An Epic Battle

Nutrition Vs Convenience An Epic Battle

An ongoing battle is being waged every time we go to the grocery store, the gas station, the vending machine, the drug store.  The battle between buying nutritious, healthy food or using our hard-earned dollars to buy packaged convenience food. You know food right? Real food can be grown in the garden like tomatoes, carrots, lettuce. Grown on trees or bushes like apples, blueberries, pears. Raised in the barn like, chicken,  pork or beef. Not all food is created equal. Real food doesn’t usually come with packaging nor does it need nutrition labels to tell you what is inside.

In this corner...
In this corner…

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Retail Therapy in The Kayak

Life in My Little Blue Kayak is uniquely mine. I have chosen to live my life on my terms. I have chosen to pursue health, wealth and happiness my way. These are pretty broad terms so I had to give some thought as what they meant to me. See the About Me page if interested.

I am not one of those people who work 60+ hours per week and make mega bucks. I don’t belong to a gym or participate in extreme sports. I don’t jet away to exotic locations or have gourmet meals delivered to my home.

No my annual vacation destination!
Not my annual vacation destination!

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Be Quiet

For those of you who know me, or have been reading my blog over the last few months, you know I  typically keep a positive outlook on life. The glass if ½ full, I look for the good in people and in events. When I share my day with my honey, even my bad days, I find at least 1 or 2 good things to share in order to remember it wasn’t 100% bad. I choose to be positive!

Positively Happy
Positively Happy

The last few days I have been tired, my nerves have felt a bit frayed and I have been feeling under the weather. When I feel like this, it is all too easy to get sucked into the black hole of negativity. One negative thought leads to another into a downward spiral and one bad feeling leads to another. It gets harder and harder to find the positive in any situation. Do you ever feel like that? Do you always feel like that?

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Ditch the Processed S*H*I*T redux

This is a first here at My Little Blue Kayak – My very first Guest Post! This post was written by my brother who along with his wife ditched the processed S*H*I*T about 1 year ago and improved their health and happiness in the process.
This is kind of a follow-up to Lake Girl’s post from May 15th, Ditch the Processed S*H*I*T.  She may or may not have had me in mind when she wrote it… I like to think I gave her some inspiration.  Oh, by the way I’m child number 9, brother number 3.  Yes, the youngest.

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Increasing Your OOMPH

Last week my post Getting Energized was about my learning to appreciate that I am not a people person and recognizing that this is OK!. It also got me thinking, what else gets me energized or saps my energy. Everybody is different and what may give me a burst of oomph my drain you to the point of exhausted tears.

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Getting Energized

Have you ever noticed how some people are talkers? The get energized by conversation and social engagements. They love parties with lots of people and bounce from group to group, easily mingling and interacting with all. These are people people.

I am not one of these people.

I am the red bird...
I am the red bird…

 

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20 Lessons My Dog is Teaching Me

I adopted my dog, Fenway, when she was just 4 months old from a shelter in Eastern Massachusetts. She and her siblings had been abandoned in a box by the side of the road. She will turn 8 next month and is starting to turn grey (like me) but she still thinks she is a puppy!  She is 25 pounds of pure joy. Continue reading “20 Lessons My Dog is Teaching Me”

What is Lurking in Your Kitchen?

Growing up in Central New York, I am surrounded by farm country. I pass more cows, corn fields and farms than cars on my morning commute.  We like to think most of our food is grown by our local farmer who sells his product to the local supermarket. Unless you are shopping at the farmer’s market or have joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) your food is grown by GIANT corporations.

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Harnessing the Power of Joy!

Let me describe to you my first kayak ride of the season.
Pure Joy!

Seriously that is what I felt. I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear in what only can be described as pure joy!

My Happy Place
My Happy Place

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Family Fun with Mother Fran

Family Fun – Mother Fran Style

In previous posts I have written about being raised in a household with 8 siblings and amazing parents. My friend likes to joke that we were like the Brady Bunch. My parents were raised during the depression and nothing was wasted or squandered. There was never an excess of income in my house, but there was never a shortage of fun either. My parents were raising 9 kids on 1 income and making ends meet the best they could. We  didn’t have play dates, fancy vacations, summer camp or ski trips. Honestly I don’t even remember ever having a friend stay over night.

Not us...
Not us…

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