We’re all excited over here because today in the mail I received THIS from my amazing friends! It’s a DIY kit for growing edible oyster mushrooms at home.
I’ve wanted to try this since I first heard it was possible years ago. Tomorrow I will cut the box and start misting it to get them to start growing. Stay tuned for progress posts!
Clementines are a variety of Mandarin Orange. I found a bag of them on sale today so I picked them up. Yay! It’s unfortunate how little fresh citrus fruits I get to eat because the quality and prices in the stores around where I live is terrible nearly year-round. Nope, not close enough to the equator. The good news is that clementines are usually great quality, come in a big bundle/box, and are sometimes on sale. If you have never tried them I really suggest that you do. They have much thinner peels than oranges and are really easy to peel open, typically don’t have seeds and are very sweet and juicy. Of course they are very healthy – containing a lot of Vitamin C, B Vitamins, potassium, calcium, ++ fiber, water and antioxidants – especially when you eat the peel too! I LOVE the sharp taste of the peel in smoothies. It can really hide the taste of other ingredients, such as the taste of spinach/greens or beets, if you don’t like those flavors. OR it can scare you away completely — if that is the case just omit the peel and you’ve still got a lovely smoothie. Check out what I made today:
Green Clementine Smoothie
I’m going to be saving all of my peels and putting some of these ideas to use too – 5 Clementine Peel Ideas!
Photos to come! I feel bad publishing text-only posts!
90 day personal health challenge! : Day 6
Howdy do! I’m really excited for spring so I’m getting a jump start on getting in shape for the spring/summer season when I can’t hide behind layers of clothing. I will call it my ’90 day personal health challenge!’, because I think it will take about 90 days for me to look and feel optimal. Almost a week ago already I stopped eating most ‘junk’ food (no more cookies, a weakness of mine!), stopped eating for emotional reasons or more than is necessary AND I started exercising EVERY DAY. So far this week I have walked/jogged a few miles, rode bike for over an hour, vacuumed and mopped the whole house, and started doing some pilates! I just found POP Pilates on youtube and I really like her down-to-earth yet always bubbly-happy kind of style. Today I’ve done my best so far to do this whole video and I think if you have any inkling to try it, you should too!
* Pop Pilates : Muffin Top Meltdown
If you’re interested in other types of workouts check out this big list of videos that I found that is sure to please. How about some zumba?
* Online Workout Videos
What do I actually eat, you might ask? Smoothies! They are my go-to food. I use soy milk, bananas, fruit, flax seeds and spinach most commonly. I can tweak the amounts and kinds of ingredients that I add to make it taste a little bit different every time.
I love smoothies. They are fast, fresh, tasty, and especially easy for my body to digest. Another go-to food for me that is like a major comfort food is apples, natural peanut butter, raisins and flax seeds. I like to consume a lot of flax seeds. They are so healthy and tasty too. When I want something hot and soothing I go for steamed vegetables or vegetable soup (sometimes with potatoes or rice). My favorite vegetable right now is broccoli with a little bit of soy sauce, black pepper and cayenne pepper to kick it up. Mmm! Right now I am completely avoiding any dairy/animal foods or complex carbohydrates like processed bread because I know that they really slow down my digestion and just don’t contain as much positive nutritional content per calorie consumed as other food choices I have. When I eat like this I feel very light and have great spurts of energy. Eating is a simple task when I’m near home or well prepared with a lunch box full of whole fruits, veggies and nuts. I’m not tempted to stray from my diet plan and with each passing day I feel better than the last because my “I can do this because I AM doing this” / self control confidence continues to rise.
Weee!
I do drink coffee. Almost every day, usually not long after I get out of bed. Usually I’ll just drink one 8oz cup, sometimes I’ll drink another one in the afternoon. My favorite part about is the flavor, second is the caffeine energy. I have read somewhere too that it helps boost your metabolism for the entire day so that’s good! However, I do know that coffee does have some negative attributes… so.. I also drink a couple cups of tea throughout the day. Green tea and pu-erh are my favorites. I do not regularly sweeten any of my drinks. Soda is right out!
Another awesome thing that I drink regularly (that nobody else that I know does! absolutely nobody else! @ this current time) is raw apple cidar vinegar – aka “ACV”, diluted in water. I just glug about a tablespoon into a cup and fill the rest up with cool water. My water bottle usually has this mixture in it. Ideally I drink just 1 glass of water/ACV per day when I’m just maintaining. However, during times that I’ve had a sinus infection I drink the ACV water 3-4 times throughout the day each day and I swear that it cures me. Last year I was suffering for about a month and a half from a sinus infection (antibiotics didn’t cure it, it came back!) but then I started really dosing myself with ACV and getting plenty of moisture in my sinuses and it went away naturally within about 5 days. This year when it was really dry I had one for only about a week and cured it with my natural remedies – ACV, moisture and sea salt rinses. Other than that I did not get the common cold or flu this year – Horray!
I am still in the beginning stages of my personal 90 day challenge so I still need to outline my goals, think up some rewards I can give myself for reaching them, and continue researching the most healthy/positive methods I should use to reach my goals so that I stay healthy the entire time.
Are you ready for some spring cleaning too? I challenge you!
I have not done the 7 mile loop yet. Two days before my goal to do so (the 10th) I strained my ankle! I could barely walk around the studio so I took it easy for about 4 days. Of course taking that much time off from walking/jogging and being busy with work stuff didn’t make it easy to get back into the swing of it.
However, now that my ankle is 100% and the weather is so nice I have been hitting the trail really hard. Just in the past 3 days I have gone 11 miles. Tonight I did a little over 2.5 miles in about 25 minutes.
I’m starting to care less about the idea of doing the 7 mile loop……. it’s gravel and not pavement like my usual path and sometimes my feet are pretty worn out by the end of 4.2 miles… Hmph!
I calculated my miles so far this month and the grand total is 20!
It’s less than I was hoping for but hey, my goal isn’t to be hard on myself, it’s to feel GREAT …and I do 😉
In other news, I keep busy! Today I made wheat/flax tortillas from scratch for the first time that turned out quite delicious. Also a fresh sweet corn & beans mixture to put in the tortillas with spinach, tomatoes and taco sauce. Mmm. Once that was done the kitchen required quite a cleaning so I dug into that. I have also been making more wet felted (“nuno felted”) scarves to offer for sale at an art show that I’m participating in @ Buffalo, Minnesota this weekend of August 20th and to go into my Etsy store. I also make time to journal, read and watch movies that I enjoy. I’ ve been researching and pursuing a few more non-art work opportunities. OH, I visited with my friends and family this past weekend too…! I feel like I really get around. I’m making the most of the end of this summer and really look forward to the fall. I can’t wait to rake leaves and go jogging with a hoodie on! I feel so “weird” and unique. I’m so happy. I know a big key to that is my desire TO be happy and work hard for it. I really look forward to the future. It’s all in my hands and it’s big and bright…
Yup! Still jogging (with a bunch of walking, hehe) regularly. I can go farther! faster! easier!
I’ve been doing 4 miles the past couple of times out. I’ve made the goal of going on the 7 mile loop by August 10th, that’s just over a week away! I might drive the route and drop off some water bottles in the middle because that’s a long way to go without water and I refuse to carry water with me… only my trusty half-broken ipod nano.
Right now in my life I’m going through quite a few things that don’t make me feel the best. When I’m out jogging I can let it all go and feel very strong and powerful. I love it. I typically go at night now because it’s just too hot during the day. I get to see shooting stars!
Last fall I was doing some jogging during the evening hours at my property, round and round the driveway that has a hill. How wonderful that felt! Too bad I live in Minnesota for the fact that fall abruptly turns to winter and I’m not so in love with jogging in my snow boots. During the winter I bundled up and went on walks, shoveled snow to music and hauled my snowboard up and down the hills a handful of times… but overall I haven’t been making myself follow an exercise pattern since fall. So far this spring & summer I’ve ridden my horse 5-6 times, gone swimming 2-3 times (nothing strenuous though), biked about 10 miles total (woopdee!) and sporadically gone out walking and jogging up the hills at the conservation land across the road. I do not like being so out of shape!
So on Sunday (July 3) I told myself I was going to get back into the routine of exercising. That day turned to night in a blink of an eye and I didn’t get out there and go. That made me kind of mad at myself. I held on to that anger and pent up energy and used it the next day when I DID get out to walk and jog for FIFTY FIVE MINUTES!
Then the next day I got out there again for 35 minutes!
And this evening I went for another 35 minutes!
My muscles are a little bit sore which is a constant reminder of my progress. I love it! I have been sleeping really well each night since I started and I have less of an appetite (however that works!) so I’m on the road to being more healthy on the inside and out. I’m going to keep it up. Maybe next week I can do the 7 mile loop that is near my home. =)
