caused me to cut a few corners. Normally I bake a couple of loaves of bread a day or two before we leave- but not this last week. I decided that was one area that I could sacrifice home made – after all, I had just taught a room full of people how to select a loaf of healthy bread – certainly I could do the same. So, off I went to gather a few items at our local discount club – some apples, potatoes, grapes, maple syrup and bread. The store had two loaves of bread packaged into one bag, so the ingredient label was nearly impossible to read. So, I went on someone else’s recommendation, the labels on the front of the loaves and the healthy grains sprinkled all over the top of the lovely bread. I felt the bread and it felt a little stiffer than the soft whole wheat bread setting next to it. It looked healthier with all of those seeds on top. Someone had recommended it as a nice whole grain bread. The front label read like an honor roll of whole grain goodness – “low fat”, “heart healthy”, “American Heart Association recommended as part of a heart healthy diet”, “a diet high in whole grains can lower your risk of heart disease and certain cancers” and a plethora of other wonderful sounding, health enhancing goodness. WOW! Taking that short cut and not preparing homemade sounded great. What a better choice this stiff bread was than the Whole Wheat soft bread sitting beside it with no glowing endorsements on the front. WRONG!!!!!!! On the first day of our trip, as we sat at the table fixing our sandwiches, I read the ingredient label! OH MY! The number one ingredient was “enriched wheat flour”!!!! No Whole anything in the ingredient label. Boy did I feel rather schnookered that day. I had fallen for the oldest tricks in the book. Thank goodness noone but family was around to see it. Needless to say, the first trip we made to the grocers, I replaced that bread with a REAL whole grain bread. We are happy and so are the fish and turtles who are getting quite a nice handout of that “healthy bread”.

On the way to camping in Georgia

Camping is so much fun for our family. There is just something about being outdoors in the beautiful weather that we all love. This is the time of year when we begin enjoying the great outdoors. In the summer, it’s a little too hot and humid to want to be outside all day. The fall, winter and spring are great times to soak in the glory and splendor of the day and night. Normally we stay in Florida but this year we decided to venture into Georgia – partly to see if we could see any leaves change before the weather got too cold to camp. We left on Saturday and enjoyed our 6 hour drive into the interior of Georgia. We were playing games in the car and got to laughing so hard at the unintentional humor of our soon to be 7 year old son. We were playing Brainquest as a type of trivia challenge – with homeschooling everything becomes a teachable moment. The question was if boots is the plural of boot – what is the plural of foot. I guess I worded it a little differently in an attempt to explain plural. I posed the question as if you have one boot it’s b-o-o-t, if you have two boots, its spelled b-o-o-t-s. So, if you have one foot it is spelled f-o-o-t, so if you had two, what would it be? In an attempt to answer before his sister, our son yells out shoes, s-h-o-e-s! He might not have given the answer we all expected, but he was right on track! We thought that started our trip out well – we haven’t stopped chuckling and enjoying our time together since. It’s wonderful to spend the time enjoying being a family – even when things aren’t quite what we expect. Often, the unexpected is much better than what we expected.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Fresh Brussel Sprouts - YUMMY!

I broke my golden rule today and spent more than 30 minutes in the kitchen tonight making dinner. It wasn’t a complicated recipe but fresh Brussels sprouts that made me spend the extra time. I am a sucker for really fresh produce and today was no exception. I went to our old produce market to buy just a few things. My kids always laugh at that, they know I can NEVER buy just a few things at the produce store. Everything fresh and in season just naturally calls my name. Today, it was Brussels sprouts. It’s the right time of year for really fresh sprouts and the ones I saw were nice and green and small. No yellow spots or over-sized sprouts for me. Most people turn up their noses at Brussels sprouts – probably because they’ve only been served over-cooked and merely boiled sprouts. We love to take fresh Brussels sprouts, cut them in half, remove the inner v-shape and sauté them with lots of garlic. Yummy! Frozen ones just aren’t nearly as delicious – but it does take a while to prep the fresh sprouts – at least when you are prepping about 2 pounds. If there is one thing we don’t skimp on in our monthly budget, its fresh produce. There were only 4 of us at dinner, and there weren’t very many leftovers. When the vegetables become your main course, it’s amazing how much you can eat! Tonight we had baked eggplant slices, fresh and delicious corn-on-the-cob and Brussels sprouts and fresh raspberries for dessert. No processed foods on our plate – just a few tasty morsels of God’s grand garden.

Monday, October 22, 2007

It's Been A While!

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and write what is happening in our lives and hearts. I often think of all the things I want to share, and then get so involved in living, I hardly take a breath to pause and reflect. I am rethinking my family schedule and going to make sure there is more time for writing and sharing. There’s just something special about inviting others to join in and celebrate LIFE with us!

It was a great weekend this last Saturday and Sunday. The weather was a little gloomy, but we had a great time anyway. I held my first cooking class at Paradise Health and Nutrition on Minton Road. This was a new location for my cooking class, although I shop there frequently. The people who attended the class were wonderful and friendly and encouraging! We had a great time together learning how to cook Mushroom Stroganoff with Soy Curls, Vegetarian Chili and Tofu Cubes with Brown Gravy. (YUM,YUM,YUM!) Three dishes is less than an hour – we were cranking! I love talking about food almost as much as I love eating and preparing it – so I was in heaven – getting to combine two of my passions at once. The staff at Paradise was also incredibly accommodating and helpful. I love shopping there because I always leave feeling better than I did when I entered the store. There are VERY few stores you can say that about anymore.

Today, we are enjoying the sunshine – finally! The kids have been outside as much as I will let them chasing bugs, snacking on grapes and generally creating adventures of all kinds. We had a picnic for lunch, although it is still warm – much to my chagrin. Pretty soon we will be embarking on another camping trip – this time for 8 nights. We can all hardly wait to go north – to Georgia – and hopefully encounter some cooler weather. Last weekend we camped at Fort Clinch State Park. The park was absolutely gorgeous and the weather very pleasant. We were able to enjoy a half-mile long fishing pier, deserted pristine beaches, a Confederate army reenactment at the Fort and a relaxing family time together. I am so grateful to God that He has blessed us with health and vitality as we enjoy His creation and all of it’s majesty.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Three Sisters Stew

It just seems to get longer and longer between blogs. Life has been busy between cooking classes, school, editing cookbooks, writing articles, videotaping cooking lessons, field trips, experimenting with new recipes and life! But without all of these activities, we’d be busy anyway. I just had to sit today and write briefly about our latest meal we invented. Okay, perhaps we didn’t invent it, but we modified a recipe to fit our own taste buds. The weather here has started to cool off – okay, drop about 2 degrees from our normal summer afternoon high – and we are thinking about autumn. We started making camping reservations and that is always our signal that summer is ending. We decided to start about a month early this year by heading north. We made reservations at Fort Clinch State Park in Florida for October and at two Georgia State Parks for November. Somehow, we are hoping that we just might find some autumn leaves in November in Georgia. In the meantime, we are busy decorating our house with harvest decorations. The children did find one red leaf today in the front yard, which they are ready to press and save. In preparation for Thanksgiving – you have to plan things REALLY early when you write for newsletters – we decided to experiment with a Thanksgiving stew. (Most of you who know me thought I would never get back to my original point!) We based our recipe on the Three Sisters from the Native American culture – corn, winter squash and beans. These items were grown together early in North American history because they are symbiotic – nourishing each other and the soil and making good use of cleared fields. Anyway, the stew turned out marvelous! So basic and easy to make that I am sure it will be a staple in our house every autumn – if not year round! It’s too good to make only during one part of the year. Click here for the recipe.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Emails from Friends!

A good friend of mine sent me a funny email today and for the first time in a long time I took the time and answered it. In the past, I have gotten emails which ask a long list of questions about yourself to answer and pass on to friends. I’ve always loved everyone else’s responses, but never filled out one for me. Today was different. I don’t know why. Perhaps I was avoiding cleaning the bathrooms and making dinner. Any excuse to put off the inevitable seemed like a good idea. So I sat at the computer for about 15 minutes and totally indulged myself. Hopefully, it will brighten my friend’s lives too since I tried not to take myself too seriously. It’s been a rough couple of days trying to get it all done and keep everyone’s attitudes cheerful and joyful, including my own. Homeschooling requires me to sacrifice my self everyday, as do many other things in life. I love it, I wouldn’t change it, but I sure would create more hours in my day if I could. But of course, as soon as I created them, they would be filled up and I would be left desiring even more. I guess I’m that way about most things. There never seems to be enough. Although, perhaps that’s not really true. There are certainly some things I could do with less of – like sagging skin, hot flashes, summer heat and spelling questions from my children when I am trying to write. Oh well, off to the bathrooms and dinner – one can only put off the inevitable for so long!

Monday, August 27, 2007

The Science Experiment


As a science experiment for my kids, we starting experimenting with sprouts. As a homeschool family, we experiment with lots of things – although I don’t think we’ve ever experimented with something so tasty before. Okay, I’ll admit it – I have NEVER been a big fan of sprouts. Alfalfa sprouts have always tasted too “green” to me and mung bean sprouts normally go bad before I can use them in our favorite stir frys. So, when Andy begged at the health food store for seeds and a sprouting lid, my husband thought it might be fun and educational. It has been, but I think Andy hasn’t gotten to experiment much with it – my husband has taken it over. If it’s a bean or a seed, he’s going to sprout it. Perhaps this is a phase that will pass, but we sure have been enjoying them. We started with mung beans which sprouted nicely. We used them in our smoothies and salads. They tasted quite good, and according to my husband and about 1,000 websites, they are incredibly good for us too. Next, we tried sprouting wheat berries. I wasn’t sure what to do with them at first. I searched around the internet and everything I found sounded way too difficult to try. So, I did my usual thing and decided to add them to a recipe I was already comfortable with. I threw them in the VitaMix and then added them to my regular bread recipe. The sprouts came out of the VitaMix like a glob of gooey glutenous mess – a perfect addition to bread dough, I hoped. And I was right! What a wonderful feeling! The bread rose higher than it had ever risen before and had a delightfully delicious taste and texture. WOW! Emily said it was the best bread I had ever made! It was good and I have more wheat berries sprouting right now in the kitchen. Sometimes experiments turn out really good – and sometimes they don’t. The key is to be willing to keep trying.


Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Dumplings!

I’m trying a new recipe tonight. That’s not unusual for me, but I am experimenting with grains. I do a lot with vegetables, but have always stuck with wheat and rice. Every once in a while I feel bold and will put barley in my vegetable soup. Tonight I am making barley with broccoli and white beans. Sounds a little bland, but I’m hoping when it all cooks up we’ll have a new dish to add to our menus. I seem to go through phases where I cook the same 20 things over and over and over again. It’s hard to set aside some of our all time favorites to try something new. I do pretty good picking out recipes that end up tasting good, but I still have failures. It’s nice to have a sense of humor when sitting down at the table. I’ll never forget my first attempt at no-chicken and dumplings. (We use soy curls in place of the chicken and McKay’s seasoning for the “chicken” broth.) I should have paid more attention to the dumpling recipe. It looked a lot like my biscuit recipe, but with a lot more liquid. It was a REAL mess trying to form dumplings out of really wet dough. We ended up with little “matza ball” looking dumplings. The dumplings were….well, they just weren’t quite dumplings. My children were so gracious, telling me how great it was. Perhaps they were just trying to get an extra helping of dessert that night. We’re trying that dish again this Sunday night, and I plan to have an extra special dessert on hand just in case!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Rainy days!

It's raining again this afternoon! In Florida, we relish these afternoon storms which really help cool things off. Once the storms pass through, we are often left with a wonderful evening. It’s even possible to sit out back after dinner and enjoy the fresh air. Often it’s a time we go fishing or play tag or simply chat about our day. It’s nice not to be tied to a full schedule. Don’t get me wrong, our days are full – very full. But our days are not overly scheduled. We love to own our days rather than be slaves to them. In the past, we may have been tempted to say yes to every opportunity that came our way. There are always so many good opportunities for field trips, visits, team sports, classes and hobbies that we often struggle with which to choose. But good opportunities aren’t always the BEST opportunities for us. We have found that through prayer and self control, we are often doing more by doing less. God has called us to serve Him in a variety of ways and the most important way we serve Him is by training and disciplining our children. That’s pretty hard to do when we are too busy running them from one activity to another, where other people train them instead of us. So, we’ve learned to say no to many things in order to say yes to a few things – which are the most important things in our life. Perhaps it’s not pure coincidence that often our first words in life are NO! Perhaps we need to remember how to say that word again – and use it to our and our children’s eternal benefit.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Easy and healthy recipes - without expensive cookbooks!

Why do so many people make eating healthy so much work? I checked out a few new cookbooks from the library and sat down to peruse them. I was pretty disappointed by what I saw – a lot of work and a lot of special ingredients that not only do I not have in my house, I can’t even pronounce them. It didn’t take long to sort through the books and decide that there weren’t many items in them that I would be enjoying! Often times I do better taking simple, unhealthy recipes and modifying them for health. Soy milk, soy cheese and/or tofu work just as well as cholesterol laden animal products. Water sautéing works better than sautéing in oil – without having to be concerned about overheating the oil and making it rancid. Soy curls, TVP, seitain, mushrooms, tofu or Tempeh are fine substitutes for animal meats. Eating healthy doesn’t have to be hard. Take your old favorite recipes, make some minor modifications and you’re left with a wonderful new dish. But perhaps that doesn’t sell cookbooks as well as complicated and exotic recipes do.

If you need some help modifying a recipe, feel free to email me at nancy@veg4health.com.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Okay, perhaps I am a little weird and perhaps I am a little too attached to my cooking – but I am so excited because I made bread today and the loaf turned out BEAUTIFUL! The loaf didn’t have one blemish on it. It wasn’t too dark or overcooked and the top hadn’t even begun to split because I had let it rise in an oven that was too warm. My husband came home talking about a gorgeous sunset and I keep talking about my perfect loaf of bread! But oh – it is beautiful and perfect. It’s so nice when that happens. When all of my effort not only tastes good, but looks good too! If you have ever made bread from scratch, you know what I am talking about. There is no sense of accomplishment which can replace the feel of a perfectly done loaf!

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Water Basketball - Beating the Heat!

It’s really hot in Florida right now! Unbearably hot in the middle of the day!. But I guess that is the price we pay for such mild winters. It’s normally not the heat in July that gets to me, but the heat in October. Although I have always lived in Florida, October seems to be a month when long sleeves and sweaters should start coming out of storage and the night air get crisp. October in Florida is never that way. It’s still 90 degrees and uncomfortably warm. However, I expect July to be hot. We just spend a lot of our late afternoons at Nana’s house, enjoying the pool and the shade. Today the four of us had a game of water basketball. Trying to arrange the rules so that the kids don’t get too rough with each other was a real challenge. We had a great time though swimming and tossing and dunking the ball. What a way to work up an appetite. It was a glorious day – enjoying the time we take on Sundays to slow down and truly enjoy our blessings!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Back from Vacation!

Well, it seems it has been a while since I’ve taken the time to sit down and write. We’ve been a little busy – preparing and enjoying a wonderful vacation in the absolutely beautiful mountains of West Virginia. We went for the first family reunion in over 40 years. We had never thought about vacationing in West Virginia, although we do love to vacation in the mountains. (With all of the flat land and ocean around us, the mountains always seem like the perfect place to get away from the ordinary!) The scenery and the wildlife was especially beautiful and we truly had loads of fun! Of course, in our family, salamanders seem to be especially high on the must-do list and we were overwhelmed by the great number and variety of salamanders we found on this trip. (I often wonder if when my 6 y/o son grows up a little more, just what will we do on vacation to fill our time!) My husband and I have always loved to go hiking and our children have been full of whines whenever we attempt hiking! On this trip though, there were absolutely no whines! We took a 3 mile hike with a naturalist DOWN the mountain and across the Bluestone River. When we were finished, we took an aerial tram back up. Along the way, we found over 52 salamanders, 1 box turtle, 5 millipedes, 2 snails and numerous bids and deer. When we reached the Bluestone River and had to walk across, boy were we surprised! I had assured the children that the water would only be ankle deep or so. Boy, was I wrong. It was mid-thigh on the adults, which meant over the waist on our two children. It was a blast, and after the initial shock of the cold we had great fun trying to walk through the swift moving river without losing our balance on the rocky bottom and ending up swimming our way across. By the end of the day, both children told us that they were beginning to really like walking in the woods! There couldn’t be better music to our ears and there was never another complaint all week long. Of course, when your favorite past time is salamander hunting, it can take hours to hike even 1 mile through the mountains! So much for speed hiking! I am sure as the children get older and their legs get longer and their interest change, we can gradually increase speed and distance. For now, I am just thrilled that hikes in the woods are no longer a burden but a source of joy to all of us!

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Summertime Monopoly

It’s almost the end of the month and it’s hard to believe that summer is really here. It finally got warm enough that we had to shut up the house and turn on the air conditioner. I love the fresh air blowing through the windows and miss it during the summer. Don’t get me wrong, I am VERY grateful for air conditioning. When I grew up, we didn’t have air conditioning and our schools weren’t air conditioned either. It’s hard to believe that we didn’t completely melt into puddles during the summer months. But we survived and enjoyed our free time immensely. We used to sit in the breezeway to the house and play board games all during the long summer. I used to have the monopoly board memorized and knew the price of every house, rent and property in the game. I miss having all that free time. There is always something on my list to do these days. But, at least I’ve learned to use a list and make it my friend. I keep a daily, weekly and even monthly to do list. It’s where I park my brain so that I don’t have to keep it in drive. I schedule out my household chores, homeschooling tasks, menus and miscellaneous. It helps keep my mind uncluttered and gives me the ability to claim free time when I can. The bathrooms might be getting messy today, but tomorrow is my day to clean it. So, today, I can overlook the mess knowing that it will be clean tomorrow. It’s amazing the freedom it gives me to “goof off” when I can. I’m not an overly organized person, but having a schedule is freeing for me. Well, gotta run. It’s time to enjoy some of my free time and go have a game of tag with the kids. I love to do lists almost as much as margin!

Monday, May 28, 2007

Eat at Home!!!

I was completely surprised yesterday while I was surfing the net collecting information for an article I wanted to write. I was looking up nutritional information on some restaurant and fast food items and was stunned, literally stunned, by what I found. I know that eating out is typically a very unhealthy choice both for the waistline and the wallet. However, I guess I never really took the time to quantify that knowledge before. But with our family’s new commitment to following a spending plan each month and our continued commitment to healthy eating, my eyes were suddenly opened. Everyone knows that eating at home is much less expensive than eating out. It takes a little bit of time to prepare and clean up and a little bit of water and energy to complete both, but it doesn’t cost that much. But cost is another story for another day. What really surprised me was the fat content of items most people don’t think twice about while consuming. It is so easy to prepare a meal for the whole family with less fat than one serving of food to go. When a frozen mocha latte has over 40 grams of fat and ONE donut has over 15 (and who eats just one donut anyway?) it is no wonder that we have an obesity problem in America. It doesn’t matter what type of diet you are on, the only thing that counts for weight control is the number of calories consumed versus the number of calories used. Since each fat gram contains over 9 calories and carbohydrates and protein grams contain only 4 calories, no matter how you slice it, fat grams count too. I can’t even imagine fixing a dinner with so much fat. It reaffirms my philosophy of eating at home. Unless the only thing you eat at home are prepackaged meals and convenience foods, whatever you cook is probably much healthier than almost anything you can eat outside of your home. Want to lose weight? EAT AT HOME! Try it for a week. Just a week. See if being hyper-vigilant for only 7 days makes a difference. I bet if you just REFUSED to eat ANYTHING you hadn’t prepared yourself for 7 days, you would lose weight – and feel better! TRY IT! Let me know what happens! And if you don’t need to lose weight, does someone in your family? Seven days can make all of the difference in the world!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Living in the moment - What a blessing!

I’ve read a lot lately about decreasing your stress by living in the moment. Rather than physically doing one task while mentally doing 5 others, living in the moment means being truly present with the one task you are doing. I thought that was impossible and no one could live that way. I am always planning four or five things while doing what is at hand. Well, being sick has really opened my eyes to the importance of living in the moment. I am still recovering from pneumonia and trying to take it easier than normal. Yesterday seemed like a pretty relaxing day. I wasn’t stressed and I wasn’t overly tired by the end of the day. But then I reflected on what I did do yesterday and I was astounded. I had done 3 loads of wash (all folded and put away); homeschooled the children; prepared breakfast, lunch and homemade black bean soup for dinner; gone to the vet, the dollar store, the bank, the drug store, the post office, the library and the grocery store where I did my week’s worth of shopping; and returned home to unload and put all of the groceries away. I am not superwoman, but I was not overly fatigued. What was my secret yesterday? Besides relying totally on the Lord, I realized that I had also lived only in the moment. I knew I couldn’t do everything on my list, so I did what I could without beating myself up that I wasn’t doing more. I didn’t make phone calls while driving and I didn’t write blogs in my head while cooking and I didn’t plan cooking classes while homeschooling the children. I simply lived in the moment. I talked to the kids while driving and listened to them while we did our errands. I’m hooked – I hope! I never really knew how stressful and tiring it was to mentally be engaged somewhere else rather than in the present moment. And I never really knew how blessed I would feel to be recuperating and not at my fullest. I have really learned that God’s strength provides and he is always teaching me lessons – if I live in the moment enough to hear him!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

It's tough being sick - but I'm glad I have margin!

It’s tough being sick. Over the last month, I have been battling what I thought was a little cold that just wouldn’t go away. A dear friend of mine has been battling the same thing, except for three weeks longer than me. My cough continued to get worse and instead of slowly getting better, I was getting worse. Finally, I decided I had to go see a doctor. What I thought was a cold was actually a case of bronchitis with asthma and pneumonia thrown in for good measure. No wonder the day before I went to the doctor my morning work out was spent coughing as much as working out! So, Mother’s Day found me in a walk-in clinic after church. For someone who never takes medications, I walked out with four prescriptions and a promise to get a chest X-ray if I wasn’t markedly improved in 4 days. Needless to say, I found myself 4 days later getting a chest X-ray, coughing myself silly and with 2 more prescriptions. So, I am convalescing and learning how to let my husband, mother-in-law and children help out. I am also learning how to say no to certain activities and obligations and how to pace myself throughout the day. What is really amazing is that I have never felt short of breath and never really felt bad. A little more tired at the end of the day, but I was still working out almost everyday. My normal 4 mile walks were shortened slightly and my time was off a little – which I thought was due to my taking time to cough. I am now slowing down for a while and waiting to work out until my cough settles down. But I sure am glad that I have worked out and eaten right. It’s no guarantee that I don’t get sick, but it sure does help when I do. I may be slower this week, but I am not stopped. I still am able to take care of the house and kids without total fatigue and exhaustion. Maybe I would be better off if I needed some bed rest. Hmmmm…perhaps I need to think about that!

Friday, May 11, 2007

Fiber Rich Brownies

I couldn’t believe what I saw tonight. I was going through a magazine about health and nutrition and I ran across an interesting ad which included a recipe for “Fiber –Rich Raspberry Brownies”. It was an advertisement for psyllium fiber which touted its ability to lower your cholesterol. Normally I don’t pay too much attention to ads but for some reason it caught my eye. As I examined it more closely, I couldn’t believe what I saw! Here was an advertisement for a product being promoted as heart healthy yet the recipe they included called for 6 large eggs and 3 cups of sugar! Oh, but it did have ½ cup of fiber powder! Color me silly, but I like to get my fiber the natural way – in the whole foods and grains I eat every day. As astounded as I was, it started to dawn on me that if the fiber product being advertised was paying for the advertisement, it must be profitable. People must actually believe this nonsense. Perhaps we’ve all just been lulled to sleep by the large pharmaceutical and supplement industry. Somehow we think true health comes out of a bottle, in a pill or somehow in our “magical” brownies which have 6 eggs, 3 cups of sugar, and ½ cup of fiber powder. We need to wake up and think. True health comes from a full spiritual life, fulfilling relationships, enjoyable recreation and proper care of our bodies through exercise and a diet based on whole foods. Don’t get me wrong. I love brownies too and think they can have a place in our diets. But mine won’t have 6 eggs and 3 cups of sugar. And they surely won’t have ½ cup of psyllium fiber!

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Too Much Help in the Kitchen!


We have a large black Labrador Retriever named Sharlotte which we all adore. She was a wonderful gift from some friends just as my daughter was praying and begging for a dog. God always provides! But that’s another story. Sharlotte has a slight drinking problem as most labs do. When she drinks she also deposits a large amount of water directly on my kitchen floor. We always keep a small towel by her bowl to wipe the floor with after she gets a drink. When not in use, it normally “hides” under my kitchen counter. Really, it helps keep my kitchen floor pretty clean because several times a day I find I am using it. But that’s another story too.

Today, I was busy in the kitchen after dinner cleaning the dishes. Normally I feel a little like an Egyptian. I am getting quite good at building small pyramids of clean dishes and pots in my sink to drip dry. But today, I was concerned that my 9th wonder of the world may collapse, spilling all of my clean kitchen utensils onto the floor. So, as my 6 year old son was walking by, I told him to get the towel and start drying my dishes. I probably should have been more specific when I unknowingly made what I thought was a simple request. Andy was quickly obedient and started taking layers off of my pyramid and drying them. We had a nice visit while he helped and the time and chores seemed to fly by. It was only after I finished putting away all of the washed and dried utensils did I turn around and begin to sense that perhaps things were not as they had seemed. I quickly called Andy and asked him to tell me which towel he had used to dry ALL of the pots, pans, dishes, silverware and assorted other kitchen utensils I had used to prepare dinner. Much to my belated surprise, he told me had picked the towel up off the floor and used that one. ARGH! Next time I guess I need to be slightly more specific in my directions and perhaps I may be a little slower asking for help. Sometimes, there IS such a thing as too much help in the kitchen!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Choose health over convenience!


We had a good day today! We were supposed to spend the day doing ballet and early morning baking. However, ballet got cancelled so we spent the day together unwinding and enjoying each other’s company. After dinner we decided to go fishing in the St. John’s River from a local boat ramp. The kids both caught some good sized Bluegills and we enjoyed watching the alligators nearby. We made sure to keep the children away from the water’s edge and one of us always kept an eye on the water nearby. There would be no falling in today! Emily was completely grossed out by the wiggly worms we used for bait and could scarcely eat at home once she learned that the bait had been carefully stored in our refrigerator. Yet, what I really found interesting is that we had been fishing in almost the exact same spot my Grandpa used to take me when I was only 5 years old. Grandpa and I would head out to Camp Holly with our cane poles and worms and have a wonderful time fishing. Unfortunately, I did not get to repeat this adventure many times. Grandpa had diabetes and had died of complications from the disease by the time I was in Kindergarten. It’s nice to know that through exercise, keeping my weight down and eating a wide variety of plant based whole foods that I am significantly lowering my risk of developing diabetes. It’s also wonderful to be able to help others do the same thing. I love hearing from people about how they have overcome their health challenges and family history through adopting the same principles. I also love hearing people say that they never knew a healthy lifestyle would be so easy, fun and down right tasty! Healthy, vibrant living isn’t about giving up things; it’s about doing the right things. But I really love thinking about all those future children who will be able to build a lifetime of memories with their grandpa and grandma because they chose health over convenience.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Breakfast in Bed! What a treat!

My kids brought us breakfast in bed on Saturday! WOW!!!! What a treat! We finally got our “new” dog to sleep in. She likes to get up at 5:30 and eat – but this Saturday we got her to let us all sleep until 7:30! YIPPEE! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 7:30 from in my bed! The kids snuck in while Rick and I were chatting and enjoying the slow pace of Saturday morning. They were very excited about serving us. And so was I, until I thought about the clean up I would surely face later. But, there’s only one time which is the first time your children bring you breakfast – or anything other than nightmares – to bed. I had made whole wheat blueberry and banana muffins the previous day so I knew we had something in the kitchen they could handle. But, I really felt like fruit – not muffins. I suggested they peel some bananas, slice them in two bowls; add a little maple syrup and walnuts to mine and a few raisins and soy milk to Dad’s bowl. What a wonderful job they did and how exciting it was for me to realize they were slowly becoming self-sufficient! We only lost half of a banana to the floor and my banana chunks were floating in maple syrup and covered with pecans – but with great enthusiasm we cherished the moment!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Me and my cantaloupe!

I went into my local produce market today and got really excited to see Florida cantaloupes! You don’t often see cantaloupes and excited in the same sentence but after a long winter of apples, bananas and pineapples I do get a little enthusiastic when spring and summer fruits begin appearing in the stores. I never really knew how much I liked cantaloupes until I tasted one which was grown right here in the good old USA. When we owned our own produce market we had a customer we called the cantaloupe guy. He would appear each year when cantaloupe season began. Every visit, he would buy 6 to 8 cantaloupes. I used to think he was odd, now I think I may be just like him!

Locally grown cantaloupes are nothing like their off shore counterparts. Fresh, local cantaloupes are often only 1 day from the vine when they appear in the produce market. How do I pick a cantaloupe? First, I look for a local melon with a nice round shape and no bruises or soft spots. (I NEVER shake a cantaloupe. Shaking a cantaloupe does nothing but loosens the seeds and causes the melon to ROT rather than ripen.) Depending on how long before I eat it, I choose a color. The greener the skin, the longer the melon will take to ripen. Then I take it home and let it ripen on my counter or even in my refrigerator. Once the skin begins to turn yellow and dimple I know the cantaloupe is ready to eat. I can even begin to taste it as I prepare to carve it. Take my advice and treat yourself to a locally grown cantaloupe and see if you don’t start using excited and cantaloupe in the same sentence!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

OSSP Camping Trip


We just got back from a week long family camping trip and what a wonderful time we had! We stayed on the west coast of Florida for 5 nights in Oscar Sheerer State Park. It was a beautiful campground with shady, private campsites. We saw cardinals, cat birds, owls, herons, egrets, raccoons, cotton tail rabbits, armadillos and alligators, to name a small portion of the abundant wildlife. We went canoeing, fishing, swimming, shell and fossilized shark tooth collecting, sunset watching, hiking and even on an airboat ride. To say that our week was full of adventure would be a slight understatement. I’m not sure what activities we liked the best. All of the adventures blended together into a family memory which will not soon be forgotten. It was wonderful to be able to indulge ourselves in full days without aches, pains or other ailments sometimes associated with active vacations. Having children later in life has been full of challenges, but because of our commitment to a healthy and vibrant lifestyle, none of the challenges have been related to those commonly associated with aging. Now that I’ve had a few moments to reflect, I think all of us would say that our favorite activity was tuning into an “oldies” radio station and dancing in the car to some songs that reminded us of our life long before children. Somehow, the songs seemed richer and certainly more memorable when shared with our children with great enthusiasm and vigor. I never knew a 6 year old and 8 year old could be so creative while “dancing” in their car seats!

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Getting Ready to Podcast

I am getting ready to start podcasting. At least I think I am. I tried tonight while cooking dinner to create a podcast about making dinner. It was a lot of fun. We’ll have to wait and see how it turned out. I was making stewed apples or what I sometimes call fried apples. It’s one of my kids’ favorite foods. We have friends whose kids love them too. Anyway, I had apples that we didn’t particularly care for, so we decided that they would taste great stewed. The apples were a little too tart. They were not as tart as a Granny Smith apple, but they were not as sweet as we like. So, while peeling and paring and stewing, I tried to teach a quick class on a wide variety of topics. I think I covered, or attempted to cover, the different types of common apples and what to use them for, the different types of vegan butter substitutes, the benefits of cast iron cooking, the types of vegetable/fruit peelers I like the best and how to thicken stewing juices quickly. Just a few topics to cover in less than 15 minutes, while preparing dinner and fielding requests from hungry children. Well, time will tell how it turned out. Not sure I am ready for the big time yet. But, hey, it’s always fun to gather in my kitchen and talk.

Check out my podcasts at Veg4health.libsyn.com.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

The Joy of Pressure Cookers


If I could only keep one pot in my whole kitchen, without a doubt, I would keep my Pressure cooker. I can’t imagine what it would be like to prepare a whole meal without it. It’s hard for me to believe that I was over 40 before I ever even heard of pressure cookers. We owned our own large produce market and the kindest old gentlemen in the world introduced me to the wonders of pressure cooking. Mr. Pierce had purchased some green peanuts from us, and had returned with a sample of his recently “boiled peanuts”. Whether you are a fan of boiled peanuts or not, suffice it to say that they were the best boiled peanuts I have ever eaten. At my delightful ravings, Mr. Pierce cheerfully shared his secret – the pressure cooker. Not only did he educate me about pressure cookers, but he returned once again with one of his pressure cookers for me to try. I have been hooked ever since. There are lots of reasons why I like my pressure cooker. Pressure cookers cook food incredibly fast, they do not heat up my Florida kitchen, they produce tastier dishes, they seal in the vitamins and minerals normally lost during prolonged cooking and they leave my stovetop neater and cleaner than normal cooking pots do.

How do pressure cookers work? Pressure cookers simply cook foods faster than normal pots by cooking under high pressure and high temperature. Pressure cookers have a more elaborate lid than most cooking pots which provide a complete seal to the pot. By completely sealing the pot with a gasket and locking mechanism, the steam created during heating in a pressure cooker is trapped. This trapped steam builds up pressure within the pot and thereby increases the temperature of boiling water from 212 degrees Fahrenheit to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Under this high pressure and temperature, the fiber in the food is tenderized and the food is cooked in record time with incredible flavor and with very little steam released into the kitchen. Once the food is done, the cooker is removed from the heat source and the steam must be released before the lid can be removed. The steam is released either through a quick release method (using the cooker’s special valve or placing in the sink under running water) or through the natural release method (the pressure eventually drops as the cooker cools). Once the pressure is released, unlock and open the pressure cooker. Read more about this wonderful tool here.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Frozen Mocha Frappuccino




Frozen Mocha Frappuccino
What an unbelievably refreshing treat!!!

1 cup soymilk (regular or vanilla)
1 tbsp instant coffee crystals (regular or decaf)
squirt of Hershey's chocolate
2 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tbsp ground flax
handful of fresh spinach (optional) (You really can't taste the spinach)
2 cups ice

Combine all ingredients except ice and mix in blender or VitaMix for 1 minute.
Add ice and blend on high until ice turns to slush.
Makes 2 servings.

OK, so maybe it's not the MOST healthy thing you could drink, but it sure beats soda or iced tea!!

(whipped cream optional)

More recipes available at http://www.veg4health.com.

There were worms on my Baby Bok Choy!


Last night I had my taste buds all prepared for a nice side dish of stir-fried baby bok choy. I could taste the sesame garlic bok choy already as I started to open my bags and clean it. I was quite surprised to find that I had unexpected guests in my baby bok choy who were quite happily indulging themselves in a fine feast. All of the inside leaves were covered with worm droppings and had quite a few holes nicely carved out. What’s a mom to do when faced with worms in her next side dish? Well, I have to admit that I was in too much of a hurry last night to face the daunting task of de-worming my baby bok choy; too concerned that my eight year old would happen into the kitchen and discover that we are not the only creatures of God who devour leafy greens; and too overwhelmed by the sheer number of tiny, happy, munching green worms. So, I tossed the bok choy, opened my freezer, grabbed the nearest green vegetable I could find and went back to finishing my dinner preparations.

What would you do if faced with worms on your fresh produce? Would you toss the produce or use it? Normally I just smile, feel blessed that my produce is not too drenched with pesticides to support life, quickly remove the worms, wash thoroughly and quietly use the vegetable. (I say quietly, because if my darling daughter who has an enormous aversion to worms ever found out that she has eaten a dish of raspberries that had once hosted a large green worm, she would never eat fruits or vegetables again!) Perhaps it seems a little odd to use food that once hosted other life forms, but it’s really quite natural and should be reassuring. Living food which is grown in living soil should not be devoid of insects and we shouldn’t be discouraged from using it. I have seen my share of insects and worms from having handled literally tons of produce every month when we owned a large produce business. What really bothers me is when I examine some really nice produce and find it completely devoid of any evidence of living creatures. Saturating a field with pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals may create a beautiful looking harvest, but is it really healthy? Perhaps a little worm isn’t a bad thing after all!

Sunday, March 18, 2007

How to Make your Bread Machine More Useful in Your Kitchen than it is as a Boat Anchor or a Doorstop!

I love my bread machine. I mean it – I really do LOVE it! That may be hard for some of you to believe – but I do. I am amazed at how often I talk to people who have given up on their bread machine and left it our for the garbage men or left it in their garage to collect dust. In our house, there is nothing like a nice warm loaf of fresh bread to fill out our dinner menu or to fill hungry tummies when the main course doesn’t appeal to everyone’s “delicately fine-tuned” taste buds. When I was growing up, there was always a jar of peanut butter and a plate of sliced bread on the table. We always had to try what was prepared, but bread and peanut butter were often what filled our tummies.

I used to make bread by hand – totally by hand. No mixer or food processor or bread machine – simply a big bowl and a large spatula. When we opened our produce store, I knew that homemade, handmade bread was no longer going to be an option. So for Christmas, my wonderful mother-in-law blessed me with a breadmaker. Wow, I thought! No more work, just wonderful bread, made hot and fresh daily! After my first two weeks of trying to produce an edible and attractive loaf of bread, I was ready to toss the breadmaker out with my Salton food dehydrator. (That’s another story for another day!) But, I persevered. I checked out bread books from the library, I visited hundreds of cooking websites, and I started my own science laboratory – all to discover how to have my life made easier with my bread machine. It was not love at first sight. It wasn’t even close. Annulment, divorce or permanent separation was looking like my only option. Thankfully, we made it work.

How? Go to http://www.veg4health.com/Articles/howtomakeyourbreadmachine.html for the rest of the story and my great bread recipe.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

The "New" Fat

As Trans-fats are systematically eliminated and outlawed, don’t expect processed foods and take-out to automatically get healthier. There is a new fat on the horizon which is worse than trans-fats. Manufacturers and food outlets love it, but the human body doesn’t. The new fat is call interesterified fat and recent research shows that it lowers insulin levels, raises blood glucose levels and adversely affects HDL levels. The Food and Drug Administration recently ruled that food companies can label products containing these new fats as "high stearate" or "stearic rich" fats, or as "interesterified fats," thus avoiding the politically negative buzz word, "hydrogenated," which is associated with transfats. What’s a person to do? I’m going to continue eating as many fruits and vegetables as I can, as close to how nature made them. I’m also going to continue to be very wary of all processed foods and most anything served at a restaurant which is fried.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Menu Planning 101

Trying to drive to Alaska from Florida without a road map is pretty impossible. Trying to eat healthy without a menu and a plan is pretty impossible also. After a busy day at work or field tripping with my children, I need to be able to come home and prepare dinner without having to think. I need to move quickly and with forethought in order to get a healthy and delicious meal on the table in 30 minutes. If I didn’t take the time earlier in the week to plan our meals, I would be lost and the quality of our food would suffer. Not just the taste, but the healthiness as well. If there was one thing I would strongly recommend it would be to make the time each week to sit down and develop a menu for the week. It doesn’t have to be rigid and inflexible and it doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just needs to take into account your family’s schedule, taste buds and budget.

Healthy eating doesn’t just happen. It does require some planning and forethought, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or boring. Often people ask me, “If you don’t eat eggs, meat or dairy, just what DO you eat?” My response is always the same. “There is not enough days in the year to make all of the delicious foods God’s provided for us.”

Go to http://www.veg4health.com/Articles/menuplanning101.html for 5 easy steps.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

I was there when he died

I was there when he died. It was an Easter Sunday, the day for bunny rabbits, Easter eggs and church. The day our Lord and Savior was raised from the dead. It was a day to rejoice, not a day to mourn. We were talking to him, all of his children, gathered around his bed, chatting about the grandchildren and Easter egg hunting. The doctors had just implanted a new pacemaker, and everyone believed he had received a new lease on life. We were smiling and laughing and rejoicing. And then it happened! The alarms went off, his face look startled and his eyes rolled up and back. The nurses came running, and the doctors came too. From every corner of the hospital the alarm was sounded. “Code Blue ICU, Code blue ICU.” Suddenly our joy was replaced with a wild flurry of activity, panic, fear, and anxiety. It had happened once before that week. Nurses and doctors scrambling to save his life; ventilators in place; momentarily stabilized. We could breathe again. But that was earlier. Now, it was happening again. But this time there was no happy ending. No rejoicing at a life momentarily stopped and restarted. No, it was just the end. I was left without a father, my mother without a husband, and the grandchildren without a grandpa. Heart disease had come and stolen my dad. MY DAD; the most precious person in a young girl’s life; the one who should be proud of you no matter how lopsided your kindergarten craft; the one who loves you no matter which boy rejects you and treats you poorly; the one you run to when our young heart is broken; the one who smiles as you run to him at the end of the day; the man with the big blue eyes that sparkle when you walk in; the one whose face, frozen in that moment between life and death, is forever etched in your mind; the one whose smile looks at your kids through the picture on the mantle because he didn’t live long enough to see them any other way. And people wonder why I eat a plant based diet, and why I take exercising so seriously. I remember how it felt to lose my dad and I don’t want my children to have to experience that either. Yes, someday the Lord will call me home, but until He does, I’m fighting. Fighting to have the healthiest life: fighting to be able to race my 6 year old son to the car without getting winded; fighting to see MY grandchildren be born; fighting to live life without hesitation; fighting to be able to serve the Lord with full capacities until the very day He calls me home.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Welcome to the "new" digital age

Welcome to the new digital age! Perhaps that seems a little dated, but for someone who just got their first PDA – it is new news! The PDA happens to be a hand-me-down from my older sister who has been in the digital age for years! But, at least I’ve arrived – it doesn’t really matter how I got here, just that I am here. Now, I just have to invest the time and energy to discover how to wisely use the PDA. I’ve used a paper planner system for over 20 years. Will I now be able to go paperless? Only time, coupled with perseverance and endurance, will tell. All I know is that my eyes have been opened, my horizon broadened, and my depth of befuddlement deepened.

Maybe I’m not too different from you. Have your eyes suddenly been opened to the need to move from the standard American diet and lifestyle to one of healthy eating and daily exercise? Perhaps you’ve been forced there by a confrontation with your current health status or perhaps you’ve seen a glimpse of what your future health, or lack thereof, will be like if you don’t begin to change. It is tough standing on a foreign shore and trying to decide what to do next. The language is different, the people have different customs and nothing feels quite right. All of sudden you are confronted with tofu, target heart rates, leafy greens, BMI, smoothies, biometrics, legumes and a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables you’ve never really noticed before. The first thing to do is take stock of the land you’re in and RELAX. Once YOUR sense of befuddlement settles down, you’ll be able to see and act. Take a breath, sit for a spell and listen.

What is the real difference between a paperless world and a non-digital world? The data is the same, it’s just a matter of storage. Kind of like “paper or plastic” when you go to the grocery store. The difference between the standard American lifestyle and a healthy one is just a matter of 2 things, movement and whole foods. Make the decision to embrace the reality and necessity of these two things, and don’t look back.

I didn’t need anyone to convince me that the digital world was better, easier and offered more possibilities than remaining in bondage to paper and pen. I just needed someone to come along beside me and enable me to make the discovery myself. You already know that eating less processed food and getting more exercise is better. You’ve just been searching for someone to come along beside you and enable you to live healthier. So welcome aboard – our journey is just beginning and it’s going to be a fun and tasty ride.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Christmas in Florida

Christmas in Florida is always an interesting experience. Two days before Christmas and it is sunny and warm – a perfect day for pleasant outdoor experiences. Now is the time of year when we all stop hibernating and start doing. Of course, the highways are totally crowded and the stores beyond description. We are going visiting today and taking our bicycles for some extra fun. Our eating – well, we are planning on using up some of our margin. But the extra activity will deposit into our margin account. So, it all balances out. And that is how we manage to have a life and truly enjoy it. We have become doers, not talkers. We don’t search for the illusive magic pill, fairy wand or pixie dust. Being healthy is truly a lifestyle, not something that happens to you when you take a pill, drink a particular juice or hope for health. It is an active, lifelong experience made up of choices that we make everyday and every hour of everyday. There is no fountain of youth which provides rejuvenation with a dip or a drink. And if we spend all of our time searching for it, we will fail to have the life we hope it would provide. And to be honest, we all know that. But moving from talking to doing can seem impossible when our easy chair seems so comfortable and relaxing. What do we do and how do we do it? The first thing we must do is look in the mirror and see who we are. Not who we want to be, not who we hope to be, but who we really are. When nobody is looking who are we? We can’t get anywhere if we don’t start where we are. The best navigational system in the world cannot take you to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are starting from. Next, set a long term goal – a picture of where you want to be. It’s a long term goal, so unlike others, I am prone to say it doesn’t have to be specific. I think a mental picture of the life you want to have is as good as specific biometrics. If need be, find some pictures for the internet or magazines of people who look like they are living the life you want to have. Post them on your fridge, your computer, your Treo or your phone. When tempted to go back to old lifestyle choices, look at the picture and think of what your life will be like.

Now that you know where you are and where you want to go, you need to allot time for the journey. How much time depends on you and the vehicle you are using. Traveling from Florida to Alaska can take anywhere from months to hours, depending on the mode of transportation you are taking. It would be silly to plan on being in Alaska in a day if you are planning on walking and it would be just as silly to think you can compete in your first triathlon next month if you not willing to make a major commitment to training and eating habits. My journey from a couch potato eating the standard American diet to an athlete eating primarily high nutrient-to-calorie ratio foods has taken years. I have greatly enjoyed the journey and am reveling in the beauty of my destination. Notice, it has taken me years to get here, and I still have a ways to go. I keep thinking about scheduling my first triathlon, but I’m not sure I’m willing to make that commitment, yet. It’s all part of realistic goal setting and life choices. But at least I’m making my own choices rather than letting ill health take over and dictate my style.