Vegetables are a huge key

We are adapting our diet a little. We are still eating four important items, Good Protein, Good Carb, Good Fat and Good Vegetables. However we are going to fill at least half our plate with raw vegetables to add good micro-nutrients to our diet. We have done this the past two days and we feel so much better. 

Last night we had fish tacos. We had Cod cooked in lime juice. We sprinkled it with chili powder and cayenne and cooked in olive oil and lime juice.  We placed it on a corn tortilla and buried it in tomatoes, cabbage, avocados and a little mozzarella cheese. Oh my, It was so good. 

We have also added exercise back in too our lives. We did this for too many years to quit now. Feeling good - Feels so good. 
Eat more vegetables today. Have a terrific day. 

Sharing the Stress you are Feeling Helps with Solutions

Living a "normal" life and going throughout your day living the Heartiness way can offer its own challenges. The goal is to get to the point that each day, no matter what the world throws at you, you are able to eat appropriately, have time for exercise and have your emotions in control. This is a tall order but one I am striving for. 

Perhaps sharing what the world has given to us for the day will help all of us know how to work around those obstacles and be centered in living the Heartiness life.

Today I am up early because I have to go to a patient's house and do a procedure I am uncomfortable with at 7:30 AM. 

Last evening my boss called me and told me one of the patients I cared for was not happy with the way I had done the procedure. She told me she is not happy with anyone but her own nurse so not to feel bad, but she had to let me know. Therefore, my confidence level for this morning's procedure is shaky. 

I also hurt my back this last week so I am in pain and not sleeping well. Okay....Stress, anxiety, pain and lack of sleep. 

So let us walk through this. 

I still have to eat breakfast. Skipping it will only add to the stress. Thankfully, I have a husband who fixes great, appropriate breakfasts, so I know I will be eating. Spiritual preparation is imperative to my day....therefore I have already said my morning prayer and will go study my scriptures when I am through here. 

 I will need to prepare a snack for morning and a good lunch or I will be too hungry or binge eating something I had to purchase that is inappropriate to eat. I have found the the greatest way to successful eating is to prepare in advance and only eat what I have prepared. 

Exercise, which oft times get laid aside cannot be skipped or my back will only get worse. I have a great accountability partner in Jim, so I cannot skip exercise. 

By starting my day out with the basics: prayer, study, eating, and exercise I have already set a good foundation for my day and that should help the stress. 

To further reduce the stress, I watched a YouTube video on how to do the procedure I am doing this morning so I feel more confident reducing the anxiety.

Beginning Again

We live in Oregon. This is new to us because we came from sage brush and very little moisture to green and rain. It is a new beginning. So we start again with the Heartiness Approach.

I am sharing the first portion of a talk I had to give last week.

New Beginnings are everywhere, everyday. Perhaps, that is why I always think about the new beginnings in my life. I am ever grateful for divisions of time. I often find being thankful for divisions of time. A year, A Season, A month, A week, A day , A moment in time.

 A new Year

A new year is a start fresh, with new resolve and wonderful ideas. Lose that weight, Eat better, Study the Scriptures, Stay in budget, Begin that new talent. Love better. Live better. Please don’t listen to all the discouraging talk about how many resolutions are unsuccessful. When I hear the news media talk about that I am only more determined to succeed. Be an optimist. Plan a goal and reach it. When I decided to go back to school, I would say, “I can be five years older with a degree or five years older without one. I graduated from Ohio State University at age 44 with a Bachelor’s in Nursing.

A new season.

We have four wonderful seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Depending on where you live, you can sometimes experience them all in one day. It is often said, If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and you will get something else. The seasons allow us to experience crispness of leaves, air and mind. Warmth on our skin and face that was lost during the gloomy months. Coolness in our window at night to replace the stagnate heat of summer. Snowflakes on our face as we walk in the forest after a new snow and feel the crunch under your feet.

A new month

There are twelve of them. They keep going in circles faster and faster each time they come around. However, as that new month comes, silently inside we know it is a new beginning and something grand may happen that month that we are not aware.

A new Week

Perhaps A new week is a beginning that we think of more than any other is. If you work five days a week or attend school or get children up and send them off to school, a week is important to you. There is Monday where you begin your week and Wednesday, hump day, where you start counting down to the weekend and Friday where the celebration begins in your mind that very morning, then is that wonderful weekend. My husband use to be on call so much and work such long hours that he would say, Oh the weekend, only two more working days until Monday. Hopefully it is not like that for you. Saturday is a day to clean the house, work in the yard, or go somewhere for fun. Then there is the Sabbath to heal you from the week. It is the true beginning of your week.

A new day

A new day comes 365 times in a year. A problem fretted about the night before does not look as bleak as the dawn breaks. Why is it that a problem is so magnified through a long sleepless night and in the morning looks so much smaller? A new day is everyday. We love the morning. We love sunrises and sunsets. Both of which we miss very much. We have to drive somewhere to find one here in Oregon during the winter because of morning fog or trees. I believe that will change in the summer, and that will be a new beginning.

A new hour

A new hour where we can get one more thing accomplished. We don’t have to wait for a new year to start something anew. There are 24 hours in everyday to begin again. An hour can be used to take some time and relax, to drive, to serve, to get home, to make dinner, to pray, to use to our endless imagination.

At last, there is A new moment to reflect and start again anytime we feel the need. It only takes a moment to begin again.

Don’t ever get so bogged down that you do not believe you can begin again. As a kindred spirit of mine once said, “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it”. Anne Shirley

There is a magnet on my refrigerator that has been there a long time. When my daughter came to visit, she said, “Hey that is my favorite quote.”

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

 Ralph Waldo Emerson. 

If we could not begin again there would be no reason to go on. So excited for 2014. What a terrific year it will be. Join us for the ride and learn something about eating well, eating fresh and eating real. I will share recipes, meal planning ideas, snacks, shopping and how to exercise properly and eat good healthy food.