Choosing Health, Wealth and Happiness
As you know, learning Tai Chi is one of my goals for 2017. I chose this goal because I want to strengthen my left knee which has been a problem for over a decade. I don’t intend to have balance issues in my old age.
Learn more about how and why I prioritized this goal here and here!
Here is my Tai Chi update!
You know the feeling when you get stuck in your head? When your little inner voice just won’t quit with the negative comment and the criticisms?
Please tell me this happens to you…
It is time to turn off that voice and invite the positive voice to lead the ongoing dialogue in between the ears!
When people tout the benefits of positive affirmations and mantras they say a lot of really cool things. I look at positive affirmations as simply the self talk I need to hear in order to drown out the negative voice, the self talk that is helpful vs toxic. Mantras are a simple word or sound that you repeat to yourself over and over again. I recently started listening to OM mantras on YouTube to check them out.
This site claims that mantras can cleanse your body of stress, allow you to experience more synchronicity and serendipity and unite our left and right brains allowing us to access our gut feelings, intuition and creative problem solving.
This one states “It is our self talk that creates our self concept, and there is a one-to-one relationship between our self concept(s) and our level of performance.” In other words if my self talk tells me I am stupid and lazy I will perform at a stupid and lazy level. I have read that positive affirmations, self talk and mantras help you plug into the universe which will then conspire in your favor to reach your dreams.
Continue reading “Is the Universe Conspiring in Your Favor?”
At this exact moment in time, I am grateful.
I am grateful for my honey, for my mom, for my sisters and brothers. I am grateful for my nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews. I am grateful for my amazing friends that I have known forever as well as for the news ones that I have only met recently. I am grateful for the unconditional love of my dog without whom life would be blah.
I don’t believe I have amazing people in my life because I am lucky. They are in my life because we have been there for each other through good times and bad. When life gets complicated and sticky; I don’t run. I compromise, I offer my assistance, I reach out for help; but I don’t run. Having people you can count on and who can count on you is critical for maximizing health.
I have read a lot of finance books and one of the exercises I completed was to write down the worst money decision I ever made. For me, this was an easy assignment as buying a house was the worst money mistake I have ever made. I lived in Eastern Massachusetts where houses are expensive. I bought an old (1790) house that was cute as a button and only 17 miles from work. 17 miles from the South Shore of Boston thru the big dig construction to Somerville which is just north of Boston. My daily commute was awful!
I didn’t have a 20% down payment and I didn’t do my research in terms of interest rates, closing costs, property taxes… I didn’t love the town the house was located in, I only knew 1 person who lived nearby. I knew my mortgage payment was going to be a huge chunk of change but I was dead set on owning a single family house with a fenced in yard.
Boy did I loved that house! It had 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 2 fireplaces and a beehive oven. It had a huge yard and a garage. Did I mention 2 fireplaces – one in my bedroom!
Last week I dutifully sprung into spring by changing all of my clocks forward. A few days later, I even remembered to take care of the clock in my car. I have experienced a tiny little problem though… I sprung; but spring is nowhere to be found. What the heck?
Old Man Winter refuses to leave and I for one am not too happy about this. What the heck. We got hit with about 15 inches of snow and wind chills in the single digits. The wind won’t quit and every time I open the front door I hold on for dear life so it doesn’t get ripped off its hinges. The snow has finally stopped (after 48 hours of coming down) but the wind is still howling. I guess this storm even has a name… STELLA!
If you missed the first 2 parts of My Whole30 Experiment check them out here and here.
Day 17-30 Last 2 weeks of the Whole30.
My honey and I have had several conversations about what we will do when our 30 days are over. Overall, we both feel good eating this way and don’t feel the need to permanently reintroduce any of the food groups that we eliminated (soy, legumes, sugar, vegetable oils, dairy, and grains).
That being said, I am confident I will eat the occasional slice of pizza, brownie and grilled cheese sandwich. I will need to reintroduce these favorite foods in a manner that will allow me to tell if they have a noticeable impact on my energy, my digestion or my sleep. Number 9 says when he reintroduced corn he realized it caused itchiness and some increased irritability.
Everyone knows vegetables are good for you. Everyone knows we should eat them everyday. How many did you eat today?
The more I read, the more convinced I am that not only are they good for you, they are critical for maximizing health. Eating a lot of vegetables is good, eating a wide variety is even better.
Vegetables contain different vitamins, nutrients and phytonutrients which are important for overall health. Overall, vegetables are low in calories and high in nutrients. That is a win-win! According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “eating more fruits and vegetables adds nutrients to diets, reduces the risk for heart disease, stroke, and some cancers, and helps manage body weight when consumed in place of more energy-dense foods”.
Remember President Bush and his statements on broccoli? Take a trip down memory lane here!
Whole30 Update: I recently posted that my honey and I are completing a Whole30 Program experiment to improve our health. If you missed that post, check it out here. If you are unfamiliar with the Whole30 Program you can read about it at the Whole30 site.
Today’s post is a diary of sorts from the first 2 weeks.
We have cleaned out the cabinets and now have several boxes of food stored in the basement. In theory, it is out of sight and out of mind but I can hear the dark chocolate calling for me and this is day 1.
I recently asked Google to Search “How many food additives are used in the United States”?
CARE TO VENTURE A GUESS?
According to the FDA there are 3000 food additives on the EAFUS (Everything Added to Food List in the US). No, I did not make up the name of that list! Apparently the list isn’t complete because food manufacturers can bypass getting ingredients approved by the FDA by claiming certain ingredients fall under the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) Determination.
These ingredients might not even show up on the food label! The funny part is, the manufacturer can determine on their own, without involving the EPA if an additive should be added to the GRAS list. HUH?
Can you say BIG LOOP HOLE?
My honey and I have decided to follow the diet recommendations of the Whole30 Program for 30 days in order to see what all of the hoopla is about. If you haven’t heard of it you can check it out here! And for even more information read the book that introduces it, “It Starts with Food” by Dallas Hartwig and Melissa Hartwig. The authors claim that following their 30 day program will CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
I actually read about it a few months ago, got interested in it and then decided a meal plan that focuses on protein but restricts tofu, soy, and legumes would not be the best idea for a vegetarian who only eats a little bit of fish.
