Physical: Losing Weight

I am following a Eat Clean Diet. I am hoping to incorporate many if not all her steps so we can eat a healthier diet as a family. I am a sugar-holic. I get shaky when I don't eat anything sweet all day. Eating fruit and lots of it helps. Adding bee pollen and wheat germ at least once a day plus drinking water and taking a multivitamin does my body well. I think I can make it through. I know I can. Endurance to the end. I am also shuffling my feet to the C25K plan. Also known as couch to a 5k. Yes, that means I will be needing to run a 5k soon. Woohoo!

Familial: FHE 10 Fun & Free Activities

1) Visit the sand dunes and disc golf.
2) Go to the Duck Pond and feed the ducks.
3) Fly kites downtown.
4) Hike local/berry pick
5) Go for a photography "session". Let the kids take pictures.
6) Visit a local playground.
7) Play a game such as freeze tag, capture the flag, or h.o.r.s.e.
8) Learn how to build a campfire - visit local grounds and light one up. Roast something.
9) Enjoy a free concert. Eat homemade popcorn on the visit.
10) Go on a geocache or letterbox hunt. (GPS needed for geocaching.)

Homemade Christmas

Homemade Christmas gifts are going to start next year! We moved the day after Thanksgiving and are still trying to settle in to our new home. Anything I started as a homemade gift is being put off until next Christmas. Such is life!

Reusable Veggie Bags!!

Yeah! I found 'em! I wondered how to find reusable veggie bags that aren't plastic and don't "tip the scale" when I use them at the grocery store... here they are! Sweet! Can you tell how excited I am by all my exclamation points?!?!?!?!

Happy Vegetable Reusable Vegetable Bags

Found at Etsy: By Wonder Thunder

I am mostly a Pitta

I studied up on Ayurveda and looked up what my "Prakriti" is. The result from my quiz from Banyan Botanicals was:

44.1% Pitta
29.4% Vata
26.5% Kapha

Since I am predominantly Pitta, I looked it up on the same site. Apparently I am the likeness of Madonna and Bill Gates. Ha!

Something I find interesting is the things I am told to eat to soothe some of my Pitta tendencies..
Cilantro - LOVE it!
Wheat bread - yummm
Mango Lassi - what? Sounds good
Cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, etc. Delish!
Cooling foods (funny, I desire these ALL the time)
Fruit
Juicy vegetables
Squash

The list goes on... I absolutely CRAVE these foods all the time. Perhaps there is something to this Ayurveda philosophy. I think I will attempt some of the tips and pointers. Maybe I will get my body and mind into a better balance.

Also, Pitta Pacifying Yoga might help too. I think it may help me to pacify my pitta....

Who doesn't want to lie in corpse position?

I also found an article on balancing Pitta through lifestyle at AyurBalance.

Some good ideas:

1. The primary lifestyle recommendation for balancing Pitta is to stay cool--both physically and emotionally. Avoid going out in the heat of the day, especially on an empty stomach or after you have eaten tangy or spicy foods. Avoid exercising when it's hot. Walk away from situations that make you see red.

2. Do not skip meals, do not fast and do not wait to eat until you are ravenously hungry. Start your day with cooked fruit, followed by some cereal. Eat a sustaining meal at lunch, and a lighter meal for dinner. For snacking, choose sweet juicy fruit--fully ripe mangoes, sweet pears and sweet juicy grapes are excellent Pitta-pacifying choices. Delaying meals can cause excess acidity, so eat on time every day. The Amalaki Rasayana helps enhance digestion without aggravating Pitta dosha. It also helps balance stomach acid.
3. Daily elimination is very important to prevent ama from accumulating in the body. Triphala Rasayana helps promote regularity as well as toning the digestive system. Since Triphala is gentle, not habit forming and not depleting, it can be taken indefinitely to maintain regularity.
4. To soothe sensitive skin, to balance the emotions and to nourish and tone muscles and nerves, indulge in an ayurvedic massage every morning before you bathe or shower. Use coconut oil for your massage. If you like, you can add 3-4 drops of a pure essential oil such as lavender or rose to 2 oz. of massage oil. Mix well before use. Two or three time a week, massage your scalp with warm oil, and let the oil stay for an hour or two before you shampoo. After your shower or bath, apply a pure, gentle moisturizer all over your body or spray your skin with pure rose or sandalwood water to keep your skin feeling cool all day long.
5. Protect yourself from the heat. Stay cool in warm weather by wearing loose cotton clothing. Wear a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses to protect your eyes when you go out. Drink lots of room temperature water.

6. Water-based activities are ideal exercise for Pitta-dominant people. Try swimming or aqua-aerobics to stay fit but cool. Strolling after sunset, especially along a waterfront, is also a soothing way to fit some leisurely activity into your day.

7. If Pitta dosha is out of balance, you may find that you can fall asleep without much trouble, but you wake up in the very early hours and find it difficult to get back to sleep. It is important to get to bed early, so that you can get adequate rest each night. A cup of warm milk, with some cardamom, can be helpful before bedtime.

8. Balance work and play. Set aside some time for R&R everyday, and do not get so absorbed in a project that you are unable to detach from it.

9. Set aside about 30 minutes each day for meditation, to help balance the heart and emotions and to enhance body-mind-spirit coordination.

Q is for Quilting

I came across a fabulous site titled Katie Did where a wonderful woman was kind enough to put together a demo on how to make a quilt in like one or two nights. The quilt is modern, funky and I like it thank you very mucho.

Here is her end result:

Katie Did awesome!

Love it. Doing it. You should too!

Mmmmeals...

In my quest for a little less of me aka I would like my shape to be a little less round...

I looked up Nutrisystem. Expensive. I researched Healthy Eating at HELPGUIDE.org. Duh. But I received information via brain waves (or microwaves -but whatever the source it was a light bulb moment) from good ol' advertising on the TV. I am going to research how much it would be for me to buy Lean Cuisines vs other "diet friendly" frozen meals from the grocery store. Even low-cal snacks. I am going to Target, WalMart, and Fred Meyer. Should be interesting. I will post my results here soon.

What I learned from Nutrisystem and Healthy Eating along with various other sites is: Eat low-calorie, proportioned meals. Eat every 3 hours or so, drink water, snack or continue your meal with salad and yogurt (you can have these in infinite amounts), eat lots of vegetables, supplement with a multi-vitamin, and of course exercise 3-5 times a week at least. The sun is out, it is at least 50 degrees here (in Alaska weather that means it's shorts time) and I am ready to get moving. Let the research begin!

My problem is not that I don't want to eat healthy, it's that it costs lots of money and takes time to make nice, healthy meals from my experience. My children hardly eat anything that I make when I make a healthy meal unless it is cafeteria style snacking meal (no sauces, no odd ingredients). This is fine, but I refuse to eat like this all day - every day! If I don't have anything I crave for snacking on hand, I turn to cookies, candy, and an occasional soda. See, there along with my lack of regular exercise, is my problem!

PS: When I went to sign up at a site which takes in all your measurements then gives you a size with outfits which fit and will look good on you available to buy...I turned up a size 'A' which is the full-figured woman. Sort of depressing yet I knew it all along. The site in case you are interested: MyShape.com