It's a beginning...

I've recently embarked on a new health expedition of sorts to kick my health up a notch, O.K. maybe 3 or 4 or 100 notches from what it's been. Starting this week, in particular, I've taken part in Vegan Hope 30 Day Summer Workshop, which has FAR exceeded my expectations. For more info check out her blog here. Make sure to look at her story...it's really AMAZING!

Anyway to keep myself accountable I've decided on the days I'm able to photograph what I'm eating.

Breakfast: none

Not exactly the most healthy choice, but I woke up late, took my meds (thyroid) & went to the gym. Those that don't know...I have to wait an hour before eating.

My workout: Hey, I know it's not much, but a good start, right. All I had was 25 minutes anyway before childcare closed.

Post workout snack: This was an organic fuji apple, firm, crisp, juicy & definitely hit the spot.

Natala (a.k.a. Vegan Hope Guru) has asked us to exercise 5 minutes before & 5 minutes after eating. Somehow I start of great, but by dinnertime...forget about it. I'm done. Today after my apple/before lunch I did day 3, week 1 of the hundred push up challenge. It's here. Please join me.

Lunch: 1st course, garden salad with organic romaine, orange peppers, & heirloom german johnson tomatoes from our garden with a raspberry vinaigrette. I wasn't sure how the tomatoes would taste with the vinaigrette, but the sweetness combined nicely.

"Mom, take a picture of MEEEEEE!"

Lunch: 2nd course, leftovers from last night a bbq pizza. Almost vegan, the crust had whey & the bbq sauce had honey, which made it too sweet actually.

After lunch I jogged around the house & in place while I finished unloading the dishwasher. A mom's gotta multi-task! No sharp objects were involved. :)

This is my sweet treat of choice nowadays. Supposedly the sweetener is "natural", but I haven't done any REAL research on it yet.

After swimming with the kids for about an hour, an at the pool snack: pure organic bar & baby carrots

Dinner: sweet potato with black beans & peach salsa. I liked it. I would have liked it better had the salsa been a little less spicy.

I was feeling a little too lazy, O.K. tired to fix greens...so grabbed these...a little TOO many of these.

Note to self: eating nuts out of a large bag = bad, bad nuts.

Dessert: so healthy & good. And anyone that knows me knows I LOOOOVVVEEE oatmeal. This dish contained a lot of it & no refined sugar...thank you very much.

This was my 1st serving: went back for more & couldn't finish it. As Ashleigh says, "my tummy didn't want any more."

During this challenge up until this point, I was not taking it as serious as I should. Then when Natala stepped it up a bit, I thought I've gotta do this. So today I did. I think I like eating healthy & moving my body.

Life is good.

The fastest growing women's cancer diagnosis...A MUST SEE!

This cancer has an excellent survival rate about 90% if caught early. It's also the fasting growing cancer among women...it's not what you think. And it only takes a doctor about 30 seconds to check for it. Most physicians don't check for it as you'll see in the video. Is it breast cancer? No. Is it uterine cancer? No. Is it lung cancer? No. If you guessed thyroid cancer, ding, ding, ding, that's right. Please pass this video along to your loved ones. And PLEASE ask you doctor to check your neck!

I would love to answer any questions as well, or minister to anyone going through this disease. Please don't hesitate to ask.

Your Total Health with Hoda Kotb featuring the Light Of Life Foundation from Joan Shey on Vimeo.

Great Cancer Advice!

This is a video Kris Carr, a.k.a Crazy Sexy Cancer Cowgirl. Although I really like her, I don't agree with everything she says, but this video is excellent spot on advice. Love it. Check it out:

Meat & Dairy cause cancer? Really?

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More info about T. Colin Campbell:
http://www.tcolincampbell.org/courses-resources/about/

Do you believe it?

Fiber One Coupons

Normally I check out other super cool coupon sites like this one: http://30dollarweeklygrocerychallenge.blogspot.com/

I found this one myself though: http://www.fiberone.com/Product/Cereals.aspx?WT.mc_id=paid_search_300301_636119&WT.srch=1

Garlic & Greens Soup, Yum-mo

I'm definitely going to try this recipe.

Diet Update & Aspartame

Right now I've decided to blog my food intake while trying to make healthy choices most of the time. I do have a 30 day vegan challenge blog, but I'm just not ready to do that right now. I'm not going to exclude any food groups, but instead try to use portion control. The one thing I am going to avoid, however is artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame. The FDA receives more complaints about Aspartame than anything else. Also in children it permanently alters their DNA!