New Year's

12/31/10

New years, death of one and birth of another.  New years is much more than a night to throw caution to the wind and kiss your sweetie at the chime of a clock. It is the time when we find ourselves reflective and reclusive, no coincidence our brother bear retreats to his cave to sleep and rejuvenate and at times give birth. We too must take time to lick our wounds and muster courage for the times to come. I have been in this realm for nearly forty one years now, the older I get the more in-tune I feel with the natural cycles of our brutally beautiful world. Every year at this time like everyone, I seek out my past hoping to glean some great wisdom to ensure the coming year will be more. Laying plans in mind of all the grandiose changes and unattainable goals I will endeavor to accomplish. Every year I remember the plans from the previous year and am overwhelmed with disappointment and sorrow.

Last year was different. I was completely immersed in my illness. Oh the plans were the same, the complete lack of follow through still my legacy, but somehow, I knew that it was the beginning of something significant. There have been many hiccups and drama along the path to this night. But really and truly I have changed. I am changing. I am awakening.

I am awakening to that which has always been there, even, at times peeking out, testing the waters. Illness and situations that wounded my soul have been a lightening rod to the energies that bubble within, my spirit has taken notice and will no longer lay still. I am giving birth to myself, the light I have always known but doubted and feared. Being forced to listen to my body to save myself has been a precious blessing. In being open to my body, accepting all its faults, aches and pains my heart has expanded. I've learned to love me. To really love me, to see myself in my purest form, a being of light and love. I am merely a newborn, eyes closed, instinct leading me, but I will grow. I will grow and learn, the universe my guide as I traverse this life as I am meant to.

So, no New Years resolution, but a promise to myself. I promise to continue to listen to my heart, to only put things into my being that will nourish the physical and spiritual, and for love to be the thing that I share most without and within.

Peace and Love to all and a blessed New year

Ooops I fell off the wagon!

Yesterday started out rough, I wanted nothing but junk food. I managed to behave myself until around 1 pm when I returned home from running some errands to discover that my hot water heater had had a meltdown. Yup my hallway where the water closet is was flooded and water was spraying out of the water heater. Upon investigation I found that due to circumstances beyond my control there was no shut off valve to the water heater, so I had to shut off ALL the water to my house.

Now I am for roughing it every now and then, and in fact quite enjoy it and embrace my inner pioneer. However, I really really like my modern conveniences, particularly hot water! So while my water heater melted down, so did I. My first response is a lot of swearing and chain smoking. Since I am in the process of giving up the cancer sticks, this was a day of double set backs. I smoked till my throat hurt. Next order of business was going to procure some water for us to get through the next 24 hours until the plumber can get things up and running again. So I trotted my hiney off to the Wal-mart.

Do not go to the store when you are stressed, in crisis and have PMS.. I ended up with my bottled water , a couple of avocados, a bag of chips and 2 packages of sugar cookies caked with icing. By the time J got home I had already polished off half a dozen cookies. When he saw the cookies and the telltale crumbs on my shirt the look on his face put me over the edge. I was overwhelmed with guilt and shame. He was so sweet too, he just shook his head and told me its ok, just don’t make myself sick..

Well geez, now I feel even worse.........and this morning, my tummy is reminding me why I am modifying my diet so drastically. I just cant eat crap anymore. It literally makes me sick.

In my defense, I did eat a relatively healthy dinner of spinach pasta with pesto. Classico makes a fantastic pesto and is pretty cheap considering how much it would cost one to make it from scratch. Now I would never say that anything canned or jarred would be better than fresh, but this is great when you are short on time or ingredients. We really like pesto a lot and have found a couple of other uses besides pasta or bread.

Pour pesto over a brick of cream cheese and serve with crackers or bagel chips as an appetizer.

Mash up an avocado or two and mix in some pesto, great on salads, and even better on a bagel with a bit of cream cheese and some red onions. In fact I know what I am having for lunch today. =)

Happy eating everyone!

E

Monday morning

December 6^th 2010

Good grief, woke up this morning feeling like I could eat a house, gingerbread house would be ideal..Its days like this that make eating healthy hard. The days when you just want to curl up around a nice bowl of ice cream swimming in chocolate syrup dotted with sprinkles and cherries. Oddly my bananas, apples and homemade granola just aren't satiating the sugar craving. =( I keep telling myself its ok because I will live longer this way... Since I am not going to cave and eat something naughty I will share a recipe instead.

Elly's Super Easy Granola – orange dream

1 container old fashioned oats

2-3 cups of honey (to taste- we don't like ours too sweet)

1-2 teaspoons orange extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup canola oil

¼ cup flax seed

as many nuts as you like -we use pecans, walnuts and sunflower seeds

dried fruit- we like cranberries but you can use any you like.

Preheat over to 250 degrees

Mix all ingredients together except the dried fruit. Pour into a large baking pan (I buy the big foil ones from the dollar store and reuse several times). Place in heated oven and bake up to 2 hours or until oats are nice and golden, stirring occasionally. Cool, mix in dried fruit and place in air tight container.

We no longer buy cereal, this is what we eat instead. Its wonderful as a cereal with rice milk, on yogurt, or all by itself. Its a bit more expensive to make your own but you dont have to worry about getting all the yucky stuff that is in highly processed foods. Even if all you do is change from store bought cereal to wholesome granola the health benefits are great. The added fiber will help lower cholesterol and keep bowels moving and happy.

Enjoy your day friends.

E

In the beginning

When deciding to start this blog I spent a lot of time contemplating exactly what approach I should take. As is typical for me I haven't decided so I'll figure it out as I go. I suppose telling you a bit about myself and my family would be a good start..

“Hi. My name is Elly and I am ...over-eater, poor choice maker, and extremely stubborn. Join my family and I as we continue our journey to healthier living. Several years ago I became very ill and no matter what the doctors did or prescribed I was not getting any better. We finally decided to flush the multitude of pills and shaky advice and take matters into our own hands. This has proven to be a monumental and enlightening experience thus far and I imagine it will continue to be.

The first step we took after a lot of research was to start juicing vegetables and fruits. Having watched several videos and read tons of articles we felt this was a good place to begin. We had found clear links between juicing and Ulcerative Colitis which is what I had been formally diagnosed with along with a previous diagnosis of Chronic Migraine Disease. I was skeptical but hopeful. Within a matter of days of beginning our juicing regimen I was already starting to feel better and the constant diarrhea I battled had seemed to ebb. We have continued juicing though not everyday to the great benefit of both of us(my husband J and I), the kids are still not really on board with the whole juicing thing. I will admit that I hated juicing at first. We were doing a mixture of cabbage, carrots, spinach and the odd apple here and there. Not the best tasting but after the first initial gags I got really into it. We still do a base of the cabbage, carrots and spinach but have found that you can juice almost any fruit or vegetable with vary degrees of tastiness. I do not recommend collard greens for instance... NASTY. (note collard greens are actually better for you cooked, something about the heat releasing enzymes.) Cucumbers and celery are both wonderful in juice lending a delightful fresh taste.

Our next step and this was a hard one for my husband and again the kids ARE NOT on board with this one at all..We gave up meat. This was easy for me as I have never been a big fan of flesh. There is something about the texture of animal flesh in my mouth that just makes me skin crawl. I had eaten meat sporadically since I was 11. When I say sporadically I mean once or twice a year if that, though I will admit a fondness for extra crispy bacon sandwiches. J however had been a carnivore his whole life and it took him watching Food Inc. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tf822vzJ7g ) to decide that maybe I have had something here for all these years. (Silly boy, the wife is always right). My darling husband has quickly embraced the vegetarian lifestyle and I am very proud of him. I had always noticed when I ate meat that I felt sick after-wards. My stomach would be rock hard and the pain sometimes unbearable, not to mention the serious bathroom issues I would experience for the next few days. I would find myself lethargic and cranky to boot. Now J is noticing the same things when he has the rare moment of weakness. We are sold on abolishing meat from our diets and I know that my two sons Z and E will eventually embrace our choices too or they will move out so they can eat what they want.(they are 19 and 20 so its about time anyway).

The latest step we have taken is to cut out dairy.. This has been very difficult for me. I am a milk and cheese connoisseur. I fought this change tooth and nail. We had several “heated” discussions on the subject, in which I vowed I would DIE before I gave up my dairy. After months of J sending me links, constantly hounding me and poison comments I was worn out. I agreed to try it for a week. Thinking to myself how smug I was going to be when I didn’t see any difference in my health (still having issues but no where near as bad as they had been). I was not prepared for the drastic changes. I have more energy, less headaches and best of all the constant pain that I have endured for years and years has all but stopped. (when I eat things I shouldn’t I still have quite a bit of pain- again stubborn) I have even tested the theory several times with the same result each time. I feel better when I am not having milk. We are still eating cheese but very little and are researching alternatives for butter. Surprisingly during this transition I have discovered there is something tastier than cows milk and that is rice milk. YUMMY

So that brings you up to date. My intention with this blog is to share our journey as we as a family try to make better choices for our bodies and our lives. My hope is that our story will inspire even one person to join us in healthy eating and living choices.

Peace

E