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

Gardening

I've been reading a couple of friends' blogs and they have really gotten me inspired to get off my butt and start doing the things that I want to be doing instead of putting it off and putting it off.  my last post was about exercise and eating right and this post is about getting my gardens ready.  Hopefully the weather this week will allow me to get out and start cleaning out my gardens.  The front gardens and the side garden really need to be raked out so that the new plants can really break through.  It's been good that we have held off because we did get an April fool's day storm and this way the plants were protected.

I know that the weather here in the northeast can be a little finicky and even though we have some nice warm days, that doesn't always mean that those days are here to stay.  I am looking forward to having the warm weather here to stay at least for a few months.  I know that I will probably be cursing the heat and I will need to remind myself of how much I hated the cold and how little we could do.  Being outside and working in my veggie and my flower gardens are activities that I am really looking forward to.  I love being outside, I love gardening, and I can't wait to, hopefully, get my kids involved too.  I can't wait to have fresh local foods too!

Amy

Outdoor Projects

This year, my husband and I have started multiple outdoor projects!  Last year, we had a tree cut down, and this year we added a butterfly garden to where the tree was.  I posted pictures of it when I first planted and here it is now!

The butterfly garden still has to grow and it may not even be what I want it to be this year.  I may need to wait for next year for it to really grow and bloom like I want it to!

Last year, we also took out all the shrubs in the front of the house.  We were going to plant a bunch of bushes, but we decided to save some money this year and just pant some flowers.  It look ok, and you really can't tell what it looks like from the pictures, but it is nice not to have huge bushes blocking the front of the house.

My husband tilled an area in the backyard for our veggie garden.  I can't wait to plant veggies and for them to grow so that we can just go out  into the backyard and pick them instead of going to the store!  I think either this week or next week, we will start planting.

Finally, we bought a swingset for the kids.  We weren't going to, but decided that it was a good deal and bought it.  There are so many parts, but my husband is doing awesome getting it put together!

I can't wait for these projects to move ahead.  I am really liking the nice weather and can't wait for it to stay here.  I will put up with the heat, since I know that it will let me get out with the kids.  I think it will be lots of dun and hopefully we can get together with friends this summer!

Amy