I want to be healthy so that I have energy.  I want to feel good. I used to crash diet, and starve myself, run marathons and tri-atholons….never with the idea of getting healthy. It was always with a goal of having the perfect body. It was like chasing the wind.   My mother-in-law used to tell me: it’s not what you are eating, it’s what’s eating you.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness….  -Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

There are always so many new resolutions in January to get healthy or get in shape. I stopped those long, long ago.  A heard a guy on the radio yesterday say he’d been in the gym for 10 days straight, and had even forgotten to take the price tags off his gym clothes.  That sounds familiar.  I used to start out with good intentions, but the problem was I jumped in all crazy.  I finally figured out that I needed to just make small changes here and there…otherwise I’d burn out, and quickly.

Me On Exercise: I try to hike as often as possible…with my husband, as a family, or with a friend. It makes the time pass quickly and I tend to push myself a little more. My goal is 4 days a week and it usually ends up being about 2. Sometimes 1.  A quick walk around the block is perfect sometimes.  Mr. LBB and I both have the 7 minute app. I try to do that at least once a week. One workout fit into 7 minutes. Boo loves it.

Me On Eating: We try to prepare dinner and eat together as a family every night. Not only is it quality time together but we are more aware of what we eat. The preparation changes our orientation to our food. We eat as much raw, living food as possible.  As we make small gradual improvements, they stick. I love visiting the farmers market and trying new vegetables from Trader Joe’s and Clark’s.  I try to stick to the simplest of preparation so that we avoid MSG, preservatives, and sodium.  Food I used to crave seems intolerable now. Boo lights candles at dinner…it’s a celebration of gratitude.  I think the food you eat, and how it’s prepared, should be filled with joy.

Love yourself and love your body by choosing health this year over dieting.

There is joy in energy, and energy in joy.

As a family we’ve started to incorporate little things over the last 12 months to make them habits. And it has to be natural and easy, otherwise we will drift off the path. We tried juicing but it just took too much time. It doesn’t mean we failed, we just shifted our focus to work for us.  Now we use make smoothies with a hand blender. We all have our different preferences too…this one’s mine:

I switch up ingredients but this is my basic recipe: [Read more…]