Thoughts

For the last few weeks, even months, I keep thinking about food, diet, nutrition as well as creativity, gardening, and other alternative/complementary health practices. With regards to my diet and my philosophy regarding diets, I think the biggest thing that I want to follow is clean eating. I plan to work at following the Palo diet, but I really want to eat clean. I am not against eating beans and grains, and even some dairy. I am also not against eating junk food once in a while. What I am against is beating myself up and judging myself when I don't follow my beliefs to the exact letter of the law. I am involved in a Facebook group about eating real food, and recently, there was a post about moderation and how moderation is not something that they would even think of. They were talking about how there is no such thing as eating healthy most of the time, but eating junk in moderation. Well, for me, that is not even something I could or would ever consider except for a short time. I would consider being extremely serious and focused if I were to do an elimination diet, or maybe a detox diet. With regards to my diet, I would be in a horrible position if I were to never eat anything bad for me. I think, at least for me, if I never had anything "bad" for me I would end up binge eating junk instead of allowing myself to eat a small amount and enjoy it, but then get back to eating healthy. I think, especially as women, we tend to beat ourselves up and have all sorts of negatives voices in our heads when we think we have done something wrong. I think its time to stop beating ourselves up when we "stray" and start enjoying life. It's important to be healthy and eat good nutrition foods, but it's also important to be good to yourself and enjoy life. Eating healthy and eating a good diet is important, but so is keeping your mind and spirit healthy too. I certainly need to focus more on keeping my mind and spirit healthy as well as my body. More recently, I have been looking and thinking, and talking about my diet, but I've kind of forgotten about my other passions. With the crazy winter we've had, I've somewhat forgotten about how I love to be in the dirt in my garden. I can't wait to get out there and get growing again. That will certainly help with my eating as well saw my budget. I also haven't been sewing or crafting or drawing like I want to. I also want to start meditating or even doing yoga as well as exercising with cardio and strength training. I am going to continue to work on my diet and continue to try to eat healthy. I am going to start making time to be creative. I need to make a point to be active and exercise. I also want to make a point to get outside and enjoy being outside and not stuck in the house. I know that I will make small changes and probably need to take one step forward and sometimes take 2 back, but I will continue to move forward without beating myself up. I chose to make this for dinner tonight. It was curry turkey meatballs from paleomg.com. It was so good and really easy.

My last creative project

These are my goals and my plans! Amy

Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone

A friend I met on Facebook, who owns a creative arts studio, has been asking me to teach some classes.  I haven't summoned up my courage to teach a class yet, but hopefully will summon the courage soon.  She also wants me to join the Art Collaborative of Wakefield, a group of locally based artisans.  I have put it off for some time, but am now, really considering joining.  I am hopefully going to meet a bunch of people who are part of the collaborative on Saturday.

I am still nervous that I am not enough of an "artist".  If anything, I consider myself a handcraft artisan. But, in reality, I don't know that I feel like an artist or an artisan.  I wonder if I am still just thinking that this is a hobby but I want it to be more.  I want to make it more of a central part of my life.

With that being said, I think a large part of my issue is time.  I have 3 kids, a husband, a house, a part time social work job, and making handcrafted items.  I spend way too much time on the computer and not enough time doing what I should be doing.  I plan to unplug for a little bit.  I am only join to use Facebook for when I need to communicate with others and that is my only means.  I have enough projects that I can work on, I don't need to look for more.  I plan to quickly blog, but no spend too much time reading blogs.  I plan to limit myself to maybe an hour a day and that is a lot.  The internet is a wonderful thing, but it can be too addicting.  no more spending hours on pinterest and pinning things that I never actually work on.  I will still go on pinterest, but will again limit my time.

My hope is that if I spend more time creating and less time pretending to create (by being on the computer looking for things to create), I will start to feel more like an artisan and not just a hobby crafter!  Maybe then I won't feel like I don't belong in the collaborative.

Amy