They Love to Share

The year so far has been full of all kinds of surprises. But, not the "Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh my!" kind of surprises, where I get fun trips to magical lands with loveable, talking creatures and I get to wear pretty ruby slippers and squash wicked witches by landing my house on them. No. These surprises are much grosser. I think somewhere, some supernatural force decided that my husband and I, haven't seen enough bodily fluids in our lives.  My kids can't seem to go more than two weeks without catching a new bug that makes them produce the vilest forms of ick, from any and every orifice they have in their body. And you know my kids. Being the generous loving souls that they are, they would never dream of keeping it to themselves. Because, that would just be selfish. Right?

My holidays so far have included having the flu on Valentines, chased by a fecal impaction for a child, a husband in South Africa for Mothering Sunday, with a side of snow, a bad chest cold and two bouts of stomach flu for Easter break.

Needless to say, it's been a blast. And now, I feel like running away. So do the kids. So we are! We hunted down a budget flight to somewhere sunnier and warmer than here and were gettin' the heck out of dodge people. Personally, I blame Pinterest. Maybe Pinterest is evil. It is so.totes.addictive and I clearly will never earn enough money to visit all the places it tempts me with on a daily basis. See?

And this is just a small taste! Gaaaaaaah! And what's worse? It's made me want to get "vacation clothes".....Cuz that's a thing isn't it? No? Anyway's, that means I end up finding cute comfy outfits I want to add to my wardrobe to take with me on my trip. 

This isn't a sponsored post in any shape or form. I think it's all the blues. It makes me think of beautiful tropical waters. 

What would your perfect island vacation outfit be?

*Clothing images sourced from Next.co.uk

Coming Out The Other Side So Let's Get Mushy

As some of you guys may remember, my son has been struggling with a very serious health problem. While he's not out of the woods, he's definitely headed that way so I wanted to share that with all of you. I also wanted to tell you that your supportive comments meant so much to me. It might sound silly to some, but I was honestly in a very anxious, pull out my hair, flail my curled fist at inept or powerless medical professionals, place. 

Hearing/Seeing words of reassurance, support, and kindness were much needed shots of comfort for me. I can just about guarantee that it gave me the grace not to yell as loudly at Doctors who didn't want to investigate my sons issue. 

I'm not sure how to get Doctors to follow up and identify the cause so we can prevent future episodes. I'm nothing if not persistent and I will continue to push the subject with them. Being in a new country and unfamiliar with the NHS is definitely making all of this more challenging. If anyone has any tips, I'd love to hear them.

Thank you everyone!

One of Us is Bound to Have a Heart Attack at this Rate

One of my son's is having a serious medical issue. There have been visits to A&E (the Emergency Room for my American readers), the family doctor from an appointment we arranged through an Urgent Care number, and a brief stint to the hospital. The quality of care has been ineffective to say the least and at points, seems to make things much worse. His pain levels have been through the roof and while I'm hugging him, trying to comfort him through one of these episodes, I can feel his little heart pounding and racing through it's staccatto beat at a speed I imagine could match a humming bird's wings. My head feels like it's about to split open at points and I know its from my blood pressure. Each time I explain my sons situation and they dismiss it, insisting that we stay their prescribed course, my head pounds harder and the nausea washes over me making me think that I might vomit all over someone at any minute. But I can't show any of that. My son needs me to be calm, soothing and comforting. 

I couldn't be prouder of my son as he faces this so bravely and masters breathing techniques to manage the pain. I'm going to take a cue from him. I'm going work on my own mastery of those breathing techniques, be brave for him and battle through whatever medical professionals I need to in order to get him the help he needs. 

Beware! They come for you...

(Do you like my crude little germ bag drawing?)

GermBags. They're everywhere. We can't escape them even if we try. They come for our mothers, our children, our husbands or wives and yes - they even come for YOU.  There is no running and hiding from these foul beasts. They care not that they spread disease and ick among the healthy and innocent. 

I don't even know that I count this as a real post. It's quite possible that I'm delusional. 

You see, my daughter and I were ambushed by one of these inconsiderate evil bags of germs this past weekend. We frolicked in the frigid April showers of an outdoor shopping center looking for waterproof school shoes this weekend. We were completely unaware that we were to be it's next victims. And it's spreading through the rest of my family like wildfire. Take heed my friends! Protect yourselves! Keep watch carefully because you see...

The GermBagss are coming for you too...

Silent Almost A Year

Earlier in the week I blogged about some issues floating around which have caused neglect of my blog, causing me some unusual stress, and how I choose to deal with it all. It's time to tackle the issue head on and share with everyone. 

It's been one of those...

 {image source from here}

This is going to be one of those posts that will be as confusing and confounding as my day. Are you ready for the ride?

Tea Time

Dragonfly Teas Cape Malay Organic Rooibos Chai Tea

I was excited to find a Rooibos version of Chai tea. In an effort to continue a detoxification process I've been working on for a long time,  I'm limiting the amount of caffeine I consume.  Rooibos leaves are caffeine free so this is a great way to try and explore some chai love. 

Pros: The cost is fairly reasonable. It's organic. An organic product is always a great tick in my box. I'm a big believer about minimizing the toxins I'm ingesting. All toxins take a toll on us. Its aroma is really lovely. It smells almost cinnamon like. 

Cons: This makes me super sad. This tea tasted like bad tuna to me at first. Seriously. As it cooled, the flavor seemed to mellow and tasted more like a normal chai.

Conclusion: It's affordable and has a lot of positives. If you love chai tea it'd probably be a great purchase. I'm not sure this would be something I would drink everyday personally. There's something I really like about sipping a super hot drink when you come straight out of the cold and wet. Since I'm not that fond of the flavor until it cools, this doesn't fit that bill.

If you're interested in learning more about detoxification or cooking my friend Gwen @ Saturdays with Maggy is inviting others on a detoxification process for the body, mind and soul this year. I'm excited to see what she and others do along their journeys.

Do you guys have any Rooibos Chai teas you recommend?

xoxo

Down the Rabbit Hole...

I will not be held responsible for what's contained in this post. Obviously, I'm on enough cold medicine to make life super interesting. 

All I Want For Christmas...

If life were a dream someone would get me these two items for Christmas. A Far Infrared Therasage heating pad or a Far Infrared personal sauna. I love them. For aches and pains, the heating pad is great. If you're up for a full body head to toe treatment the sauna is amazing. It leaves me in the best mood for the rest of the day. Seriously, they're totally out of any price range I can imagine but they are oh so worth it.*

xoxo

{images via Therasage and Red Saunas}

*I wasn't paid for this endorsement. I just truly love them. They're amazing. 

Fabulous Fitness by Me

{possibly some of the ugliest boots you'll ever see}

Alright, alright. Calm down. I know the boots are ugly but, these boots are also magical. You didn't guess that did you? They could quite possibly be a new world wide phenomenon.

Rachel's Killer Kitchen Tips

{my fabulous kitchen table full of clean onion, garlic, and ginger root}

What's with the oddly near awful photo of vinegar with something that looks like a dead monkey's paw you ask? Why, it's a killer kitchen tip of course! (And the monkey's paw is really ginger root for anyone who was truly worried.)

Beauty and the Bed

{Belle from Beauty and the Beast because I can't say the title of my post without singing the theme song}

Lately, my schedule has been hectic, crazed, and even a little bit insane. I grab moments to relax here and there and look for beauty whenever I can but despite my efforts, I can often feel the wheels of my brain spinning like crazy. I can't shut it down, even as I lay in the dark, feeling each ticking moment of the night slipping away. After experiencing a few nights of this nature, I thought today would be a good a time to separate some of the truths from the myths about sleep. 

Heart Beats

A lot of things have hearts on my brain lately. Everything from health, food, life, love and relationships.

Have you seen the latest news about "The 'heart attack proof diet'"? In short, it requires: no meat, no eggs, no dairy, no added oils. Would you be willing to take the plunge and go for that if you were guaranteed to be heart attack free?

There is enough heart disease, high blood pressure, heart attacks, and strokes in my family history to make this a really tempting approach to life. With that said, I just can't bring myself to dive into that. 

I'm not a nutritionist or specialist of any kind but health and weight is something I've struggled with for a long time. Personally, I know my entire family struggles with an essential fatty deficiency. Whether it's a genetic thing, where we just don't break down or absorb them well or something else, I'm not sure. I just know that essential fatty acids are important for us. So when I read no meat all I could think was, 'not even salmon?'. Throw in no eggs and no oils and our ship is pretty much sunk. I mean, we have a deficiency and that's while eating all of those things. Working around picky kids who don't eat that wide of a selection of food makes it even tougher. 

I think so many of us struggle with food, health, and body image these days. It can often be refreshing to  get an inside glimpse from those who we might never suspect struggle with the same things we do. Just the other day, one of the people I find really inspirational, Garance Dore, wrote an amazingly open post about her life changes since relocating to New York and how it's affected her relationship with food. 

While this diet might offer a heart attack free existence, I'm going to have to pass. I can't imagine the stress, worry, and anxiety trying to follow it would cause and I'm pretty sure that would completely undo any heart saving qualities that might have for me. I think I'm just going to continue trying to eat "clean" and balanced foods and embrace whatever life might have in store for me.

What do you think? Do you have kids and would you ask them to jump on board with these new food restrictions? Are the heart saving promises worth it to you?

Ciao,

xoxo

Great Green Smoothie Goodness

I keep coming across mentions of amazing spinach smoothies. I'll be honest, that just sounded strange to me. What sounded even stranger, were people who were championing avocados as a great creamy addition to the mix. 

I did some digging and came across a really simple recipe. I've never been much of one for following recipes. Call it the rebel in me but it seems to work out alright. 

The recipe I started with inspired me to start out with roughly 1 cup of frozen spinach and 1 avocado puree'd with 1 cup of Cawston's Apple and Ginger juice. My version probably lost some of the nutritional value that theirs had but I'm all about working with what I have. 

I've tried this smoothie with fresh spinach and it's just as good. Several of the Cawston apple blended juices are also very tasty in it but I have to say I really liked the Apple and Ginger one the best. Toss in a chili pepper if you feel like adding some real heat. And since I was using juice instead of an actual apple, I added some ground flax seed to gain back some fiber. 

What I like about Cawston's juices: No added sugar, no sweeteners, not from concentrate, no colourings, and no preservatives. 

I'd really like an organic version of their juices if it were available but overall, this is a juice I don't feel that bad about drinking. 

Spasticity...

Have you seen the new milk lobby ads? Some people are really up in arms over them. Other's find the ads hilarious. I don't find them particularly funny or offensive but the guy in them does seem a little spastic to me. 

The ads seem to be based on a study from archinternmed that proclaim calcium and vitamin D intake are linked to PMS. When the ads were first released by the milk lobby, they also created a microsite called "everythingidoiswrong.org" however, because of the reaction to the site, they've replaced it with gotdiscussion.org

It's making for some interesting discussion around women and men relations but I'm more interested in the original topic because I'm all for reducing PMS. It's time for one of my confessions. Once upon a time, I heard a story about what exactly is in cow's milk. The "stuff" that bothered me the most was pus (has anyone else heard that claim?) That alone makes me shudder and increases my neuroses by one. I have no idea if it's true or not. But ever since then, I have approached it with caution. Last year, I had a naturopath and other health professionals recommend I avoid dairy. My understanding of it, wrong or right, was that for me, dairy was coating my intestinal tract with mucus and leading to malabsorption. You have no idea how hard giving up dairy was for me. I drank milk in my coffee, put it in cereal and let's not even talk about cheese.....(sigh) I love cheese. 

With time and lots of effort, I found a replacement for milk that all of my kids would drink. It was So Delicious Coconut milk beverage. Sadly, they don't have that here in the UK (at least, not that I've found.) So instead, we're using Rice Dream milk. It works in cereal but when it comes to tea or coffee I still cave to real milk. 

This report reminds me just how important eating greens, beans, and nuts is to our health. So I'm looking for inspiration. What are you making for dinner tonight? 

Ciao,

xoxo 

I'm BACK, baby!!!

My trusted and busted Pearl Izumi's

A day of rest fixed me right up and I felt good enough to get back in the gym today. In my head, all I could hear was my own personal soundtrack 'Back in the Saddle Again' sung personally to me by Aerosmith. (Gah, wouldn't that be a dream come true? Confession: I had a huge crush on Steven Tyler when I was a teenager, which yes, was ages ago. It didn't matter that he was old enough to be my Dad. He was hot!) So, upon reflection of my last visit and it's affect on my back I remembered I'd pushed up the resistance during my time on the stationary bike in the last 5 minutes. Armed with that knowledge, I made sure to stay a bit more aware during those last five minutes on the bike, made some minor adjustments to my posture and how I was pushing my weight through my legs to the pedals. (Another confession, I'm an awful pronator with my feet so pushing my weight through the center of my feet can be challenging. As if any of you wanted to know that. :D) I kept my pace slightly lower on the treadmill and I finished with flying colors. It feels really great to be able to make a recovery with that and not end up in a bad position where I couldn't work out again without an osteopath's assistance. 

And, despite my love affair with my trusted and busted Pearl Izumi's, I'm on the hunt for a new pair of trainers. Do you have a favorite brand that you find you go back to over and over? And did you ever have a secret crush on a musician, rock and roll icon, etc etc when you were a teenager? I'd love to hear who yours was.

Ciao,

xoxo

Le sigh...

Ye olde trusted and busted Pearl Izumi trainers

I didn't work out today. Yesterday, even though I adjusted my pace while on the treadmill, I still ended up tweaking an old injury in my back. It's a real pain in the literal... you get the idea. I thought at first I would just take it easy today and rehabilitate it so I could hopefully get back to working out tomorrow. However, the opportunity to shop, kid free, presented its self and me being the shop-a-holic that I am, I grabbed it. I saw a ton of lovely things today and had a lovely lunch out. I promise I'll tell you all about it really soon. I didn't have nearly as much time as I would have liked in the shops but something was definitely better than nothing. Maybe some good rest this evening with some stretching will sort things out. Wish me luck!

Ciao,

xoxo

Today's workout

My busted but trusted trainers. Shoes: Pearl Izumi

I'm all coffe'ed up, (isn't that how you're supposed to get thru your workouts?) and raring to go. Armed with my water bottle, I hop on the stationary bike and start pedaling with my ever active commentator's voice running in my head...

9:00 a.m. ow ow ow... how on earth do these padded seats manage to bruise your bum? They're padded! Squishy. With all the technology we have today, you would think someone somewhere could design a bicycle seat that didn't bruise your bottom. pedal ow pedal ow pedal ow. Alright, alright - distract yourself and think of something else. 

9:01:16 Seriously? My inner thighs are already burning? Oh, right! The trainer who programmed this for me thinks I'm Wonder Woman...let's just quickly knock that down a few levels.

9:13 Woo hoo! Look at all those empty treadmills. Yeah, Baby! (Funny the stuff that can excite a person who's trying to get themselves through a workout.)

9:15 I'm doing great! I'm loving this music. Who is this? Is it just me, or is it easier and more fun when you pedal to the beat? Do other people do this or am I just weird? Maybe this is why so many people have Ipods when they work out. Are they all just secretly running/biking to their own personal sound track? Maybe that means I need another gadget to charge and keep track of. Hey! I can alway's put it on my birthday/anniversary/christmas wish list. Dang. That list is really getting long. 

9:18 Why is that lady putting a sign on that treadmill? "Please do not use..." Bah. Ok it's no big dea...wait, wait, wait. Look ladies - the two of you don't need to be getting on the treadmills really. You look lovely and I need one in just a few more minutes!

9:19 Oh come oooooon! What is this?! The lemming parade to the treadmills?

9:25 GRAB THE WATER AND RUN, RUN, RUN!!! Ha! I snagged the last treadmill. Yay, me! How is that so satisfying?

My 20 minutes on the treadmill weren't as easy as yesterday. In fact, I had to slow down from my target speed and heart rate in order to protect my back (that's a whole different story for another time).  I was a little disappointed for a minute but then I realized I was really grateful that I'd noticed the warning signs before I had an actual problem. I have to thank Janette at New Motion Physical Therapy on Bainbridge Island for teaching me that awareness. (To be honest, there's a lot of people I need to thank.) I got to finish my workout since I didn't hurt myself and regardless of whether or not I hit my target heart rate/speed, something was better than nothing. Right?

Ciao,

xoxo

Remember when...?

I can remember being a kid and running around to play. I didn't think about how far, how long or how many calories I may have burned off. However, I'm no longer a kid. I'm a stereotypical middle aged American woman with body issues, who's decided to fight the good fight to get back into shape. I've sort of given up on being "thin" ever again. I just want to feel strong and capable. Know what I mean?

In an effort to achieve the dream, I've been sporadically working out. I even belong to a gym. When I joined the facility, the trainer who was giving my induction was extremely impressed that I'd managed to find and join a gym after only being in the UK for 2 weeks. I believe his words were, "At least you have your priorities right." That left me grinning ear to ear. I mentally patted myself on the back. If only I'd been using it this whole time. 

  I decided yesterday, that I'd let my attendance lapse too long and I needed to refocus. I had my little program and managed to plough through it but I realized quickly, this could easily become just another false start which I quickly abandon. In order to help myself stick to it a bit longer, I'm going to report on here how it's going. Hopefully, someone might even cheer me on to help me stay motivated. 

My workout is on various pieces of cardio equipment and the first one requires 25 minutes of dedicated effort. It was really gratifying to notice that today was easier than yesterday....until I hit about minute 16. Then it was more a matter of mentally coaxing myself to stay focused. I started to wonder what exactly was happening to my brain as the running commentator inside my head argued with different parts of my body, made observations of other gym users, and the especially odd desperation that seemed to take over as people began taking up the free treadmills (my next piece of equipment in my regimen.) My legs started pushing the pedals of my ridiculous stationary bike faster and faster as each free treadmill was claimed. I think I even muttered "Go away!" under my breath to some poor muscle bound bloke as he lumbered to one of the few remaining machines. I was horrified with myself. And no matter how often I reminded myself that pedaling faster wasn't going to speed the time up on my bike, I couldn't make myself slow down! 

Finally! Victory was mine as I finished my bike session and claimed an empty treadmill. I started my treadmill session and suddenly had the thought, "Oh dear God, please don't let that smell be me." It took finishing the treadmill and moving away before I was certain it wasn't coming from me but more than likely, the smell was coming from the big muscled man who'd turned the treadmill practically vertical to do his run. 

I finished my various cardio machines and made some mental notes to myself. 

Mental note #1: Those reassurances people give about no one else caring about what it is you're doing in the gym, what you look like, how you're dressed....they aren't exactly true. It was one thing when the tiny stick girl 10 years or more younger than me on the treadmill was running like a maniac. I told myself "meh- she's younger than you. It doesn't look bad that you're going about 1/10th the speed she is." I couldn't tell myself the same thing when the white haired old lady climbed up on the treadmill on the other side of me and started keeping pace with Twiggy the Wonder child on the other side. But, I persevered. 

Mental note #2: Spread the word via this blog to avoid direct confrontation and hurting anyone's feelings. For the love of everything that is holy, if you're someone who is particularly sweaty, stinky, and hairy and you use a towel to wipe the sweat off of you as you workout, do not use that same towel to "wipe down" the equipment when you're done and delude yourself into thinking you've done something good. Just go get the disinfectant that the gym supplies. Please.

I felt really great afterwards about my progress and about how I'm beginning to look (even if it's completely self-delusion on my part.) I felt so accomplished and in charge seeing as how I stuck it through to the end. Then this evening I stumbled across this article at Glamour.com

Well, it doesn't matter. I want to run like I did when I was a kid. Without worrying about what's hurting or how many calories I've burned. I just want to run for the sheer joy of running. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I sort of like it. Sometimes. Ok, well I like it after I'm done. Does that count? 

Ciao,

xoxo

To Our Health!

On each of our personal journey's through life, looking for that magic balance of this and that so that we feel and look great, we can come across some interesting things. I wanted to share this in case it might help someone else on their journey.

Meet Marie Pence of Innergy! Is she not the cutest little thing?! There's this very taboo stigma attached to colonics. I admit, when it was first recommended to me by another health practitioner I had serious reservations. There's so much controversy about everything anymore that I didn't know if it was a good idea for me or not. It took me a little while to actually build up the courage to make that first appointment. And when I did? Holy cow! Marie is a firecracker personality. She talks you through the whole process so nothing is shocking or scary. She's friendly and informative and just a really lovely warm hearted person. Here's a look around her place.

The waiting room full of books with information about our health. Wonderful aromatherapy scents float through the air while you wait to be taken in. 

This is Marie's wonderful infrared sauna on the right and her beautiful little doggie Ceasar in the bottom left.

Ceasar is just too precious for words. So very lovely and sweet.

I could go on about the services Marie provides for a year but there's nothing I could say that would be equal to checking it out for yourself. It's shocking what our bodies hold on to, that sits rotting in our insides and leaching right into our blood stream. It's no wonder we end up feeling so sick and toxic. Removing that yucky build up and helping my body get rid of all that putrid stuff makes me feel SO much better. For instance, with my last one I left with my stomach feeling better and my headache went away.  I know not everything is a good fit for everyone but I can't imagine my life without colonics.
Ciao!