Happy Easter!

Easter is my favorite day of the year because when Jesus rose from the dead he took away all our sins, and that's what Christianity is all about.

I hope everyone had a Blessed Easter.

Happy Easter!

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Your Body Renews Itself Every 35 Days

What do YOU choose to be made of?

I am very aware of the foods I consume, and feed my children, and for the most part, I choose Raw, Living Foods. Since I have started being more aware, I have been feeling so much better physically!

Happy New You!





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Square Foot Garden -- Update

In addition to the other things I put into my "Square Foot Garden" (see my other post about it), I added Peat Moss, Top Soil, Worm Castings, Miracle Grow Soil for Vegetables, Bone Meal, and lots of love. I used the Garden Aerator shown in the above picture to mix it all together. This tool is a must have! Simply push into the dirt, and use the handles to twist the Aerator which loosens and mixes your dirt.

I am now letting the whole thing "rest" until all chance of frost is past. This is South Louisiana, so that should be within two weeks. I'll be adding worms soon.

Happy Garden Resting!




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Shakeology! A Raw Meal in a Glass

I discovered Shakeology this month, and for my birthday I gave myself a present. This shake has over 75 whole food Superfoods in it, all raw! It really tastes good! (Little Monkey agrees!)

In the past, every time I tried to quit eating candy my own will power was what I depended on. Ok, my own will power isn't that strong when it comes to candy, especially Chocolate. Shakeology has curbed those cravings for candy! My son, Anthony, keeps a candy stash in his kitchen. When I go to visit, I used to enjoy that stash. Now, I go and IF I want candy, I share it with someone else. Most of the time, I just don't want it.

Shakeology ingredients are also Free Trade, which means the company pays the little farmers all over the world a fair price for their crops.

I believe in this product so much that I am selling it. (Not on Amazon ) You can learn more about it at www.shakeology.com/mshealth

I truly believe Shakeology has been the catalyst for my weight loss success.

Happy Shaking!

To Purchase Shakeology Click Here

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Iron Meets Vitamin C

My iron rich breakfast today was Malt-O- Meal made with a tsp of Coconut Oil, a dash of Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, a tbsp pure maple syrup, and 1/3 cup dried Mulberries.








Iron needs Vitamin C to be better absorbed by the body. The 1/3 cup of dried Mulberries had 140% of DRA of Vitamin C. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin, which means that if your body needs it right now, it is used, if not needed right now, it is released. Because of this, you need to eat Vitamin C rich foods all day long.

Our bodies need good fats for fat soluble vitamins to be used. Coconut oil has also been claimed to help enhance weight loss.

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt has trace minerals in it. Our bodies also need sodium. I eat so much raw and unprocessed food, that I do use Pink Salt in moderation. Regular table salt is a chemical concoction that is dangerous for us.

Pure Maple Syrup is a great alternative to white or brown sugar.

I buy my dried Mulberries online. I do have a Mulberry tree in my yard. It was laden with new mulberries, then we had one night of freezing weather, and they froze. The new growth has more berries! I can hardly wait to eat them! I do love the taste of Mulberries! I also like the fact that the tree produces all Spring, and again in the Fall.

I use Fitday.com to track my food choices. Fitday tracks my nutrition as well as calories. I've been staying around 2000 calories per day. If you eat too few calories per day, you will not loose weight because your body will go into starvation mode. When nursing a baby or toddler, you need 500 extra calories per day. So, 2000 calories per day is a healthy weight loss goal for me.

I have discovered Shakeology! This is a raw Superfood shake. I use it as a meal replacement at least once a day. Raw foods are a mainstay in my diet now.

I have lost 3 Pounds!! I know that doesn't seem like a lot. I realized after tracking my food with Fitday, that I was probably eating around 4000 calories a day before, and was never able to loose weight even when I cut out sugar, or whatever. Now that i am being consistent, and tracking it all, I am starting to loose.

Happy Day!





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Renewed Commitment

I am seriously putting all the pieces to this weight loss puzzle together.

Last October, I quit drinking soft drinks, especially Coke which cut down my caffeine intake.

Last month, I was able to quit drinking coffee altogether. This also meant cutting back on the sugar that was IN the coffee, especially the Mocha Frappe' that I love.

My vice was then candy. On my birthday last week, I committed to giving that up. I enjoyed my birthday cake and have had very little sweets since then. And then my good friend, Sri, who lives in India, sent me a package with Ghee Sweets in it because he knows I love them. I've been good! I have had only one a day.

I have wondered why I was SO VERY tired since I had my baby. I was surfing around online about three weeks ago and discovered that iron deficiency will cause an extreme tired feeling. I also found that a nursing mother can be prone to iron deficiency. I have been eating raw foods, including Spinach and Kale which are high in iron. Although I felt somewhat better, I was still tired. I know that Vitamin C helps iron to be absorbed by the body. I discovered that two packets of instant grits have 90% of the recommended daily allowance of iron. I have had grits and a cup of juice for breakfast for two weeks. I am starting to feel a difference in my energy levels.

I started Richard Simmon's newest exercise program, HOPE. It's a 90 day program and starts out with a very simple Cardio routine. I like it because he has about 10 "moves" that are repeated over and over for 20 minutes. It will get more intense as the days go on. I barely made it through the first time, the second time was better, and this morning I completed the entire 20 minutes.

I seem to not have the time to exercise every day. I decided that if I can get in three sessions a week, that's more than I was doing before. If I keep doing "something", I'll eventually get where I'm going.

All my life I have heard about and then promoted healthy foods. These come in all shapes and sizes! I have a long list of Superfoods that are extremely nourshing to the body. If I want to purchase them all individually, I'd spend an arm and a leg each month. I found a product that has about 75! of these Superfoods in it, for the cost of one normal daily meal. It's called Shakeology. I had my first shake today and I'm impressed. This week I signed up to be a "Coach" with Team BeachBody to help myself and others to get into shape using Shakeology and exercise videos like P90X. I'll be writing more about this in the near future.

Today was very productive. The weather was delightful, 65 degrees and sunny.I woke and exercised with Richard. Little Monkey likes to get underfoot, so I sat her in her crib with a bowl of cereal and she ate and laughed at me! My swimming pool garden supplies arrived a couple of days ago. I started assembling them. First, I had to untangle the garden hose, which was a workout in itself. When it came to putting the dirt in, I was exhausted! I had bought some bags of hummus and topsoil about 3 years ago which was stacked in the backyard. It was wet and heavy. I put it in the wagon (Little Monkey helped me push) and emptied about 8 of them into the pool. Enough of that for the day :) Lilly Pad helped set up the pool and then entertained Little Monkey with bubbles. Lunch was my first Shakeology. Then time to clean at the church. When I turned off the water in the restroom, the handle came off in my hand! Water was pouring out of the pipe! What a mess in the time it took me to get someone on the phone to tell me where the shut off valve was. When we got home Little Monkey and I took a well earned nap.

Breakfast: Grits and juice
Lunch: Shakeology
Snack: Spinach, Banana, 1/2 apple, Bee Pollen, Almond Milk in the NutriBullet
Supper: Barilla pasta (which is high in protein and Omega 3's and 9's) with Alfredo sauce and White Albacore Tuna
Snack: Shakeology (because I was craving the good things it contains)
Treat: One Ghee Sweet

Happy Life!




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Indoor Composting with NatureMill

I do what I can to keep as much as possible out of the landfill. We produce way too much organic waste that just sits in the landfills. A few years ago I set up a compost pile in my yard....which promptly attracted all manner of animals from the woods behind my house. So, I tried a garbage can with the bottom cut out and added yard clippings to the food. This worked somewhat, but was still outside and inconvenient for putting scraps into. While searching online I ran across the NatureMill ULTRA Indoor Composter. I was impressed!




You put your food scraps into the top compartment, along with pine pellets or brown leaves from your yard and baking soda. The machine warms this mixture, and turns it every four hours. The machine is quiet and uses very little electricity. You can add scraps all week. At the end of a week or two, you press a button and the food drops into the bottom compartment where it sits for another week. Then you take out perfect compost, rich and dark.

I have had mine for two years and I am very happy with it. I found that bread and wet coffee grounds make it mildew. The manufacturer says you can put meat in it, but I don't. There are a few other things that don't go in, like citrus peels and onions and broccoli. I put in all other fruit and vegetable scraps. I admit, I don't have many since my Nutri Bullet takes most foods whole. The day I dried mint leaves that I grew, I put the stems into the composter and my house smelled like mint for a week -- very nice!

Happy Indoor Composting!



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Surprise Birthday Party

Ok, this one's just for bragging rights! I have the best children in the world! They threw me a Surprise Birthday Party! LilyPad said it's because I have had a hard year and I deserve it. She is so sweet :) Anthony and Amy planned it.

All in all, it was a wonderful birthday :)

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Square Foot Garden -- My Way

Spring is on the way, and it's bringing Gardening urges to me! I've been out in the yard a few times already repotting plants that have become root bound. I have a nice perienal herb garden going and two kale plants that are happy. I also have quite a few flowers in pots.

This year I want to make a vegetable garden. I looked into square foot gardening because the ground at my house is not suitable for growing a garden. I went to the store and priced a ready made square foot garden. It's 4' X 4' X 3" and cost $40. I need it to be at least 8" deep, so I'd need 2 sets = $80. Ok, so I could make my own with 2 X 4's. This would be about $25 and carpentry is better left for others. This got me to thinking, what can I use that would cost less and be simple (this is my mantra these days). In the past I have used kiddie wading pools to grow plants in, and that worked well. I realized that the larger pools with flexable sides would work well!
The pool is 8' round, which means 4' from any edge to the center. This should be the perfect size to grow my vegetable garden in.

At one point (before Little Monkey) I had over 300 potted plants. Many died over the winters and I saved the soil. I have enough soil to fill the pool and then some. Next, the soil needs to hold water and air, so I ordered Plantation Products Inc G208 Vermiculite 8 Qt
and coconut husks, aka . Coco Garden CCF650 650-Gram Compressed Coco Fiber Growing Medium
While I was at amazon.com ordering, they suggested a mineral mix to add to the soil,2 Lbs of Azomite - Organic Trace Mineral Soil Additive Fertilizer - 67 Trace Minerals: Selenium, Vanadium, Chromium
, so I got that also.





I have an indoor compostor (more about that in a future post), so I will be able to add compost to the garden.


Worms are the next "ingredient", to mix all the soil together, areate it, and mix the compost into the soil. I will order the worms when the other parts arrive and are assembled.


I can hardly wait to get started! Little Monkey loves to play outside while I work and I'll get LilyPad to help. LilyPad is studying the Human Body this year in Science. Learning to grow her own food will tie in nicely to a healthy body.

Happy Gardening!








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NutriBullet!

A couple of months ago I got a Nutri Bullet . This appliance has changed my life! The Nutri Bullet is an extremely high speed blender that literally liquefies the food that you put in it!


I can put five or six raw fruits and vegetables in the cup, blend for 60 seconds, drink the delicious smoothie, and clean the cup in less than five minutes.

I share my smoothie with Little Monkey. She LOVES them! For her, I add infant rice cereal so that I can feed it to her with a spoon. She will pick at foods that she has to chew and wait until she gets her smoothie to really eat.

The high speed and special blades of the Nutri Bullet break down the cell walls of the food, releasing the essential nutrients in the food. This means that we are getting the most out of the food we eat.

A friend of mine asked if I thought the Nutri Bullet would be good for making baby food. I honestly believe it would make the very best, nutritious baby food available. Cooking food removes most of the nutrients in the food. The usual way to make baby food, so that it is soft enough for the baby to swallow, is to cook it and mash it. With the Nutri Bullet you can use raw foods that baby will easily swallow. Always remember when starting a baby on solids to do only one food at a time and watch for allergic reactions. You can mix foods later when you know for sure that your baby can handle them.

Last night's smoothie was:

Spinach
A Plum
Avocado
Tbsp Chia Seeds
1/4 cup Aloe Vera Juice

Happy Eating!



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Melissa & Doug Educational Toys

Melissa & Doug make simple Educational Toys that encourage a child's imagination. With over 2000 products there is something sure to please every child from birth to preteen.

Little Monkey has the Melissa & Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy. It looks like this:

She was 19 months old the first time she played with it. I believe in letting a child explore a new toy on their own first to encourage their own thinking. She took all the gears off and put them back on. It was so cute to watch her take one finger and turn the gears individually. Then she noticed that turning one made the rest turn. Then she took one out of the middle and saw that turning the end one only moved the ones closest to it. So, she took one from the other end and put it in the middle. The joy of her own accomplishment when she made her line move again! She clapped her hands and said "Mama!"

We also use the Melissa & Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy to learn colors. We also sign the colors while we say them. We learned the signs using

The Melissa & Doug Caterpillar Gear Toy is a versitile, fun toy I believe Little Monkey will enjoy for a long time.

Happy Play Time!



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