You know when Facebook asks “What is on your mind”? Well I have a lot on my mind but have been too busy to get it written down and posted on My Little Blue Kayak! Here is a snapshot of what I have been thinking about. Don’t be surprised if some of these ideas become posts in the near future!
I have been thinking how foolish it is to waste food. I used to be one of those people who would buy fresh fruit and vegetables but didn’t always consume them before they went bad. I would never in a million years throw $5 bucks into the trash so why would I toss $5 bucks worth of fruit away?
Where do you stand in regards to technology? Do you love owning the latest and greatest? Do you rush out to buy the newest fads as soon as they are released? Do you use the newest, hippest apps to pay bills, get a ride, order a pizza, and track your steps? Or are you still using a flip phone, cashing your paycheck at the bank and using an instant camera?
I enjoy taking advantage of shiny new toys that make life easier but I don’t need the latest and greatest technological gadgets. As long as my stuff works, I don’t generally feel the need to upgrade.
I have an iPhone 4 that I bought refurbished 3 years ago for $100 bucks. I figure if I get another year out of it I will have spent $25 year to own a phone. I wonder how much an old rotary phone cost back in the day? I am certain it was less than $100 and it lasted forever.
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!
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.
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!
It is awesome to have a fireplace in your 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!
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”.
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.
