As a PS to my previous post, ... at first it was interesting to look around the shops here, to see old familiar products and foods that we used to get, to see what was new. But I also found it overwhelming as there are just so many more shops and people and choices here. I did start going to old favourite discount stores but then I couldn't wait to get out. The thrift stores here used to be a good place to get a bargain and I can't believe how much their prices have gone up. When I'm in Australia, I tend to shop more consciously. I was definitely more of a random consumer when I lived here before. I think I justified that with things like "it was such a bargain" or thinking that "I might use it someday" and of course when the kids came along, yard sales were heaven for bringing out my own inner child and buying toys and things that 'I' wanted to play with. I'm grateful for that experience, and I'm grateful for realising that living a life with less material stuff actually makes my life feel fuller and richer.
Moving on...
A couple of weeks ago I had a moment when it hit me that I'm getting older. Cary held me and gently said "we are getting older...let's do it gracefully". His words reminded me to accept this stage, this time, this moment. In acceptance of this fact, I can be more gentle with myself, more content with myself and perhaps from that will flow grace towards all areas of my life. It does not mean I'm going to sit back in the rocker and watch the parade of life, but I will continue to seek adventures and find joy with a deeper appreciation for those things.
My current goal is improving my health and fitness which have declined a bit since we moved back into a house and got less active. Most days I've been using the fitness room here, and doing some yoga and swimming. I've also been drinking green smoothies again thanks to Cary for buying me a new Vita-Mix 5200!
I bought a used Vita-Mix years ago which has had a ton of use. It is my favourite kitchen 'thing'. Cooking doesn't thrill me (gee, if it did, I probably would have bought a bunch of those knives at that yard sale I wrote about in the previous post, and I would have known that they were good quality). I like simple food with not a whole lot of variety. My favourite type of food has always been fruit and I love the way the vita-mix makes smooth smoothies out of whole fruit in just a few seconds. I also use it to make batters for waffles, salad dressings, fresh pasta sauce and soups. I have the extra container on my old machine, which will also work on the new one, that is for 'dry' needs such as grinding flour. It's pretty much the only gadget I need in the kitchen. (Except for maybe one plain old sharp knife.)
So was the V-M purchase satisfying a need or a want? Maybe both. I want to spend less time in the kitchen. I want to find ways for the whole family to enjoy eating more whole foods. I need help in that department! I need to improve my own health and I want to enjoy the process. I know I mentioned the green smoothies which are such an easy way to pack in natural vitamins and minerals. My current favourite recipe is: 2 cups water, large handful of organic baby spinach, 3 bananas and 1/2 cup each of frozen pineapple and mango. After working up a sweat on the treadmill, this drink has me feeling revived and ready for the rest of the day.
So maybe the 'need vs want' justification can be transcended when a purchase is primarily an investment, especially in our own health - in this case mental and physical.
Showing posts with label vibrant health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vibrant health. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, September 05, 2008
change for the better
After a warm start to Spring here on 1st Sept, old man winter is making a last stand. Cool, windy weather with lots of rain has been beating on our house - and we are staying warm and dry inside! Ah, how living in a caravan for 12 months will give a greater appreciation for 4 solid walls and a tiled roof! We've been enjoying our dry space, playing monopoly, playing with cars and the train set and watching movies.
Summer started a music class with her homeschool drama group and absolutely loves it. AJ is still loving gymnastics and is absolutely focused on us getting a dog or cat. We would all love that again, but have to be sure we're going to stay here. There's a chance we may go back to the US for a year or so before coming back here. To get our animal fix, we are looking at volunteering at animal shelters. We've only discussed that, I haven't started looking into it yet as I'm concerned we'll want to bring some of them home, and also, the kids have been sick.
For far too long we've been passing a cold/cough thing around with the occasional fever thrown in to keep things interesting. In addition to that, my stomach - digestion has been playing up a lot. I eat fruit in the morning, but as soon as I'd eat something cooked, I'd feel uncomfortable. It was just a little bit at first, so I'd ignore it but by the end of the day I was quite uncomfortable. I would wake up feeling tired and lack energy most of the day. Enough!!!
I want to experience vibrant health for the rest of my life. I want to be one of those 90 year old women who are still out kayaking and hiking and inspiring people.
I thought back to a time when I felt fantastic - when I was eating a diet high in raw food, and even all raw food for a while. I knew I needed to get back to that. I've had enough pain and choose what gives me pleasure - I claim health for myself!
The very first day I went back to high raw - I had a little rice and refried beans at dinner - I felt great! No discomfort at all and much better energy levels. Duh. I've got a little detox going on at the moment with some cold symptoms, but despite that, I feel good. So much better now with out the constant internal discomfort. My body is asking me to take it easy at the moment while I transition a little more and let my body heal more fully. This rainy weather is good for staying home and doing just that.
Summer started a music class with her homeschool drama group and absolutely loves it. AJ is still loving gymnastics and is absolutely focused on us getting a dog or cat. We would all love that again, but have to be sure we're going to stay here. There's a chance we may go back to the US for a year or so before coming back here. To get our animal fix, we are looking at volunteering at animal shelters. We've only discussed that, I haven't started looking into it yet as I'm concerned we'll want to bring some of them home, and also, the kids have been sick.
For far too long we've been passing a cold/cough thing around with the occasional fever thrown in to keep things interesting. In addition to that, my stomach - digestion has been playing up a lot. I eat fruit in the morning, but as soon as I'd eat something cooked, I'd feel uncomfortable. It was just a little bit at first, so I'd ignore it but by the end of the day I was quite uncomfortable. I would wake up feeling tired and lack energy most of the day. Enough!!!
I want to experience vibrant health for the rest of my life. I want to be one of those 90 year old women who are still out kayaking and hiking and inspiring people.
I thought back to a time when I felt fantastic - when I was eating a diet high in raw food, and even all raw food for a while. I knew I needed to get back to that. I've had enough pain and choose what gives me pleasure - I claim health for myself!
The very first day I went back to high raw - I had a little rice and refried beans at dinner - I felt great! No discomfort at all and much better energy levels. Duh. I've got a little detox going on at the moment with some cold symptoms, but despite that, I feel good. So much better now with out the constant internal discomfort. My body is asking me to take it easy at the moment while I transition a little more and let my body heal more fully. This rainy weather is good for staying home and doing just that.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Living a long, full life
While we were at my Mums place recently, we also saw my StepDad who lives in a nursing home. With the health problems of him and my Mum and Grandma and, well most of the other people we saw while we were there, it stimulated a thought that's been brewing in my head for quite some time.
How many of the problems connected with ageing can be prevented?
How much is genetic?
How much is created by our physical environments?
How much is created by our mental conditioning, habits, stress?
Is there a point at which the effect of past bad-habits can be stopped or reversed?
In my mind, one of the worst things for us is stress, or perhaps the way we cope with stress, or create too much stress in our lives. The physical stress of what we eat, how we move, how much we move, how little rest we have. The mental stress of finances, family, what has to be done, etc. Emotional stress of relationships, and our connection with ourselves.
Ok, so say we can reduce the negative stress in our lives, get on track with a diet that agrees with us, balance our exercise habits with getting enough rest and play. Find a way to accept the other situations we cannot change, make a plan for the ones we can, and have the wisdom to know the difference. (!) Make time for our own connection and growth. What else can give us the vitality that may, perhaps, extend our life or at least give it a deeper fullness? Some may say a feeling of contribution, service, faith or peace. What would you say?
I say Passion! Whether it's the kind that makes you jump out of bed in the morning, all excited to spend time doing or even thinking about what fills you with the Knowing that you are doing what you were sent here to do. Or if it's the kind that gives you a calmer sense of enthusiastic contentment whenever you lift your hand to write or paint or sing or dance or whatever it is that you deeply enjoy. What fuels you? What puts a sparkle in your eye and a spring in your step whenever you think about it?
I believe that following our Passion can extend our life, fill our soul, create a healthier body and mind.
If you cannot honestly say "I am happy", perhaps you could use more Passion in your life. What do you love to do? What fills you with timelessness whenever you do it? What connects you to a deeper place where it all just feels 'right'? What is preventing you from spending more or any time on this? If you're limited by money or having someone to watch the kids or distance, spend time reading about your passion and visualise yourself doing it. Act how you would act if you could spend more time on your Passion.
You deserve a Passionate, Healthy, Full Life! There are always ways to live that way when you get committed to yourself. You can do it!
How many of the problems connected with ageing can be prevented?
How much is genetic?
How much is created by our physical environments?
How much is created by our mental conditioning, habits, stress?
Is there a point at which the effect of past bad-habits can be stopped or reversed?
In my mind, one of the worst things for us is stress, or perhaps the way we cope with stress, or create too much stress in our lives. The physical stress of what we eat, how we move, how much we move, how little rest we have. The mental stress of finances, family, what has to be done, etc. Emotional stress of relationships, and our connection with ourselves.
Ok, so say we can reduce the negative stress in our lives, get on track with a diet that agrees with us, balance our exercise habits with getting enough rest and play. Find a way to accept the other situations we cannot change, make a plan for the ones we can, and have the wisdom to know the difference. (!) Make time for our own connection and growth. What else can give us the vitality that may, perhaps, extend our life or at least give it a deeper fullness? Some may say a feeling of contribution, service, faith or peace. What would you say?
I say Passion! Whether it's the kind that makes you jump out of bed in the morning, all excited to spend time doing or even thinking about what fills you with the Knowing that you are doing what you were sent here to do. Or if it's the kind that gives you a calmer sense of enthusiastic contentment whenever you lift your hand to write or paint or sing or dance or whatever it is that you deeply enjoy. What fuels you? What puts a sparkle in your eye and a spring in your step whenever you think about it?
I believe that following our Passion can extend our life, fill our soul, create a healthier body and mind.
If you cannot honestly say "I am happy", perhaps you could use more Passion in your life. What do you love to do? What fills you with timelessness whenever you do it? What connects you to a deeper place where it all just feels 'right'? What is preventing you from spending more or any time on this? If you're limited by money or having someone to watch the kids or distance, spend time reading about your passion and visualise yourself doing it. Act how you would act if you could spend more time on your Passion.
You deserve a Passionate, Healthy, Full Life! There are always ways to live that way when you get committed to yourself. You can do it!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Living our life..
I usually go to bed very tired and wake up still tired. After a short time of being committed to eating much better and focusing on having vibrant health, I am waking up not as tired as I was. So I can see that it is working. I'm eating less food than I was, but of a higher nutritional quality and my body is appreciating it. As we are saving so much in our costs of living compared to when we had a house, we are putting our health high on the list and only buying organic fruit and veg where possible.
It's school holidays here (spring break). The various states start at different times but I think this weekend is when they all overlap. The campground is booked solid. It is so interesting to see all the different types of camping - all kind of tents, camper trailers - an ingenious creation where all the camping basics are attached and stored, complete with pull out kitchen area and hard floor tent - caravans (travel trailers), motorhomes, and every now and then we see one of the big US-style 5th wheels or class A motorhomes. A lot of Aussies are impressed by those but then talk about the cost of petrol and how one of those here is about the same price of a solid house on land.
We've been meeting so many interesting people from such a variety of places. Country folk, city folk, people in between, ...every one has a story and it is like creating a living book as we all share ours.
People often ask me "where are you from". I used to give kind of a long answer explaining how we moved out of our house nearby and how we're fine-tuning the process of living on the road so we can travel, blah blah. Now I just answer that question "originally Sydney, most recently before here it was Las Vegas, Nevada. We live on the road in search of adventure." That opens up a whole lot of questions which are often different coming from different people. People with children usually ask about schooling and I tell them we homeschool. Sometimes they go on to ask about how that actually works and when I explain how we do it - learning from life, following the interest of the individual child, exposing them to lots of different experiences, playing lots of games and honestly answering all of their questions when they ask - some of them seemed amazed that children can actually learn all they need to know in this manner.
When hearing about our life, a lot of people tell me "oh that sounds so good, I wish we could do that, but....". I don't judge or try to help them figure out a way, I just tell them "anything is possible" and plant a seed, or water an existing one.
Sami and AJ have found a friend who recently was given a Nintendo DS and they have been helping her learn about it and borrowing games from each other. They've been spending an hour or so at her campsite every day lately. She's in her mid 20's. I love that my children have friends of all ages.
Recently I purchased a shopping trolley - the kind I used to only see older people use as they went to buy their groceries, that they could just pull along. Mine is blue (of course!), has several pockets on the outside as well as the big inner area and it folds up. I tell you, it has been a great thing. My bag tends to get so heavy with all of the water bottles and bits & pieces and also the weight of all the aussie coins ($2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c are all in coin). So when we go shopping, I put all our stuff in there as well as most of our purchases now that we buy more efficiently. Saves my back and the kids enjoy pulling it along too. When we're not using it for shopping, we take it to the pool with our towels, goggles, flippers, water and snacks in it. When it's not being used for that, Nicholas likes to play with it around here.
The earth is warming up and life is good!
It's school holidays here (spring break). The various states start at different times but I think this weekend is when they all overlap. The campground is booked solid. It is so interesting to see all the different types of camping - all kind of tents, camper trailers - an ingenious creation where all the camping basics are attached and stored, complete with pull out kitchen area and hard floor tent - caravans (travel trailers), motorhomes, and every now and then we see one of the big US-style 5th wheels or class A motorhomes. A lot of Aussies are impressed by those but then talk about the cost of petrol and how one of those here is about the same price of a solid house on land.
We've been meeting so many interesting people from such a variety of places. Country folk, city folk, people in between, ...every one has a story and it is like creating a living book as we all share ours.
People often ask me "where are you from". I used to give kind of a long answer explaining how we moved out of our house nearby and how we're fine-tuning the process of living on the road so we can travel, blah blah. Now I just answer that question "originally Sydney, most recently before here it was Las Vegas, Nevada. We live on the road in search of adventure." That opens up a whole lot of questions which are often different coming from different people. People with children usually ask about schooling and I tell them we homeschool. Sometimes they go on to ask about how that actually works and when I explain how we do it - learning from life, following the interest of the individual child, exposing them to lots of different experiences, playing lots of games and honestly answering all of their questions when they ask - some of them seemed amazed that children can actually learn all they need to know in this manner.
When hearing about our life, a lot of people tell me "oh that sounds so good, I wish we could do that, but....". I don't judge or try to help them figure out a way, I just tell them "anything is possible" and plant a seed, or water an existing one.
Sami and AJ have found a friend who recently was given a Nintendo DS and they have been helping her learn about it and borrowing games from each other. They've been spending an hour or so at her campsite every day lately. She's in her mid 20's. I love that my children have friends of all ages.
Recently I purchased a shopping trolley - the kind I used to only see older people use as they went to buy their groceries, that they could just pull along. Mine is blue (of course!), has several pockets on the outside as well as the big inner area and it folds up. I tell you, it has been a great thing. My bag tends to get so heavy with all of the water bottles and bits & pieces and also the weight of all the aussie coins ($2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c are all in coin). So when we go shopping, I put all our stuff in there as well as most of our purchases now that we buy more efficiently. Saves my back and the kids enjoy pulling it along too. When we're not using it for shopping, we take it to the pool with our towels, goggles, flippers, water and snacks in it. When it's not being used for that, Nicholas likes to play with it around here.
The earth is warming up and life is good!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Raw Life
I looked in the mirror the other day and saw some new wrinkles. I thought about how my body has been feeling lately, which is not great. I go to bed exhausted and wake up tired. My digestion has not been good, but it has been sensitive my entire life and I learned to live with a fairly constant unease in that department. With the exception of when I was eating only raw foods when I felt physically and mentally light as well as energetic, enthusiastic and just excited about life.
I was thinking about what causes the appearance of aging as well as the physical discomforts that people expect to go along with that. I would put it down to one word. Stress. The stresses of our lifestyle, our diets, our mental processes. I know I've experienced major stress in the past 12+ months that I could have handled better if I'd changed my mental chatter as well as my food choices. People tell me "but you eat so well". Maybe compared to a lot of others, but having lived only on raw food previously, I know I'm not serving my body. Perhaps the effects of aging show up sooner or later, but too much stress can definitely make them appear sooner. I am changing that now.
The conditioning that surrounds food is a deep topic. It's linked to all kinds of emotions - good times with family and friends, as well as comforting ourselves when upset and stuffing down uncomfortable feelings. Throughout our education we're told that we need "all five food groups" in order to be healthy.
When I was eating all raw foods, I felt like the true me, the raw me, was exposed. Sometimes that was not pretty and I did not know how to process some of that and eventually went back to eating cooked food.
I consider myself to be back on the raw path. Raw as in peeling the layers and exposing my succulent self. I have a commitment to health - mental and physical. I am allowing those uncomfortable feeling to surface so that I can process them now - look at them, see where they come from, how they've been serving me, and then thank them and kiss them goodbye if I have no more need for them in my life. I've grown and learned and have new tools within myself to be able to do this.
Living this life of simplicity in my outer surroundings is allowing me and inspiring me to simplify my inner life. To remove the unnecessary layers and allow my truth and the real, raw and juicy me to stand proud and strong and sure.
One way for me to get back to this is by eating a diet high in raw food, and for other food choices to be as close to nature as possible - like steamed veges and rice on a cold day.
Another way is for me to consistently do Reiki on myself as I go to sleep and when I wake up. To continue doing my morning yoga, to drink lots of water, to be in the moment, to focus on the joy and good things here and now.
I aim to live a long and vibrantly healthy life. My commitment starts right now!
I was thinking about what causes the appearance of aging as well as the physical discomforts that people expect to go along with that. I would put it down to one word. Stress. The stresses of our lifestyle, our diets, our mental processes. I know I've experienced major stress in the past 12+ months that I could have handled better if I'd changed my mental chatter as well as my food choices. People tell me "but you eat so well". Maybe compared to a lot of others, but having lived only on raw food previously, I know I'm not serving my body. Perhaps the effects of aging show up sooner or later, but too much stress can definitely make them appear sooner. I am changing that now.
The conditioning that surrounds food is a deep topic. It's linked to all kinds of emotions - good times with family and friends, as well as comforting ourselves when upset and stuffing down uncomfortable feelings. Throughout our education we're told that we need "all five food groups" in order to be healthy.
When I was eating all raw foods, I felt like the true me, the raw me, was exposed. Sometimes that was not pretty and I did not know how to process some of that and eventually went back to eating cooked food.
I consider myself to be back on the raw path. Raw as in peeling the layers and exposing my succulent self. I have a commitment to health - mental and physical. I am allowing those uncomfortable feeling to surface so that I can process them now - look at them, see where they come from, how they've been serving me, and then thank them and kiss them goodbye if I have no more need for them in my life. I've grown and learned and have new tools within myself to be able to do this.
Living this life of simplicity in my outer surroundings is allowing me and inspiring me to simplify my inner life. To remove the unnecessary layers and allow my truth and the real, raw and juicy me to stand proud and strong and sure.
One way for me to get back to this is by eating a diet high in raw food, and for other food choices to be as close to nature as possible - like steamed veges and rice on a cold day.
Another way is for me to consistently do Reiki on myself as I go to sleep and when I wake up. To continue doing my morning yoga, to drink lots of water, to be in the moment, to focus on the joy and good things here and now.
I aim to live a long and vibrantly healthy life. My commitment starts right now!
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