Coffee lovers don’t really need a national coffee day to talk about their favorite coffee drink or favorite coffee brand. We’re addicted to caffeine so we looove our morning java jolt!
While visiting my son in Los Angeles last month, I discovered a new organic coffee. One I’d never heard of before. It’s called Bulletproof Coffee. They’ve developed a ‘special process to grow harvest, process, roast and ship their coffee beans to prevent contamination from mold toxins that are common in food products from the tropics.’
After I read that on their flyer, I was hooked! I had to get me some of this! 🙂 I’m drinking my Bulletproof Coffee right now!  Dave Asprey developed this delicious and healthy coffee. Visit his blog and website for an amazing education on brain health and diet. Yea, I said_brain health! Read on…
Coffee Lovers Watch The Link Below for Dave’s special recipe for morning brain power, where he adds his Brain Octane Oil and organic Goats butter to his coffee! I know, you’re thinking…weird…but, I’m telling you, this stuff is amazing!
There are lots of coffee companies giving away free coffee today. Check out, Coffee Lover Jenny Hansen’s Blog Post, for that info! And if you don’t follow her blog, More Cowbell, then you’re missing out! 🙂
Enjoy your day and your coffee!
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Now is about the time where most of our January resolutions might be showing signs of wear and tear. You’ve either fallen flat on your rear end, or you’re soaring… or if you’re like me, you’re somewhere in the middle.
I lost 10 pounds in February, but then gained it all back while spending a month with my son in Los Angeles. Have I told you how many fantastic restaurants he has within walking distance of his house?
Hugo’s, Barney’s Beanery, Basix and In and Out Burger is a short drive down the street! So, you’ll forgive me if I indulge. Or, actually, I must forgive myself for indulging. Because that’s usually what:
knocks me off track,
derails me from my original destination.
If you’re like me, you don’t forgive yourself from going on these little side trips to “eat-all-you-wantville”!
We tell ourselves we can’t do it,
we’re losers,
we have no self-discipline,
we’re never going to make it,
we may as well burn our skinny jeans.
And the negative talk goes on and on until we believe it!
Listen. Â That little red devil on your shoulder, hates you!
He wants you to fail.
He wants you to be unhealthy,
to feel tired all the time,
to live in your clutter,
to stop writing,
to ________(file in the blank).
Be a Copy Cat. Find someone to emulate.
Maybe it’s a celerity or the gal who lives down the street. Just know you’re not alone in this. There are others out there like you and me. They’ve been in our shoes and they’ve made it. They’ve succeeded, they’ve carved a path for us to follow. They shown us how. We can look to them, be encouraged by them. Because they lost the weight, organized their closets and their life.
 Choose. Joy, a positive attitude, the “I can do it” spirit, to make the RIGHT decision.
Think of it this way. If you were driving down the road on the way to Disney World in Florida and you made a wrong turn and found yourself heading in the opposite direction toward New York, what would you do?
‘Detour’, via Lynn Kelley, Wana Commons
Stop and tool around the area, shop a little, eat out…
Okay, so you’ve lost a couple of hundred miles, but continuing in the wrong direction will only make things worse. You know that and I know that.
So, turn around already!
What’s your destination? Where do you want to go?
In the same way you plan your trip, plan for your weight loss, or your de-clduttering project. Start when things have settled down. Â Sure, stop and take a break for that special anniversary, that big birthday. But don’t forget your ultimate goal.
So, say goodbye to the birthday girl, give her a hug and get back on the road.
Your destination awaits. Go!
Traffic LIght, Wikipedia
How’s your progress? What’s de-railing you? Slowing your progress? What’s working? Tell us!
On my quest for eating healthier, I thought it might be fun to share an occasional video about good health or a tasty new recipe for you to try.
Today, I came across a recipe for making kale chips. They are a terrific substitute for starchy high fat potato chips. Kale is low in calories, high in fiber, iron, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, and calcium. It has zero fat and is filled with powerful antioxidants!
Kale Chips:
A bunch of Kale, 1 table spoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon sea salt. Or, season to taste.
Drizzle kale with olive oil in a bowl and toss with the sea salt.
Kale with Olive Oil via Diana Beebe
Spread seasoned kale out on baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes – until ends barely start to turn brown.
Easy breezy! -:)
Enjoy!
Do you have a favorite healthy snack you’d like to share with us? Tell us in the comments below!
What is satisfying in the moment, but harmful in the long run?
Ok, I’m thinking food choices here, in case anyone’s wondering.
Sugar, sugar, sugar.
Yes, it’s that time if year, again. When we start thinking about losing…
Pounds off our hips and pounds out of out closets.
Of all New Years resolutions, dieting is third on the list, right behind getting fit, and spending more time with family and friends.
Dieting  and de-cltering.
For me they go hand in hand. It seems every time I think about losing a few pounds I gravitate to my closet where the racks are stuffed with at least four different sizes of clothing. For some reason they’re linked in my brain and I can’t seem to do one without tackling the other. Check out Darcy’s De-Clutterting Diet and Darcy’s De-Cluttering Diet Part 2. for a bit of inspiration.
How nice would it be to not only narrow my hips but my clothes size, as well. Just think of all the room I’d have in my closet for more cute clothes! 🙂
You can check out their websites and see what fits your lifestyle.
Then there’s…
Just plain ole’ eating healthy.
You know exactly what that means. Â I like to follow doctors and chiropractors that recommend an Anti-inflammatory diet. Just Google that phrase and see what comes up.
I recently began following Dr. Steven Sisskind, M.D. Check out his website, RealDoseNutrition. I take one of his supplements and am on his emailing list. As an advocate of the anti-inflammatory diet, he’s fine-tuned healthy eating and weight loss into a simple booklet that’s easy to follow.
My favorite health newsletter is Alternatives, by Dr. David Williams. You do have to buy a subscription, but it’s truly some of the best money I’ve ever spent.
Another one of my favorite’s is Dr. Asa Andrew. He’s a natural medicine doctor and a chiropractor. His book, Empowering Your Health, was life changing for me. It’s available in most book stores and online. His anti-inflammatory diet is included in the book and it’s easy to follow. His book is inspirational and highly motivational.
But, until you get his book or something similar, here’s an abridged shopping list. If you start with these simple changes it will change your body and your life. You willfeel better and naturally lose weight.
Farmer’s Market
First, eat lean meats, veggie’s and fruits. Organic and fresh when possible.
Second, omit all forms of sugar from your diet. This includes all white forms of carbohydrates. I know this may be hard for some of us, but try it for three months and you will never be the same. 🙂 After the three months, introduce healthy carbohydrates back into your diet and try to focus on gluten free where you can.
Variety is the spice of life! So…yes, you can occasionally have something sweet. But try to wait until after the three months.
Third, add omega 3’s to your diet. You can Google this but here’s a quick list: raw almonds, raw walnuts, lemon flavored Cod Liver Oil, [I take a tablespoon in the morning and one again in the evening.] Alaskan salmon: wild is best but if that’s not available buy farm raised or canned. Vital Choice Seafood is a great online source for wild. This is where I buy Dr. Perricone’s Anti-aging pack. It’s wild Alaskan salmon and organic frozen blueberries. 🙂
Fourth, move. Get up and walk. Fifteen, twenty minutes. Don’t stress over this. Just get moving. As a writer, I sit most of the time. Not good, folks. If you’re sedentary, like me, take frequent mini-walks. I like to dance, so the days I can’t walk, I’ll put on my iPod and dance around the living room. 🙂 [You’ll find that if you commit to fifteen minutes of walking, you’ll go longer.]
I wish you all a Happy, Healthy and Skinny 2013!
What do you want to change in 2013? Your waist line? Your closet clutter? Are you sick of feeling tired all the time? Would you like to lose a few pounds? Maybe, you’d simply like to manage the stress in your life.
How about spending more time with your family in 2013? It’s hard to say, no, with so many wonderful opportunities available to us. But sometimes, it’s something that simple, that helps us manage our time.
Have you tackled any of this before? If so, can you tell us your secrets to having more time, to stress management, weight loss or de-clutering your life?
I’ve been in this de-cluttering mode for several years, now. On and off, of course, for those of you thinking I’m knee deep in closet clutter on a daily basis. 🙂 If that were the case, I would’ve been done years ago. But truthfully, my biggest problem with taking so many years to get rid of stuff, is sentimentality. I’m the worst at attaching my emotions to things. The saying, ‘you should own things, they shouldn’t own you’, is absolutely true. Problem is, my things own me! They won’t let me get rid of them without a huge fight. And I mean, knock down, drag out.
For example, take my parent’s first piece of furniture…I replaced the faded mirrors with fabric.
My parent’s first furniture purchase.
A small wardrobe they paid $25.00 for, in the 1930’s. They eventually gave it to my grandmother and after she passed away, they gave it to me. I used it for many years and only just recently, sold it. It was difficult to part with for only one reason…it was my parents first piece of furniture. I was emotionally attached to it and as you can see from the picture, not a wonderful piece.
And then there’s this little cheap table. No biggie, right? You’d have no trouble getting rid of this, I’m sure. But, what if there was a story attached? A cute, young couple-just starting out in marriage story. Evoking a sweet, makes me smile every time I look at it, memory. Ahh, now you’re interested. You want to know the story. To heck with the table.
Notice, it’s in the back of my SUV, ready to go back to the Good Will Store, from which it came, over 38 years ago. {I de-cluttered, then cleaned the carpet, by the way. I didn’t want you to see how I really live.} 🙂
But, I digress. This little nondescript, basically ugly table, was the first piece of furniture my husband and I bought. We lived in an apartment at the time and we needed a table for our fish tank. With no money, we shopped at the Good Will Store in Miami, Fl. And there we were, moving in and out of the floor area where we spotted this little gem. We measured it… Perfect for a ten gallon fish tank. We lifted the tag and read, ‘$3.50’. My husband carried it up to the cash register and pulled out all of the change he had in his pocket. Not enough. He looked at me. “You have any change?” He asked. By this time, a line had started to form. I dug through my purse, laid the coins on the counter and between the two of us, counted out $3.27. We looked at each other, then we looked at the clerk. She rolled her eyes and with a wave of her hand said, “Go on. Take it.”
That story is one of my fondest memories. My husband and I owned that table for over 38 years and it’s been a: fish tank table, a back of the sofa table, a guest bedroom table, an end table, a back porch table, a back door table for keys and such. It’s been stripped and stained wood tone, it’s been painted pea green, red and finally, dark blue.
When my husband and I stated out we had very little and what we had was borrowed from an older couple from our church. We slept on the floor for two months until we had enough money to buy a mattress and box springs. Time went by and eventually we were able to buy our first home. We filled it with hand-me-downs from our family and sidewalk sales in the small town where we lived. Soon, our house purchases co-insided with my husband’s business success. With each house, came more empty space and more stuff. Sofas, chairs, dinning sets, tables, bed sets, dishes, decorative items, knick knacks, and on and on it went. Bigger houses and more stuff. If any of you have ever seen the comedian, George Carlin’s stand up routine “Stuff”, well, that was us. *warning…George does use profanity…or I would’ve posted it here*
Forty years ago, today, I met my husband. We’ve been married for 39 years. We were both college students and didn’t have much of anything when we got married. We were so happy and excited, we didn’t realize what we didn’t have. We had each other and that’s all that mattered.
But, now after 39 years of marriage, a college graduate son, and the empty nest…it’s time to go the other way. To get to a point where our things don’t manage us but we mange them. To part with an item that might become another young couple’s little ‘nothing’ table. A table that may come to mean so much to them because of their sacrifice to buy it. When you have nothing, $3.50 is a lot.
Today, I’m taking that table to the Good Will store in Franklin Tn.
From Miami to Franklin. Some might say that’s quite a fall. But let me tell you where that little table has lived…
So…I wonder who will buy it? An up and coming country music singer? Or, someone who lost everything in a house fire? Will it get painted white and sit in a baby girls pink and yellow nursery? Will it house a special rock collection for a rowdy six year old? Will it become grandma’s side table?
Time to cut the sentimental tie. Time to drive to the Good Will store and say good-by.
But, I will always keep the memory. That, I will never have to part with.
How about you, guys? What items hold a special memory for you? Have you parted with them? What advice to do you have for those of us who struggle with parting with ‘stuff’? What’s been your secret to letting go? Please share-tips, suggestions, success stories. We’re all ears. 🙂 Especially, me.
I have a lot more ‘stuff’ to get rid of. In fact, I’m working on a plan to de-clutter my entire house. I’ll tell you more about it in the coming weeks. I’m going to need your help. 🙂
Summer is here and so are the honey bees. Did you know that honey bees are responsible for pollinating one-third of our natural foods and that they are disappearing? Join me in creating a colorful bouquet from which they can feed.
Bee-friendly flowers provide nectar that keeps honey bees alive and pollen that helps fruits and vegetables to grow. If space is limited, you can plant the apporpriate flowers in a pot on your window sill or small balcony. If you have the space, a honey bee garden in your back yard is even better.
Honey Bee Gardening Tips
Choose flowers for their nectar and pollen. Annuals such as Sunflowers, Daisies, Zinnias, Asters, Marigolds and Geraniums are good and easy to find. There are others but these are readily available in the spring. Include perennials in your mix as well.
Whether you use plants or seeds, make sure your flower selection blooms successively over the spring, summer and fall. This will provide food throughout all seasons.
Choose colors that are most attractive to honey bees; blue, orange, purple and yellow.
If you want to learn more about honeybee gardens, check out The Honeybee Conservancy. Type in this link:Â http://thehoneybeeconservancy.org/act-today-2/plant-a-bee-garden/
While visiting my son in Los Angeles last month, I discovered a new organic coffee. One I’d never heard of before. It’s called Bulletproof Coffee. They’ve developed a ‘special process to grow harvest, process, roast and ship their coffee beans to prevent contamination from mold toxins that are common in food products from the tropics.’
Darcy Flynn 