To Raw or Not to Raw

That is the question. I have recently been feeling a lot of not so good things. Let me list a few in no particular order for you: fat, lazy, sluggish, bored, slow, gross, toxic, sick! As most of you would certainly agree with me, none of these above mentioned adjectives are conducive to a healthy lifestyle. This is why I would like to make some changes. Like a lot of people I was thinking with the new year I would start my "New Year's Resolution" phase and get exercising and eating healthy to just fall into place and become my life! Wow, that sounds really nice and thanks to all the infomercials and gimmicks that are offered to go along with the new year it will be a piece of cake (bad analogie considering no cake will be allowed) Yeah right! That is so hard to do. I am an absolute creature of habit and nothing more. It is so hard to consciously eat right and keep up a routine that is completely active at all times. Frankly, I like to sit on my couch, open a bottle of cheap wine, start the DVR programs rolling, and put my laptop in position to FULL BLOWN COUCH POTATO EXTRAORDINAIRE! There I said it, that's honest I am feeling lazy because I AM lazy. You would think this is an easy thing to fix.....just get off you lazy ass and do something different. Not so easy my friends.

In an effort to find new tactics to start my resolution I have been doing a little research. I need to teach myself to be healthier, education is a powerful thing! I read about people changing their life by diet, and I don't mean fad diet, I mean real diet....as in everything that goes into your body and being conscious of reading labels (which I never do) of the food you consume. For someone like me this would not be that simple. As I mentioned before about my Creature of Habit problem, it is not like I will just go home and throw out all the bad food and go to Whole Foods with an open mind and stock up. First of all my family would absolutely freak out! Second of all I would just stand there staring at the pantry and the fridge like, "what the hell is all this weird stuff"! I am actually a really good cook, I love to prepare fresh homemade meals for my family and they are generally happy to eat it :) I just don't have a lot of recipes that don't contain starch, carbs and heavy sauces ( umm yummy my mouth just started watering....SEE!).

In my research for healthy living I keep coming to the same topic of whole foods and RAW foods. To me, raw food does not sound appetizing? I think of it this way.....let's take carrots for example. Raw carrot vs. buttery, seasoned, warm, soft, cooked carrot. Okay really, if you can choose the raw you are seriously something. That something is what I am trying to figure out how to BE!!!!!! One of my favorite blogs to read is Poor Pitiful Pearl. She is a holistic, organic artist, wife, and mother of sorts. Not to put labels, but those are not to shabby in the label department if you ask me. She does these really awesome Green Drinks. She is a fan of the Raw Food Detox Diet and she seems to be pretty centered and super HOTT to boot. I know that there is no way on God's green earth I can give up all the cooked foods that I really enjoy, but I need to make small changes and that may mean giving one meal a day to the RAW FOOD GODS to get me started on this challenge. I recently emailed her to ask her advice on what type of Green drink to try and this is the recipe that she gave me:

oh yes... i highly recommend "raw food detox diet". book
and the green drink that she suggests:

5 stalks of kale
i head lettuce
nub of ginger
apple
lemon

in a juicer... you will be AMAZED!

good luck.. let me know how it goes!Poor Pitiful Pearl

OK, first off where do I get KALE? Anyone? Whole Foods is no where near me and I don't know where else that would even be available. I called my Grandmother who I know got a juicer that is still in the box for a gift about 2 or 3 years ago. Thank you Grandma for letting me borrow your Jack LaLanne Juicer this week ( I pick up on Thursday)!

So, please send me your good vibes and your positive thoughts on what this could do for me. I would love to hear if you have any good raw or whole food recipes too! I really want to make a diet and lifestyle change that will improve ME, without changing ME. Well, I wouldn't mind if my dress size changed a little bit. That would be okay :)

Blessed,

Nik

Best Contest Ever!

You must go check out this interview with one of my FAVORITE artists in this world! I't none other than Poor Pitiful Pearl; http://the-sunshine-studio.blogspot.com/2010/01/hall-of-fame-poor-pitiful-pearl.html
She is giving a $30 gift certificate to her shop and I drool over this stuff on a daily basis. Check her out!

5 weeks off the blog and a Contest!

I really need to start back up here at the blog world. I get so caught up, keeping up with others blogs I need to focus on my own. I have so many ideas to blog about and I have a laptop at home now, so maybe this week I will get on it. Times are pretty busy at my house right now....Mon= Zach's soccer, Tues= Mom's Yoga, Wed= Kayla's riding lesson, Thur= Kayla's dance, Sat= Kayla's soccer. WHOA! Zach is also working hard on his graduate program and that takes a lot of computer time in the evening, this might be why I am finding it hard to blog right now. Don't you worry your pretty little heads though. In between my new workout schedule and this crazy life I am adapting to right now I am going to revamp my blog and I have some great pictures I have been working on with my new LIGHTROOM 2 editing software. I just entered a really fun contest to win a free blog makeover here: http://designerblogsblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/giveaway.html
Happy Blogging...see you all very soon:)

Thanksmas

This year in Chicago was a blast as always. We had a pretty uneventful 6 hour drive to Marilyn and Tom's gorgeous house in Bull Valley, just north of Chicago. This is what we call Thanksmas. Our annual get together for the Thies family, a little after Thanksgiving and a little before Christmas, hence; Thanksmas! It's so nice to be able to come together in one place with our entire family. There are enough beds for everyone to sleep and stay in one place. This allows the children to romp and play and the adults to have fun all at the same time. We do a gift exchange for the kids and the adults do a really fun rob-your-neighbor style gift exchange. My girls wore their cute little dresses for the Saturday Celebration!This is Kayla after she opened her adorable matching Barbie and Me cheerleader outfit. She basically wore this for the rest of the weekend. Never mind the fact that is was about 20 degrees outside with SNOW on the ground.
This is what happens when Paige needs a nap (for some demented reason I just love this picture):

This is Paige playing in the snow for the first time ever. She was so cute. These boots were making her walk a little stiff and she bent over to touch the snow for the first time and did a nice face plant. We were all laughing so hard, she look sort of like a little turtle stuck with her arms flailing about. I know this is a little mean, but at least I did not take a picture. Plus, she didn't even cry. She loved every minute of the snow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So here is the view I get from my couch when I am watching TV. I love this. I am so excited about having our decorations up so early this year! Christmas is so special this year with the girls being older. Especially Kayla, she is so excited about the holiday. She thought Thanksgiving was going to be Christmas this year. She woke up really early and comes in our room Thursday morning.......(whispers)"Mom....can we wake up Paige? She will be so excited about today" I reply, "NO...DO NOT WAKE YOUR SISTER UP!!!!!". Kayla: "ok Mom". So she goes and lays in front of Paige's bedroom door and waits. I fall asleep until I hear her....."Kayla. Are you kicking the wall?"

She is so cute, I see her laying there and she thinks we are going to run out to get lots of presents. I had to take a moment to explain that this is only Thanksgiving where we see our family and eat lots of turkey. This is something we are thankful for. I think she was a little disappointed, but when I told her we would see her cousins she perked right up.

This weekend is our annual trip to Chicago for what we call Thanksmas..stay tuned for a blog:)

Happy Holiday's Everyone!

Learning Something New

So I decided to try something new:) Knitting! It started out a little shaky, but I think after my "ugly" ear warmer I am actually getting better. And......IT'S FUN! Instead of sitting around twisting my hair all day (I might add this is pretty much what I do every day all day) I can create something with my twirls.

The perfect thing to do at the Farm while the men are out on a hunt:

I do feel a little old for some strange reason (possibly because everyone keeps calling me Granny):

I am good at twirls....SEE:

Now if I just had a little more patience. The only problem with the craft, it takes forever to finish one single thing. I am going to try and stick with it. I can only get better and faster with more practice. Until next time.....

Naughty or Nice?

I think.....NICE!