Posts Tagged "kids"

Here is Alex’s favorite snack: green apples with almond butter. He actually made this plate himself. How cute…will he be a future Matthew Kenney in the works? 😉

Yes, you will find cool whip, vanilla ice cream (that I tossed out after making this video)and take out of Vietnamese. We are not perfect and I don’t want to mislead anyone. My son was turning 13 and really wanted a pizza party. I went through some turmoil and then just said, “Fine, this is his party and it’s once a year. If he thinks this is what he wants, then I’ll let him make that choice.” As a parent I know I have to let my kids make their own choices. They need to know what’s out there and why we are choosing to eat this way.

I doubt you’ll find those things in our fridge again considering how junky we felt after eating that. My son was bent over the toilet and everyone saw what happens when we eat junk. Some people that aren’t raw think that when we feel sick from junk that “it’s all in our head”. I highly doubt this is how Alex wanted to feel on his birthday. That is part of going raw, your body really screams at you when you make a poor dietary choice. I think of it as a good thing, because most people are not sensitive enough to know the differences in food and how it makes them feel.

I want to make it clear that we are not 100% raw 100% of the time. We are high raw. Sometimes we will go several days even weeks 100% raw, then we will eat some cooked meals. Since we are on the go sometimes I don’t take the time to prepare or pack food before we leave home. So we will eat vegan dishes at ethnic restaurants since lots of places don’t use dairy and have lots of vegetarian options. My goal is to limit eating out since I really don’t know what’s in the food. In the winter we eat lots of soups, baked yams, and steamed veggies. It’s hard to take down a smoothie when you are bundled up in the winter. I noticed that grains and beans do make me puffy and bloated. So, this winter I will be making more veggie dishes, even if they are cooked. I feel eating at home is far superior to food in a restaurant. So, that is the direction we are headed. And to think we used to eat over half of our meals out in restaurants about 5 years ago.

Our life was very different. Rather than focusing on the fact that we aren’t 100% where we want to be, I like to focus on how far we have come. It encourages me to keep going. If I think about how we still eat out or cooked or whatever, then I feel guilt or shame and that is VERY UNempowering. It makes me feel like a failure, So,I change the focus to PROGRESS. I look at our fridge now and smile. I don’t know anyone in my town who has a healthier fridge than mine right now.

We like to focus on hydration, greens, lots of exercise and sunshine. Overall, we are eating better than we did years ago and I am happy with that. Oh, and Alex wants only healthy food on his next birthday…See, I don’t have to be the controlling mom. He figured it out himself. That’s empowerment!

OK, so I am curious…what’s in your fridge? Make a video, take some pics, post your link in my comment box. I wanna see what you’ve got going on in your fridge! 🙂

P.S. Yes, I am going to superglue my broken fridge drawer!

These things rejuvenate me, bring out the best in me, and remind me to celebrate the gift of life.

1. Loving my life, my kids
2. Writing in my gratitude journal
3. Envision my life direction (vision board or programming)
4. Reading “Levels of Human Consciousness” for Enlightenment in “Power vs Force”
5. Yoga
6. Getting a massage
7. Sun bathing & reading a good book
8. Meditating in the sauna
9. Dancing to awesome music
10. Fasting
11. Eating raw food
12. Sharing a conversation with someone who is AWAKE
13. Learning something new
14. Turning people on to transparent living
15. A day of silence

I almost forgot making love would be on this list too…hmmm… back to those romance videos 🙂

How about you?

I watched this Ann Wigmore DVD . I am working on setting this lifestyle up at my home! Everyone should consider their home as their own personal health retreat. After watching this I was so excited I made the cabbage rejuvelac. I want to set up a space for sprouting. I have had a friend who has been nudging me to do it, but since I am such a visual person it wasn’t until I saw it in action that I became excited. I also want to make the energy soup and even try it dehydrated to make rolls with. I did incorporate the composting system that was featured in the video and I hope it works out.

Made Raw Miso Soup
I can’t claim dibs on this recipe it was shown to me by someone else, but I thought I’d pass it along. I love it since it is soy free (perfect for my thyroid). Here are the ingredients. These are rough estimates.

8-16 oz Hot water ,1-2 TBSP Adzuki and chickpea miso (pictured above) ,Shitake Mushrooms (dried and soaked, next time I want to find fresh mushrooms) ,Mixed sea veggies 1/2 the bag, rinsed . I am trying to get in some sea veggies or kelp in daily for my thyroid. A sliver of onion (or any allium family: green onion, chives, leeks, scallions, etc)
This is like heaven for my thyroid and perfect for these cold winter months. OK, I live in So Cal and it doesn’t get that cold, but you know what I mean. 🙂

Made a raw curry salad dressing
Inspired by Ani Phyo’s Curry Salad Dressing . I used avocado instead of olive oil and I liked it better. ; ). I mentioned I am trying to obtain my fat from food and not from bottles.

Tried a new yoga class
My favorite yoga of all time is Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga. However, I tried Anusura yoga at a local studio. I learned how to partner up and help my partner get into poses that need some assistance. I did back bends and handstands which I haven’t practiced in a long time, so it felt wonderful. Opening up my body IS opening up my mind. However, I have a pretty open mind as it is! Outside of yoga class I have been practicing yoga with a partner and I am learning how helpful it is to have someone assist me in a pose to take me to a deeper level of my practice. My shoulders and hips are so tight and I look forward to when I can have free range of motion. Here is what I can do on my own now. I want to be able to grasp my hands.

I feel that after years of tight deltoids (shoulders) that I should focus on releasing them. I know I won’t be able to go into deeper poses until I can release this restriction. Hopefully in the future I can post video and photos that are more exciting than this.

Relationships

Self : I have been focusing on practicing more self love since I truly know that this is the key to great relationships. How can others enjoy me if I can’t enjoy myself? This is a huge thing for me since in the past I associated self love with being egotistical or self absorbed and selfish. I realise I need to be a little selfish in order to have anything to give anyone else.

Kids : I feel so close with my kids. I started homeschooling them 3 years ago and it has really changed my life and the way I view education. I also know my kids strengths and aim to nurture them as best I can. We have such an open line of communication and I really have learned a lot about myself as I watch them grow. Lately we have been having fun snowboarding. I also take my kids to gymnastics, speech therapy, guitar and horseback riding lessons. Wow…so time consuming, but I enjoy exposing them to all sorts of environments. The biggest part of being a mom is stepping back and letting them grow naturally. I need to remember less is more and to allow them to do for themselves what they can.

Snowboarding
Here is the mountain view from my home, new snow!
We saw “Phantom of the Opera”

Romance: I am still single as I have been for a long while. I realize that I have not made this a priority and how can I allow for a wonderful man to enter my life if I do not know exactly what it is I am wanting? As I mentioned before I have been listening to the Relationship portion of the Get the Edge series from Tony Robbins I know that in order to have a sustainable relationship our natures must be similar or complimentary. I spent lots of time clarifying my vision of an ideal partner. More to come on this topic.

Community: I am a co-organizer of an organic produce co-op. This is how I connect with the members of the community and encourage healthy living. Again, I really wish more people had this in their community. Here is a photo of Tonya (another co-organizer) and me supporting Bunny Berry and RawFu.

This is where we set up our co-op and basket of organic produce to distribute on Saturdays.

Career

My Garden

Here is the trash bins for compost and as you can see I am already overflowing.

My south facing side yard with 4 raised beds.
This bed is filled with radishes and other stuff that I never harvested. I still haven’t done anything with that irrigation hose. I am still hand watering which is tough to remember with my busy schedule.

Here is my bed of beets. It is the gourmet blend I planted in fall. It is almost ready to harvest. Beet greens are fabulous for liver function, bile flow that breaks down fat. Not to mention that they are awesome for sluggish elimination.

This is my carrot bed and honestly I don’t know why they are growing so slow. I am not sure I’ll grow carrots again, but it was a learning experience.

This is just a mix of all the other seeds that I had leftover that were planted here.

I received tons of goodies for my garden like rock dust! I can’t wait to get going on my spring garden. I mentioned earlier on the Ann Wigmore video, I saw a home compost system that was set up with big trashcans that had holes drilled into it (much cheaper than a tumbler). I went for it and set that up. I received lots of seed catalogs. It seems that winter is when the catalogs are sent and people decide what they want to grow for the year. I want a nutrient dense garden! Gardening is really teaching me to be better at planning and patience. It’s not like I can pop a seed in the ground tonight and harvest the thing in the morning. It takes lots of dedication and love. Who wouldn’t benefit from those traits?

Obtained a new camera
If you read my blog you know my home was broken into and my cameras were stolen. So, I now have a new camera . I am actually excited since the format is jpeg avi which means I can now add to my videos using movie maker. My last one was saved mov. files and I wasn’t able to convert them appropriately. Hey, learning to edit or add special features to my video sounds fun. I gotta embrace the technology world.

I want to install a mirror along that back wall, a barre, a removable pole and of course lighting and surround sound.

Sightings
I came across videos and blogs that were inspired by me. Woo hoo! Nothing feels better than knowing that just by being me I am actually helping others. Thank you! Check ‘em out!
Nancy, Paige, and Annette . Guys, thanks so much for reading my posts and for supporting me.

OK, I wanted to lay low on the fruit, but it seems the most appealing way to get my kids to love the greens. This was a simple smoothie recipe that we normally made, with a young thai coconut, banana and strawberries, but this time we added one bunch of spinach. IT WORKED! I feel much more optimistic about my kids completing the challenge now. WHEW!