Life Without Coffee

Breaking News at the Chia Household: Billy and I have stopped drinking coffee.

I know. I never thought this would happen. I love coffee. But ultimately, it was doing me in.

Over the last months my energy level has plummeted from my natural low energy to a minuscule amount that was most often used up by being in a bad mood. How fun is that to live with. And if you're starting to feel sorry for my family, you ought to feel just as sorry for me. I mean, I can't get away from myself! It was getting pretty miserable.

So, aside from that a couple of other factors led me to make the final decision. One was a conversation at small group about our bodies being God's temple. We have been going through Exodus at church, and we learned about the splendor of the tabernacle and how the priest's garments were like a mini-temple, as a symbol pointing to Jesus - that when Jesus came, our bodies would become the temple.

But the final straw was a segment I heard on Sean Hannity's radio show featuring everyone's favorite wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura. He and Hannity were arguing about legalizing hard drugs such as heroine, which is retarded that anyone even thinks that's okay. But still, he made the point that if caffeine were suddenly outlawed, we'd see a lot of violence by people to get it. I'm not sure it's really comparable to heroine, but the point is that caffeine is a drug, and I don't believe in being addicted to anything, except Jesus.

So, anyway, what's life like without coffee?

1. Awake, surprisingly. The first couple of days I slept a LOT. I'm talking 12 hours at night plus a few hour or 2 naps through out the day. Out of 24 hours in a day, I probably slept about 18 of those the first couple of days. But then the third day, something clicked, and I've been doing really well. I definitely wake up more easily in the morning. So, it's nice to not have to wait until after I drink coffee to start that process.

2. Cheaper. We are quasi coffee snobs around here, so there's no Folgers for us. We usually opted for Seattle's Best, which I could get for $6.48/bag. We would go through 2-4 of those a month, depending on if I needed a pick-me-up in the afternoon (which I did a lot!). I also have to have non dairy creamer which is around $3 for the month. So, we're talking $17-29 off our grocery budget. Hello! I have some other things I'd like to buy for $17-29.

3. Holier. Okay... this might seem like a stretch to say I'm "holier," but I just wanted a one word description. Sue me. I will say that I'm more able to control my responses to my kids when I'm annoyed at them. First of all, I've been annoyed less, actually. That's been a good attitude change to have. But even when I am annoyed, I've been able to approach my response with more patience. Instead of snapping at them to go away or be quiet, I've been more able to ask, "What's going on?" or "What do you need?" Not always succeeding, but it's a process, anyway.

I'm still not feeling awesome in the energy department, so my next step is to get some detox kit and clean myself out of toxins. This is still in the R&D phase, but suggestions on ones that work (or other thoughts on coffee dependencies) are welcome in the comments.

If You Feel Like Puking

Because I know most people do. Uh, that was sarcasm.

I know you don't feel like puking, but still, check out SparkPeople.com's 11 worst foods of 2008. It is pretty disgusting. Like... not as in pig brain sandwich disgusting, but like oh my gosh that looks so incredibly good, but look how bad it is for me disgusting.

Lately, I've been intentionally trying to lose some weight. After Ashlyn was born, my 6-week check up showed I was still about 40 pounds heavier than I had been pre-pregnancy. In the last 2 years, I've shed 20 of those pounds with little effort.

I'm just a healthy eater and I don't mind parking far away from the stores, so it has slowly worked its way off. But I'm kinda tired of the "slowly" part of it, and I thought... wouldn't it be nice to be at my goal weight by my... ahem... 1st anniversary of my 29th birthday?

So, by April 5th, I'd like to lose those remaining 20 pounds. I've already lost 3 in the last 3 weeks, so I'm on track to do it.

But anyway, I've learned a little about how much energy my body uses, how many calories I need to consume to maintain weight, and how many I need to lose weight. I've been keeping pretty good at 1200 calories a day.

Some of these foods are at 1200 calories a freakin' SERVING! That, my friends, is just disgusting.

Oh, yeah... and if you'd like to join SparkPeople's 100% free community, please click through the button on my sidebar to let them know I sent you!

Lucid Dreaming

I've been dragging lately. Just plain worn out from nothing much. It's pretty crappy.

One of the things that seems to contribute to this problem is my dreaming. For several weeks now, I've had the kind of dreams where I'm very well aware that I'm dreaming, and I'm just kinda following along knowing it's a story going on. On the one hand, it's great, cause if the dream takes a bad turn, I can change its course, but on the other hand, I'm not resting very well.

It reminds me of this athiest podcast that Billy and I listened to once. This girl was talking about how marvelous lucid dreaming was. Her logic went like this: I spend all this wasted time sleeping. I'm not doing anything, so I may as well lucid dream. What else am I going to do during that time?

Huh, lady... I don't know...

Sleep, maybe!

I would love to wake up in the morning and wonder what the heck just happened the last 8 hours. As it is, I've been going to bed around 9, waking up at 6, and feeling exhausted.

Lucid dreaming gets a big thumbs down from me.

So Excited!

I picked up my Angel Food for this month, and I'm totally geeked.

They have a great menu for next month. The regular box is pretty, uh, regular. Normal stuff, although it seems like maybe they have more meat than this past month had.

But their specials this month are great. I'm particularly excited about the fresh fruit and veggies. They always have really good quality here. This month, I got a cabbage, and it was NOT your run-of-the-mill white head of chemicals. This was a nice farm-grown green leafy thing that I can't wait to use. I may break down and get some ground turkey from the store so that I can make stuffed cabbages. Mmmmmm. Or I may make cole slaw as that's a little more seasonal.

But next month also has a great special of 5 fully-cooked meals for 4 for only $20. In case you're slow on that math, that's only $4 a meal. That's 1 dollar per person. And it's zero effort. You just heat and serve. I'm looking forward to that. :)

Well, I got to get to decorating for Eve's party. But I had to share. If you haven't found an Angel Food location near you, be sure to check it out.

Ways to Save- Part 3

Earlier this week, I started telling you about some ways that we are trying to cut down our grocery bill this month. The verdict's still out on how effective this all was, but my current predictions are that we saved about 15 - 20% of our last month's bill. Pretty good if you ask me.

Today, I'll wrap up the series. If you missed part 1 or part 2, be sure to check those out, too.

5. Go to the store once a week, and then be a food nazi.
In the last installment, I told you that I've been planning meals and snacks a week at a time. From there, I make my shopping list and I go to the store on Monday. (This is my errand day, which is a gas-saving tactic, but that's a different post, right?)

If we stick to the plan, things are fine. If Billy drinks a glass of milk that I didn't strategically plan (gasp!), things don't go so fine. (trust me... I wasn't pretty) But I am not going back to the store. So, come Saturday, we may be having one egg each and dry toast for breakfast. But it's all good, cause on Monday, we all appreciate a real meal a little bit more.

Obviously, I have to work a bit to perfect it, but my theory is that if I'm in the habit of not returning to the store, then we'll save money on those nickel/dime trips that can quickly add up.

6. Check out the food pyramid and change our portions.
Eve and I learned about the food pyramid for science and if you look at what an actual serving size is, you'll realize that you're probably eating way too much. So, one of the things that I am definitely still learning to do is eat less. I'm not one to indulge and stuff myself anyway, but if my government says I only need 5.5 oz of meat a day, then who am I to argue?

Okay... that was just a little bit sarcastic, but really. Most of us could stand to eat smaller portions. This was hard at first, but I have a couple of suggestions that I've used to help the transition happen more smoothly.

First of all, we are, in fact, making it a transition. I have intentionally cut back on portions but not to the extent that we're done in two bites and a gulp. We're eating smaller portions now, but we still have a little ways to go before we're down to the recommendations.

Next, we drink more water. You hear this all the time, but I think a lot of people forget about it. I know I do. But between spacing out our meals and cutting back on portions, we've come to rely on the truth that we're often thirsty. We tend to drink water at each meal, and also have a few glasses in other parts of the day. I haven't measured to see if we're at the 64 oz. recommendation, but I'm sure we're close.

Ways to Save - Part 2

Yesterday, I told you a couple of the tricks I'm using to save money at the grocery store. Here are a couple more.

3. Stock up on sale items that we will use in the future.
If you are the kind of person that allots a weekly amount for groceries, this can throw your budget out of whack. For example, this week a lot of what we use often was on sale BOGO. So, my tally at the register was $139. I almost threw up since I try to keep our bill under $100 a week. But ultimately, it will benefit us because I won't be buying those items this week. So, it should even out.

Another spin on this is to buy larger sizes of things. For example, I can get a 3 lb. chuck roast for less $/pound than I can a 1 lb. slab. So, when I get home, I had to cut it in half and freeze it separately for 2 meals.

4. Plan our meals and snacks.
Each week, I take about 2 hours on Sunday to plan our week's activities and food. One area where some meal plans fall short is that they only account for dinners. But I've found that if I plan all our meals and snacks, I am able to buy the right amount of food without going over and wasting. I'm still new at this, so there are kinks to work out. For example, sometimes we have left-overs so I plan those into the meal plan. But other times, we eat all of the prepared food, and then we're left scrounging for the next day's lunch. Still, all in all, it's worked.

This also helps when I have a list at the store and don't veer from it because I know that all my food is planned for. So I don't need to add things here and there. I do allow for flexibility for snacks. For example, I may plan for the kids to eat animal crackers for a bedtime snack, but at the store, we see that vanilla wafers are on sale. Whatever... it's the same type of food. But the principle is that I might substitute, but I don't add food to the list (except when stocking up!).

If this sounds a little rigid, just wait. More to come...

Ways to Save - Part 1

Yesterday, I told you guys (er, uh girls, mainly) that I'd be posting a few entries on things I'm doing to save money on groceries.

Before I post my first couple ideas, let me make this disclaimer: I don't know for certain that these are all money-saving ideas. They are things that I'm trying. I haven't perfected them, so I don't know exactly how much I'll save with them. That is to say, I don't know if they are all worth the effort. Dollars saved may not be worth the time invested, but since I have more time than I do money, I think they are probably worth my while. You'll have to decide on your own if they're worth yours.

Also, let me define the word "groceries" for you. When I say groceries, I pretty much mean anything I buy. I don't buy anything... ever. Okay...that's not totally true. I spent $5 on some shoes for Ashlyn just last week, but mainly I just buy necessities, so things like toiletries, food prep or storage tools, etc. are all considered groceries as far as our budget is concerned.

So now... the moment you've all been waiting for.


1. Buy AngelFood boxes.
AngelFood ministries is a nationwide distributor of low-priced, but fairly high quality food. For $30, you can get about $75 or more worth of food. I'm not sure how they accomplish that, but it's been a good thing for us this month.

You have to pre-order their boxes, and then pick up at the scheduled 2-hour window. I would recommend picking up at the beginning of the window or your meat will be thawed out.

In order to use everything that comes in the box, I've enrolled in Menus4Moms menu service, which is $2 a month. (The site is a bit hard to navigate around, so expect to have to be patient with it!) They will send me a meal plan for the ingredients in this month's box. This has helped me because in the past, I've wasted AngelFood because of not knowing how to prepare it.

This brings me to my next point...

2. Eat what's available.
AngelFood has stuff in it that I wouldn't normally want to eat, such as pork and beef. But the price is so good, and the meat is actually fairly lean, so it's a good choice for saving money and staying healthy. So, since the food is available to us, we're eating it, whether it's our first choice or not.

This also goes for things I buy. For example, this week Kellogg's reduced sugar Frosted Flakes were on sale for less than the store brand's regular frosted flakes. They don't taste quite as good, but they are better for us and cheaper -- this week, anyway.

And speaking of sales... tune in tomorrow. :)

Clothes that Fit

The last few months, I've been hardcore about working out in order to (1) get in better shape, and (2) not be forced to buy a new wardrobe. I'm convinced that buying new clothes because you're fat is a big waste of money. I'd rather spend my money on the gym.

So, for a year, I was wearing a rotation of no more than 5 shirts and 2 pairs of jeans (actually, the 2nd pair, I only purchased in December, so most of the year was 1 pair of jeans).

But 2 months ago, I enlisted Blake at Bob's Gym to help me cut the blubber, and I couldn't be happier, as today, for the first time, I'm wearing pre-pregnancy clothes that fit again.

Okay, okay...they don't fit quite the same way. The waist of the jeans digs in a little and you can see a fat roll or two through my shirt. So, I still have a few inches to go. But I'm wearing them. And I am actually going to wear them in public!

The workout didn't just help my body shape and size, it also increased my fitness level. I went down 4% in fat percentage, I have better cardio health, and I increased my upper-body strength by 230% (based on a push-up test).

So, I owe a huge thanks to Blake for making my workouts challenging and fun, do-able and effective.

Friends are a Waste of Time

Last night, my pastor was talking about friendship and our great need for it. He mentioned that in our society today, we are always busy. We always have places to be, things to do.

Sometimes simply spending time with people seems like a waste. But this "waste of time" is the most valuable time we can spend.

Today, I walked down to my old friend Mary's house and "wasted" about 45 minutes. The other night, I "wasted" time on Kara.

Who do you need to waste time on this week?

Don't Know Whatcha Got

So, they say that you don't know what you got till it's gone. It's that whole idea of taking something for granted until you lose it, and then it hits you--that thing that you didn't value meant a whole lot more to you than you ever admitted.

I know that a lot of women have husbands that just don't communicate. I've gotten a little taste of that today.

Now, wait...this is not about our latest fight.

Today, Billy got a wisdom tooth pulled. So, for the rest of the day, he's been unable to talk. This is not as fun for me as one might have thought.

See, usually Billy talks and talks and talks and talks. I mean, really...it's obnoxious. Or at least, I used to think so. But all this quiet is really unnerving, and I miss his handsome voice. So, I'm learning to appreciate him more and more.

We've been using Google Docs to converse. Billy types something, and I respond vocally. It's kinda a slow process, but it's worked so far.

His inability to speak hasn't stopped Billy from interrupting me, though--he simply doesn't wait for me to finish -

Hey wait a sec. This is Billy (I've hacked into Sarah's Blog.) I do not interrupt her. I have no idea what she's talking about.

- talking before he starts to type again.

Review: Meal Mixer Menu Planning

After a new baby invaded our home seven months ago, I found little time for meal preparation, and even less for planning the menu in the first place. This resulted in lots of frozen meals and more eating out than this household had ever seen.

About a month ago, I decided it was time for me to get back in the game of housewifery, and one of my first stops along the way was finding a website that would plan my week's meals for me to alleviate that burden from my own load.

What I found was MoreThyme.com, which has now become MealMixer.com. So, today, I thought I would give a quick review of the site for anyone else who's in need of this service to consider.

The Set-up

Meal Mixer is above and beyond the generic one-size-fits-all site. It doesn't simply send out a menu to all its members, regardless of their tastes. Rather, it begins with a short preferences survey asking new members to rate various ingredients on a 5-point scale from "Yuck!" to "Yum!"

After getting your personalized preferences (you can also set your personal dietary needs, such as calorie, fat, and carb intake), the planner asks for a type of meal (pasta, vegetarian, casserole, etc.) that you would like for each meal you want planned. The member has full control over whether she wants just dinners or every meal, including snacks, planned.

The website then prepares a menu. This menu can be tweaked by the member and then printed.

The printed pages include a shopping list, recipes and a week-view menu for hanging on the fridge.

The Good

There are some great qualities that came with my membership to Meal Mixers. Here are my favorite things.

Time Saving

The amount of time I've spent planning good meals with Meal Mixer is minimal. The original set-up took a little bit of time, but once I got the hang of how things worked, I was able to breeze through recipes and have my printed list in about 15-20 minutes for the week. (Keep in mind, this is with a baby in arms. Those of you who are baby-free can whip through the steps much more quickly.)

Variety Inducing

Before using Meal Mixer, my poor family had about 5 meals they could count on week after week. But with the hundreds of recipes on Meal Mixers' site, we have yet to have the same meal twice. So, once again, Billy gets up from the table and tells me something like, "That was fabulous!" Aww...it's just like when we were first married.

Tradition Keeping

Not only does Meal Mixer have tons of new recipes, but it also allows you to enter in your own recipes so you can add your old favorites to your week's plan. The screen to enter these is very intuitive, and the recipes are immediately stored in your personal favorites and dietary information is also available on these.

The Bad

There are also several things lacking with Meal Mixer. Here are a few of the more disappointing features.

Technical Glitches

Recently, MoreThyme.com turned into MealMixer.com. With this change came some new features, but there are still kinks to work out, so some of the selling points of the site actually turn into pretty big annoyances. For example, if a member doesn't like the meal that Meal Mixer chose for her, she can (in theory) ask for "ideas" and all the meals that fit the previously chosen criteria and ingredient survey are supposed to pop up for her to choose from. This doesn't actually happen. When I tried this feature, I got a pop-up window, but it was blank. Also, Meal Mixer did not fill in all the meals I requested. Therefore, we ate cereal for breakfast on Saturday, because I didn't get the cooked meal I asked for.

Incomplete Recipes

Sure there are hundreds of recipes in one location, but many of them are hard to use due to missing information. Today, I went to make a chicken and cheese casserole. I mixed all my ingredients together and realized that I didn't know what size dish to use. I whipped out a 13x9 incher and filled it up. But it didn't actually fill up. The recipe was only large enough for a 9x9. So, I ended up with two dishes to wash. This type of thing is not unusual.

Un-intuitive Interface and Inconvenient Categorizations

This website takes quite a bit of looking around to figure out how to work efficiently with it. Once the basics are learned, it continues to be annoying to move from recipe viewing to the week's grid view. Also, if you would like to move a meal from one day to another, you must keep it as the same meal. So, you can't move French Toast from breakfast on Tuesday to dinner on Wednesday. Day to day moving is allowed, but the meal categories restrict your use of them without using the long-hand procedure of entering meals one recipe at a time.

The Verdict

Despite some of the negatives, mealtime has been much more enjoyable since I've begun using Meal Mixer planning site. Will I renew when I've used my 12 menus? Probably not right away. But I expect that a couple months down the road, we'll be back to our 5 staple meals, and I'll look to sign back up.

WARNING! If you sign up for this service, make sure that you realize that they will continue charging your credit card until you cancel. There is no way to make your membership a manual update, and this is pretty shady, if you ask me.

They have some nice fine print that they'll throw at you to say that they won't refund your money once they take it from you. So, that's annoying, needless to say, but it is there if you look around.

It does seem like a cancellation takes effect at the end of your time period. So, if you "pay" for time you don't want, make the most of it and use up your menus.

8 Weeks to Optimal Health -- Week 4

Okay...I'm gonna plead guilty on this one, BUT I do have mitigating circumstances. (Ah ha! All those years as a legal secretary paid off, didn't they?)

Week 4 went down the drain a little while back. Last week, I spent a lot of time getting ready for school to begin. We'll be back at the books next week, so look for an update on how that's going soon.

Anyway, I didn't keep up with Google Reader most of that time...or housework...or health.

But the Housewife recently linked to me. So, now I have to get going.

Here's how I did on Week Four:

1) Check on your bed, mattress, and sleeping location. Is [anything] interfering with restful sleep? If so, consider making the changes described.
Okay, I’m trying not to be sarcastic, but this is just funny. Anything interfering? Uh, yeah. It’s called a baby. Changes? Well, none for now. Really, I’ve been sleeping really well lately, except for when Ashlyn wakes up, which is still sometimes 2 times a night. Other times, it’s just once. Billy’s also been helping me out as we trade mornings to get up with her at 6 am.

2) Find out about getting an air filter for your home or bedroom if you live in a polluted area or suffer from ailments that might be worsened by inhaled irritants. I’ve had an air purifier for years now, and I really can tell a difference. Ironically, this week I’d been getting headaches, so I turned it off because I realized that I need to replace the ionizer. I have a call in to my supplier to get one of those ASAP.

3) Eat some more garlic this week, in any form that appeals to you. I'm a fan of fresh garlic, but this week, powdered had to do. I do have some fresh in the fridge, but can you believe I was actually too lazy to use it. Wow! How's that for a spoiled brat? Still, one teaspoon of powder equals a clove of garlic, so we used some of that this week.

4) Replace at least two meals of animal protein with soy protein. Made some yummy TVP tacos. Mmmm-mmmm.

5) Be sure that your multivitamin is providing you with the B-complex group. I haven't used my vitamins for a couple of weeks, and boy! Have I been feeling it. B gives us some much-needed nerve energy. And I've been low on that lately. I'm feeling very worn out, which cause me to go to bed at 7:30 last night.

6) Increase your aerobic walk to 25 minutes, 5 days of the week. Again, I'm claiming that my religion forbids walks in the heat. But it is cooling down some, so hopefully this coming week.

7) Do two days of news fasting this week. I actually feel like I need to watch news more. Someone mentioned something about a bridge collapse somewhere in Minnesota (?), and I had no idea what they were talking about. I have no clue these days about the world around me, so I should probably subscribe to a news feed in Google. Then, I can do a fast from it next week!

8) Continue to practice the breathing exercises you have learned. This week you will add a powerful Relaxing Breath that will improve both mental and physical health. I did this stuff with my daughter a bit this week. She can really get herself worked up sometimes, so I thought it would be good to give her some skills to utilize when she gets overly anxious or nervous. It went well. We used an article from About.com that helps bring it to a kids' level.

Well, there we are! Back at it. See ya next week for Week Five.

8 Weeks to Optimal Health -- Week 3

Here we are again. Is this boring for anyone else?

1. Find out where to buy organic produce. Make a commitment to buy only organic.
Hey, Dr. Weil...how bout if you make a commitment to pay for my overpriced organic produce? It's available everywhere. It's just also twice as much as the chemical laden variety.

2. If you use an electric blanket, stop. Remove electric clock radios from the immediate vicinity of your bed. Buy a pair of UV-protective sunglasses if you don't have any.
Okay, this is getting increasingly hard to follow since I don't have the book. Why do I need to remove the clock from beside my bed??? I mean, while I'm at it, should I duck every time the microwave is turned on?

3. Make a conscious effort to eat an extra serving of fruits and vegetables with at least one meal this week.
I have definitely been doing this. I even ate *gasp* a salad!

4. Eat fish at least twice this week.
I made some super tasty tuna pitas this week. I ate that same thing for 2 meals.

5. Replace at least on serving of meat with a soy food of your choice.
I didn't know what this meant. Does he mean "meat" as in animal muscle? Or "meat" as in beef, pork, deer, and not poultry? Cause sometimes people don't classify poultry as "meat." Regardless, we didn't eat any "hard-core meat" this week, so I didn't substitute any soy. But when a recipe calls for ground beef, I use TVP. It's a soy product, and oh so good!

6. He introduced the benefits of vitamin E and selenium.
Uh, okay.

7. Start stretching.
Billy and I have been doing the Slim and Limber 15-minute video from Slim in 6 Beach Body series. (No, I don't own the whole series. I'm pretty sure I'd be embarrassed if I did.) We've both seen noticeable improvement in our flexibility, and it's a nice relaxing thing for before bed.

8. Add "Letting Yourself Be Breathed" to your breathwork.
Again, I don't have Weil's book, but I was able to find a description of this online, and frankly, this dude's weird. I mean, if the whole phobia of electronics wasn't enough, this one really takes the cake. He tells you here to lie on your back and let the universe breathe into you. Uh, no thanks. I think I'll breathe for myself.

9. Abstain from news at again one day this week.
Check.

10. Buy more flowers. Find out how to grow some of your own food.
Didn't buy flowers. I need to bring some in from outside before they all die, though.
As for the food...am I just supposed to find out? Cause I already know how, I just haven't yet set out to do it.

Alright...on to week four.

8 Weeks to Optimal Health -- Week 2

Today marks the end of my 2nd week for this 8-week program by Dr. Weil. I had a little less commitment to it than I did the first week. In fact, I don't even know all the things I was supposed to do, except for eat fish. This is mainly due to the fact that our library doesn't carry his book, so I'm relying on the Housewife to be my guide. So, as I read her posts, I'm tagging along, and basically it's hard for me to get online much when the kiddos are taking my attention. Darn kids. (That was not serious...I love my children like crazy, and I'm super blessed to be able to stay at home with them.)

So, for week three, I'll print out her post so I can follow along better, but for now, here's my progress...

1) Again, eat fish at least once this week and broccoli twice. I did the whole salmon thing again. Tried some Salmon Cakes, and they were pretty good in the taste category. Unfortunately, the recipe didn't have enough moisture, so even after I added an extra 2 Tbsp. of mayo (I'm sure that's super healthy), they were still dry. But once I doused them in ranch dressing, they weren't half bad.

Broccoli is easy. We love it around here.

2) Try to increase your consumption of whole grains. Choose whole grain breads or cereals. Does Frosted Mini-Wheats count?

3) Go to a natural-food store and look through the frozen and refrigerated sections to familiarize yourself with the many different products made from soybeans. Select one to try. No thanks. I did the soy stuff in college and never could get a taste for it. Plus any frozen food from a natural store is beyond obnoxious in the price category.

4) Buy some Japanese or Chinese green tea and try it. If you drink coffee or black tea, try to substitute green tea for some or all of your usual beverages. I've been told not to drink teas while breastfeeding. Just in case weirdo herbs give my baby retarded development. So, I stuck with my coffee, but I do use an all natural sweetener called Stevia.


5) Find out where your drinking water comes from and what impurities it might contain. Stop drinking chlorinated water. Get information about a home water-purifying system. In the meantime, drink bottled water. Our water is gross. It's contaminated with all kindsa crap and calcium. So, we have a water softener and we run tap water through old, overused pitcher filters that probably no longer work. I need to change those.

For the record, I do not agree with bottled water. Sure, I like the idea of the cleanliness of the H2O, but the excess plastic waste is not so appealing. I've gone beyond my allotment of plastic usage with baby food containers, so I cannot justify buying bottled water.

6) Start taking one capsule a day of mixed carotenes with breakfast. I ran out of vitamins this week, and have yet to get some more from my dealer.

7) Increase your daily walk to 15 minutes. Daily walks in 95 degree weather do not agree with me. Again, I spent an hour walking around the grocery store, and it also took forever to walk around the lake where Billy got baptized this weekend, so that was my exercise.

8) Visit a park or some other favorite place in nature. Spend as much time as you can there, doing nothing in particular, just feeling the energy of the place. I wish I had read this advice before the week started, cause I would've loved to make this part of my week.

9) Try a one-day "news fast." Do not read, watch, or listen to any new for a day. This is my lifestyle. I probably need to watch news more.

10) Continue with Breath Observation for five minutes a day. Then, for one minute a day, try to experience the breath cycle, beginning with exhalation and ending with inhalation. nope...I have been focusing on my breath as Billy and I prepare for leading youth in worship tonight.

So, yeah...the inner slacker has come to the forefront. I'm hoping to be a little better at this in the coming week. We shall see.

8 Weeks to Optimal Health

So, yesterday, I went to our fancy-schmancy library that cost WAY TOO MUCH money to build, and not nearly enough money to stock. I went in search of the book to change my life --Dr. Weil's 8 Weeks to Optimal Health. Alas, they had it not.

I was looking for it because my friend over at Musing of a Housewife was talking about her quest for better health and the new program she was trying from this book. I told her I'd tag along. I thought it was lame for me just to read her posts and copy without the benefit of the good doctor's explanation, but as our library is crap, that's just what I'll do.

So, week's one's assignments, according to the Housewife:

Clean out cabinets from all foods with artificial sweetener and artificial coloring.

I was happy to find that I didn't actually have that much in my cupboards to begin with. So, I cleared out a few canned items that I probably wouldn't have used anyway, since they've been sitting there for about a year. These are gross things like Vienna Sausage that I got from the church food pantry because they were about to expire. That was last summer. I also had some things like those bright yellow peppers. Talk about artificial coloring. I was going to take them all to a food pantry, but I've always thought it was pretty mean to take things to a food pantry that I wouldn't eat myself. So, I just threw this junk all away. I did NOT throw away my Ritz Bitz cheese sandwiches or the last package of fruit snacks. I ate these, as a last rite.


Use olive oil.
I bought some extra light flavor because I don't actually like olive oil. Plus, I can use it in Ashlyn's formula when I need to give her a bottle. It's really good for her.

Eat broccoli and salmon.
I hate salmon. My skin actually crawls at the thought of eating any fish but fishsticks. Still, I was willing to try it with a cranberry compote. Especially for the sake of not wussing out in my post here. I went ahead and got the broccoli in too. It actually turned out to be okay. Not great, but okay. The rice with cranberries mixed in, though, was amazing.

Use Dr. Weil's recommended supplements.
I thought this was cool. He has a Vitamin Advisor right on his site. Unfortunately, he wouldn't give me recommendations because I'm breast feeding. So, I'm just sticking to my normal Shaklee supplementation.

Walk 10-15 minutes 5 times a week. I went grocery shopping yesterday for an hour. And tonight I made a point of taking a walk around the 'hood with Ashlyn (I should get extra pointsa for pushing around 15 pounds, I think) while Billy and Eve rode bikes.

Take 5 minutes a day to breathe and meditate.
This is something that is nice for me. Housewife said that it bores her, but I could probably spend all day doing nothing but breathing. Today, it was especially nice to lay down to nurse Ashlyn and get some quiet prayer time in.


Get some live flowers for your home.
I will do this...really. I have a whole rose garden outside. It is actually a source of stress, because I never have time to weed it. But TOMORROW I will go cut some pretty flowers for my house. I'll even post about it just to be accountable.