Mealtime Inspirations

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I decided that while my son is staying with me for a while, he has to cook at least one dinner a week-more if he feels the desire. He didn’t object. One thing he learned though was that because I don’t use processed foods, he had to be a little more creative. I have more than 100 cookbooks [yes, I’m one of those, but I use them all], he used the internet instead though; I was ok with that-I do it too. Last night was his night and it turned out pretty good.

He made a sausage, potato, sauerkraut skillet with onions, garlic and carrots. It was fast and simple and filled our bellies perfectly. If you want to give it a try, all you need to do is slice and brown smoked sausage or your favorite kind of sausage, or use chicken or for meatless use beans in place of the meat. Add diced potatoes and stir fry until golden, add sliced carrots, onions and chopped garlic and 1 cup of broth-simmer until carrots are tender. Enjoy!

ryans-sausage-potato-and-sauerkraut

Hope & Inspiration

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Hope in my opinion is when you make a heartfelt decision to make changes, personal changes in this case, and expect positive results no matter what the price. Hope is when you don’t give up. Hope is keeping your chin up and always having a foot forward despite the speed bumps and road blocks that you may encounter.

Inspiration-the energy you feel when you decide on something, read something, hear something or see something. Inspiration brings energy that catapults you toward something you’ve dreamed about doing.

My hope is to inspire you to reach out toward your deepest, innermost goals and dreams.

With a little guidance you can begin your journey to your own personal hopes and inspirations.

Made chili on this cold, windy day. We’ll eat some while watching our Patriots throw a football!

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Chili bowl

Crawling Under the Table

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Well, I didn’t necessarily crawl under the table but I feel like sometimes that’s where I am. For the most part, for the past week plus I’ve done pretty well food-wise, I haven’t snacked at night or much during the day either; but I don’t feel like I’ve made a lot of progress. Progress though isn’t only a physical aspect, progress comes in many forms and one form of progress I have made is no nighttime snacking. It may not feel like much of a feat today but as time passes and days and weeks go by it makes a difference-so that in itself is progress

I’ve eaten breakfast every morning and it has felt good. I’ve eaten a healthy lunch for this entire week of homemade chicken soup, loaded with a variety of vegetables- that helped me eat less at dinner time and I didn’t feel the need to snack while watching TV unwinding for the night.

Weight loss isn’t easy but it doesn’t have to be difficult either; all you need is true commitment-you’ve got to truly want it. When you get honest with yourself and decide that you’re ready to make changes, weight loss will follow. Don’t look for a weight loss plan that will melt pounds away immediately because they’re not usually a healthy plan. Learning how and what to eat for you personally is what will lead you to long lasting changes and goal success.

Want to know what will work for you or how to get started? Ask me! Dawn@InitiateWellness.com

Here’s to our good health!

my-homemade-chicken-veggie-soup

What Does Food Mean to You?

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Food means something different for each of us. For me it means satisfaction, indulgence, self-complimentary ( I think I’m a pretty good cook), savory as in savoring the positive moments in life because I had many negative moments throughout my life, gorging on second helpings because of past limitations, my excuse for eating more than I need is often ‘because it tastes good’ the real reason? I’m not quite sure yet but I plan to work it out, and I”m sure if I keep thinking about it I will come up with more examples of what food means to me. The answers I gave so far are almost certainly a result of my past; food becomes comfort, memorable, self-sabotage, it’s social, it’s personal, it’s public, it pleases, it displeases, it even simply fuels our body but it’s rare that we think exactly that when we are eating.

We relate food to who we are, who we were and who we want to be. We use food as a tool to bury feelings, to celebrate feelings and to blame our shortcomings on. We often rate ourselves by our commitment to what we eat, how we eat, why we eat and we let food define us.

Once we can understand and accept the reasons we treat food the way we do, once we really get to the bottom of our relationship with food we can develop a new relationship with food; we can let food be our friend instead of our enemy. Food feeds our cells, it fuels our body giving us energy, balancing our moods, our blood levels, sleep, making our health the best it can be given that we eat the right foods and the proper amounts on a regular basis. As Hippocrates said many years ago, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food”.

The next time you feel particularly connected to a certain food in a sort of disconnected way, stop yourself, go deep inside and try to relate how the particular food makes you feel when you eat it. There’s no right nor wrong about it, it just is and that’s okay. Slowly you will be able to better control the way you relate to and treat food.

The Daily Grind

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Sometimes we can all get caught up in the daily grind that describes our life. The daily grind shouldn’t describe our life though, it should only describe what’s unbalanced in our day-to-day.

If we feel like we’re caught up in ‘the daily grind’ then it’s up to us to change something. By doing the same thing over and over with the same results there’s a good chance our spirit and general happiness begins to break down. When that happens we get sad, depressed, bored, indecisive, sleepless, cranky, lethargic, foggy and sort of lost.

In a conventional job workers are given days off and vacations. This is because companies realize that everyone needs a break from the daily grind in order to come back to work with a renewed sense of being; refreshed and eager to handle tasks.

In the same way, when you’re stuck in a routine at home and begin feeling like you don’t want to cook anymore, clean anymore, attack your to-do list or grocery shop, it’s time to take a break. Just getting away for a day can help rejuvenate your mind, body and spirit.

A few tips to keep handy are:

1- Make a list of places you would like to visit-make a list for local places and a second list for places further away; this way you can choose day trips or over night trips.

2- Make lists of things you enjoy doing such as reading, hiking, walking the beach, bike riding, picnics, antique(ing), finding quaint restaurants to try, tours, museums…

3- Make a third list of things you can do at home to unwind, rejuvenate, and reboot. You may enjoy things like reading, meditating, yoga, movie(s) day/night…

4- Keep a list of things you’ll need to pack for each excursion for quick, stress-free packing

Use your imagination. Go deep inside and remember the things you love doing or used to love doing, remember the things you told yourself “one day I’ll do this”, your list should be unlimited and personal. Whenever something new comes to mind, add it to your lists.

Taking time out is a sort of lifestyle detox; it’s good for the mind and body. Getting, being and staying healthy is important in order to live a happy, fulfilled life. Take the time you need to just be.

 

 

New Week, New Attitude

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After a busy weekend away I’m back and ready to go; as a bonus, I gained an hour if only for a day!

I took time to catch up on chores and writing for my business today but I didn’t let my intentions get lost in the shuffle. I had a healthy breakfast of 2 eggs and pumpernickel toast; I could have done without the toast but I didn’t. I ate a small lunch-a sandwich, that means 2 more slices of bread and I drank a good amount of water all day. You’re waiting for my dinner confessions right? Ah well, nothing bad there, I stuffed boneless chicken breasts with chopped parsley, chopped dried apricots and crumbled Brie, baked them with potatoes and steamed Brussels sprouts. I had one small portion of all except the sprouts.

I’m planning on having a simple chicken veggie soup for lunch and with dinner for the rest of the week. I’m also planning on doing a detox as promised to you and myself; join me or ask how you can do a simple detox, I can guide you.

stuffed-chicken

Smile, share some love!

Stuck in a Mind-Body Dis-connection

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mind-body connectionIn the recent few weeks I’ve sort of disconnected my mind and body from each other-yogis understand what this means; in general it means that your mind isn’t relating with your body as it would when you’re fully balanced. When your mind and body are in sync, it’s a pretty great feeling.

Today is Friday. This weekend I will be busy helping family so meals and self-care will not be in the forefront [meals and food in general not consuming my thoughts might be a good thing]. Sometimes distractions are useful as I mentioned in my last post! While busy, I’ll do my best at making healthy choices and portion control and I will absolutely focus on drinking lots of water as my one healthy constant.

Starting on Monday I’m going to buckle down and refocus my work, my mind-body connection and change my food habits for the better. I’ll make an outline for daily do’s and don’ts, food lists, exercise, yoga and meditation. Meditation is a powerful tool and easy to learn-the key is to keep doing it.

I’ll check in during the weekend when I can and in the mean time, consider what changes you want to make in your life and let’s create change together!

Time to Clean It Up

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time to clean it up

Cleaning is an indoor-outdoor and inside-outside body chore. Well, maybe when it comes to your body, chore isn’t the right word, clean inside and out is necessary for good health.

I was busy outside cleaning leaves and getting my vegetable garden ready for winter today so eating wasn’t on my mind much; not until I was finished with yard work and preparing dinner. Suddenly, I needed food and I wasn’t at all in the mood to cook. Take-out crossed my mind more than once but that thought didn’t win. While I repeatedly said aloud that I don’t want to cook, I cooked anyway.

I had a small bottle of General Tso’s sauce from Trader Joe’s, organic chicken breast, onion, red & green bell peppers, broccoli and my own home grown garlic. I made a stir fry. I simmered rice while I chopped and sliced and served the stir fry alongside it.

While I wasn’t in the mood to cook, I did it anyway and in the end I was glad I did. I knew it would be healthier for me and I saved money. If you don’t have time to cut up veggies, try purchasing them already cut for you; while some of the nutrients can be lost when veggies and fruits are cut too far in advance, it’s still a better choice than takeout. You can find stir-fry veggies in the produce section. You can also buy your favorite veggies and spend a little time one day early in the week cutting and bagging different vegetables that you will use during the week-this will make meal time a breeze.

While I did pretty good food wise this week, I feel the need, the want to clean up my diet a little more. I have this guilty habit of snacking on things that I don’t need-things like cheese, chips/dip, bread…while I don’t have a lot of these things at one time, I don’t actually need it. It’s time to reboot my system. It’s time to plan a time for my bi-annual 3-day cleanse.

Here’s my version of a fast,easy stir fry which totally beats take-out, especially mid-week!

stir-fry-not-takeout1

Hearty, Healthy & Satisfying Split Pea Soup

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When you eat breakfast, lunch or dinner, do you feel satisfied? Do you savor the moment and the flavor and do you give yourself time to slow down and enjoy your meal? I try to but I don’t always succeed.

Most of my dinner time meals are relaxed and wholesome. My breakfasts and/or lunches aren’t always slow and enjoyed. Sometimes I even make an odd choice for breakfast, I often do it backwards; remember I mentoned I love sandwiches? Too often a breakfast choice for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s usually a healthy sandwich filled with spinach or a lot of green leafy lettuce and leftover meat or sometimes completely vegetarian-it depends on leftovers. For lunch I’ll often make a hummus or avocado dip and eat that and carrots, celery, broccoli or cauliflower. Sandwiches and dips…my favorite foods.

Last night I had the desire to make split pea soup since there was a mild chill in the air and nothing smells better than a homemade soup simmering slowly. I didn’t follow a recipe, I rarely ever do-I’m not sure then why I’m addicted to cookbooks! The soup came out so delicious and it was simple to make so I thought I’d shaer the recipe with you.

Dawn’s Split Pea Soup

2 cups split peas, rinsed & drained

2-3 qts. water

3 bay leaves

1 tsp. salt

1/3 lb. bacon diced small ( I used bacon raised locally, Hollis Hills Farm)

Simmer low 1 hour, add

1 onion, chopped

3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced thin

2-3 stalks celery sliced thin

1 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp sage

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

more water if needed-it should be thick but smooth

Simmer for 40 minutes longer. Add freshly ground black pepper & enjoy!

dawns-split-pea-soup