31 Days to Better Health - Day 5

Good afternoon, I hope you are all having a fantastic day I know I am. The skies are blue and I just came back from three miles in the crisp cold air and I feel rejuvenated and full of energy. Exercising in the cold air has a wonderful way of reminding me that I am alive.

Before we jump into day 5 let’s review what we have accomplished during of the first 4 days:

Day 1 – Defined Success and What is/was Holding Us Back

Day 2 – Determined our Purpose and Looked at Passion

Day 3 – Listed Our Goals for January

Day 4 – Listed the Things We Have Needed to Work on for a While

Are you an Optimist or a Pessimist:

Today’s exercise has two parts which are both related to attitude. The first part is about optimism and pessimism and the second part is fear and intuition. On first blush they don’t seem related but I will try to show you how they are by taking you through a few of my life experiences to show you how they manifested themselves for me.

I would say that am a natural pessimist which probably surprises many of you. In fact it surprises me that so many of you think that I am an optimist because my gut reaction is to see myself as a pessimist. It is amazing how long we can hold on to the old mental images of ourselves, like thinking we are heavy long after we have lost weight. Apparently attitude is the same as weight and I still see myself as more pessimist than optimist.

My parents are both extremely pessimistic. My father never met a situation that he didn’t see as a potential calamity. He has always been a professional at turning a mole hill into a mountain. He plans for every possibly “disaster” before the problem has occurred. Talk about bringing a room down, my father can do it faster than anyone I know. My mother is no ray of sunshine either. She complains about everything and things that go wrong are always things that happen to her never anything that she had any control over. Imagine being raised by two people who never saw the bright side of life? Yep, welcome to my world. I grew up expecting the worst to happen, and when you expect it that is what your reality becomes because it is what you are focused on.

The low point of my young adult life was being raped at knife point just after turning 18, getting pregnant as a result of that rape, having an abortion that I kept quiet and trying to go on as though nothing ever happened. This happened during a time in America when women were blamed for somehow enticing men to rape them. Needless to say I did not report the rape or even tell anyone about it for years, nor did I get any professional help to deal with it. As a result this event dominated both my conscious and my subconscious for much longer than it should have. The event caused me not to trust people particularly men, I was also afraid to be out at night (that was when it happened) and generally just expected the worst from people. My life was being run by fear and I was always worried about my safety.

As a result of the rape I didn’t want to be “alone” and married while I was an undergrad. Let me go on the record that this is not a wise thing to do. My first marriage was thankfully short lived as it was a mistake on my part. My husband cheated on me and then tried to blame the marriage not working out on me. Clearly the demise of that marriage was my fault as I am sure you see (heavy sarcasm). *rolls eyes* In addition to this marriage ending in divorce (thank goodness) my ex-husband thought I owed him something financially since we were married most of the time I was in college. Never mind that I paid for my education by working three jobs and using the inheritance from my grandmother. Are you started to see how I might have been a bit of a pessimist?

However cancer has a way of cutting through the "crap" and getting you to focus on what really matters. No one would consider cancer something frivolous, clearly this was serious. I had two ways to deal with it, I could attack it head on or I could let it crush me. The other things that happened in my life had taken their toll on my mental and physical health but I was determined that this problem wasn’t going to define how I lived my life. A funny thing happened when I started doing research, I became less fearful of the disease. Something inside me (my intuition I assume) told me that I was on the right path (with the shift to a plant-based diet) right from the start in spite of what everyone we knew were saying.

I read a number of books and studies that attitude had a big impact on survival from serious illness. Being the fighter that I am I immediately started to institute not just dietary changes but attitudinal changes at our house. I don’t have to tell you life at our house did a 180 flip do I?

In addition to going from omnivore to vegan we also changed our outlook on life. Each day we both take time to appreciate the things that go well in life of which there are many. My husband and I tell each other “I love you” many times during the day every day. We spend time together each day talking, sharing our day without whining or complaining, and just hanging out enjoying our time together. We are that couple who still holds hands and enjoys being together even after a quarter of a century of togetherness. When either of us are out and sees something the other one would love we snap a picture and text it. Every day I know how much my husband loves me and I am certain that he knows how much I love him.

Additionally I love to take pictures of the beauty I see around me. Taking those pictures brightens my mood and reminds me that the world is beautiful place and all we have to do is stop to appreciate it. Somehow I just know (there is that intuition again) that stopping to appreciate beauty is a good thing for my soul. Now when you see pictures that I took out and about during my day you will know why. That is my way of sharing the beauty of life with all of you. *smiles*

So what does any of this have to do with being an optimist or a pessimist? What I hope you have learned from reading my story is that while there is a “cultural” component attitude really does come down to a choice. What type of person do you want to be? You can chose to focus on what went wrong or you can chose to focus on what went right. I find that when I focus on what goes right, the things that didn’t go quite “as right” just aren’t all that important. Being an optimist or a pessimist comes down to a decision. Since you can choose to be either one, wouldn’t you really rather be happy? Deciding to be happy was one of the smartest things I ever did.

Fear versus Intuition:

The other thing I want you to think about is how often your life is run by fear because this also relates to optimism and pessimism. In the past most of my decisions were fear based and those didn’t often turn out well. I can tell I am acting out of fear when I feel anxiety around a decision, or some sense of urgency. There are few things in life that require immediate action (a heart attack is one, but most things simple aren’t like that including cancer). In the last year or so I have been trying to cultivate my intuition and use that to make decisions instead of fear.

Fear is easy to spot if you take the time to look at what is going on in your decision making process. Do you feel a sense of urgency or immediacy? If you do try to figure out what is causing you to be scared. Are you trying to be safe? Fear is also something that we use to keep ourselves safe, so that could also be a sign that you are operating out of fear. Another sign that you are operating out of fear when you feel the need to be right, or that someone has to win. Looking at this from the other perspective you aren’t operating out of fear if you are willing to feel silly or be rejected. I struggle with this one too, but I am working on letting go of fear. Now when there is a little voice in my head I try to assess if it is fear or intuition talking. Sadly 95% of the time my little voice is fear, but at least now I see it so that I also disregard it knowing that it will hold me back. One of my favorite sayings is that you only fail when you don’t try! Fear has the way of keeping all of us stuck because doing nothing is safer than taking a risk.

I am sure that some of you are thinking that fear-based decisions are good, but I assure you that frequently are not. I can list a number of decisions that I made in life which I made based on intuition that turned out very well. That is the exercise for you today, what decisions have you made based on intuition that either turned out well or that you learned from? Here are the ones that popped into my mind:

1. Marrying Dan – this was not logical when I did it but is one of the smartest things that I ever did.

2. Starting the blog – this I did totally on faith though I certainly didn’t think it would become anything but I have enjoyed it and sharing what I am learning keeps me motivated

3. Bidding on a sailboat in Caribbean – again this didn’t seem logical at the time but it felt right and we went for it and it worked out well

4. Changing our diet – this was something we did after I read one book, it just felt right and the later research and results proved that we did the right thing

5. Selecting our oncologist – Dan and I “interviewed” a few doctors and went with the one we felt comfortable with, in the end we both know that we made the right choice even though many of our friends expressed concern that we should have gone with the “world renowned expert”. Our results have been fantastic so we are comfortable that we made the right decision.

Now it is is your turn.  What decisions did you make following your intuition that turned out well, or that taught you something about yourself. I know some of my biggest lessons were from things that didn't go the way I wanted.

I also want to share with you observations from my 3 miles today since they relate to what I wrote today. I have to cross a number of intersections on my regular route through the neighborhood. Each time I meet a car at an intersection I stop because the car is clearly bigger than I am. Three times today I met a car at an intersection and the driver waved me through. I smiled, waved and went through the intersection. I see this as proof that there really are nice people in the world. People aren’t all bad nor are they out to get us. Just so you know I only met three cars at intersections so I wasn’t cherry picking those situations. I thought some of the pessimists out there might think that. ;-)

Also while I was out I passed 6 large men running the other way on my route. Again each time I nodded and smiled and they nodded and smiled in return and we both kept our pace and direction. The old me would have been concerned meeting these men on the path since they were: men, in good shape and much bigger than me (I am 5’2 ½” and yes that ½ inch matters at my height). In the past I would have immediately felt concerned about my safety and might have crossed the street before we got close to each other. However after years of telling myself that not every man is like the one who raped me I can finally relax around most men.

I hope that this post helps you to realize that how your view the world is completely under your control.  I hope that your intuition can be good and that you try to follow it more than listening to your fears. Trust me when I tell you that deciding to see the good in people and the world results in a much happier existence.

Progress on my goals:

1. Newsletters – spent 45 minutes on this Wednesday

2. Body Bugg – three days in a row and going strong

3. Date with Dan – Dan came home early on Wednesday *woo hoo* and we are going to have another date either Friday or Saturday, maybe both! ;-)

4. Measuring my calorie dense food – I am doing this and was surprised to find that I was overestimating and probably need to add a few more seeds

5. Working on my business – the meditation DVD cut into my time and this didn’t happen on Wednesday but did on Thursday at least

How about you doing are you keeping your goals in mind and are you making progress? Remember it isn’t enough to have goals you have to work on them. I start every morning rereading mine to remind me what I need to do and that seems to help.

Wednesday:

Dan had his favorite fruity oatmeal with nuts and seeds for breakfast. This time I added raisins, dried cherries, cinnamon, a little stevia and frozen wild blueberries and topped his oatmeal with chopped walnuts and raw sunflower seeds.

Since I greatly enjoyed my breakfast yesterday I went with the same thing today, broccoli and hummus. This time I measured the pine nuts and realized that instead of underestimating them I overestimate them. I was intending to add 1 tablespoon of seeds but have only been adding about ½ tablespoon and I would never have known that had I not measured. Darn I hate it when things I don’t want to do turn out to the be the thing that I should be doing! ;-)

While I eat my breakfast, and drank my green tea I decided to pop the meditation course into the DVD player. Let’s just say that was a big mistake. The Practicing Mindfulness course was really good and ended up taking over 5 hours of my day. I talked to Dan about it and he is going to do it with me, but only one class (30 minutes) at a time. Dan isn’t as prone to dive right into things as I am, in case you missed that. LOL

When I finished exercising I had a mid-day snack of a banana and almond butter. I put this in a little dessert glass, grabbed a pretty beaded spoon and I was ready to eat. It isn’t everyday that I use some of my favorite dishes, but it does make a difference in how it “feels” to eat. I will be covering conscious eating tomorrow for those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept.

My lunch was the end of the bean, mushroom and kale soup from a few days ago. Those intentional leftovers sure do make my life a lot easier as did reusing a photo.  ;-)

Dinner at our place was a baked veggie casserole (artichokes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomatoes, homemade whole wheat breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning and freshly ground black pepper) which was served over cooked quinoa and topped with a few pine nuts. When I put this together I made 4 servings so that there was enough for us to have lunch on Thursday.

Overall today was not as productive as it could have been because I got carried away with the mindful meditation DVDs. However I did enjoy the DVDs and feel like I learned a lot so it wasn’t a total loss.

Happy thoughts:

• I was very happy to have the weather warm up enough that I could get outside to exercise today. Spending time outside in the cold crisp air is something that I really enjoy.

• The sunset Thursday evening was spectacular. I love when the sky is painted with orange, red and various shades of blue. It is almost as if Mother Nature is putting on a show some evenings and tonight was one of her better ones. Binky and I sat in the bay window and watched the sunset. He didn’t seem terribly impressed but I enjoy it.

• Today’s post was one of my most personal but I am hopeful that it will shake a few of you up and cause you to see that bad things happen to all of us but that doesn’t mean that we need to let those events bring us down. It is easy for all of us to see people who we don’t know and think that their lives are so much easier than ours. However generally when you get to know people they have had their share of bad experiences too. Please don’t let those experiences cause you to live a life in fear.

• I only spent one hour with the meditation DVD today, so it was less of a time drain. However I am really enjoying the course so I can see watching at least one segment every day. There is a lot of information packed into 30 minutes and I feel like I will pick up tid-bits from multiple viewings. Also the course relies heavily on Buddhism and now I want to learn more about that. I never thought I would be drawn to Buddhism but that is what I am finding now. Who said that? ;-)

• I am very happy to report that the views on the 31 Days to Better Health posts continue to grow. This makes me very happy! We have also added 7 new followers in the past 5 days which is also a fantastic sign. Since one of my main goals is to get more people thinking about their health both of these things are huge for me. You guys really do keep me going, thank you!

• We have kale in the house again. *woo hoo* I walked to the grocery store today for kale and came home with kale, parsley, lemons, romaine and tofu.  You can't have too much produce in the house in my opinion.  ;-) Dan will be very happy to have a green smoothie option tomorrow for breakfast. I know he loves his oatmeal but I am sure he misses his green smoothies too. I love that my husband enjoys the green smoothies this much. I never expected him to be a health convert. It hasn’t been that long ago that he told me he would eat tofu as long as it didn’t taste like tofu. See how much progress I have made with him?

Signing Out:

I have another webinar tonight and I still need to make dinner so I need to run. Sorry this post went up a bit later than I intended. Better late than never right?

For those of you who want to know what is coming up for tomorrow that post will be about conscious eating. I think it will be a good one and may not be what you are expecting.

I hope you are having a great week and have some fun planned for your weekend. Talk with you again tomorrow.

31 Days to Better Health - Day 4

Before we get to the exercise for today let’s review what we have done so far.

Day 1 – we defined success as well as what was holding us back
Day 2 – we determined our purpose and whether we have passion or not
Day 3 – we set specific and achievable goals for this month

I don’t know about you but I think we have made a lot of progress in just a few days. Go us! I really hope you are feeling as good about your progress as I am about mine.

In terms of the goals I set yesterday here is what I have done so far:

1) Monthly Newsletters – I spent about two hours Tuesday working on this and at this rate I should have this crossed off my list in no time. *woo hoo*

2) Wearing my Body Bugg daily - I charged my Body Bugg Monday night and I put it on first thing both Tuesday and Wednesday morning and I have learned that I am definitely less active now than I was during the summer which I needed to know. As I like to say, we can’t change what we don’t know and now I know I need to step it up in the exercise department.

3) Scheduling at least one weekly date with my hubby - Dan and I made a date for Wednesday night which means he should be home by 7:30 this evening at which time I will have finished everything that I need to get done so that we can spend time together.

How about you, have you set things in motion to start making progress on your January goals? I hope so. If you haven’t gotten started yet please do. There is no time like the present to get moving. I can tell you from personal experience that it feels good to be making progress on my goals.

What Should You be Doing that You Have Been Avoiding?:

Today I am going to ask you to spend some time thinking about the things that you know you should be doing. Please do not let this upset you because there is something you aren’t doing. The purpose of this is to get you to acknowledge those things which you know you should be doing and then to get you to commit to do at least one of them this week. These items could be anything but should relate in some way to your idea of success and your purpose.

Please go back and reread what you wrote to the first three days exercises if necessary to remind you of your areas of interest. (Have you put your responses in a notebook or separate Word doc yet? I have mine in a notebook and it makes this easier.) The items that you know you should be doing could be as simple as drinking more water or as complex as overhauling your entire diet. I want you to think of the things that you have been meaning to do but haven’t. These could also be spending more time your family or friends, eating more greens are getting more exercise. What is important in this part of the exercise is to list as many things as you can that you have meaning do though they haven’t made it to the top of your priority list yet. For me the things that I think about often, but don’t do, are the ones that I really need to work on. I imagine the same is true for you. Sometimes the act of writing these things down also makes them more real or at the very least brings them to the forefront of your mind.

When you are writing your list think about how long you have been intending to do these things. Those items which have been on your list the longest are probably most important. The reason I ask you to think of what you know you should be doing is:

1. We all know ourselves better than other people know us. In other words each of us knows what we need to do better than anyone else knows what we need. Typically it isn’t that we are unaware of what we need but that we just need to move from interested in these actions to being committed. Make sense?

2. Tasks that we think are important are more likely to happen. To put that differently if you think you need to exercise more that feels completely different than if your spouse thinks you need to do it. Does that make sense? By determining your own “to-do” items you are increasing your probability of success.

Let me show you an example of something that most people should be doing, which is getting more sleep. Almost everyone that I know is chronically sleep deprived. Most of my friends work long hours, try to cram as much time in with their family as they can into their “free time” and what tends to suffer is their sleep. Since inadequate sleep is linked to weight gain, increased risk of heart disease, trouble concentrating and difficulty remembering things it is important to get enough rest every night not just on weekends. If you think that you might not be getting enough sleep this could be a good goal for you work on this week. Start by going to bed 15-30 minutes earlier than usual (to gradually change your bed time) and move up your bed time until you are getting a full 8 hours of sleep. You will know that you are getting enough rest if you wake up refreshed. I would suggest that you use how you feel in the morning, whether you “need” coffee, and how alert you are during the day, to tell you if you are getting adequate rest. Your body is sending your messages all the time all you need to do is listen to them.

Here is my list of things that I know I should be doing (in the order that they popped into my head) as well as why I think I am not doing them and how they relate to my purpose and idea of success:

1) spend at least an hour a day working on ideas for my business – I guess that I am avoiding this is probably due to perfectionism rearing its ugly head again, this clearly relates to health both mine and others

2) measuring my calorie dense food like nuts and seeds - while I realize that all of us tend to have portions that grow over time I really dislike measuring even though I also know that it's a good thing to do periodically therefore I avoid it, this is also tied to health

3) organize and purge my clothes closet – I have been avoiding this because I hate to get rid of clothes that are too big but are still good so now the mess makes me unhappy and that is not good for my emotional health

4) make an inventory of my pantry - so that I don’t run out of staples as frequently which would be good both my physical and emotional health

5) start going to the gym at least twice a week rather than working at home all the time – exercise variety is a good thing and would be positive for my physical health

6) wearing my Body Bugg daily – which I started today (Tuesday) when I was writing this post and it is
clearly good for my physical health

7) eat more salad – this is one I have been avoiding for a while and I don’t know why but it would
definitely be beneficial for my physical health

8) eat fewer whole grains and more cooked beans – this is another one that has been on my list but that I have been dodging though it would be good for my physical health

9) get into bed earlier so that 5:30am doesn’t feel so early -  this would help me get back into the early
morning gym routine which would be good for my health

10) vary my exercise routine - again this is something that I know is important yet I like what I like and I really need to push myself to make regular changes to my workout routine for my physical health

Okay now you have an idea of what I know I should be doing that I'm have been avoiding. I decided to stop my list at 10 things but if you wish keep going I think that's great, please do! Once you are satisfied that your list is long enough please choose one item in your list to work on this week. You can either choose an easy one so that you know you will be successful or you could choose the item that you think will have the biggest impact. Remember you can always add to this list at any time. We will come back to this list next week so that we can tackle another item.

Now it is your turn, what are the things that you know you should be doing, yet you aren’t getting them done? When you are making your list think about how these items relate to your idea of success and to your purpose. Start working on items which relate to your purpose and will make you feel successful.

You probably noticed from my list that there are some recurring themes. Clearly exercise variety is on my mind as it appears in item 5 and 10. Also it is obvious that I want to make a few more tweaks to my food intake. The item I have been considering doing for a while in terms of food that I've been avoiding is measuring calorie dense items. I can't tell you how much I dislike measuring food. It feels so restrictive and unnatural to me. Currently I sprinkle nuts and seeds on things with no serious attempt to measure. Since I know this is an issue I'm definitely going to work on it this week so that I can better eyeball quantities in the near future.

While I only asked you to work on one item I am I am also going to commit to working on my business an hour a day. This is something that I've had in mind to do since the summer that I haven't gotten it done. Six months is enough time to procrastinate and now it is time for action. I will set aside an hour every day when I work on my business plans without interruption. I am confident that I know enough, in fact more than enough, to make a career out of health and wellness. Now I need to stop talking about it and just do it. In order to hold myself accountable I will tell you each day what I did. If you don't see me mention that in each post for the remainder of the month please ask me about it. Like I have been saying accountability is a good thing.  :-)

For those of you that want to get a head start on tomorrow that topic will be assessing whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. Since all of us know which one we are the next question is which one do you want to be? I will have some suggestions for how to change your attitude since I used to be a pessimist which I imagine surprises many of you but it is true. Believe me if I can become an optimist anyone can do it. ;-) I will explain this tomorrow.

Tuesday:

The morning started like usual by my reading and meditating before Dan got up. Then I made Dan breakfast, while he made us double strength mugs of tea. While his fruit and nut oatmeal was simmering I packed his lunch and we chatted about the plans for our respective days.

My breakfast ended up being some broccoli and hummus that I had originally packed for Dan’s lunch but he thought that I was sending him too much food so it became my meal instead. I love broccoli and hummus so this was a fantastic breakfast in my mind. I sprinkle some paprika on top for a few reasons, flavor, extra vitamin C and the red color is pretty. ;-) I also added pine nuts for flavor, texture, protein and fat (to help me absorb the fat soluble vitamins in the broccoli).

Once Dan left for work it was time for me to do some work on the computer. I spent a couple of hours finishing up the post for Day 3 and then it was time to start this post. It sometimes shocks me how much time I can be on the computer.

I did take time to enjoy my hot tea with grapefruit and cinnamon, watching Masi being mesmerized by the snow flurries, and then I did some cleaning and cooking and it was noon. How does the day go by so quickly?

Since my morning had been relatively inactive I opted are of very light lunch most of you proud because snack of a banana and some almond butter. I had planned to get outside new quickly 3 miles this morning. With a temperature of 31 and a wind chill of 21 the idea of getting outside for exercise was not terribly appealing to me. Gee, I wonder why? Given the weather it made much more sense to work out inside today. Thank goodness for exercise equipment at home is all I have to say. On days like this I appreciate they have will stay warm inside.

Once I had finished exercising I had a bowl of leftover bean, mushroom and kale soup over quinoa. I hope you are noticing that we eat a lot of leftovers. Having intentional leftovers available is the biggest reason that we are able to eat this way. If it weren’t for those leftovers I would not have time to do anything other than cook which would make this lifestyle all but impossible.

After lunch I spent more time working on the blog, gathering items for future exercises this month, as well as cleaning and planning meals. When I got a few free minutes I took the time to do a little reading in the public health book which I just bought. Who knew textbooks could be so interesting? LOL

I also found two hours to work on my newsletter project. I should be telling you more about that very soon. However I can tell you it feels good to be making progress on something that has been on my to-do list for entire too long. In addition to the newsletter project I also spent some time working on my business plan today. Productivity was in full swing at my house on Tuesday. *woo hoo*

Dan was a little late coming home because he stopped at the boat on the way home since our overnight temperatures were supposed to dip into the mid-teens. Even though the boat has been winterized he wanted to increase the temperature inside the boat overnight just to be safe overnight.

Dinner at our house was another huge salad which I am sure shocks you…..LOL. The salad had a base of baby spinach, I used salsa in place of dressing, added some broccoli, raw sunflower seeds and hummus. Dan’s salad also had cold cooked quinoa for a few extra calories and protein.

Wendy sent me an email yesterday asking about how I eat salads without dressing and any suggestions that I had for her since she can’t imagine enjoying undressed salad. Since I am sure she isn’t the only thinking this I wanted to share my thoughts on this with you too.

In terms of salad without dressing I think that is something that becomes your new normal in time. Back in the “bad old days” there was nothing that I loved more than blue cheese dressing which was my favorite. Hard to imagine isn’t it? Then I went through a long period of olive oil and vinegar. Now when I have salad, evenly lightly dressed, it just takes greasy to me. Again this is something that I NEVER thought would happen.

My favorite salad dressing currently is salsa and hummus. I just toss the greens with a little salsa and top it with hummus. I find that if salad has enough “juicy” foods in it (like artichokes, tomatoes, or fruit) that I don’t even need the salsa or hummus. However I wasn’t always like this. In the past I would place either raw sesame seeds or raw cashews in my Vitamix and add flavors like: raw garlic, lemon juice or vinegar, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and herbs and spices and then blend until the dressing was creamy. There are lots of these recipes on my blog just search for “salad dressings” and many of them will come up.

I hope the salad tips helped a few you. Thanks again for the question Wendy. :-)  Keep them coming!

Happy Thoughts:

• Today it was very good to have exercise equipment at home. It was so cold and windy outside there was no way I could face 3 miles outside. Thank goodness I was able to stay warm inside yet still get my exercise in for the day.

• Making progress on goals which have been languishing on my to-do list feels great. I hope you are finding the same thing at your house.

• I realized that my daily activity is lower now than it was in the summer and fall. Now that I know this I plan to step it up starting tomorrow. This is exactly why I bought the Body Bugg and how I think it is best used. I admit that I don’t wear mine all the time, which probably makes more sense, but even wearing it periodically is enough to point out trends that require action.

• The meditation course (Practicing Mindfulness) that I ordered from The Great Courses arrived yesterday and I have already watched 3 hours of it because it is that good. If you are interested in meditation I think you will enjoy these DVDs. When I finish the entire series I will tell you more about it.  BTW, the courses go on sale often, if one you want is full price just keep checking back, it will go on sale.  I have many of these and haven't paid the list price for any of them.

• I checked on my parents today and they are doing well. My mom was feeling good enough to go out and that was nice to see. For those of you who do not have elderly parents having them up are around is a big deal.

• Dan checked on the boat this morning before work and everything seems fine. Given that it was colder here this morning (17) than it was in Minneapolis (25) we are both grateful that everything with the boat was good.

• I realized today that I haven’t watched the news for many months. In the past I used to start my morning watching the news and then would turn it on during the day and again in the evening. While I didn’t intentionally put myself on a news fast, that is what happened by accident. I have found that by not watching the news I am much more at ease and less worked up. Apparently there is something to what people say about 24 hours news being overly stimulating. Since I just realized this I wanted to mention it to you. BTW I also discovered that when something happens that I need to know I still get the information usually by talking to others. It is nice to be able to spend my free time focusing on things that are much more positive in nature than the news which is almost always bad news.

Signing Out:

It is time for me to start working on the next post. I got so carried away watching the DVDs on practicing mindfulness that I haven’t started the next post yet. *eek* I better get my tush in gear.

I hope you are having a wonderful week and that you are enjoying my January posts. Again, if you have any suggestions or feedback please feel free to share either here on send me an email. You can reach me at veganepicurean@gmail.com. Talk with you again tomorrow.

31 Days to Better Health - Day 3

Today I am feeling like the people on this boat who won the evening sailboat race.  :-) 



How are you feeling after the first two days in this series?  Is this helpful for you so far? If you have any suggestions for this series please let me know. My goal is for everyone to define what they want and make progress toward that goal(s) this month. I know if we work together we can all move forward and that would be amazing! *smiles*

Speaking of moving forward I have an observation that I would like you to consider. I couldn’t help but notice that I am the only one who has been willing to go public with their “stuff” so far. One of the main advantages of doing this is accountability. If you are playing along at home and haven’t shared here please share with someone you trust. Accountability is something that helps everyone stay on track. How many articles have you read that indicate that telling people that you are starting a diet or committing to an exercise routine increases your probability of success? Just something I wanted to toss out there for you to consider because I want all of you to be successful. If you want accountability but don’t want to go public on the blog feel free to email your answers/commitments and let me know how often you want me to check up on you.

Goals for the End of this Month:

The first two days of this series were bigger picture items to set us up for this task. Today we are going to focus on very specific goals for this month. For those of you who are not familiar with setting goals they need to be specific and measurable (so you know if you attained them or not), achievable (example no one will lose 30 pounds in a month so don’t set yourself up to fail), and they should be something that you really want. Don’t set a goal to please your husband or your family. The goals you set should be just for you.

To give you a good idea of what makes a well defined goal I wrote one goal that isn’t so you could see the difference.

If your goal is to improve your ratio of beans and greens to whole grain that not is not specific enough, nor is it measurable. However if you said I want to eat 2 bean servings and 2 green servings to 1 serving of whole grains now your goal is both specific and measurable. Not only that but it is also achievable. See how this works?

As I have been doing I will go first and share my goals for the month with you.

1. My first goal is to have my first two monthly newsletters written by the end of this month (January 31, 2012 at the end of the day). I also will have selected a contact manager software and have the link on my blog for you to sign up for subscriptions to the newsletter which will start in February.

2. My second goal for the month is to get back to using my Body Bugg to track my daily activity. I have not been wearing my Bugg much in the last two months and I know that I get more activity when I can see the numbers and track them. My time in finance taught me the value of a good chart and/or graph. LOL ;-)

3. My third goal for the month is to schedule at least one date a week with my hubby.  BTW my husband added the "at least" part which I think is a great sign. Since Dan has gone back to work I have been missing him tremendously. I think it would do us both good to spend more time together. In order to get him home earlier a few evenings a week I am going to schedule dates in his calendar. Wish me luck since we all know my husband works a lot!

I hope that seeing my goals for the month shows you how I connected my ideas of success with specific actions. Now it is your turn, what are you goals for the month of January?  When you are setting your goals for January don't bite off more than you can handle.  Remember you can always set goals for February, March, etc.

In the interest of accountability if you notice that I am not living up to the goals above please feel free to call me out. I am just like everyone else and could use a little prodding on occasion. ;-)

Monday:

Today we had smoothies for breakfast (frozen bananas, frozen cherries, almond butter, cinnamon, kale, stevia, and cocoa powder). I would have used walnuts but we were out because as you know the cupboards here are fairly bare. This smoothie is definitely better with walnuts but the almond butter was fine in a pinch.

When we left the house to run errands and go grocery shopping (thank goodness!) I knew that we would be gone at least 2 hours, and it had been a few hours since breakfast. So that we didn’t get hungry while we were out I grabbed two nut and dried fruit bars and popped them into my purse. One thing I have learned is that planning is critical if you are going to stay on a healthy routine like ours. If you are trying to improve your diet I highly recommend keeping a small cooler in your car and cold packs in your freezer that way you can put the cold packs in the cooler to carry food with you when you are on the move. Having a thermos for hot food like soup is also very helpful, particularly in the winter.

While we were out shopping I could not help but notice what was in other people’s grocery carts. Dan said I was being nosy, which he later refined to observant, but I think he was kidding all along about the nosy part. I was just trying to learn what other Americans purchase to eat. It was shocking to see grocery carts filled with meat, cheese, processed food and the occasional fruit or vegetable. Most carts had one fresh produce item like bananas, or onions. I did see to carts that had two produce items but that was in addition to copious amounts of meat, dairy, refined flour products, snack foods like chips, and baked goods. Overall it was very obvious that the meat, diary, and refined carbs made up 95% of what people were buying. *sigh* This realization was incredibly depressing for me. It really is no wonder so many people in America are overweight or obese and in poor health. It made me very sad to see how big the problem has become.

Once we were home from the store and had the groceries put away I made lunch. Our lunch today consisted of a huge salad (in a serving bowl) with baby spinach, salsa, hummus, broccoli, paprika, and pine nuts. It was good to have produce in the house again. I was seriously missing having broccoli in the house for inclusion in my salad. I know that I am not right. ;-)

After lunch it was time to set up the speech recognition software on my laptop which Dan bought me for Christmas. So far it is definitely faster for me to type than to use this software. I am hopeful that as the software learns the sound of my voice this process will be quicker than typing at the moment it is more than a little frustrating. Why is it that things always take longer than you think they should? I guess that's just how life is most of the time.

Dan was a really good sport Monday evening while I was playing around with Dragon to teach it my voice patterns. I am sure this was no fun or him. At the moment that I am typing this he is listening to me and making little talking motions with his hands like a puppet. It is very funny and he is nodding his head as I said he is being a good sport. I swear that my husband is eternally youthful. Is my husband the only one who behaves like this? Please tell me I'm not alone in this. ;-)

While Sunday night I had no idea what to cook because the cupboard is bare Monday evening I have the opposite problem. Our refrigerator is stuffed with produce, like normal, and it is a bit of sensory overload now. It seems I always want what I don't have. However I think that is just what humans do most of the time.

In the end Dan suggested that we have leftover beans soup from our lunch yesterday. Since it was getting late I thought that sounded like a wonderful idea. Like yesterday we had a bowl of soup over quinoa.

We also had one more mug of hot green and white tea with a little fresh grapefruit juice and cinnamon. I am seriously in love with the flavor combination of this tea. Additionally I am very pleased to say that once we started brewing double strength tea we have no difficulty reaching 10 cups per day. Why didn’t I think of double strength tea sooner? Green and white tea are so mild in flavor that even double strength it isn’t overpowering and you are getting more of the health benefits. *shakes head* It really is so obvious to make the tea double strength now that I am doing it. I am only sorry that it took me so long to think about doing this.

Happy Thoughts:

• It was wonderful to have my hubby home on a weekday. Also it was very sweet of him to go grocery shopping with me. Anytime we do things together they are always more fun. You know you married the right person when being together makes even the most mundane tasks pleasant. I love you baby! *hugs*

• I am very, very happy to have a refrigerator stuffed with fresh produce again. Who would imagine something so small could make anyone this happy? I really do love produce! This fact still amazes me since more of my life I avoided vegetables. Who says you can’t make changes even later in life?

• Blog traffic on my two recent posts has jumped by approximately 30% compared to other recent posts. This suggests that people are forwarding links to these posts to their friends and that makes me very happy. *huge smile* I hope this means there are many of you at home answering the questions and trying to figure out what is important to you. I believe that working together we are all stronger than when any of us stands alone.

• While it has taken more time than usual I am very much enjoying writing this series on health which I would describe as a labor of love. Additionally it has forced me to get more in touch with what is important in my life. Somehow writing down the answers to the questions has had the effect of refining where I should be focusing my time and effort. I hope it is having the same effect for you.

• Knowing this week is another four-day rather than five-day is also a happy thought for me. There is nothing that I enjoyed more than spending more time with my husband. Short weeks mean that the weekend is closer than normal. If the weather forecast is correct, temperatures should be back in the 60s this weekend. Sounds to me like we may need to go spend a little time on the sailboat. Who wouldn't love a little unexpected boat time in January?

• I talked to one of my best friends yesterday evening. Since I knew they stay current on my blog I asked what they thought about my January posts. I laughed when my friend said “thank goodness you are not going to get more passionate about health.” See what I mean about if you are passionate about something all your friends will know? Thanks for the laugh! LOL

• Also last night I participated in a webinar on health. I wanted to see what sort of information other people were sharing, the format they were using, the conference call vendor, and just generally how other people run their webinars. The reason I was doing that is that I am considering doing some webinars of my own. Many of them would be free because I want to touch as many people as possible, but some of them would have a nominal charge. Does that sound like something you'd be interested in taking part in? If you would be interested, what topics would you like me to address? If I get adequate interest in webinars this will be something that I try to add this spring. I will be asking you about this again to get more feedback before I pursue it further.

• We had a few snow flurries this morning which was a treat. I would have completely missed that it was snowing if Masi had not showed me. I love to watch him watching the snow fall. Cats can be incredibly charming can’t they? Are you starting to see how much I adore my fur children? I can’t imagine what life would be like without them. They bring so much love and laughter to our home.  Before you ask I took this during a different snow event but since I like old architecture I wanted to use it.  ;-)

Signing out:

Like usual Dan went back to work and that means I am back to my normal routine. Today I need to attend to all the things I didn't do over the weekend while my sweetie was home. I have a lot of things to work on for the blog, around the house, food to prepare and e-mail to catch up on. It seems life is a never ending list tasks. However when those tasks are things that support your idea of success they don't seem like a burden. I hope the same is true in your life.

For those of you who want to get a jumpstart thinking about tomorrow that post is going to ask you to list the things you know you should be doing that you are avoiding. I will explain it more fully tomorrow but I think you can already see what we will be working on.

I hope you are enjoying the January posts as much as I am. Talk with you again tomorrow. Hope you have a great first week of the New Year. Let’s make 2012 our best and healthiest year yet! I know we can do it particularly if we work together. *smiles*

31 Days to Better Health - Day 2

I received a great question by email about day 1 that I wanted to answer here so everyone was in the loop. The question was “why weren’t the exercises for day 1 specific to diet and/or exercise?” As soon as I read this I realized that I had not adequately explained what was in my head when I developed the 31 days.

I believe that in order to be physically healthy we need emotional and mental healthy first. There is probably not a person reading this who hasn’t tried and failed to make lifestyle changes in the past. The most popular resolution every year is to lose weight and/or get healthy. This is why all the gyms fill up in January and you see so many frozen diet dinners in the office cafeteria right after the New Year. However anyone who goes to the gym year round also knows that by February the gym is back to the regular exercisers. Also by February the frozen diet meals have been replaced by burgers and fries or salad covered in fatty dressing and cheese and everyone seems to be back to their pre-resolution routine. The important thing isn’t that this happens year after year but why it happens.

When any of us decide to make healthy changes that is wonderful thing. However in order to be successful we need to be committed to those changes for the long term and preferably a lifetime. It has been my experience that temporary changes lead to temporary results. That was why I wrote the post about are you interested or committed. Additionally we need to know what food means to us, it is more than just something to satisfy our hunger, hence that is why I wrote this post. However once you understand that food is serving more than one purpose it becomes easier to identify what is causing you to overeat. There are so many facets to getting healthy that require more than changing our food and exercise habits. I believe that if we don’t deal with the mental and emotional issues we will continue to fight a losing battle for our health.

The exercises this month are meant to get you to think about what is going on for you specifically. Some people may be eating because they are sad or lonely. For them the answer would be to add more social engagements to their life and improve their lifestyle gradually as their mood improved. Other people may be eating the wrong foods because they don’t know much about nutrition. For those people the answer could be getting a book on nutrition at the library or hire a nutritionist. I meet so many people who have an unhealthy relationship with food, which I probably notice because I was one of those people for most of my life. Unless you are a chef food should be not something that is constantly on your mind, and if it is there is a problem. Hopefully the exercises I have set up in the month of January will help you to start to understand what it going on for you with food.

Returning to the exercises from day 1 depending on how you answered the questions this month may or may not be all about food and exercise for you or it may not. My answers were not about food because I am content with my food pattern as it is now. In time I may be tweaking what we eat, but there won’t be any major shifts unless science uncovers something dramatically different which I do not anticipate will occur.

I hope that helps you to understand what I am trying to do with the exercises this month. If it doesn’t or you have a different question you can either comment here or send me an email at veganepicurean@gmail.com.

What are Your Purpose and Your Passion?:

Hopefully day 1 wasn’t so tough that you aren’t willing to stick with me for at least day two of the month to better health. *fingers crossed* ;-) If you are still playing along please go back and reread your responses to how do you define success. Is there anything that jumps out at you in terms of an overarching theme? When I looked back at my responses clearly health was what kept coming up. Here is how I came up with that based on my answers above:

a) a happy, healthy and fulfilling marriage possible – without a happy marriage it would be very difficult to be healthy emotionally and I believe true health requires both physical and emotional health
b) doing something I love for a career – given that all I ever think about is health that I should be in a wellness focused is obvious…even to me ;-)
c) being the healthiest that I can be at my age – there is that health word again
d) helping others to be as healthy as they can be – here is health again
e) being an inspiration – and finally the inspiration part of this is also about health and that we can do at any age if we set our mind to it

Is there a theme like this that reoccurs in your list? If so great! If not you may have to dig a little deeper to see the connection. You could ask a good friend or your spouse to look over your list and see if they spot a theme you missed. It took me a long time to figure out that my purpose was health. It appears that there is nothing like a good crisis to shake things up and make you see what is important. In case you don’t have a crisis handy and you have no idea what you purpose I have a few questions for you.

a) Is there something that you love to do, that you do for free? - In my case it was researching health so it was easy for me to see once I opened my eyes. But I also love photography and that could have been my answer as well.
b) Do you have something that comes very easily to you? - For me this was learning and researching about health. We all have something that comes easily which we usually take for granted but we can take advantage of here.

If those questions didn’t help and you still don’t know what your purpose is you can also send me your list (by email or by posting a comment below) and I will be happy to let you know what I see.

Now let’s look at passion. You might be wondering how purpose and passion are different because they are related. Purpose is what lights you up and passion is the motivation behind your purpose. Passion is what brings purpose alive. However if you have a purpose but you don’t have passion then you aren’t going to be able to live your purpose. Now you need to figure out if you have passion. For those of us that have it passion it tends to be very obvious that we have it. Those of us with passion are driven to pursue things that are important to us. However all of us can lose our passion due to the stress of life.

How does passion show up in your life now?

This is an easy one for me. Passion shows up for me in my cooking, food choices, my daily decisions to walk to place others would drive, what I write on the blog and in the many conversations that I have with friends. Everyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about improving health not just the health of my family but the health of as many people as I can possibly touch.  If you aren't sure if you have passion ask your friends, they will know.  ;-)

Ask yourself, could you be more passionate? Is it possible, or are already firing on all cylinders?

If I got any more passionate I would definitely chase people away. Don’t worry guys I am not intending to dial it up, I know many of you couldn’t stand it if I did. LOL

Does passion scare you?

Passion doesn’t scare me now but it used to.

If you are afraid of expressing your passion please write down what specifically you are concerned will happen if you do.

I am going to answer this question as I would have in the past to give you an idea of what I am asking. Passion used to scare me because I was afraid of what people would say, how they would react to me. Being aware that my interests weren’t exactly mainstream and they definitely weren’t what most people would expect from someone with a graduate degree in finance made me hesitant to share them with others. People seem to think that my education and career background should result in someone much more in line with mainstream ideas. However given all my research into health and nutrition I believe that my “radical ideas” are also the best chance for “radical results”. Once I realized that it was more important to be true to my inner self (the health obsessed hippie chick you see today) it became much easier to express my passion as it applies to health.


Looking at this from the other viewpoint what positive things could happen in your life as a result of expressing your passion?

This is the fun part, who wouldn't like thinking of the benefits of making positive changes? Nothing makes me happier than when I get communication from someone who has changed their diet either as a result of reading my blog, or found that with my recipes they could stick with a health whole food plant-based diet when they were starting to lose interest in the food. I love to imagine all the people who have unknowingly reversed undiagnosed health problems by committing to a healthy whole food plant-based diet. Isn’t that a wonderfully radical idea? *huge smile* My passion might just result in a national platform on which I could discuss the benefits of a whole food plant-based diet. Maybe there could be a book, a wellness company, who knows. All of us are only limited by our imagination and determination after all. What could happen in your life as a result of expressing your passion to pursue your purpose? Think big; don’t hold yourself back by not reaching for the stars.

To give you a sneak peek into tomorrow. Now that we have defined success, looked at what is holding us back, determined our purpose and sparked our passion, tomorrow we are going to set specific attainable goals for the end of the month. If you want to start thinking about that now to get a jump start on tomorrow’s assignment please do.

You guys have been a little quiet on me so far and I am curious why. Have the first two posts been helpful for you so far? Are they what you expected? Did I explain them in a way that made sense? Any feedback you could share would be warmly appreciated. If you have any suggestions for changes I can make to this series which would make it more useful to you I would love to know. Thanks!

Sunday (New Year’s Day):

Given how late we returned home last night no one was up early at our house except the fur children who woke me up before 9am. Our fuzzies only bother mommy when both Dan and I are sleeping. My husband is very good at playing possum and I am not. The fur children have learned that mommy is the only one who will get out of bed and pay attention to them when they dance around in our bed in the morning. Who is in charge at this house? Oh yeah, it is definitely the cats, or should I say it is not me. LOL

While I waited for Dan to get out of bed I worked on the post for the first day of January. Even though I had written the health section I had to write about Saturday and work on my pictures. I also took the time to do my morning meditation and reading to set the right mood for the day.

Once Dan was up we had a double mug of green and white tea with fresh grapefruit and cinnamon. This has become our favorite tea flavor. If you are thinking of trying it and take prescription medication please check with your pharmacist to make certain that nothing you are on interacts with grapefruit juice. Fresh orange, lemon and/or lime are also good in the tea and they also enhance the absorption of the EGCG and don’t have the same problems that grapefruit does.

After we had our morning tea it was time for me to confess the after effects of consuming gin the prior night. How could one little gin and tonic cause me to feel “off”? There is definitely a down side to this whole healthy lifestyle thing. Okay, that was a bad attempt at humor…sort of.

Since I have not done any serious grocery shopping in weeks the cupboard was bare this morning. Well, not really bare but not as well stocked as I am accustomed to having at my disposal. This meant that I had to get creative with breakfast. While this isn’t a problem for me, Dan really doesn’t like unorthodox things for breakfast. I opted to go with Asian inspired savory oatmeal for our breakfast. I simmered the oatmeal with freshly grated garlic and ginger. When it was almost finished cooking I added a little white miso which I thinned with some water so that no one ended up with lumps of salty miso in any mouthful of the oats. Next I shredded kale and Chinese broccoli and stirred than in after the oatmeal was finished leaving some for the top of the dish. I finished it with a sprinkling of sesame seeds. It was quite tasty I thought and even Dan said it was good. He did remind me that this was two days in a row for savory oatmeal which means that he gets 6 sweet oatmeal breakfast in a row for now. Men! LOL

While I finished working on my first post for January Dan and Binky were “busy” curled up together in their favorite chair and fuzzy throw watching a Twilight Zone marathon on the sci fi channel. Doesn’t that sound exactly what you would expect from men? The guys in my house (both two and four footed ones) are definitely all boy. ;-)

By the time lunch rolled around I had that same cupboard is bare problem. I really need to get to the store tomorrow so we have some fresh food in this house. I opted to use my pressure cooker to make a quick pot of bean soup. This one contained mixed beans which I pressure cooked with water and dried mushrooms only. I rinsed the dried mushrooms in a colander and that was enough to get off and surface dirt and to make them pliable enough to cut into bite sized pieces. While the beans and mushrooms cooked I minced garlic, chopped an onion and opened a jar of diced tomatoes. I added those to the cooked beans along with Italian seasoning, no-salt seasoning, black pepper and a little bit of miso that I had softened with water. I decided to try adding miso after getting the idea from Ian last night. Just be careful not to add too much and check the sodium content on the package before you buy. The sodium levels vary a lot by brand. Last I added the shredded kale and served the soup over cooked quinoa and finished it with raw sunflower seeds from the freezer. Not bad for having a “practically” bare cupboard I thought. :-)

By the time we left for the marina it was after dark. *sigh* I really don’t like to start things that late in the day but Dan is much more an evening person than I am. It was raining off and on all day and was still drizzling when we got to the marina. I used my steam cleaner to defrost the boat refrigerator. For those of you would don’t know marine refrigerators they tend not to be frost free. In fact I haven’t ever seen one that was frost free on a sailboat. I should have taken a picture of the frost for you to show you want happens. I was a little surprised that that much frost could build up in a refrigerator was not opened at all in the last 30 days. But Dan and I worked as a team and we got the frost removed fairly quickly. Since the boat had been winterized I had to bring the dirty containers (from the refrigerator) and cups (from last night) home to be cleaned. Fortunately I had planned well so we had an adequate number of bags to carry things home. All totaled we were probably on the boat about an hour. That was pretty good timing considering that we had to wait for the steamer to heat up and cool down.

It was too soon to have dinner by the time we were finished at the marina. Since it doesn’t make any sense to eat when you aren’t hungry we opted to head straight home. Dan was kind enough to start brewing hot green and white tea for us while I cleaned up the items we brought back from the boat. We were easily able to consume 10 cups of green and/or white tea today. Making our tea double strength to up our consumption of EGCG without increasing our fluid intake has worked like a charm. Love that! :-)

Dinner this evening was a simple salad made from what we had on hand, which wasn’t a heck of a lot I might add. I shredded the last head of romaine and some kale, tossed in leftover quinoa, artichokes, salsa, roasted red peppers and raw pumpkin seeds. In spite of the lack of food in the house I did manage to pull something together that was both nutritious and tasty and did so in less than 5 minutes. Who said healthy food has to be complicated or time consuming?

Happy thoughts:

• The first day of 2012 started off well. Dan and I had a nice day together and actually got a few things accomplished which is uncharacteristic for us on national holidays. We enjoyed our warmer than average temperatures. Overall New Year’s was a very good day for us.

• I am very happy with how my new camera lens has behaved lately. The more I use the lens the more I like it. Dan did a wonderful job picking out the lens for me for Christmas particularly when you understand that he does not take pictures with my camera or any other. Good job sweetie.

• It has been wonderful having my hubby home for another long holiday weekend. I never get too much face time with my hubby. We aren’t right; I know that before you point it out. ;-)

• Today Dan and I are going grocery shopping! *woo hoo* Okay this isn’t typically thrilling but I am looking forward to have more fresh food in the house. Sometimes it is the little things in life that make me happy. I can’t wait to have a big salad for dinner.

• The traffic on my blog picked up yesterday for the first day of the 31 Days to Better Health series. I am hopeful that this means that what I wrote is having an impact. *fingers crossed* Writing can be a very solitary activity since you have no way of knowing how people are reacting to what you wrote unless they tell you. However I choose to believe the increase in traffic is a positive sign. ;-)

• Yesterday when we didn’t stop for dinner (because it was dinner time) since we weren’t hungry was a good feeling. For so many years we ate because it was time to eat (it was lunch time or dinner time). It is a good feeling knowing that we now listen to our bodies instead of the clock when it coming to eating.

• I am enjoying the book I bought on Public Health and have almost finished it. However I will say the underlying theme is a bit disturbing. I had no idea there were so many potential dangers waiting for us in life. Once we finish the 31 days to Better Health I will tell you about the book and some of the things I have learned from it.

Signing Out:

I have spent enough time on the computer today and now it is time for me to take care of the remaining items on my life administration list.

I hope you are benefiting from the series on improving health. Tomorrow will be a pivotal day in the series so sharpen your pencils and get to define your short term goals. Talk with you again tomorrow.

31 Days to Better Health - Day 1

I hope you are all ready for day 1 of the 31 days to better health. Today we will be day where we start to think about what we want and why we don’t have it yet with the operative word in that sentence being yet.  Please think carefully about what you want since that will be what guides your actions throughout the rest of the process. If after a few days of exercises you want to change your answers to day 1 you can do that too. Another idea would be repeating the exercises in the month of February with an entirely different facet of your life if that feels more manageable to you. I decided to start with more than one area of life at a time since I thought that might help you to see all the ways these exercises could be used. With all that in mind let’s get started. *woo hoo*

Defining Success and What is Holding You Back:

My father is very fond of saying that you have to know where you want to go or you will never get there. I heard this so often as a child that I grew to really hate that phrase. However the older I get the more I began to see the wisdom in his words. Since we all want to be successful in our endeavors I thought we should start with defining what success means to each of us. I am hoping that you will be willing to post your definition of success in the comments for a few reasons. First by outlining it publically you are committing to something in front of other people. Second your definition of success may give other people ideas which would be a wonderful gift. Third by thinking about success long enough to write it down I believe it makes things more real and therefore more likely to happen.

Since I am asking you publically define success I will go first so you aren’t alone. ;-) I really had to think about this one for a while. There are so many different ways that I could have defined success based on various factors in my life. Since I didn’t want to leave anything out I decided to define it this way:

Success for me would be:

a) the most happy, healthy and fulfilling marriage possible
b) doing something I love for a career
c) being the healthiest that I can be at my age
d) helping others to be their healthiest
e) being an inspiration

Gee, nothing like pressure right? ;-) It is a little scary to commit to this publically, but no pain no gain I assume. If you found that part tough I am sorry to tell you that you might like the next part of this post either.

What is holding you back from being more successful? Ouch! This is a tough question for me as I imagine it is for you. I don’t like to think of areas where I am less than perfect and I bet I am not alone. However if we don’t acknowledge what we need to fix/change we can’t improve. With that in mind really dig deep to figure out what is holding you back. In my opinion I would be more successful if I didn’t let the fear of failure stop me from taking risks. Having always been a bit of a perfectionist (major understatement BTW) failure, or even the fear of it, can be crippling to me. I have to really suck it up to attempt things where the outcome isn’t certain. What holds you back from being more successful? It can be more than one thing and if it is write them all down.

Now let’s think of something more pleasant. How would life be different if you could let go of what is holding you back and be true to yourself? This is another one of those multipart answers.

If I weren’t worried about the fear of failure then:

a) I would know that it is fine to make mistakes but that is how all of us learn and grow.
b) I wouldn’t care that people disagreed with me and thought my ideas about food and nutrition were extreme and/or over the top.
c) I would be happy and fulfilled because I would be contributing something important (better health) to others.

Okay, one more question and we are done for the day, thank goodness. Given your individual definition of success what are you willing to do today that will move you toward your goal. Since my definition of success had multiple parts here is what I will be working on today.

a) Today I am will spend an uninterrupted evening with my husband. Since we have both returned to our normal routines I feel like we need to spend more quality time together. I am going to stay off computer this evening and during the week when he is home. This will be tough but I think that I can do it. *fingers crossed*
b) In terms of doing something that I love as a career, I commit to spend at least an hour today working on my business plan
c) I will start off the year healthy with a good workout and nutritious and healthy food. Additionally I also do at least one thing that makes me happy and feeds my soul.
d) Today I am helping others to be the healthiest they can be with the blog.
e) I will make the best choices that I can make and I will share both my successes and challenges on the blog.

Now it is your turn, how will you work toward fulfilling what you outlined as your definition of success?

I hope you found these questions to be thought provoking. The one about what is holding you back was the toughest for me to admit to myself and to all of you. It is difficult for all of us to acknowledge our shortcomings but we all have them whether we admit them out loud or not. The most important thing is to admit them to ourselves.

Tomorrow we will work on our purpose and whether we have the passion to make our purpose a reality.

Saturday Update:

We started the morning with bowls of savory oatmeal. Yes I said we, as in both Dan and I had savory oatmeal. In the interest of honesty I have to tell you that it wasn’t his first choice as we all know he would prefer to have his oatmeal sweetened with fruit and topped with nuts and seeds. We had a long talk about the benefits of having vegetables in his breakfast and since he loves Italian flavors he agreed to try my Italian version this morning.

This oatmeal was flavored with: freshly grated garlic, nutritional yeast, Italian seasonings, red pepper flakes, fennel seeds and black pepper. I stirred in diced tomatoes and cooked artichokes to the cooked oats. The oatmeal was topped with a little lemon dressed arugula and a few pine nuts. Even my finicky husband agreed that it was good. He told me he is willing to have savory oatmeal (versus sweet) 25% of the time. I would say we made huge progress. *woo hoo*

We slept in on Saturday so our breakfast was eaten later than usual. This meant that I opted to skip an actual lunch knowing that we were going out to dinner. I did have my usual 2 Brazil nuts (for the selenium), roasted seaweed and 2 prunes though.

However Dan had room for lunch so I made him his favorite smoothie, the chocolate and cherry one with kale. He loves this and asks for it often, very often in fact. It makes me happy when he requests food that is good for him.

We had a slight change of plans for the evening. Michael broke one of his molars and was in a lot of pain. He said the pain was bearable as long as he didn’t eat. Since we were going out to dinner Michael's broken tooth put a cramp in the plans. Aimee and Michael ended up staying home for the evening and having soup for dinner. *boo hoo* It was very weird not spending New Year’s Eve with them since we do it every year. Poor Michael has to wait until Monday to see the dentist because of the timing of his broken tooth.

Since the kids weren’t coming out to eat we cancelled our original dinner reservations and went to see Ian and the gang instead. We knew that downtown was going to be a mess because of the festivities so we opted for an early dinner so that we could get to the marina earlier in hope that this would secure a parking space.

Dinner started with an amuse buse of mushrooms and onions on crispy flat bread.

The next course was a lentil and shitake mushroom soup that Ian had flavored with miso. I would have never thought to add miso to a lentil soup but it was delicious. He was serving it topped with duck for the omnivores, but I thought it had great flavor and didn’t need the duck. We both enjoyed this soup a lot and I will be adding miso the next time I make a lentil soup. The miso added a wonderful depth of flavor. Ian is brilliant with flavor combinations even though he claims that he can’t do vegan food…. he is very wrong about that.

The next course was flavorful salad which included: sweet potatoes, mango, jicama and herbs over arugula. I could have eaten a vat of this stuff. It was delicious!

The last dish was also phenomenal. Ian topped a quinoa pilaf with red cabbage, carrots and potatoes and a peanut and lime sauce. I told him the peanut sauce was amazing and that he should keep some of that on hand in the freezer to make quick veggie dishes for us anytime. I really loved the sauce in case it wasn’t obvious. In spite of Ian’s classical French training his Asian and Latin food is the bomb. I need to get him to tell me exactly what was in that sauce so I can share it with you because it was amazing.

During dinner we were chatting with everyone at the restaurant as well as each other. It was a laid back evening filled good people and great food.

After dinner there were lots of holiday hugs and Happy New Year wishes and we were off to the marina. We decided to stop at home first and pick up the Boodles (it is a British gin) to have a gin and tonic since it was a national holiday. I haven’t had a gin and tonic in literally years and I just thought that it sounded good so that is what we did.

Downtown was a little bit of mess but other than taking longer to get through traffic we arrived at the marina, got a parking space and made out way to the boat. It was a little cool on the boat (52.5 degrees inside) but by the time we left the temperature was in the mid-60s so I wasn’t too cold.

While we waited for the midnight fireworks we chatted with some of our boat neighbors while sipping a gin and tonic. Chris told us that she has been sharing roasted seaweed with others at the marina and so far they have all really liked it. *woo hoo*

When we got a little chilly we went below deck, turned on some jazz (Jeff Kashiwa to be specific) and danced a little while we talked. Dan and I spend a lot of time talking. Sometimes it is serious but most of the time we are just catching up and sharing what we are thinking. I believe that the reason our relationship is so strong is that we are both willing to bare our soul to the other.

I took my camera with the new lens to the boat since it has a much lower f-stop (1.4) I knew it would be good in low light. Here is a shot of Jim’s boat decorated for Christmas which I took to test out the settings I was going to use for the fireworks. I am really enjoying my new lens since this shot would have been impossible with my other lenses.

When the fireworks went off the sky literally filled with light. From the back of our boat we actually had a front row seat. If anything we were almost too close. The photos were taken without a telephoto lens which shows you how close the light show was to us. The fireworks were gorgeous and we enjoyed them. It was wonderful to be able to wait in the comfort of the boat for the show to start and to go right back below deck when it was over. I have been so intolerant of the cold weather it is almost funny. It is hard to believe that I grew up on Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana right in the heart of the snow belt. Thirty years in the Mid-Atlantic has turned me into a cold weather wimp.

We waited a little while on the boat for traffic to reduce and headed for home. For those of you who are local we took Key Hwy to 95 going by the Wine Market and then jumped on 395 to Martin Luther King to head north and that worked like a charm. We didn’t get stuck in any traffic. Love that!

Happy Thoughts:

• We had a nice relaxing New Year’s Eve. Dinner was delicious and it was fantastic to see Ian and the gang. Each time I stop in for dinner I am reminded how lucky we are to have such a welcoming place in our neighborhood. Not many classically trained chefs are willing to make vegan food and love Ian for doing that for us. Getting so many hugs when we arrived and left was also nice. Everyone at the restaurant treats us like we are family. I have mentioned many times how great it is to have “our place”. If you don’t have somewhere that you go all the time where they know your name and what you like I highly recommend that you find one.

• Dan made me happy by agreeing to have savory oatmeal for breakfast. I know that sounds like a little thing but it was a big deal here. Dan is not as open to “different” food as I am so it meant a lot that he was willing to break out of his comfort zone for me. Of course it also helped that he enjoyed it even though he didn’t want to admit it. ;-)

• The fireworks display was great last night. It was quite the light show and we couldn’t have gotten much closer. I got so many good pictures it was difficult to decide on the few to include. We had such a great view I can’t wait for the 4th of July Fireworks now.

• I woke up this morning with an uncomfortable dull sensation in the front of my head. I was immediately reminded that I had a gin and tonic last night. It is amazing that my tolerance for gin is basically non-existent now. To think a dry gin martini used to be my “poison” of choice. The uncomfortable feeling (which wasn’t intense enough to call pain) was a very good reminder that alcohol is a toxin that it is best for me to stay away from. I am happy that I was able to recognize a gentle reminder rather than a hard knock up the side of the head (like a real hangover). ;-)

• Our 2012 is starting off well with an uncharacteristic warm weather. Who would expect temperatures in the 60s in January? What a nice way to welcome in the New Year. *happy dance*

Signing out:

We need to head out soon and get to the marina. The refrigerator on the boat needs to be emptied out for the season and defrosted. Given our gorgeous weather both of us thought today would be a great day to take care of that little task which we have been avoiding.

Talk with you again tomorrow. I hope you had a great New Year’s Eve and that the New Year started off well for you. :-)

2011 Comes to a Close

The Happiness Project:

At the end of each year I try to reflect on what happened and focus on what went right in our lives. All of us have crummy things that happen but we also have good things in our lives too. It is very easy to go through life crossing items off our respective to-do lists, dealing with the inevitable problems and that crop up, and forgetting to notice what went well. However I believe we would all be much happier if we took a few minutes to remember all the good stuff. Here are the big things that happened this year in our life that put on a smile on my face:

• The biggest change in our life this year was the addition of the new family member, Dolce Far Niente (our sailboat which we named:  the sweetness of doing nothing - in Italian). Both of us love our new girl and plan to spend as much time on the water relaxing as we can. There really is nothing like boat time to take your mind off the cares of the world. We are also both really looking forward to teaching more of our friends to sail and sharing the joy with them. Good fortune is definitely sweeter when you can share it with people you care about.

• Dan and I are ending 2011 at least and healthy and possibly more healthy than we entered the year. Given our health challenges I would say this is a major accomplish to be celebrated! As I often say we have plants to thank in part for our good health. Go plants! Are eating your 10 servings of produce a day? I hope so!

• Our fur children had a few minor health challenges this year as well but they are all now doing well at the ripe old age of 10. We are so lucky to have such precious little fur babies in our lives. They all add immeasurably to the love in our home.

• My parents had their own health challenges this year as well. However considering that they are in their 80’s they are also doing well. I know that there will come a time when I won’t have them around so I am grateful to have them in reasonable health as long as possible.

• I learned a lot about myself this year and what I am capable of doing and learning, even at my age. It feels wonderful to know that my health and physical fitness have improved more than I thought possible for someone so close to 50.

• Speaking of 50 I have finally learned to accept that age is just a number. I was always one of those women who didn’t want to age. Being able to tell people how old I am not worry about it was a huge victory for me. Allowing my grey hair to exist was also big for me and goes along with accepting my age. I feel much better now that I am not using toxic chemicals to cover my grey. Each time another woman tells me how much they like my hair I just beam, literally. It is very freeing to accept your age for what it is just the passing of time.

• It is fantastic to finally know what my purpose is in life. For years I went through the motions of daily life doing what I needed to but didn’t really have that spark that makes you want to get up every morning and contribute to the world. I am so grateful that I now know that health is where I need to focus my attention. As I have said many times on this blog is only a handful of people read and “get it” then I feel as though the time that I put in is more than worth it.

Friday:

The last week of the year has been very busy for me. There have been lots of tasks, appointments and fun things too. Friday was another one of those characteristic busy days that I have been having a lot of recently. The up side of busy it that it doesn’t leave time to mope around or over think things which I have a tendency to do, specifically the over thinking part. LOL

Once Dan had his smoothie and was out the door to work I made myself one of my favorite breakfasts, savory oatmeal. Even though this isn’t Dan’s cup of tea I adore this stuff.  Courtney, I think of you every time I make this.  :-)  Usually I made Mexican flavored savory oatmeal but this time I decided to make Southern Italian flavored oatmeal. I cooked the oats with nutritional yeast, Italian seasoning, fennel seeds, diced tomato, garlic and red pepper flakes. When it was finished I topped it with artichokes (which I am sure you have realized by now I am obsessed with) and a few pine nuts. Delicious! If I had been thinking I would have made myself a smoothie since going out typically means more starch than usual.  However I wasn't thinking and that was okay too.  It was a cold morning and a hot bowl of oatmeal was what I wanted.

After breakfast I spent a few hours working on my upcoming January posts. I am  trying to get a little ahead so that I don’t miss any days. This is definitely the farthest ahead I have written things for the blog and it is a good feeling to be ahead of schedule. I think I may do more of this in the future.

Knowing that we were going out to dinner to meet our buddy Louis I decided lunch should be on the light side. I opted for nibbles instead of a meal to save room for dinner. I had some pizza almonds, a few prunes (which are a new obsession), my usual two Brazil nuts, an individual package of roasted seaweed and copious mugs of hot green and white tea with fresh grapefruit juice and cinnamon. Since my breakfast was so substantial this morning this was more than enough food for lunch today.

We met Louis at our usual place for dinner. After we chatted with everyone at the restaurant and got caught up with Louis it was time to figure out what to have for dinner. As always we started with a pot of green tea. This one included pineapple and papaya and we added fresh lemon juice to it to improve the absorption of EGCG. Our first course was a pizza with balsamic soaked figs, roasted portabellas, caramelized onions and tofu. While I am sure this looked unorthodox to most of the other dinners it was tasty and filling as it was piled high with toppings. We just love Ian.

For the next course we decided to concentrate on getting more veggies into us so we went with two vegetable side dishes. We had broccoli with garlic and a plate of roasted veggies. The broccoli was very garlicky which we loved. Can you ever have too much garlic in a dish? Okay maybe some people think that there is a garlic upper limit, but I am not one of them…it must be an Italian thing. ;-) Overall it was a great dinner, delicious and with plenty of produce. Love that!

31 Days to Better Health:

I wanted to explain more about why I have decided to add the section on health to the blog in the month of January and give you an idea of what you can expect to see. Most of us know that getting healthy requires us to eat more fruits and vegetables, eat fewer (and preferable no) unhealthy items and get more exercise. Those things are obvious and we all know them on some level. However people just don’t seem to be able to do what they know is required. I have spent countless hours trying to figure this out for myself. Why was it so difficult to change? What was holding me back from making the changes that I knew that I needed to make? Everything kept coming back to some emotion, habit or addiction. This was when I realized that getting healthy was more mental than it was physical. I personally had to completely understand the health impact of my decisions before I was going to be able to make different ones. However I am not sure that everyone has that same “need to know” that is ingrained in me.

Using what I learned battling my own demons I designed a series of exercises so that we could all work through things and figure out what we should be doing. I have purposely not made this a vegan plan because I want to be inclusive. Given the number of emails that I receive from vegetarians and omnivores I am very aware that many of you are not and never will be vegan. However what you all have in common is that you want to improve your health which is wonderful! If you aren’t vegan please don’t let that stop you from following along and/or doing the exercises and commenting. I promise you that there will be no snarky comments directed at the non-vegans since I have to approve all the comments. It is very important to me that everyone (vegans and non-vegans) feel welcome and at home on my blog.

As you all know I believe that a whole food plant-based diet makes the most sense for us. The science that I have read leads me to agree more closely with the current recommendations of Dr. Joel Fuhrman. As much as I would love the science to point to a more starchy carbohydrate based diet as the most healthful that isn’t what the science has shown me. *darn it* The Italian in me really loves things like pasta and bread but those are now treats and not everyday items for us. You may be drawn to a completely different plan and that will also work with what I have planned for January. The only thing that you need to know for my plan is what you want your life to look like. I will be asking you to think of things like “what your intention is for the New Year, what are 5 things you know you should be doing, and how are your relationships?” Questions like those apply to any lifestyle that you may have in mind.

It is my intention that by the end of January we will all know more about ourselves, what changes we want to make and more importantly that we will have made progress toward our respective goals. Gee, nothing like putting pressure on myself huh? I have always been a person who tended to set lofty goals for myself, like defeating cancer. ;-) I hope you are sufficiently intrigued by my description of the upcoming month to join me and do the work that I have laid out for all of us for January.

You will need a few materials to keep up with the exercises in the coming month. So that none of us is scrambling I have outlined them below so we can all get a head start on gathering them. However I believe that most of these are things that you will have at home currently.

• A notebook and paper or a computer to record your answers to the exercises. Being old school I will probably keep mine in a notebook so I can flip through it whenever I need an inspiration refresher. Yes, I too occasionally need inspiration. You didn’t think I was super human did you? ;-)

• Supplies to make a vision board which include: poster board, a cork board or a vision board program and some old magazines that you can cut up if you are making your vision board the old fashioned way. I will investigate the electronic versions and will have links to them for those of you who like technology. Again I tend to be more old school so I will be doing this with a board and images from magazines. I like to do things that are tactile for some reason. ;-) I wonder if it is because I loved kindergarten? LOL

• You will also need a small journal that you can carry with you or a smart phone you can use to record things when you are on the go.

• Food storage containers and a cooler or lunch bag so that you can have your own healthy homemade food available when you aren’t at home. This is important as planning plays a big role in achieving any goal and that it includes knowing what you can/will eat when you are on the go.

• Portable camera which fits easily in your bag or pocket. I use my cell phone for this but if you have a small camera that is easy to carry that works too. When I look at the world through the camera lens I tend to see more beauty.

I have written all the exercises yet for the month but these items should cover everything that we will need. The most important thing is that you are willing to do the exercises and really dig deep when you are answering the questions. Remember the goal is to understand who you are, what you want, and how you are going to get to where you want to be.

Happy thoughts:

• It was great to see our friend Louis for dinner. Since he moved to the Delaware 7 years ago we don’t see him as often as we used to but on the bright side that does make us appreciate the time we do spend together that much more.

• Ian was in rare form last night and I mean that in the nicest way. He really had me giggling when he came to the table to chat on his way home. Ian can be very animated, in a good way. We both really enjoy Ian and were surprised by his “tree hugging” tendencies last night. I am sure those of you who know him are as shocked by that statement as we were when he was talking. ;-)

• Both Dan and I are looking forward to spending New Year’s Eve with “the kids” (Aimee and Michael). It has become a tradition that we go out to dinner on New Year’s Eve. I think this is the 5th year in a row we have done this. We are all anxious to see the fireworks from the boat as we have heard we have a “front-row seat” which will be great. *woo hoo*

• The weather today (Saturday) and tomorrow (Sunday) is supposed to be uncharacteristically warm and should be 62 today and 61 tomorrow. Our boat next-door neighbor Rubin said that he usually goes sailing on New Year’s Day because it is almost always over 50. Looks like this year is holding true for warm weather again. Dan and I will definitely be out and about today and tomorrow to soak up the nice weather.

Signing out:

It is time for me to sign out and get outside and enjoy the unseasonably warm weather. I hope you have some fun planned for the evening. Talk with you again tomorrow. Happy New Year!